Re: IDLELO 5: March 19 - 23 2012
On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 5:09 AM, Karen Sandler wrote: > On Mon, February 20, 2012 4:12 pm, Tobias Mueller wrote: >> Heya, >> >> On 26.01.2012 16:30, Karen Sandler wrote: >>> I think it's really >>> important for GNOME to have a presence there. >> Is anybody going now? > > Not that I know of sadly. Perhaps we should start thinking about our > participation next year now, since I think this takes more time to > organize properly. I know it's a long way down the road, but is anyone > interested in participating next year? According to the Idlelo 6 request for proposal page, the conference will be held sometime in the first quarter of 2014. http://idlelo.net/node/11 In general, I'm interested in helping with a GNOME booth for Idlelo 6 but it's hard to know what my schedule will be like or what the security situation will be like in the hosting country. I'm also not that active in other GNOME activities these days so I may not be the ideal candidate. I can, however, try take a more proactive role in organizing things for Idlelo 6. I've put a reminder in my calendar for November 2013. It would be nice if somebody could do the same to have a backup reminder in case it slips by me. If I hear of any other events in Africa that I think would be a good fit for GNOME, I'll post a message to this list. Cheers, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: IDLELO 5: March 19 - 23 2012
Hi Karen, On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Karen Sandler wrote: > 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: http://bagu.org/gnome/ 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 ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: sponsoring a GNOME developer training session at Fedora Action Day Ghana
On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 1:03 PM, Dave Neary wrote: > Hi Ben, > > Your reply today popped this back to the top of my TODO list - I've been > meaning to reply since you sent this. > > Ben Konrath wrote: >> Here are suggestions for >> sessions I would like to see but it really depends on the >> person/people going: >> >> * tour of GNOME 3 >> * hands on session working through the GNOME development work flow >> (bugzilla, git, fixing real a bug or two, etc) >> * hands on developer training - work through adding a small feature to >> a GNOME module > > I have some training materials for some of these. Specifically, I ran a > session at the MeeGo conference in November where we took people through > getting code out of git, making changes, commits, pushes and merges, > fixing bugs using gdb, and identifying and fixing a profiling issue with > valgrind. The material is all in github & is reusable: > https://github.com/dneary/linux-devel-tools-tutorial Awesome! Thanks for passing on the link - this will definitely be useful for whoever goes to Ghana. > I also have the training material I used from the GNOME developer > training at GUADEC last year, which included an overview of the GNOME > platform from Fernando Herrera and a review of developer tools from Xan > Lopez and Claudio Saavedra. I need to get them online somewhere still... Could pass along the links when it's online? This would be useful as well. Thanks, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: sponsoring a GNOME developer training session at Fedora Action Day Ghana
Hi Brian, Sorry for the late response. The message was inadvertently filtered out of my Inbox and I only stumbled upon recently. I know this sounds like a 'dog ate my homework' kinda thing but sometimes the dog does eat your homework. :-) On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Brian Cameron wrote: > > Ben: > > This sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Thanks for continuing to > help us in this valuable way. Some questions: > > - When is the date? I'm not sure. I'll ask Isaac and get back to you. > - Considering it doesn't make sense to travel to someplace like Ghana > for just 1 day, how many days lodging do you think is reasonable to > motivate volunteers to consider helping us in this way? It really depends on where the person is coming from and how much jet lag they need to deal with. I could see 3 or 4 days being a reasonable minimum. But that's probably not for everyone. > - What language is the conference held in? Should this affect who goes? FAD Ghana will be held in English. There are several local languages in Ghana but, as former British colony, English is the national language. > - Are there any concerns about getting visas? Yes, whoever goes will need to get a visa before they go. The actual visa isn't cheap - I think it was about $65 CAD when I went but that depends which passport you hold. Whoever goes will need a letter of invitation. That could probably come from Isaac as he's organizing FAD Ghana. > - Does the event need to be focused on Fedora? If The GNOME Foundation > were sending people, could we get "GNOME" or "Free Software" in the > event title? It's possible but I'd have to chat with Isaac and get his thoughts. More on this below. > - What visibility do you expect The GNOME Foundation will get from this? That's a good question and not something that really put much thought into yet. Off the top of my head, this is good opportunity to show that the GNOME Foundation wants to continue