Venue for 2017 OSD Summit

[bnvk]

Update:

We'll be hosting the event at the WikiBar and the Mozilla Community Space.

Old:

As per discussion in #57 there seems to be two main cities up for considerations, Berlin and Tirana.

Berlin, Germany

Venue	Capacity	Cost	Contacted	Status
OnionSpace	30	Free	Yes	Greenlight
Mozilla Berlin	40	Free	No	Waiting For Feedback
Wikimedia Offices	100	Free	No	Waiting For Feedback
KDAB	??	Free	Yes	Greenlight (as long as dates fit)

Locals: @bnvk @jancborchardt @Incabell @jdittrich @ScintillaLuz @Kriesse @gsambrotta @bbalazs @mrflix

Tirana, Albania

Venue	Cost	Contacted	Status
Open Labs Hackerspace	Free	Yes	Waiting
Talent Garden Coworking Space	~100 EUR/day	No	Waiting For Feedback
Oficina	Maybe Free	No	Waiting For Feedback

Locals: @elioqoshi @rskikuli @anxh3l0

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At some point we can move these to Markdown files once solidifies.

[elioqoshi]

Added a few things here.

[elioqoshi]

Open Labs is nice for groups under 20 (and well, I'm a board member there so we can get things going quickly. Might not be fit for working in the open with more people). Oficina is really nice and has great infrastructure. Several of our OSCAL'17 tracks will be held there, so that's my favourite spot for anything bigger than a meetup and smaller than a conference. http://www.oficina.al/

[jancborchardt]

There’s quite a disparity with how easy to reach Berlin is vs Tirana though for the European contributors, right? Sure Tirana is cheap, but ease of travel overshadows that a bit I would say.

For example for @victoria-bondarchuk @Xaviju from Madrid, @evalica from Romania, @eppfel from central Germany, @belenbarrospena @ei8fdb from London, @andreasn from Gothenburg, @raghunayyar from Stockholm and a lot of others. And please don’t forget our huge community in Berlin already.

Just want to make sure we pick a location which is proper for our very international community, similar to how Brussels works well.

[simonv3]

(fwiw, if we did Brussels I can probably host some people)

[elioqoshi]

I'm biased but I think that we might want to break the habit of being part of the scene at some point. I realize that places like San Francisco, London and Berlin are the first cities you would do such a meetup. I think it has quite a few disadvantages regarding diversity and inclusion if we take it for granted that a certain city is the "capital" of any project. Let's be a bit nihilistic here.

When you say ease of travel do you mean the travel duration? As that's the only thing which might be a downside at the end of the day, due to the higher flight prices being counter balanced with other financial disadvantages in less mainstream cities like Tirana. That was the motivation behind OSCAL when we started it in 2014.

We would be able to host quite a few people in Tirana as well if needed.

[simonv3]

I want to point out that when I'm considering my traveling to the summit I'm not just considering financial cost but also environmental impact. It doesn't make sense to me for us to have 25 people travel to Tirana if the other option is to have 15 people travel to Berlin because 10 people are already in Berlin.

Berlin is also pretty well connected by train, so people don't have to necessarily fly.

Edit: I want to emphasize that I think it would be really cool visit Albania, and I would love to see it, so I'm saying this completely against my own self-interest.

[bnvk]

I'm biased but I think that we might want to break the habit of being part of the scene at some point.

@elioqoshi generally, I like this approach, but considering this is our first Summit, I think we hardly need to break a habit.

I think it has quite a few disadvantages regarding diversity and inclusion

I think it makes sense to consider our attendance goals #62 re: diversity. @elioqoshi you're the only core contributor from Albania, right?

Thanks @simonv3 for caring about environmental impact. If the global leaders can't get their shit together & the activists ignore it... being a bit nihilistic, our days (as a species) are numbered :)

[gillisig]

I vote Iceland! ;)

My 2c is that while I would love to visit Albania someday it would be much more likely that I could justify travelling to Berlin since I dont have any company to sponsor me.

