Re: GNOME Foundation Board Meeting Minutes :: 7/6/07

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Lucas Rocha wrote:
>> 4) GNOME and KDE Conference
>>
>>    There has been some discussion about a possible merge of GNOME
>>    and KDE conferences. This has been discussed at the advisory
>>    board level, along with the KDE e.v. members list. If there is
>>    considerable opposition from both sides, then it isn't worth
>>    exploring further. Jeff mentioned that it's likely to come up
>>    at DAM4.
>>
>>    ACTION: Jeff to follow up about a possible GNOME and KDE
>>            conference merge at DAM4.
> 
> Does this mean that your're proposing a new merged KDE/GNOME
> conference? Or is this a matter of scheduling GUADEC and aKademy at
> the same time and place? Or is this a GUADEC replacement with this
> merged conference? This is not clear in the minutes.

The proposal itself is not clear, but the major points which people
brought up with us are:

 - Getting sponsorship funds for both akademy and GUADEC is tough, since
both conferences have a very similar profile to companies: Queue
conversation with marketing budget guy:
  * Marketing: So what's this aKademy conference you want to sponsor?
  * Linux desktop guy: Well, the Linux desktop is important to us, and
we want to show our support for it by helping the project gather people
together for a conference.
  * Marketing: Didn't we do that last month?
  * Linux Desktop guy: That was the GNOME project, for GUADEC.
  * Marketing guy: Aren't they the Linux desktop guys?
  * Linux Desktop guy: Well, yes, but...
  * Marketing guy: Don't let the door hit you on te way out.

 - Increased opportunity for cross-pollination & innovation if everyone
is in the same place at the same time

 - Encourage movement away from the GNOME/KDE enclaves

 - Create a single place where we can gather people outside GNOME & KDE
(OOo, Mozilla, Eclipse) to talk about common issues

 - Getting hackerrs to several conferences during the Summer is hard

DDC was supposed to be most of these things, but getting everyone
concerned to DDC was difficult, since all the GNOME people go to GUADEC
and all the KDE people go to aKademy, and getting a critical mass of
volunteers to go to 2 or 3 conferences during a Summer is a tough sell.

Several possibilities for co-operation exist:

 - Co-location: conferences take part in different parts of the same
campus; we meet up for lunch & at night, but have our own conferences.
Have a couple of days X-desktop sessions at the end (or at the beginning).
 - Merge conferences - create a Super DDC which has a KDE stream & a
GNOME stream, but only one identity and one organising committee.

There are others.

There are of course problems that need to be managed - conflicting
requirements around keynotes, travel sponsorship, make-up of the
organising committee, and so on. But I think there are substantial
benefits too, and the topic merits discussion.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org