CaliforniaTeam/Meetings/10April04

19:08 < Flannel> Alrght, welcome everyone to tonight's meeting.  Hope everyone had an enjoyable easter weekend, complete with free foot-massages for those of us in the south
19:08 < Flannel> Did anyone up north feel the earthquake?  I know nhaines did in Orange, and I've heard reports of LA feeling it, anyone further north?
19:09 < cowbud> not in sf :)
19:09 < akk> nor in sj
19:09 < nhaines> Up north had their own 4-point-something quake, too.  :)
19:09 < MarkDude> not in wc
19:09 < grantbow> too much rain to notice a quake here
19:09 < akk> That was just a little thing, the one up here.
19:09 < cowbud> indeed
19:10 < MarkDude> If it is under a 5 magnitude <yawn>
19:10 < akk> Just wait 'til lucid releases -- then the earth will really move.
19:10 < pleia2> hehe
19:10 < MarkDude> lol
19:10 < cowbud> hah
19:10 < duckleet> lol
19:10 < Flannel> Our agenda for tonight consists of Global Jam recap, and Lucid release planning.  You can find it here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Meetings/10April04
19:11 < Flannel> Before we get started on those, we've got a few announcements and things,
19:11 < Flannel> First, 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) will go EOL at the end of April,
19:12 < Flannel> everyone still using Intrepid is encouraged to upgrade.  9.04 is the only supported upgrade path (and then to 9.10, 10.04, etc)
19:12 < Flannel> 8.04 isn't EOL yet, even though it was released six months earlier, because it's an LTS.
19:13 < Flannel> Anyone have questions?
19:13 < grantbow> fyi, 8.04 LTS is supported for one more year for desktop, 3 more for server
19:13 < Flannel> I know we have at least two new faces here tonight, I apologise for skipping you, we'll get back to you in a minute :)
19:14 < Flannel> Alright, before we move on with more announcements, welcome to you new folks.  if you'd like to introduce yourselves, you're more than welcome to.
19:15 < cowbud> Hi Scott from SF recently moved and I am interested in becoming more active in the CA Ubuntu community
19:15 < duckleet> hello i am duckleet and i live in the oc
19:15 < duckleet> aka donald
19:15 < cowbud> duckleet: hah celver
19:15 < cowbud> or clever?
19:15 < grantbow> welcome guys
19:15 < duckleet> i live so close to disneyland had to
19:16 < Flannel> cowbud, duckleet: If either of you have questions about what we do here or anything like that, feel free to ask at any time, during the meeting or afterwards.
19:16 < cowbud> thanks
19:16 < duckleet> thanks will wait till after
19:16 < cowbud> grantbow: thanks
19:17 < duckleet> to aSK
19:17 < Flannel> Our next announcement is that we've been having some troube keeping our facebook page updated with our meetings and things, so we're looking for volunteers for that.
19:17 < grantbow> That and other items on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/MeetingChecklist if you like as well - the more the merrier.
19:18 < grantbow> It's always good to have redundancy in getting these things done.
19:18 < Yasumoto> Would setting up a script for some things, for instance using the facebook API, be of interest?
19:18 < grantbow> oh yeah
19:19 < Flannel> You don't need to volunteer at one of these meetings, so if you decide you're interested later, just let me know.
19:19 < nhaines> Yasumoto: Might be a good idea, depending on what the API can do,.
19:19 < Yasumoto> I know "technical solutions to social problems" and all, but might help ensure things happen
19:19 < Flannel> Yasumoto: Probably couldn't hurt, although it might take more time setting that up than just updating it every few weeks
19:21 < Yasumoto> Yeah, usually more upfront time, but generally a good idea for stuff in the long run
19:21 < Yasumoto> I'll get a project page setup and see if we can drum up some interest?
19:21 < nhaines> Yasumoto: can't hurt.  Maybe some other LoCos would use it too.
19:22 < Flannel> Yasumoto: Do we need a project page? or is it just going to be something to whip up in an afternoon?
19:22 < Flannel> I don't know how involved the API is
19:22 < grantbow> bzr ftw
19:22 < Yasumoto> Hey, that's a great idea, that'd be cool
19:22 < nhaines> Oh, I thought you meant an LP page.