[elioqoshi]

Yeah I was playing a bit of devil's advocate as well, since I love Berlin myself and wouldn't mind traveling a bit hehe.

But my point is to not establish a culture where things mostly happen in one place. It's comfortable and easy, but might not be the most inclusive (and I mean potential inclusivity, as we already know each other pretty well). Heck, I'd love if this would be organized in Romania or Iceland one day. But I understand that we have to make it as accessible as possible for the first time, so let's go ahead with Berlin, as long as we make sure that we will diversify the location in 2018 ;)

[Xaviju]

I think Berlin is a wonderful location for the first OSDSummit as well. I like the @elioqoshi idea of OSDSummit not happening in a single location (similar to LibreGraphics event maybe) and move around. Going to less known locations as Albania, Spain, Romania...etc. would help us meet other less known OS communities.

[ei8fdb]

Let's be practical first, and choose a location which is easy, cost efficient, reduces travel for everyone, and low environmental impact for our first year.

Then next year we can be nihilistic and blow it all to heck.

[gsambrotta]

We have also contact with ImmobilienScout and SoundCloud office (the first one has pretty big room, second one not sure how big spaces they have). I could try to contact them if i know bit more spcifically what to ask.

[andreasn]

I like Berlin, since it's one of the few cities I have direct flights to. But Tirana doesn't seem that bad for me, flight-wise, it's just one stop in Frankfurt.

[jancborchardt]

Ok – so first time Berlin, and then it will be a traveling summit! :) Like GUADEC, Libre Graphics Meeting, etc – Great plan :tada:

[elioqoshi]

Let's ask the opposite question so we can wrap this up since we have momentum now: Anyone has any objections with Berlin? Visa might be a problem for some people (although most of OSD "Core" contributors are residing in visa liberal countries I believe.

[simonv3]

Thanks for bringing that up @elioqoshi! I don't know if there's anyone who's interested in coming who might have an issue with visas.

I think that's a great reason for never having the summit in America.

[elioqoshi]

Yeah, the US has always been pretty inaccessible for anyone not coming from a "first" world country (let alone the Trump thing which is making it worse).

[Kriesse]

Another interesting venue option for Berlin: http://spektrumberlin.de/project.html 100 ppl capacity, comes with a nice bar area and other goodies: http://spektrumberlin.de/project.html It’s also company-branding free, which I consider a big plus.

PS: Thanks for planning this, I'm very excited! I am currently not able to contribute much more than ideas, because of organizer overload with other projects. Towards late summer/fall I should have free time again and would love to help where needed.

[elioqoshi]

@Kriesse Looks interesting! What fees would there be?

Personally I don't think existing branding is a problem, as long as it's open source related. especially with a non-profit which already have Open (Source) Design communites (where Wikimedia, Tor and Mozilla would qualify)

[qwazix]

I see it has been mostly decided but I'd like to chip in in favor of Tirana, just to show there are people who want to attend on this side of the continent, too.

[bnvk]

Hiya @Kriesse thanks for stopping by and suggesting Spektrum, I hadn't thought of that place

What fees would there be?

Not sure. I know Spektrum operates the bar in the evening to pay rent and such.

Personally I don't think existing branding is a problem...

I get what you mean @elioqoshi however, I also get what @Kriesse means, in that certain orgs (be it Wikipedia, Tor, or Mozilla) beget certain clicques and cultures. Spektrum is a relatively neutral art meets science space that does all sorts of events. Sure, Spektrum has their own group of core members, etc... but might be nice since they are arts aligned, compared to Tor space which is privacy aligned... food for thought

I'll send my contact there an email.

[elioqoshi]

@qwazix Where are you based if I may ask? I'm happy to see that Berlin is not taken as granted (not because I dislike Berlin, but because of the reasons I mentioned above). Would you be able to come to Berlin? Are your blockers mostly geographically, timewise or financially?

