Re: OSCON

[Bryen M Yunashko <a11yrocks bryen com>]

On Sun, 2012-01-29 at 15:37 +0100, Dave Neary wrote:
> The best booths are the ones that engage people passing by.
> 
> I had a few ideas but they may be way out there... could be cool for 
> OSCON, though.
> 

Interesting ideas!  I like the thought process going into this.

> 1. Croud-source something we need that isn't getting done
>   - The classic example was last year, there's a project aiming to 
> create audio learning materials to go along with words and images.
> They 
> have English down pretty well, but could use others. I can't remember 
> the name, unfortunately... I suggested that they could set up a 
> recording booth, and take advantage of the international make-up of
> the 
> audience to get recordings of different languages. It becomes a demo
> of 
> their tools, and an opportunity to get contributions at the same time.
> 
It probably would be useful if we discussed what it is we want to gain
from our visitors.  What are the things specific to GNOME we need to put
up front and and how can we do it simply in a booth setting?

> OpenStreetMap does something similar, hosting mapping parties in the 
> evening after conferences in places where they have booths.
> 
> Do we have something where we could engage the public and get
> material 
> we could use later? Translations? Mallard docs? Something where we
> can 
> show a checklist and see everything going to green as people do the
> work 
> during the conference would be cool!
> 
> 2. Interactive demo booths
>   - Something like a coding competition, where on Day 1, you pair
> people 
> off to write a Shell extension to do the same thing as a bake-off,
> the 
> winners do something else on day 2, and on day 3 you have the final.
> I 
> haven't thought this through fully, but the fact that you can write 
> shell extensions in JS should appeal to the web & cloud crowd, no?
> 
This could be a very cool idea.  We might even put up a poster or
something indicating a wishlist of extensions.  And it serves a dual
purpose: 1) Get people to code for extensions and 2) raise awareness
about the existence of extensions.

What can GNOME afford as a prize for these entries?  And how would it be
awarded?   Best of show?  or First to submit working extension?

> 3. Some way to follow through
>   - My experience of GNOME booths is that we rarely have a call to 
> action for after the conference. We don't collect email addresses for
> a 
> newsletter, or ask people to do anything in particular. It'd be nice
> if 
> we used contact with a highly technical audience as an opportunity to 
> get some new contributors. What might that be? Signing up Friends of 
> GNOME might be a start,

Bribery always helps.  :-)   What if we offered a little something extra
if you sign up for FoG at the event in addition to the items you will
get from normal signup?

>  but also having some way to sign people up for 
> an announce mailing list

I dunno.  Sometimes these things can get a little iffy.  People feeling
that they don't want to be on some spamming list or have their names in
some database.   You just don't see that kind of data collection (incl.
business cards) at FLOSS events like you do at commercial enterprise
events.  

But we should provide for nice way to give them sign up information, via
handouts or QR Code on a very conspicuous poster.


Bryen

>  (not paper & pen! No-one ever types all that in 
> again - either a form that stores contact details in a Mailman 
> compatible batch subscription format, or a proper connection to the 
> announce mailing list, and a follow-up afterwards with a call to
> engage)
> 
>