19:22 < mpontillo> re: facebook event calendars, it seems like it might be useful to keep events somewhere else and sync them with something like this? http://www.fbcal.com/
19:22 < akk> The API is apparently fairly simple
19:23 < akk> and probably code could be easily copied from gwibber :)
19:23 < grantbow> akk: good to know
19:23 < Yasumoto> Flannel: I think it'd be pretty helpful for others
19:23 *** akk copied some twitter code from gwibber -- it's pretty readable python
19:23 < Flannel> Yasumoto: Right, might just be something we stick in our team bzr repo, but lets talk about details after the meeting
19:23 < Yasumoto> akk: Yeah, great idea. I think the faceook python API docs aren't that well documnted, last I checked
19:24 < Yasumoto> kk, coolio :)
19:24 < Yasumoto> mpontillo: Definitely something to look into
19:24 < Flannel> So, our last announcement is the Ubuntu Open Week Call for Papers/Proposals/Sessions
19:24 < akk> Unfortunately there's no python-facebook api package like there is python-twitter, so you probably have to do json directly (there is a perl facebook api, I think)
19:25 < Flannel> Ubuntu Open Week is held the week after release (M-F), and it's a chance for Users to learn stuff about Ubuntu.
19:25 < Flannel> Either technical, or social, or whatever, you can see Karmic's UOW schedule here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekKarmic
19:26 < Flannel> Anyone can do a presentation, our LoCo has done one on running a booth at an expo, so if you've got an idea you'd like to teach others about, this would be a great time to do it
19:27 < Flannel> The page that gives you details about what exactly they're looking for in a topic, and how to submit one is here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/Prep
19:27 < nhaines> It's a great way to help others or get an interesting topic out to a lot of people.
19:28 < Flannel> On the other side of the coin, Ubuntu Open Week is a great thing to attend (either live or by reading logs afterwards) so be sure to keep an eye out for topics you're interested in
19:28 < grantbow> Lernid is a great tool for following these events now too.  I'm sure there will be links on the Lucid pages this time around.
19:29 < eps> Lernid?
19:29 < pleia2> eps: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid
19:29 < Flannel> Lernid is a hybrid IRC + Slideshow + notepad type thing
19:29 < nhaines> eps: it's a program that connects you to the right rooms automatically, so you don't have to worry about IRC or time zone conversions.
19:30 < grantbow> pleia2: thanks
19:30 < Flannel> Anyone have any questions about OUW or anything else?
19:30 < Flannel> Oh, the sessions are held on IRC, so you don't have to "be" anywhere to tune in
19:31 < nhaines> And the logs are available quickly afterward, so you can go back and read the logs for any session you missed.
19:31 < cowbud> Is there an actual lucid scheduole?
19:31 < Flannel> cowbud: Not yet, there will be once people volunteer and such (right now it's a call-for-volunteers)
19:31 < nhaines> cowbud: not yet, because they're still looking for speakers and topics.
19:32 < cowbud> ah ok
19:32 < Flannel> cowbud: Apparently the schedule should be available on the 16th
19:32 < mpontillo> so, when the IRC sessions are held, often times good questions are asked - seems like it would be good for someone to read through them and update documentation/FAQs afterward. not sure what a good process for that is
19:32 < Flannel> And OUW is May 3-7 (M-F)
19:34 < Flannel> mpontillo: Yeah, that would be helpful.
19:34 < Flannel> mpontillo: I'm not aware of any effort to do something like that, but I'll ask around and see if there is already.
19:35 < Flannel> Anyone have anything else for UOW? or any other announcements we've missed?
19:36 < Flannel> Oh! right.
19:36 < Flannel> 10.10 is going to be codenamed "Maverick Meerkat"
19:36 < Flannel> You can read all about it here: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/336
19:37 < Flannel> With that, I think we'll move on to our first agenda item for the evening, Global Jam Recap.
19:37 < akk> Maverick? He doesn't follow US politics much, I guess.
19:37 < MarkDude> lol
19:37 < nhaines> .
