Re: sponsoring a GNOME developer training session at Fedora Action Day Ghana

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Ben:

> > - Considering it doesn't make sense to travel to someplace like Ghana
> >   for just 1 day, how many days lodging do you think is reasonable to
> >   motivate volunteers to consider helping us in this way?
>
> It really depends on where the person is coming from and how much jet
> lag they need to deal with. I could see 3 or 4 days being a reasonable
> minimum. But that's probably not for everyone.

Right, it makes sense to be flexible.

> > - Are there any concerns about getting visas?
>
> Yes, whoever goes will need to get a visa before they go. The actual
> visa isn't cheap - I think it was about $65 CAD when I went but that
> depends which passport you hold. Whoever goes will need a letter of
> invitation. That could probably come from Isaac as he's organizing FAD
> Ghana.

Would be good to highlight this with Isaac in your communications and
encourage him to make such a letter available, if possible.  It would
make planning easier.

> > - Does the event need to be focused on Fedora?  If The GNOME Foundation
> >   were sending people, could we get "GNOME" or "Free Software" in the
> >   event title?
>
> It's possible but I'd have to chat with Isaac and get his thoughts.
> More on this below.

I am just wondering if we can make the event something like a joint
conference for better GNOME promotion.  Not to take away from FAD.

> > - What visibility do you expect The GNOME Foundation will get from this?
>
> That's a good question and not something that really put much thought
> into yet. Off the top of my head, this is good opportunity to show
> that the GNOME Foundation wants to continue promoting GNOME and F/OSS
> in the region. Whoever ends up going can do the regular blogging and
> email report. I can also promote the event to my contacts who work at
> ICT related international development organizations.

Sounds reasonable.  I think it is especially important to plan with the
OLPC and Sugar people for events like this.  We should be working more
together on such common causes.

> Before I get carried away with grand visions of a "Free Software Days
> Ghana", I want to make sure that I don't derail the work that Isaac is
> doing with FAD Ghana - which is totally awesome by the way. It would
> be a shame to turn FAD Ghana, which seems to be a grass roots, self
> organized mini-conference, to something that seems to be organized by
> people in the North (developed countries). I'll have a chat with Isaac
> and get his thoughts on at least adding a day for GNOME training in
> which case we could go shoot for something like "FAD&  GNOME Ghana
> 2011". Just a thought.

Sure, if we could have a joint conference, I think it would be a great
way to help & promote each other.  I think "FAD & GNOME Ghana" would
probably be fine.

Out of curiosity, why do they focus their group around Fedora rather
than, say, free software OS users in general?  Are all of their members
Fedora users?  Do they expect users of other distros to attend the FAD
event?  Is "Fedora" jargon in the region for "free software" in general
like "Xerox" for a photocopy?

My concern is that by associating GNOME with this event, we do want
to make sure that people understand that GNOME is not Fedora specific
and we would like to make sure that GNOME users are encouraged to
attend regardless of what OS they use.

I don't think this concern should affect what the name of the event
is called.  But I do think it is important to make sure this
message is reasonable and clear to people who might consider attending.

> > Are there other conferences in Africa that you think we should be
> > planning to send people?
>
> Yes. I think somebody should go down to Idlelo again this year. We
> should try to encourage a more serious technical track from the
> conference organizers and try to get other F/OSS communities there.
> The website doesn't seem to be updated for this year's conference yet:
>
> http://www.idlelo.net/
>
> There's also eLearning Africa which might be a good conference to have
> some Sugar developers attend:
>
> http://www.elearning-africa.com/

Thanks for keeping people aware of upcoming plans, but I do think we 
should move this discussion to developing-world.  So, I've moved this
discussion there.

> > I do think that there should be an announcement on the developing-world
> > list.  I think we could be better about posting updates to that list,
> > and notification about possibly interesting events like this.
>
> Good idea. I'll make an announcement.

Looking forward to it.

Brian