[elioqoshi]

I get what you mean @elioqoshi however, I also get what @Kriesse means, in that certain orgs (be it Wikipedia, Tor, or Mozilla) beget certain clicques and cultures. Spektrum is a relatively neutral art meets science space that does all sorts of events. Sure, Spektrum has their own group of core members, etc... but might be nice since they are arts aligned, compared to Tor space which is privacy aligned... food for thought

Makes sense. Again, we have to balance here different factors. If we would choose Spectrum, we might have more independence in shaping our experience there. However that (theoretically) would come with a certain financial cost.

On the other hand, Mozilla or Wikimedia would probably sponsor drinks as well. That would save us a few bucks...

[qwazix]

@elioqoshi I'm in Athens. No blockers, probably I will be able to come to Berlin, but it's nice to visit new places, especially one that's so close but never got the chance to visit.

[elioqoshi]

qwazix, come to OSCAL https://oscal.openlabs.cc in May :) Hit me up if you need help. Efkaristo!

[evalica]

I think Berlin is ok. For me, the simplest variant would have been still Bruxelles, 3 days before or after FOSDEM. Sure this would mean to way until 2018 and not visit other countries, but I think that would have been the simplest variant (we would already have sponsorship in order to get there, we would just need to find a location for the extra summit days).

Regarding the location we should have a registration count and decide it depending on the number of participants.

Although the traveling summit idea is nice, just a note that not everyone will be able to have the finances and accessibility to travel to different places every year. Especially if we want the summit to be for 3-5 days. Not to mention that depending on the location, every year we would need to take it from scratch in terms of sponsoring, accommodation, venue, etc. Taking the traveling summit idea, would be cool, but it will limit our members participation.

[simonv3]

More ~feasible~ important than a traveling summit (to me) is probably making sure that people who attend this first summit have the resources to start up their own meetups locally.

Edited to make clear what I meant.

[elioqoshi]

I'd refrain from doing it around FOSDEM personally. It's way too intensive, messy and chaotic. I don't know about most here, but during FOSDEM I'm unable to be productive. Networking with people and all the beer makes me a complete introvert by the end of Sunday.

Although the traveling summit idea is nice, just a note that not everyone will be able to have the finances and accessibility to travel to different places every year. Especially if we want the summit to be for 3-5 days. Not to mention that depending on the location, every year we would need to take it from scratch in terms of sponsoring, accommodation, venue, etc. Taking the traveling summit idea, would be cool, but it will limit our members participation.

I don't think that would change much as one year it might suit someone more than any other year and vice versa. Anyway, that's a problem I'd love to have, as that would mean we would already have wrapped up our first summit :)

More feasible than a traveling summit is probably making sure that people who attend this first summit have the resources to start up their own meetups locally.

I don't think that a global meeting and local meetups are exclusive to each other.

[Xaviju]

For now I'd focus our efforts on the Berlin 2017 meeting. We could talk about pros and cons of a travel summit during those days and during 2018.

Regarding the location we should have a registration count and decide it depending on the number of participants.

Agree, but how? A registration form would be valid? I remember when LibreGraphics was organized here in Madrid registration was free but required so the organization could preview approximately the number of assistants. Is it over engineering? I could work on a summit landing + registration page if we think is useful (I'm not sure)

[elioqoshi]

I don't think it's overengineering. It lowers the barrier of participation, which is great. I do think we need a registration count as well.

[elioqoshi]

If we create a landing page it might make sense to have have a summit repo anyway, since the landing page will be hosted there I guess.

summit.opensourcedesign.net ?

[jancborchardt]

opensourcedesign.net/summit - it should just be a subfolder of the repository at https://github.com/opensourcedesign/opensourcedesign.github.io/

It's not that difficult to keep the repo count low, cmon. ;)

[elioqoshi]

I'm not that familiar with GitHub, it was a plain question.

[bnvk]

summit.opensourcedesign.net ?

@elioqoshi this is not possible with Github & Github pages (which we're using). We can do

opensourcedesign.net/summit/

And that /summit part can be either a file or folder in the repo

opensourcedesign.github.io

Example: http://opensourcedesign.net/about/

Or it can be it's own repo, such as:

http://opensourcedesign.net/events/

I agree with @jancborchardt having a separate repo for Summit is probably too much.