19:37 < grantbow> haha
19:37 < MarkDude> Mavericky Mavericks
19:37 < cowbud> Meerkat eh
19:37 < cowbud> hah
19:37 < MarkDude> SNL skit - he never saw it
19:38 *** grantbow will have to watch some Meerkat Manor in 10.10's honor
19:38 < Flannel> For those of you who don't know, last weekend was this releases Global Jam, which is where teams get together all over the world to have Jams focusing on ... pretty much any topic imaginable.
19:39 < Flannel> We had three jams throughout the state, and this is our chance to reflect on what we did well this time, and what we can improve upon for next time.
19:39 < MarkDude> http://www.flickr.com/groups/westcoastubuntu/pool/  pics from Jono's event are here
19:39 < Flannel> Anyone want to Summarize the Friday Jam?
19:39 < Flannel> (and Sat/Sun will be next)
19:40 < Flannel> Did anyone here attend Friday's jam?  this would've been the one at A'cuppa Tea in Berkeley
19:41 < mpontillo> I attended the Friday jam. I didn't feel like I got too much accomplished, but it was good to meet everyone. ;) Let me check my notes...
19:42 < grantbow> I attended - it was pretty casual but I think we learned quite a lot and had fun.  I know I did.
19:42 < Flannel> mpontillo: "Amount of stuff done" isn't high on the rubrick for Jam success :)
19:42 < MarkDude> & Jono was nice enough to autograph the Penguin
19:42 < Flannel> What sort of topics were covered/learned?
19:43 < mpontillo> Grant was there. He was updating documentation most of the time I think? Jono was there and I contributed a couple lines of code to Acire, along with rww, Jack, Michael (two different Michaels), one of the zareason guys, Mark, and Jason
19:43 < grantbow> mpontillo: good summary, thanks
19:44 < mpontillo> sorry my notes are kind of sketchy ;) but there was some discussion here and there about how to make Ubuntu processes and contributing to Ubuntu better. I think this came out of it: http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/03/30/mergimus-making-patch-and-branch-review-easier-in-ubuntu/
19:44 < grantbow> Earl was there from ZA reason
19:44 < grantbow> We had a great discussion near the end about Linux and education in western culture too.
19:44 < Flannel> Thanks mpontillo
19:44 < Flannel> and grantbow
19:44 < MarkDude> Courtney from Zareason & Gidget Kitchen was there also
19:45 < MarkDude> & Me
19:45 < Flannel> Anything that you think we could do better next time?
19:45 < MarkDude> Not have me
19:45 < mpontillo> grantbow asked me what I thought about the IRC sessions, and how to make them more useful - hence my comment today about feeding them back into the FAQs ;)
19:46 < grantbow> oh, a little different context but yes, I remember that conversation now.
19:46 < pleia2> fwiw there is also an effort to turn the IRC sessions into course work in Ubuntu Learning - but more volunteers are needed for that
19:46 < pleia2> (sorry, don't mean to detract :))
19:46 < Flannel> pleia2: Which IRC sessions?
19:46 < mpontillo> For me - I think having a clearer answer to the question of "what can I work on today and make a difference" would be good. and I think tools like "Mergimus" (or whatever it will eventually be called) will help facilitate that
19:46 < pleia2> Flannel: UOW and the like
19:46 < Flannel> pleia2: the global jam ones? or some other sessions? gotcha
19:47 < Flannel> Anyone have anything else about Friday?
19:47 < grantbow> I learned about bughugger and - not Mergiumus but an extension of Nautilus named....
19:48 < nhaines> grantbow: ground control?
19:48 < mpontillo> Eclipse you mean, I think
19:48 < grantbow> nhaines: that's it!
