On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 2:24 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Proposing the 2012 Evergreen "Hack-A-Way" > > As we closed out the last Evergreen conference the Oversight Committee > discussed looking at new ways to promote the common interests of the > community. As everyone knows, the Evergreen community is fairly young and > as it grows the Oversight Committee is finding it's way. The Oversight > Committee began as a way to put Evergreen's assets in the community's hands > and facilitate the local hosting of the annual conference. Today, I would > like to introduce a proposal for another task we would like to take upon > ourselves and for which I volunteer myself. > > I call it the Hack-A-Way, both because the goal is to facilitate hacking > away at the code and as a pun off a getaway. In short, the goal is to > provide an opportunity, at the midway point each year between conferences, > for developers to meet in person and to continue the momentum they develop > at the conference. This goal came directly out of the developer community, > who find in person collaboration is extremely useful. > > And frankly, promoting this labor benefits everyone. This can not be > under stated. I speak for the Oversight Committee when I say this is a > good idea. I speak for myself when I say this is a wonderful idea. > > So, how do we make this happen? > > I'm proposing a combination of use of a host's resources and soliciting > funds for this project. A working group is forming with some from the > Oversight Committee and some from the hosting site (once it's selected). > > So, is this like a developer conference? > > No. This will be much more low key, more motel than hotel and more take > out than fine dining. There won't be seminars or classes, unless they > spontaneously come out of the developers themselves. However, I will ask > for a local coordinator and ask for proposals from those willing to host > it. Those interested in hosting should send me an email stating their > interest and what they can provide (even meeting room space with Internet > is valuable) and who from their location can work with us. The most > qualified hosting site will be selected and we will work with them to > select dates. > > How big are we talking? > > We're talking fairly small at first, though the more developers who can > attend on their own dimes and the more grants we can give out will increase > it's size I'm sure. The developer community itself isn't very large. > Really, they do a lot of work relative to their size. This first year we > may be looking at anywhere from half a dozen to two dozen. Hopefully, in > future years with more time to prepare we can grow it a little bit and I'm > sure ideas will come out of the developer community to use the event to > it's fullest advantage. > > Isn't this basically a hackfest? > > Yes. I'm suggesting a name because as we go for sponsorships having an > identifiable name is useful and the term hackfest is used very generically. > > So, what would funds go to? > > Everyone able to afford their own expenses would be expected to. Ideally, > otherwise grants would be given out to help cover travel, food and lodging. > How many expenses we can cover will be determined by the number of > sponsorships we can gather and the more we have attend the more sponsors we > can probably solicit from. Any excess funds will go the community pool. > > How would we qualify people? > > Well, other than requiring that it be developers, we haven't figured that > out yet. But doubling up on rooms is encouraged. > > What else will money be spent on? > > Not much, but I do hope to supply them with copious amounts of caffiene so > assume a snacks and refreshment budget. Awake coders are productive coders. > > Can non-developers attend? > > This is something we really need feedback from the development community > on but the goal at this time is for this to be an event for those who > contribute code to Evergreen and perhaps others active in the technical > community, not to make it a mini conference. > > So, where will this money come from? > > Our goal is to seek sponorships for the event. Individual donors can > certainly give small amounts but we also hope that Evergreen related > businesses and large institutions will be willing to buy sponorships since > this work directly benefits them. The hat will get passed around. We > will provide sponsorship levels and we will be working on finding ways to > provide exposure for those willing to pay for higher level sponsorships and > thus provide an incentive for donors to dig deep. > > > - Rogan Hamby > > Rogan, I like this idea. Would there be any traction for regional-level Hack-a-ways? If we didn't have to travel the budget for attending the event would be more available.
Wolf Halton (LYRASIS) -- This Apt Has Super Cow Powers - http://sourcefreedom.com Open-Source Software in Libraries - http://FOSS4Lib.org Advancing Libraries Together - http://LYRASIS.org Apache Open Office Developer [email protected]