promoting GNOME and F/OSS in the region. Whoever ends up going can do the regular blogging and email report. I can also promote the event to my contacts who work at ICT related international development organizations. > - Could you provide more details about the budget? I haven't really thought too much about this yet but I can put something together based on my expenses from my trip there last May. I'll get back to you. > - Could the GNOME training sessions be held on other days than the > conference, so that the volunteer would need to be there for more > than 1 day? Or does it make sense to discuss with the event > organizers making it a 2-day event or something? I've been in regular contact with Gaël Hernández from IICD, an international development non-profit that focuses on ICTs, about things that we can do promote GNOME and F/OSS in general in developing counties. Since I'm particularly interested in Sub-Saharan Africa, Gaël pointed me to Google developer days in Kenya and Uganda as a model that F/OSS can be promoted in the region: http://sitescontent.google.com/guganda/ http://sitescontent.google.com/gkenya/ Before I get carried away with grand visions of a "Free Software Days Ghana", I want to make sure that I don't derail the work that Isaac is doing with FAD Ghana - which is totally awesome by the way. It would be a shame to turn FAD Ghana, which seems to be a grass roots, self organized mini-conference, to something that seems to be organized by people in the North (developed countries). I'll have a chat with Isaac and get his thoughts on at least adding a day for GNOME training in which case we could go shoot for something like "FAD & GNOME Ghana 2011". Just a thought. > We'd have to see a more detailed budget and plan to make a decision, > but it sounds very reasonable. It is important to the GNOME Foundation > to reach out to the developing world. Great! I'm glad to hear that the GNOME Foundation is interested in this kinda thing. > Are there other conferences in Africa that you think we should be > planning to send people? Yes. I think somebody should go down to Idlelo again this year. We should try to encourage a more serious technical track from the conference organizers and try to get other F/OSS communities there. The website doesn't seem to be updated for this year's conference yet: http://www.idlelo.net/ There's also eLearning Africa which might be a good conference to have some Sugar developers attend: http://www.elearning-africa.com/ > I do think that there should be an announcement on the developing-world > list. I think we could be better about posting updates to that list, > and notification about possibly interesting events like this. Good idea. I'll make an announcement. Thanks for responding. I'll get back to you with the information that you requested. Cheers, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
sponsoring a GNOME developer training session at Fedora Action Day Ghana
Hi board members, Isaac Sanni-Thomas, one of the Ghanian Fedora Ambassadors that I met at Idlelo [1] last year, is organizing a Fedora Action Day (FAD) [2] in Accra, Ghana: http://d3vnulls.blogspot.com/2010/12/fad-2011-in-ghana.html As part of my continued interest in GNOME related outreach activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, I would like to help setup a GNOME developer training session at this event. This is a great opportunity to promote GNOME in this region because the primary organizors of this event are from Ghana and are already working within F/OSS communities. We have a good chance of attracting people to the GNOME community at this event. What are the possibilities for getting travel sponsorship for this event for 1 or 2 people (not necessarily me)? Here are suggestions for sessions I would like to see but it really depends on the person/people going: * tour of GNOME 3 * hands on session working through the GNOME development work flow (bugzilla, git, fixing real a bug or two, etc) * hands on developer training - work through adding a small feature to a GNOME module I think it would be appropriate to have GNOMErs who have already been doing outreach work in less economically developed countries run these sessions but this is not required. I attended the 'GNOME in Asia and Brazil' session run by Emily Chen and Jonh Wendell this year at GUADEC. I think both of these people are good candidates for running these training sessions at the Accra FAD. I haven't actually spoken to either them yet so I could also post a request of volunteers on my blog. Or one of you guys could ask for volunteers and pick an appropriate person/people. One of the challenges I see with this proposal is that Ghana is a long way to travel in terms of time and money for only a one day event. One of my personal goals for my outreach activities is to make this kind of situation disappear by having GNOMErs in Sub-Saharan Africa. But since we're not there yet, we're left with this situation. Thanks for your time. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks, Ben 1. http://www.idlelo.net/ 2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Meeting Minutes Published - November 11, 2010
