Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
On Fri, Jul 07, 2006 at 12:01:29AM -0600, Justin R Findlay wrote: On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 08:55:13PM -0600, Dan Hanks wrote: Perhaps we in the community just need to organize an un-conference the day before. Gather together a bunch of geeks interested in genealogy for a bunch of hours with free wireless and see what comes out of it. That's an awesome idea. Name the time and place and I'm there. Zürich, Saturday, my house. Gipfli and z'Nuni provided. ;-) -- Paul Johnson - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pjcj.net ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
On Fri, 7 Jul 2006, Justin R Findlay wrote: On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 08:55:13PM -0600, Dan Hanks wrote: Perhaps we in the community just need to organize an un-conference the day before. Gather together a bunch of geeks interested in genealogy for a bunch of hours with free wireless and see what comes out of it. That's an awesome idea. Name the time and place and I'm there. Phil Burns (Provo Labs/DevUtah guy--Hi Phil!) is interested in helping to set up a bar-camp (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp) in the very near future (in conjunction with WorldBarCamp (Aug 26th-28th)). See his blog post about this: http://www.devutah.com/2006/06/24/time-for-barcamp-utah/ And the wiki page he set up for it also: http://www.phil801.com/devutah/index.php?title=Pre-planning_thoughts_for_doing_BarCampUtah_in_conjuction_with_BarCampEarth. This would be an ideal venue for this sort of thing. I have family commitments on Aug 25-26, religious commitments on the 27th :-), but might be open during the day on the 28th. Anybody else interested? I'd also love to see something like this set up in conjunction with the FHT as well each year. Just need to find a good venue. Anybody at BYU have connections to get us a room with Wifi the day before FHT? We could make a page on WeRelate.org (wiki) to coordinate. Maybe we need to start a Family History Technology user group that meets on a regular basis. That would be fun. I'm sure we could find a steady stream of presenters who are doing cool things in the area. Thoughts? -- Dan ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
My take on the wiki and mailing list responses is not that they are difficult to do, but that many of us would see an officially-sanctioned sourceforge-like area as a stamp of approval on what might otherwise be construed as an ark-steadying activity. Indeed, I know of no other forum than the LDS-OSS list where the propriety of online collaboration on church-related projects is endlessly debated as it is here. I worry that many potentially beneficial ideas and faithful efforts are floundering because there is too much concern over whether some initiative or other will meet with the approval of Church leadership. Having a friendly open forum for collaboration that is sponsored by the Church would do a great deal to ease misgivings about dedicating one's time to a church-related open source project. In summary, I think it may not necessarily be that people are worried about the difficulty of setting up a wiki or a mailing list, but whether or not such a list would be accepted as supportive of the church's mission or antagonistic to it. Carl On 7/3/06, pat eyler [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: APIs make sense to sit up at the top, but Wikis and to a lesser degree newsletters and source code repositories are easy to set up and host, but a conference is something that would be hard to put together, advertise, and pull of without some kind of sponsorship. ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
RE: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
On Wed, 5 Jul 2006, Dallan Quass wrote: Overall it's a good workshop. A few people come in from out of town, but I estimate that 80-90% of the attendees this year came from BYU, the Church, or Ancestry. I think it would be _much_ better if there were an effort driving people to work together on shared efforts. I've only attended a few of the workshops, but I'm not aware of a single presentation that has had a broad impact outside the workshop - that has made the jump from workshop presentation to website/software feature available to the general public (except of course presentations from organizations about what they're already doing). I've attended the workshop for the last couple of years and for the geek that's interested in genealogy work, im my opinion, it's the event of the year. I look forward to it eagerly each year. But I'll agree with Dallan, in that I'd like to see the scope broadened a bit. Most of the presenters seem to come from the Church or MyFamily.com (that's not a bad thing, there's plenty of cool stuff happening in those organizations, but I'd like to see things opened up a bit) As I understand it the original purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum for BYU students doing research in Family History technologies to present their research. I think that's a good goal to continue with, but again, it would be nice to see the workshop expanded a bit (perhaps to two days?) Perhaps we in the community just need to organize an un-conference the day before. Gather together a bunch of geeks interested in genealogy for a bunch of hours with free wireless and see what comes out of it. Just rambling now... -- Dan ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
RE: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
