Re: [guadec-list] List of things we'd love to see done

[Baris Cicek <baris teamforce name tr>]

On Sat, 2008-06-14 at 17:43 +0200, Gil Forcada wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In line as I have been mentioned :)
> 
> El dj 12 de 06 de 2008 a les 14:43 -0500, en/na Diego Escalante Urrelo
> va escriure:
> > Hi
> > 
> > On 6/10/08, Enver ALTIN <ealtin gmail com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > A stand at the airport, with a big GNOME logo on it. At least one
> > > English-speaking volunteer at the stand to be there to prevent people from
> > > getting lost in the city.
> > >
> > 
> > YES, PLEASE!. For this we will need to fill in the travel details for everyone:
> >   http://live.gnome.org/GUADEC/2008/Travel
> > 
> > I think the ideal -if done- would be to have two or three guys hanging
> > around on the "crowded" hours of arrival, greet the newcomer and give
> > some indications like which bus to take. No need for taking people
> > from airport to hotel, but just receiving directions from a GNOME guy
> > is much better than asking a random guy, I think.
> > 
> > 
> > > A shuttle bus between the common hotels area and the airport.
> > >
> > 
> > Again, maybe for the crowded hours? We need to make a call for filling
> > arrival hours in the wiki if this would be possible.
> > 
> > > A team for everything about the transportation in Istanbul. This is roughly
> > > a "I'm lost! Help!" or "How do I go to Topkapi Palace" hotline.
> > 
> > It's useful to have a GUADEC 911 line, maybe forwarded to more than
> > one cellphone or something, if someone can take the responsibility,
> > please tell us which number to relay on. I would still be trapped in
> > Birmingham's airport if there wasn't a 911 line last year.
> > 
> > > Event organization team for people willing to explore the city. This team
> > > would collect the FAQ that will answer to "which museum should we visit?" or
> > > "where should we have dinner?" sort of questions and organize tours.
> > >
> > 
> > Maybe a wiki page would be enough, or just hanging around with all the gnomies.
> > 
> > > We'd like to see a dedicated accomodation organization team, there's no
> > > other way this problem could be tackled. There are lots of good hotels and
> > > hostels around; but availabilty, quality and price is always a concern. Yet,
> > > most of these hostels don't have websites with enough pictures so you don't
> > > get an idea of the room you have booked until you actually arrive. We'd love
> > > to see this solved by a few people actually visiting hotels, getting price
> > > quotes for groups, taking photos and writing reviews.
> > >
> > 
> > Define a responsible for this task, and write something similar to
> >   http://guadec.expectnation.com/public/content/accommodation
> > 
> > Price, what it misses, what it has and rocks, etc. Grab a phone dir,
> > and call these options, take notes on prices and discounts and if you
> > have the time go visit the hotels. Most of them are usually honest
> > about what they have and what they don't, in the worst case there are
> > always options so we can dump the liers ipso-facto.
> > 
> > > We'd like to see an appointed visa issues guy. Getting a visa shouldn't be a
> > > problem at all, but just in case. People from certain countries may need
> > > special help.
> > >
> > 
> > There's already a contact for visa letters, luckily only few of us
> > have needed one. If YOU are needing a Visa, please mail Baris. Check
> > the requisites for your country.
> > 
> > > Local IT support team. We think this is a must. There will be network,
> > > electricity, wiring, IP, firewall, whatever problems and we don't really
> > > want people blogging about how bad that broken thing affects their lives.
> > >
> > 
> > Is Gil going to be helping in infra again? Gil?. I guess most of the
> > work will be done in coordinating with univ's IT staff on getting
> > ports open and etc.
> 
> Don't know, I offered myself to Baris, but since it's an university I
> don't know if everything is already ready (great pun eh eh).
> 
> Baris? Do you need me? :)

Since you'll be in here when this stuff need to be set up, we'll see. :)



> 
> 
> > > We'd probably get some professional help from a local ticket sales office
> > > for airline and route planning before it's too late. We could get someone to
> > > volunteer for that, and that someone could use Skype or e-mail for easier
> > > communication.
> > > Local press relations. We'd love to see translated press releases appear on
> > > IT magazines and national press around here before and after the conference.
> > >
> > 
> > Copy GUADEC's press release and/or write a quick note yourself and
> > mail it to local newspapers "reader contact" addresses, basically give
> > them a friendly reminder on this. Some of them will be interested,
> > those who not wouldn't go to GUADEC anyway, so no big loss. If you
> > know any local reporter, ask for his help to contact others directly.
> > 
> > > Creating hype and awareness is important for us.
> > >  We'd love to see the entry barrier lowered for people with technical
> > > decision making positions in Turkish governmental organizations; so that
> > > they can see the people developing the software they use for themselves.
> > > Govt. people attending means there will be some amount of native Turkish
> > > people who don't speak and understand English very well. We've successfully
> > > used simultaneous English-to-Turkish translation for certain events in the
> > > past, we can most probably use it again at least for large-audience talks in
> > > GUADEC. It would be great to add a checkbox like "I would use simultaneous
> > > translation if available" to the registration page so we can get an idea
> > > about the demand beforehand.
> > >
> > 
> > I think GUADEC is more a niché thing, with gnome devs and users in
> > mind, more than decision makers, and etc. It is nice to have them, but
> > I don't think that they would make any decision after seeing a clutter
> > presentation or listening to Lennart talk about spatial audio and that
> > crack.
> > 
> > > More hype: In one of the previous events we were able to invite an official
> > > to join the opening talk from the Ministry of Transportation (which
> > > regulates the IT sector in Turkey). We'd love to do this again, but it looks
> > > like it's already a bit late. Well, I agree that this one is too high on the
> > > sky.
> > >
> > > There are certain people we'd love to see talking at GUADEC and this
> > > includes the Pardus project, which is a Linux distribution project primarily
> > > funded by The National Research Institute of Electronics and Cryptology. It
> > > looks like their attention is towards aKademy but we definitely should
> > > invite them because for now they've become one of the big flags for free
> > > software in Turkey.
> > 
> > GUADEC is not a general free software event, it's a GNOME thing,
> > almost exclusively.
> > 
> > Remember there's
> >   http://live.gnome.org/GUADEC/2008/Volunteer
> > 
> > for taking note of volunteers or just adding ideas. A quick task would
> > be "10 must know phrases of Turkey: thanks, bye, hello, no, don't
> > know, wasn't me". Just add a table to that wiki page.
> > _______________________________________________
> > guadec-list mailing list
> > guadec-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/guadec-list
> -- 
> gil forcada
> 
> [ca] guifi.net - una xarxa lliure que no para de créixer
> [en] guifi.net - a non-stopping free network
> bloc: http://gil.badall.net