Re: [Usability] Announce - GNOME 3 Usability Hackfest (London, Feb 22-26, 2010)

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Steve:

> As already discussed with Brian Cameron and David Flanders, there is a
> great opportunity to hook up this event with the JISC Dev8D developer
> event that is happening in London at the same time.
>
> http://www.dev8d.org

Yes, it does seem like there is a real opportunity for some good
synergy, and I think we should plan to do some activities together.
I updated the GNOME 3 Usability Hackfest Wiki with more of the
details you mention in your email:

  http://live.gnome.org/UsabilityProject/London2010

> OSS Watch are very interested in forging links between open projects
> as part of our support services to UK HE projects. So we're looking
> for ideas for how to develop some positive synergy and how develop
> this into the perfect opportunity for UK HE developers to learn about,
> use and and hack on GNOME projects, and visa-versa.

It would be good if we could flesh out the possibilities a bit more
before the event, I think.  How many people in the Dev8D community
work in the HE field?  Have they worked with free software projects
like GNOME before?  Are there particular people who might have an
interest in attending or participating more directly with the GNOME
3 Usability Hackfest?

If there are particular people in the Dev8D community who have an
interest in usability or human interface design, then I would
recommend that they join the usability gnome org mailing list and
participate in discussion leading up to the event.  That way, we
could start discussing how we could possibly work together.

> Below I've listed some ideas for collaboration that have already been
> proposed by Brian and David and I've added a couple more ideas.
>
> * Organize a day when the GNOME Usability Team or community meets at
> the Dev8D venue to give a talk or session or hang out for or hack. The
> 27th looks like being a good day to encourage people from the GNOME
> Usability hackfest to attend the Dev8D conference as it is the day
> after the GNOME event.

Since the 27th is the day following the GNOME Usability hackfest
this could work really well.  However, I notice that everybody who
has added their name to the Usability hackfest Wiki has only listed
the dates Feb 22-26, which might indicate that people are not planning
on staying the extra day.  It would be good if people planning on
attending the GNOME Usability hackfest could chime in and let us know
if there is an interest in doing this sort of collaboration, and
whether the 27th would work well.

> * The GNOME Foundation could provide some compelling speakers,
> presenters, or discussion topics on GNOME Usability or free software
> GUI usability in general.

This seems very doable.  Is there any sort of timeframe that we need
to decide on the specifics for this to happen?

If possible, it might work out best if the folks at the GNOME Usability
hackfest could brainstorm and discuss this on the first day of the
GNOME 3 Usability hackfest, or would that be too late to make a
decision?

> * Dev8D attendees could provide an introduction to HE research specific projects

Could you provide any details?

> * OSS Watch will be running a workshop before the events that will
> provide an opportunity for learning about Wookie, the W3C Widget
> server that is now in the Apache Incubator. This means there will be
> people hacking on Wookie and widgets at Dev8D.
>
> * Eye gaze control using cheap web cams is a hot accessibility topic
> so it would be good to see some joint hacking on GNOME Mouse Trap and
> University of Cambridge Inference group's opengazer project;
> http://bit.ly/6iZqbr and http://bit.ly/GL9tJ (thanks to @pepperbox for
> the idea).

These do sound interesting.  It would be good if others who are planning
on attending the GNOME Usability Hackfest could voice their thoughts
about this as well.

Brian