19:48 < nhaines> grantbow: haven't used it yet but it looks good.  :)
19:49 < Flannel> Alright, so lets move on to Saturday's Jam at Chapman University in Orange
19:49 < mpontillo> here's a thought I had, along the lines of eclipse + ground control + mergimus: an Eclipse plug-in for ubuntu development! could be nice to have. maybe a plugin for Quickly, too. there was a little discussion about that in the morning
19:50 < mpontillo> (sorry - please continue on the Saturday topic - I need to leave anyway) ;)
19:50 < Flannel> mpontillo: Thanks for stopping by
19:50 < mpontillo> thanks, talk to you all later
19:51 < nhaines> Saturday was nice and casual.  We met at Chapman University in Orange.  Yasumoto wrote about it here: http://www.bjoli.com/linux/?p=45
19:51 < Flannel> We covered bugwork, both triage, and trying to track down package that a bug belongs to in the morning
19:52 < Flannel> and later on we walked Joe through setting up his blag on planet
19:52 < nhaines> And after dinner when it calmed down I worked on a lucid presentation.
19:52 < grantbow> s/blag/blog/ ?
19:53 < Flannel> grantbow: If you want to call it a "blog", yes.
19:53 < Flannel> When you're cruising the intertubes you happen upon a blag to read.  Yes.
19:53 < nhaines> Then we forced Neal to play Portal except he's an engineer so it was no match for his mastery of physics and he beat it.
19:54 < pleia2> hehe
19:54 < grantbow> +1 for gaming
19:54 < seidos> is the meeting over?
19:54 < Flannel> Only a small bit of motion sickness, and mostly because of that crazy lag at the end
19:54 < Flannel> seidos: Nope, we're just at the "comment about the bugjam" section!
19:54 < nhaines> Yeah, never figured out what caused that.
19:54 < seidos> Flannel, cool
19:55 < Flannel> seidos: So, What did you like about it? what do you think we could do better in the future?
19:55 < nhaines> Anyway, last time it was an multiplayer Amagetron match, and this time it was spectator Portal.  A good way to end a jam, IMO.
19:55 < grantbow> Flannel: all true gamers complain and blame it on the lag
19:55 < seidos> Flannel, not sure, haven't given it a single second's worth of thought
19:55 < Flannel> People in attendance were seidos, nhaines, Yosumoto, jbermudes, and myself.
19:55 < Flannel> seidos: Alright :)
19:55 < Flannel> Yasumoto, even.
19:56 < seidos> Flannel,  oh, more people
19:56 < Flannel> seidos: Yeah, that's something I'd like to work on as well.  Advertising and the like.  We're trying some new things for Lucid release, so hopefully we can solve that issue.
19:57 < Flannel> nhaines: Anything else?
19:57 < seidos> Flannel, I'm gonna' go out on a limb and say actual software development would be pretty impressive
19:57 < nhaines> Nope!  I think that about covers it.
19:58 < nhaines> seidos: that's always a possibility.  It does require preexisting knowledge though.  :)
19:58 < seidos> nhaines, well at least it's a possibility
19:58 < Flannel> Alright, we'll move on to Sunday's event, which was at Bobby G's pizza in Berkeley.
19:58 < Flannel> Anyone want to give a summary?
19:58 < pleia2> sure
19:59 < pleia2> some photos are up here: http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=2714
19:59 < pleia2> Bobby G's was great, free wifi and Jack got us set up with some reserved tables in a corner of the restaurant so we were easy to find, and they have good pizza
19:59 < grantbow> Oh, I will upload more photos soon.
20:00 < pleia2> jono ended up stopping by (we thought he'd be travelling) and was able to suppliment grant's bug handling presentation very well, even giving us some extra info about why certain things are done certain ways with bug control
20:00 < pleia2> also had Myrtti from Finland in attendance with her boyfriend, the leader of BALUG, leader of BerkeleyTIP
20:01 < grantbow> he co-presented actually which was great
20:01 < pleia2> so it was a great turnout of local groups too
20:01 < pleia2> I think we ended up having about 15 people
20:02 < pleia2> worked on the brochure that Jack sent to the list (even got some participating from this channel during the event :))
20:02 < pleia2> then I did a short thing about finding and contributing to available help resources in ubuntu, my handout is here: http://people.ubuntu.com/~lyz/FindingHelpfulResources.pdf
20:03 < pleia2> grantbow: anything else?
20:03 < grantbow> Yes, Michael Paoli made it from buug.org and balug.org.  A friend of mine Alex drove in from Bolinas.  We did at least one Lucid install on Alex's machine.
