Hi Karen,
On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Karen Sandler <karen gnome org> wrote:
<snip>
> Thanks for letting everyone know about IDLELO - I think it's really
> important for GNOME to have a presence there.
No problem. It would be great if GNOME had a booth there again!
> I'm cc'ing foundation-list
> to remind folks that the GNOME Foundation could probably fund travel for
> any GNOME member who wanted to go to IDLELO, experience Nigeria and
> promote GNOME!
If the Foundation does decide to fund travel for somebody, they should be aware of the travel advisories currently active for Nigeria. A quick search of the advisories from the U.S. [1], Canada [2], and the U.K. [3] shows that only essential travel is recommended. I don't know off hand how these advisories relate specifically to the Federal Capital Territory (where Abuja is located) or if these advisories will be active in March during Idlelo. My initial feeling is that it will be difficult for somebody to go without some kind of local support / security while they are in Nigeria. Providing this kind of local support might be beyond the scope of what the Foundation can arrange. Perhaps this is something that should be discussed with FOSSFA if the Foundation is thinking about providing some sponsorship again.
That said, I don't want to discourage anybody interested in going. I would be more than happy to help out whoever wants to go as much as I can. This would also be a great opportunity for me to update the marketing flyers that I made specifically for the developing world:
I also found this page about Idlelo 5 on the Fedora wiki:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/IDLELO_5
It's pretty sparse but it seems somebody was interested enough to create it. We should check in with them and the folks at Mozilla to see if they are planning to send anybody. It would probably be a good idea to try collaborate with them if either of them are sending people (shared booth, stay at the same hotel, shared local transportation etc).
Ben
1. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5644.html
2. http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/report_rapport-eng.asp?id=218000
3. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/sub-saharan-africa/nigeria