On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Tomeu Vizoso wrote: > On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 08:28, Ben Konrath wrote: >> Hi Dave, >> >> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Dave Neary wrote: >>> Based on the Orca (or even a more general a11y) roadmap, it may be >>> possible to get some funding from companies or associations interested >>> in seeing Orca get better (although a lot of the associations seem to be >>> focussing more on NVDA because it works on Windows). >> >> Just thought I'd chime in here. I spent a bit of time searching for >> funding to work on Caribou after the ATRC / IDRC cut funding for my >> position. The feedback I received was a similar story; the potential >> funders seemed only interested in an applications that would serve >> their users who primarily use Windows. Obviously this will be an issue >> when searching for funding for GNOME a11y projects - especially new >> projects that don't have an established group of users like Caribou. > > What about those companies deploying linux desktops in masse in public > organizations? From time to time appear in the news some big European > city or government department that has migrated their desktops to > Linux. Those vendors aren't asked to provide an accessible solution? Your suggestion seems like it might be a good way forward. I'm no longer involved with Caribou but the last I heard, the Consorcio "Fernando de los Ríos" (www.consorciofernandodelosrios.es) provided some funding for Caribou after I left the project. I was in contact with them briefly but they only seemed interested in funding companies from Spain so I didn't qualify. Cheers, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Meeting Minutes Published - November 11, 2010
Hi Dave, On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Dave Neary wrote: > Based on the Orca (or even a more general a11y) roadmap, it may be > possible to get some funding from companies or associations interested > in seeing Orca get better (although a lot of the associations seem to be > focussing more on NVDA because it works on Windows). Just thought I'd chime in here. I spent a bit of time searching for funding to work on Caribou after the ATRC / IDRC cut funding for my position. The feedback I received was a similar story; the potential funders seemed only interested in an applications that would serve their users who primarily use Windows. Obviously this will be an issue when searching for funding for GNOME a11y projects - especially new projects that don't have an established group of users like Caribou. Cheers, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
GNOME booth at EclipseCon
Hi, I would like to nominate the GNOME Project to run a booth at Eclipse Con. The deadline for nominations is February 12, 2007: http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20070207cb_eclipsecon.php Last year there was sponsorship money but I'm not sure what's going on this year. If I went ahead with the nomination, would somebody be available to run the booth? Thanks, Ben ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Report from the GNOME booth at Eclispe Con
Hi, I just wanted to take the time to let everyone know how the GNOME booth at Eclipse Con went. Eclipse Con was primarily attended by windows developers. Andrew Overholt and I bought an inkjet printer to make professional looking CDs that we could hand out but I honestly didn't think that we would hand out too many. Because of time constraints, we ended up bringing the printer to the booth with the intention of burning/printing when we didn't have visitors. Well, it turned out the our CDs were quite popular and we couldn't burn/print them fast enough! In general people seemed genuinely interested in Linux and GNOME and had some really good questions for us. Billy Biggs (SWT developer) also helped with the booth and was able to answer all of the tricky SWT-gtk questions that came up. Here are some pictures of the booth: Me talking to our first visitors: http://www.bagu.org/pictures/EclipseCon-GNOME-booth1.jpg Andrew burning a disc at the booth: http://www.bagu.org/pictures/EclipseCon-GNOME-booth2.jpg Andrew showing off the CD: http://www.bagu.org/pictures/EclipseCon-GNOME-booth3.jpg As you can see we used Andreas Nilsson's posters from the MarketingMaterials wiki page, so thanks goes out to him. We had all three of them printed, but sadly only had room for two. The "Preferred language?" poster was a real hit. So many people came by the booth and were like "hey, that's my native language". It was a really good ice breaker for people who didn't really know much about GNOME or Linux. On top of the discs, we had a bunch of "Why choose GNOME?" flyers printed (also on the MarketingMaterials wiki page, thanks to Sébastien Biot for these) but if I had to run a GNOME booth again, I would probably not print very many of them out. It would be nice to have a few around, most people get enough marketing material from other booths that our paper stuff is probably just going to go into a pile and be tossed in the garbage. What we should have done is put a simple slogan on the CD and www.gnome.org so that they know where to go for more info if they want it. I guess that's about all I have to say. I ended up having extra ink and a few extra discs, so if you find yourself running a booth sometime, drop me a line and I'll see if I can burn/print you up some discs. Ben signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