20:03 < grantbow> pleia2: good summary!
20:04 < grantbow> Flannel: back to you.
20:04 < Flannel> Anyone else have any other comments about the jams?
20:05 < seidos> yeah I have something
20:05 < MarkDude> We need pics on the wiki
20:05 < seidos> lucid beta 1 turned out to be a disaster on my system :)
20:06 < nhaines> seidos: sorry to hear that!  But just think--beta 2 comes out Thursday!
20:06 < grantbow> seidos: Sorry to hear that.  I had a daily build die on me once but the two full installs of beta 1 I did were ok.
20:07 *** seidos is staying away from betas
20:07 < Flannel> I do have one thing that we discovered during/after the Jams, and that should be an easy fix in the future.  We need to make sure we've got all the info for our events on our wiki.
20:07 < seidos> grantbow, my laptop doesn't seem to like the newer kernels
20:07 < Flannel> We had some issues with the newly-opened loco directory events thing, where some information was 'supposed' to be put on the other one, and such, and we wound up with no real central source of information
20:08 < pleia2> yeah, it took some work to keep everything updated for berkeley (loco directory, CA wiki, berkeley lug page) but it was vital to our successful turnout I think
20:08 < nhaines> pleia2: you said it.  :)
20:08 < Flannel> It's just something we need to keep in mind, our project pages are the authoritative source of info, with the other places being pointers/advertisements/etc (this policy will also be useful to clear up ambiguities with old info, etc)
20:09 < Flannel> It's what we've always done, but with the loco directory thing some lines got crossed this time around :)
20:09 < grantbow> I almost forgot, at our Sun Berkeley Jam Jono filed this bug which is already fixed. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/550516
20:10 < pleia2> grantbow: nice, I didn't see it was fixed! how fun :)
20:10 < MarkDude> Cool.
20:10 < Flannel> Anything else for Jam stuff?
20:10 < eps> Would someone please update https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Projects/LucidGlobalJam appropriately?
20:11 < MarkDude> Policy?
20:11 < Flannel> eps: It'll be updated, yeah, for our portfolio
20:11 < grantbow> eps: are you volunteering?
20:11 < eps> I wasn't there this time around; doesn't seem appropriate.
20:12 < grantbow> eps: I'd be honored to accept your virtual contributions to the Jam!  ;-)
20:12 < Flannel> eps: A lot of the updating is just 'paperwork' type stuff (with the summaries we do here, and such giving you the info).  If you're interested, we can sit down with you and show you
20:12 < eps> Flannel: maybe next time
20:12 < Flannel> eps: Alright
20:13 < Flannel> With that, we'll move onto our last meeting topic for the evening, which is planning for Lucid
20:14 < Flannel> Last time I believe we discussed doing a "Tour of California" type thing for the events
20:14 < MarkDude> Is there a policy for the process of posting to the wiki >>> projects, etc?
20:14 < Flannel> MarkDude: What do you mean?
20:15 < MarkDude> You mentioned policy earlier - I was just wondering where it might be?
20:15 < Flannel> MarkDude: Our wiki is our authoritative place for event information
20:15 < MarkDude> <Flannel> It's just something we need to keep in mind, our project pages are the authoritative source of info, with the other places being pointers/advertisements/etc (this policy will also be useful to clear up ambiguities with old info, etc)
20:16 < MarkDude> & the way it can be posted to has not been clear
20:16 < Flannel> MarkDude: What?
20:16 < MarkDude> I was under the impression that you were going to define this
20:16 < nhaines> MarkDude: when details and plans are available, the wiki servs as the definitive source of information in the case of external resources.
20:16 < MarkDude> No policy - nevermind
20:17 *** seidos is confused
20:17 < Flannel> MarkDude: Did you need further clarification? or did that clear it up?
20:18 < nhaines> seidos: basically, we just need to make sure our internal resources are comprehensive and up-to-date in case the external ones aren't.  :)
20:18 *** pleia2 nods
20:18 < grantbow> There have been references in many past meetings to documenting policies.
20:18 < MarkDude> And no policies on wiki posting have been done?
