Exploring the possibility of adding a GUADNAC event to OLS

[Miles Lane <miles megapathdsl net>]

Greetings,

I have been discussing with Telsa, Nat, Andrew Hutton and others
on #gnome the idea of added a GUADNAC component to OLS this
coming year.  This could be implemented in a similar way to
how the Linux Kernel Summit has become associated and integrated
with OLS.  

In discussing the possibilities with Andrew and co., among
the important points brought up were:

   OLS needs more Gnome presentations next year.  This year,
   only two Gnome-related talks were given.

   Unlike GUADEC, OLS is run on fees from participants.
   We'd need to come up with $199CAD/person through either
   sponsorships or out of our own pockets.  People who submit 
   papers have their attendance fee waived.  

   As a huge plus, the OLS organization is willing to handle 
   most of the logistics for us as long as we meet these 
   requirements.

   The people who run OLS are generally in favor of the
   idea of adding a GUADNAC event to this coming year's OLS,
   but want us to make sure that having a GUADNAC hosted
   at OLS will serve both OLS and the Gnome community well.

   The plan, currently, is to run OLS in the 2nd week of July.

   We'd need to set up our own GUADNAC website, but it could
   possibly be hosted on the OLS web server.

   Andrew generously mentioned the possibility that the OLS 
   folks might be able to help some of the Gnome attendees
   find local homes to sleep in.

So, my general vision for this thing includes the following
elements:

   A hacking room with internet access and, perhaps, a few
   machines for hacking use.  There could also be wireless 
   access so we can bring our laptops and work that way.

   Talks given by some of us to the OLS.

   Talks/discussions given by some of us for the GUADNAC 
   attendees.

   A demo area where a few of us can introduce Gnome to the
   OLS participants.

   If there are other working groups at OLS focused on desktop 
   stuff, like printing subsystem improvement or whatever, 
   then we could try to contribute to those discussions either
   formally or through BOFs.

Sponsors that would need contacting?

	RedHat, Mandrake, IBM, HP, Sun

According to Andrew, we should shoot for getting about $25K CAD 
from sponsors.  I think this number is extrapolated from the
fact that there were ~300 people at the Spain GUADEC.

For the OLS audience presentation, possible topics include:

   "Getting Started -- Contributing to the Gnome Open Source Desktop"

   "An Overview of the Gnome 2.0 Development Platform"

Well, that's it.  What do you think?

Cheers,
	Miles