Rich Bowen wrote:
For those that weren't there, you should know that OpenOffice had a presence there (as they always have), staffed by volunteers, with some swag provided by the ASF, and other swag provided by the OpenOffice community, out of their own pockets. They did an *awesome* job of representing both AOO and the ASF as a whole.
Thanks. The feather-decorated "Ask me!" badges helped a lot to get questions about the ASF.
However, I think we can do better in 2016. I want to see Apache have a table at FOSDEM 2016, representing more than just one project, with proper respect to the historical position of AOO at the event - ie, not just usurping their place there.
Suggest a main track talk. There are plenty of good Apache stories to tell. I usually have a look at the FOSDEM site in early September for deadlines. I recommend that you do the same.
* We would need to either have a separate table from AOO, or double the size of the existing table, so that we don't eclipse their place there. They've put *years* into developing a presence at FOSDEM, and we want to respect that.
The OpenOffice table is double (with respect to the one you saw). But our volunteers, due to good relationships with the neighboring Perl table, rearranged them so that instead of 2 OpenOffice + 2 Perl we had 1 OpenOffice (which was enough) + 3 Perl (which was barely enough for the huge amount of stuff they carry, piles of books and even a life-size camel last year).
* Table Staff: I figure it takes at least 6 people to staff a FOSDEM table if you don't want to go insane. Daniel and Jan have said that they will staff the table. So we're 1/3 of the way there. I would probably be available for some time, but, like many of the folks that might otherwise be willing to do time, I have work duties as well.
I have no work duties at FOSDEM (meaning, I attend it as a pure volunteer) but I have no time either. And I don't know if I will attend next year.
* We need printed materials, as well as stickers/pins/whatever.
Not sure about this. At FOSDEM most people are content with stickers, pins and talks. We prepared lots of OpenOffice tri-folds for events but not many of them are used at FOSDEM.
* A tshirt would be nice
Yes!
So, if you are interested in being part of this effort, please speak up.
I might be at FOSDEM 2016 and/or I might be available to share my knowledge from my experience there. Don't count on me too much for staffing the table though, I'm always very busy at FOSDEM.
Regards, Andrea.