20:19 < seidos> nhaines, can you give me an example of an internal resource and an external resource?
20:19 < Flannel> MarkDude: It's the same as always.  What sort of policies are you looking for?
20:19 < akk> A wiki with a posting policy? I don't think I've ever seen such a beast. :)
20:19 < MarkDude> Other locos just let members post to wiki- not here always
20:19 < Flannel> seidos: Loco Directory Event posting, facebook event posting, things like that.
20:19 < nhaines> seidos: internal resource = ML or wiki, and external is anything else.  Twitter, LoCo directory, etc.
20:19 < MarkDude> akk - there are logs on it
20:19 < pleia2> at the very least, having a "remember to update these pages" is very very useful
20:19 < Flannel> MarkDude: Members are always welcome to post to the wiki
20:19 < seidos> ah twitter.  we're on twitter?  how in the world does that work?
20:20 < MarkDude> & how is membership defined?
20:20 < nhaines> seidos: it merely syndicates the identi.ca feed.
20:20 < pleia2> some teams have adopted this: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/Administriva
20:20 < nhaines> (Which I think I forgot to update for tonight.)
20:20 < grantbow> Any resource has policies, formal or informal, internal or external.  Sometimes there are reasons to write them down.
20:20 < seidos> nhaines, you lost me at identi.ca
20:20 < Flannel> MarkDude: This is getting offtopic, can we stick to the meeting?
20:20 < seidos> well identi.ca feed
20:20 < MarkDude> Thanks for the green light on the wiki Flannel ,,,, continue
20:20 < Flannel> MarkDude: If you'd like to get into this, I'd be happy to go over it again with you after the meeting
20:20 < MarkDude> My bad
20:21 < MarkDude> Were good
20:21 < MarkDude> I was mistaken , sry
20:21 < nhaines> MarkDude: please stop disrupting the meeting.
20:21 < Flannel> So, as we were saying,
20:22 < seidos> lol
20:22 < Flannel> Lucid is coming up at the end of the month,
20:22 < Torikun2> Yes!
20:22 < Flannel> and last time we were discussing a "Grand Tour of California" series of events
20:22 < grantbow> Planning for Lucid Launch Parities!
20:22 < nhaines> The idea was that we could plan a series of events, and then use one poster to advertise them.
20:22 < grantbow> Parties
20:23 *** seidos is still confused
20:23 < nhaines> grantbow: we're hoping for launch party parity?  :)
20:23 < seidos> but it's okay, a state of perpetual confusion is good for the soul
20:23 < Flannel> I'm not sure if we should be doing this "weekend of" type release parties, or maybe a few weeks later type of install fest
20:23 < Flannel> A few week later opens up the possibility for pressed CDs
20:23 < grantbow> no need to choose - let's do both if we want!
20:23 < Torikun2> grantbow: good idea
20:24 < Torikun2> the more interaction, the better
20:24 < nhaines> I'm still a big fan of a "weekend of" release party that's food-oriented, and a later one that's more installfest-oriented.
20:24 < pleia2> nhaines: me too
20:24 < Flannel> grantbow: We don't need to choose, but we should probably focus our advertising on one or the other, otherwise we'll need two different posters, etc.
20:24 < akk> yay food :)
20:25 < grantbow> Flannel: need is a strong word - I totally agree on focusing for the advertising.
20:25 < Flannel> If we want to do both, I'm leaning towards "grand tour" for the installfests, since those posters will be able to reach out to new people in a way that'll let them learn more instead of just celebrate
20:25 < pleia2> I dunno, I would think the opposite - promote the party, tell people about installfests then
20:26 < pleia2> so they aren't bringing their expensive computers to strangers
20:26 < grantbow> depends on assumptions about the target audiences
20:26 < pleia2> true
20:26 < grantbow> might be different for different events too
20:26 < Flannel> pleia2: that's true.  Although it's more difficult to showcase while at a food place and stuff
20:27 < pleia2> Flannel: I think it depends on the venue, I've had pretty successful release events with demos at restaurants with wifi
20:27 < pleia2> maybe not pubs :)
20:27 < grantbow> different kind of success at pubs ;-)
20:27 < akk> I've seen some really miserable attempts at outreach at coffee shops and restaurants.