I agree with Dan. One of the best things that could happen at the Family History Workshop or a Church-sponsored open-source conference would be to set time aside for birds-of-a-feather sessions, where people interested in the same area could get to know each other, share ideas, make plans to work together, etc. -dallan I've attended the workshop for the last couple of years and for the geek that's interested in genealogy work, im my opinion, it's the event of the year. I look forward to it eagerly each year. But I'll agree with Dallan, in that I'd like to see the scope broadened a bit. Most of the presenters seem to come from the Church or MyFamily.com (that's not a bad thing, there's plenty of cool stuff happening in those organizations, but I'd like to see things opened up a bit) As I understand it the original purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum for BYU students doing research in Family History technologies to present their research. I think that's a good goal to continue with, but again, it would be nice to see the workshop expanded a bit (perhaps to two days?) Perhaps we in the community just need to organize an un-conference the day before. Gather together a bunch of geeks interested in genealogy for a bunch of hours with free wireless and see what comes out of it. Just rambling now... -- Dan ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
RE: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
Overall it's a good workshop. A few people come in from out of town, but I estimate that 80-90% of the attendees this year came from BYU, the Church, or Ancestry. I think it would be _much_ better if there were an effort driving people to work together on shared efforts. I've only attended a few of the workshops, but I'm not aware of a single presentation that has had a broad impact outside the workshop - that has made the jump from workshop presentation to website/software feature available to the general public (except of course presentations from organizations about what they're already doing). -dallan -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steven H. McCown Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 7:26 AM To: 'LDS Open Source Software' Subject: RE: [Ldsoss] Survey Results BYU sponsors a Family History Technology Workshop. Does someone closer to the source want to comment on how that goes? Steve -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Penrod Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 7:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: LDS Open Source Software Subject: Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results Pat, However, I can see mini-conferences taking place at established venues, such as Genealogical conferences and other Church sponsored forae, where it makes sense to do so. ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
--- Alan Young [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have no idea how this will go over, or how it might be done, or even if it'll be allowed by the secular conferences, but why not co-sponsor existing conferences. Doesn't Novell host a Linux conference in SLC? I think Linus showed up there a couple years ago. -Jon D. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
Pat, Desiring development conferences should not be a surprise. In the private sector, that is a major source of revenue to the people that put them on and a major social event for those in their respective discipline. I don't personally find them all that educational for the money spent, but it is a valuable source of networking for developers and businesses, as well as an occasion where numerous topics are presented, discussed and debated - so there is merit at several levels. Logistically, I would expect that any type of conference would not be forthcoming until the Church has matured a bit in terms of it's relationship with OSS developers at large and the number of stable efforts underway. However, I can see mini-conferences taking place at established venues, such as Genealogical conferences and other Church sponsored forae, where it makes sense to do so. With the API venue, it would make sense that the Church provide the gold source repository for such an effort and make use of existing distribution outlets, such as SourceForge, etc. so there is an audit path to the code and it doesn't fork and fracture like many projects do when there is little control on source distribution from the top. I do agree with you about the mailing lists and the Wiki as a community effort. ...Paul pat eyler wrote: I have to admit to being surprised at the results on question 16: From 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, please rate which services you feel the Church should provide through a sponsorship to the LDS development community? Some of the answers make sense, but baffled by one of them: Forum software2.64 Wiki3.33 Source code repository3.80 Mailing lists3.53 Provide APIs to data provided by the Church4.69 Development conferences2.74 News letters3.00 APIs make sense to sit up at the top, but Wikis and to a lesser degree newsletters and source code repositories are easy to set up and host, but a conference is something that would be hard to put together, advertise, and pull of without some kind of sponsorship. From a pragmatic perspective, it seems like the church is much more capable of doing two things than anyone else: providing APIs and hosting/sponsoring conferences -- anything else would be nice, but could be handled by the community. ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
Re: [Ldsoss] Survey Results
I have no idea how this will go over, or how it might be done, or even if it'll be allowed by the secular conferences, but why not co-sponsor existing conferences. How many LDS are going to OSCon? YAPC? ApacheCon? The SAGE stuff? Rather than try to start up yet another conference, leverage what's already there. Not to mention opening a whole 'nother avenue for getting the word out. :] ___ Ldsoss mailing list Ldsoss@lists.ldsoss.org http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
