Fwd: ApacheCon Europe Schedule Grid (planners@apachecon.com)

[Steve Holden <st...@holdenweb.com>]

I've Bcc'd planner so replies to this message don't get cross-posted.

I think it's great to have these philosophical discussions about the "dark heart" of ApacheCon, but let's have them where they won't get in the way of an actual event, shall we?

Sorry if this sounds abrupt, but it's important to keep business channels (by which, by the way, I ALWAYS mean "people doing significant things", and NOT people making money") clear for business.

Not that I have anything against people making money, I am here on this list in the expectations of doing so myself, though I can truly say that isn't the principal motivator. Interestingly, though, that WAS the motive that brought me here. Something to think about?

regards
 Steve

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Nick Burch <ni...@apache.org>
> Date: August 28, 2012 11:43:17 AM PDT
> To: planners@apachecon.com
> Subject: Re: ApacheCon Europe Schedule Grid (planners@apachecon.com)
> Reply-To: planners@apachecon.com
> 
> On 27/08/12 21:58, Ross Gardler wrote:
>> This is an Apache event for all Apache projects. There are 237 proposal,
>> of which 33 are for Lucene/Solr. Currently the Lucene track is assigned
>> 14 of 115 slots. On a purely numbers basis the allocation is correct.
>> The predicted number of attendees doesn't really sway my own opinion
>> since as far as I'm concerned the ASF is more interested in building
>> awareness of all its projects. No previous ApacheCon has been dominated
>> by a single project and I'm not sure why this one should be any different.
> 
> AOO? ;-)
> 
> This does touch on the tension at the heart of ApacheCon, which perhaps not everyone is aware of (I know we've a lot of new people involved this year)
> 
> Do we want to focus on a breadth of projects, or just on the most popular ones? Do we focus on the ones that people already know about, or the ones that they'll find themselves wanting to use next year? Do we focus on the topics of interest to non-committers, who often pay more, and are our future new committers/community members? Or on the ones we already have? Those who know a lot about us already? Or those only dipping their toes into the Apache waters? How do we get enough experienced people there to share their knowledge, whilst not scaring off the new people by being too cliquey? And so on...
> 
> The lucene track has a good chance of being popular with lots of non-committers, whilst also providing some committers with something relevent to point their bosses at. People coming for it may well learn a lot from the other tracks on too. However, everyone needs to remember that the conference isn't just about lucene!
> 
> 
>> I'm sure
>> you are aware that the ASF is not led by commercial entities, but by
>> volunteers representing their projects. We don't allow corporations to
>> lead our activities.
> 
> I'd strongly suggest that Elizabeth and Nancy attend some of the Community Track talks, to learn more about how Apache works, and also the importance of swapping hats.
> 
> I'd also like to remind people that the ASF doesn't have a great record of managing to draw in non-coders, despite many of us recognising the importance of the other kinds of contributions. If we could try (and I know it's hard, as we're all stressed about the conference) to be a bit more ComDev and a bit less ConCom with our newest non-coding volunteers, we might manage to have less work to do next time around! :)
> 
> (And yes, if we're talking ComDev then possibly I haven't done enough to help mentor Elizabeth and Nancy through this. That's another one to chalk up to the learning experience)
> 
>> Furthermore, I know Don has some concerns about a sixth track, so I'd
>> like to hear those concerns. I'd also whether those who have seen the
>> venue believe adding a sixth track in the press room would be a good
>> idea from a space allocation point of view.
> 
> I think it could be a good spot, especially if there aren't the budgetary pressures thanks to sponsorship. Like the other smaller room, it feels smaller than the seating capacity difference to floors 1/2 suggest. That means it should feel great for the smaller tracks, who might get a bit lost in the large space, whilst having the capacity to take quite a few if a particular talk is unexpectedly popular.
> 
> We did take lots of photos of the venue, which I'd strongly recommend people try to look at if they haven't already. Well, I say we, I didn't. Elizabeth and Rainer took lots of great photos! Between the photos and the floor plan, people can hopefully get a better sense of what we have available to us.
> 
> Nick

--
Steve Holden steve@holdenweb.com,  Holden Web, LLC http://holdenweb.com/
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