20:28 < akk> Organizers tend to overestimate the space and underestimate noise level.
20:28 < nhaines> akk: +1
20:28 < Flannel> Yeah, we just have to make sure we're in a place someone can show up for a few minutes and get a feel for Ubuntu
20:28 < grantbow> akk: good point
20:28 < akk> (was just talking with OSM people about that at wherecamp today)
20:28 < pleia2> I think at such an event it's important to focus on the "fun" part and "oh yeah, wanna see it? I have it on my laptop over here.."
20:28 < Flannel> since worst-case is someone says "I'll stop by for a few minutes and check it out"
20:28 < pleia2> rather than formal demos and outreach to random passerbys
20:28 < akk> Even the "wanna see it?" part ends up being limited to one or two people
20:29 < akk> because coffee shops never have a table where lots of people can gather and everyone can hear
20:29 < akk> so most people end up on the periphery wondering why they bothered coming
20:29 < pleia2> well, we'd have a few key people doing rotating demos through the whole event
20:29 < Flannel> akk: You'd have to have enough of 'us' there to entertain multiple small groups, yeah.
20:30 < pleia2> lets you get social and friendly with a couple people who can ask direct questions, rather than a wide demo to everyone at once
20:31 < akk> It sounds great, but never seems to work out like that -- maybe it just needs a good organizer making sure people are distributed well
20:31 < seidos> I have an announcement, there's an ant on my laptop.  It's big for a black ant
20:31 < Flannel> pleia2: Did you do en-masse demos at the installfests in PA?
20:31 < akk> and that it's clear who the experts are so people know who to gather around
20:31 < grantbow> the balance between staffing, venue, timing and focus is important to every event - there are multiple ways to succeed.
20:31 < seidos> venue is a running problem for these things
20:32 < nhaines> seidos: maybe it's a super ant that survived the quake.
20:32 < pleia2> Flannel: we did what I'm explaining, small personal demos on laptops
20:32 < pleia2> and name tags are essential :)
20:32 < Flannel> pleia2: Right, that's what we've done here too, an en-masse demo seems foreign, which is why I was asking :)
20:32 < akk> That last bit is a problem I've seen a lot. I think it helps to have some sort of "uniform" (badge, funny hat, distinctive t-shirt) so newbies know who can answer questions or show demos.
20:32 < seidos> I'm not sure if demoing ubuntu on my laptop is such a good idea.  As long as I don't have to run on my battery it should be fine
20:33 < Flannel> akk: Yeah, we'll have that covered
20:33 < grantbow> akk: good ideas
20:34 < pleia2> akk: yeah, for PA name tags worked well since they were cheap and quick to whip up on the spot (and we could give blank "non-staff" ones to guests too)
20:34 < pleia2> just little stickers
20:34 < Flannel> pleia2: We've got printed ones, but giving stick-on-ones to visitors might not be a bad idea
20:34 < Flannel> If they're willing, of course
20:34 *** pleia2 nods
20:34 < akk> pleia2: I think little stickers would be fairly subtle, especially if guests got stickers too.
20:34 < grantbow> Flannel: can you post those on spreadubuntu or the wiki please?
20:35 *** seidos still has his badge from ubucon
20:35 < Flannel> grantbow: They're posted on nhaines's website
20:35 < pleia2> akk: it actually tended to work out ok
20:35 < akk> You need to be able to glance over and say "Oh, look, there's a table with an ubuntu person and an empty seat!"
20:35 < grantbow> Oh, I might have that url somewhere
20:35 < Flannel> I think they're linked from the wiki somewhere too...
20:35 < akk> pleia2: It doesn't here. Just sayin'.
20:35 < pleia2> ah ok
20:35 < akk> pleia2: I'm sure it depends on who's organizing things, and the layout of the place.
20:35 < akk> And noise level.
20:35 < pleia2> yeah
20:35 < grantbow> yeah
20:35 < nhaines> Flannel: and on Launchpad too!
