<quote who="Sridhar Dhanapalan"> > > Where/how has this event been publicised, aside from SLUG announcements > > and flyers at Open CeBIT? > > I assume you mean 'fliers'? :p
No, I didn't. Not a good way to start your response, fumbled correction or not. > This is a community event, similar to a BarCamp[1] (BarCamp Sydney 2007 in > particular). We make no bones about it being loosely-organised. Loosely-organised can be serendipitous (note that unconferences are actually very tightly organised to encourage serendipity), but lack of preparation time and promotion is not great. A BarCamp with no people is like a pub with no beer. > Remember that we all have lives to live and jobs to do, which > unfortunately often need to take precedence over Bootcamp planning. I > don't think that we deserve criticism for trying to put on a good show > despite our busy schedules. Answer 1: I asked a bunch of questions about an event I've volunteered to help with (one of very few community members to have done so), but which I have very little information about. I'm putting time in for this too. If there are five people and a dog there, I'm going to feel pretty silly. Answer 2: I don't think you'd be falling back on this answer if you'd had the time to plan the event and properly involve the community. The first I heard of the Bootcamp was at the last SLUG meeting immediately before Open CeBIT. Not much time for anyone to help you out. If the committee doesn't "facilitate the enthusiasms" [1] of the community, it'll be lumped with all of the work, which is suboptimal and unfair. There are willing and variously able volunteers on the activities list who aren't seeing a lot of traffic. That suggests the committee is doing most of its discussion on the private mailing list or at meetings [2], which doesn't help volunteers to give you more time for "lives to live and jobs to do". I'm also trying to put on a good show despite my busy schedule, so take the constructive criticism in this email (and the questions in the last) as was intended, from someone who has volunteered for your event. But mostly I just wanted to know what was going on with the bootcamp... - Jeff [1] To borrow a clunky but relevant phrase from Linux Australia. [2] Minutes? -- linux.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://lca2008.linux.org.au/ "It's like having someone say to you, 'You should get back together with your first wife. You guys were good together'. It's not that simple." - David Byrne on Talking Heads -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