20:35 < Flannel> grantbow: check out old SCaLEs, there's a paragraph on the page about signing up/signing CoC/getting a badge (with a link)
20:36 < grantbow> Flannel: thanks - I'll get the URL later
20:36 < MarkDude> Log is off?
20:37 < Flannel> MarkDude: If you mean "are we still in meeting", yes we're still in the meeting
20:37 < Flannel> So, from the looks of it, we like the tour-of-california idea, but we aren't sure if we should focus on installfests or release parties.
20:38 < nhaines> I think we should do the poster for the installfest stuff, and do our traditional advertising for the parties nearer launch.
20:38 < Flannel> Actually, this just popped into my head, if we're "touring" (with lots of locations over a wide area) it might be easier to set up release parties,
20:38 < nhaines> If we time it right, we can have lots of posters available at the parties.
20:38 < Flannel> with fewer more-centralized installfests later
20:39 < pleia2> good point
20:39 < pleia2> release parties are certainly less logistically challenging, more areas should be able to do them
20:39 < grantbow> pleia2: depends on if you have robots or not
20:39 < seidos> release parties vs what?
20:39 < pleia2> seidos: installfests
20:40 < seidos> hmmm, that makes sense
20:40 < MarkDude> The orbs wont be back from India for a while
20:40 < grantbow> that's what you said, yeah
20:41 < Flannel> pleia2: We'll have some attrition from people who are interested but never show up to installfest though (not that this is bad, but we do need to be ready to give good info during parties)
20:41 < Flannel> Would we have issues with posters and locations of businesses though?
20:42 < grantbow> Let's see, it's April 4th.  Release is April 29th - installfests in mid May, right?  what deadlines do we need to keep in mind?
20:42 < akk> I think it would be a shame to have lots of parties all over the state, but not many installfests where people could go and actually get ubuntu installed.
20:42 < Flannel> Putting "at [food place]" might not be entirely kosher with that food place
20:42 < seidos> the only thing that's necessary to make an release party an installfest is a cd
20:42 < seidos> or a usb flash drive
20:42 < DarkwingDuck> Flannel: Alot of times food places have a conference room area for things like this or buisness meetings
20:43 < seidos> oops I meant a release party, not an release party
20:43 < seidos> DarkwingDuck, don't they charge for that kind of thing
20:43 < pleia2> Flannel: yeah, I think a business should be given a heads up (maybe even ask permission for the gathering)
20:43 < DarkwingDuck> Allows the service of food with everything but it wont both the other people
20:43 < grantbow> who's going to print the posters?
20:43 < Flannel> pleia2: We may not have time for that
20:43 < MarkDude> Saxbys will allow any Open source posters at their location
20:43 < seidos> oh yeah, there's that Schechwan restaurant in Lomita, they had rooms for groups
20:44 < seidos> Lomita is not really in the middle of SD and LA though
20:44 < pleia2> or find out if someone on the team has ties to a location (thats how I've always seen things done)
20:44 < Flannel> Looks like there's still some questions and things that we need to consider further,
20:44 < grantbow> pleia2: I'm on the hunt for some venues - nothing firm yet
20:44 < Flannel> so lets move this to the ML, and try and come to a consensus about which way we want to go by next weekend
20:44 < pleia2> grantbow: cool
20:45 < pleia2> Flannel: +1
20:45 < grantbow> consensus on the advertising?  Try to finalize plans so we know what to print?  good idea.
20:45 < seidos> awww but I want it now
20:45 < nhaines> seidos: if you have it now you'll spoil your dinner. :)
20:46 < Flannel> grantbow: If we want to 'focus' on release parties, or installfests for postery things and stuff
20:46 < Flannel> Oh, that may not have been a question.
20:46 < seidos> rats
20:47 < Flannel> Alright, thank you all for coming.  Have a nice remainder of your Sunday, watch out for those earthquakes, and see you at our next meeting which is...
20:47 < pleia2> thanks Flannel :)
20:47 < Flannel> April 18 at 7pm.  And keep your eyes on the ML for the coninuation of this discussion and further planning discussion.

Sunday, April 4th, 2010, 7:00pm (1900) PDT

Summary

Original Agenda

Log