[elioqoshi]

Fair enough then :)

[simonv3]

We could feasibly redirect summit.opensourcedesign.net to opensourcedesign.net/summit, but I don't know if that's worth the effort.

[Xaviju]

Agree! I see that the about page is a simple markdown file. Could we create a static independent html/css/js landing page to be a bit more creative and link it from the menu (and host it in the same repo)? I'm not an expert in Jekyll but in this case it makes sense, doesn't it?

[simonv3]

Yeah that shouldn't be a problem.

[ei8fdb]

We could feasibly redirect summit.opensourcedesign.net to opensourcedesign.net/summit, but I don't know if that's worth the effort.

I don’t think it’d be worth the effort.

If the site structure for our site is DOMAIN.TLD/FOLDER/ like "http://opensourcedesign.net/events/" then we should be consistent.

In fact it really should be http://opensourcedesign.net/events/summit/, but I would agree with http://opensourcedesign.net/summit/ for easy recall.

If/when we get to the position of having archives, we could follow FOSDEMs approach.

[jancborchardt]

So let’s move back to the topic: Venue for the summit. :)

Something which just came up in our call: How about we do the weekend (mostly talking) at Wikimedia and the other days (mostly hacking) at Mozilla – if that’s possible? That way we would be at the actual places where open source projects work.

[eppfel]

Just being optimistic: opensourcedesign.net/summit17

And now back to location discussion. I like your proposal @janborchardt, but be aware that getting used to and preparing a venue takes time.

[simonv3]

Who do we need to talk to for using Wikimedia? @jdittrich. I know there's someone else who hangs out here to talk to but I can't remember their name.

[jancborchardt]

@eppfel we should have the same site every year, so just /summit ;)

but be aware that getting used to and preparing a venue takes time.

Sure, but many of us have been involved in organizing conferences or running tracks before so I think we’re fine. :)

@Incabell @jdittrich what came out of the talk with Wikimedia and Mozilla? :)

[Incabell]

Hey, sorry for the late response.

Mozilla: I talked to Michael Henretty and he was positive about us using their space for parts of the summit. They will be moving offices in summer so the location would not be in their current office but the new space which also has a larger conference space.

Wikimedia: I also unofficially asked Martin Rulsch from the Team Ideenförderung (they're resposible for community support and are the department who would fund us) about using the space and getting funding from them. He was positive that we could definitely make the room happen. Funding is also possible for food and drinks, the room (which otherwise would cost us money as well) etc. but for that someone with a wikimedia account (doesn't matter which project) and a few edits need to write a "förderantrag" (request for funding) and give more details about the event and so forth. but he doesn't see why it shouldn't work.

I also asked about the rapid grants that Elio talked about and that's a foundation thing. so we could also ask the foundation for such a grant but that is nothing that Wikimedia Germany does. they have their own system which works with these Förderanträge.

He would help us write this Förderantrag in such a way that it would very likely be funded. Is there anyone who has an account with edits on any of the Wikimedia projects and would be willing to set this thing up?

[evalica]

@Incabell I have very few Wikimedia projects contributions. Do these count? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Evalica

[jancborchardt]

@Incabell awesome, sounds great! :) I’d say @evalica’s edits count.

[whitef0x0]

Is there no way we could get something going in SF at @facebook offices or something? I'm working @yelp in the summer. Maybe I could ask if they would be open to hosting it.

[simonv3]

@whitef0x0 I think you're going to get a lot of push back from a majority Europe-based group to host the Summit in SF :P

However please don't feel discouraged from organizing a local meetup! We've had some conversation around it here: https://github.com/opensourcedesign/organization/issues/58. Let me know if you want a hand with that.

[jancborchardt]

@whitef0x0 awesome! :) I started to rally some of the Open Source Design people in SF in this comment: https://github.com/opensourcedesign/organization/issues/58#issuecomment-291621238 would be cool if you want to take the lead on organizing that!

[elioqoshi]

@Incabell That sounds good, thanks for asking! If @evalica could take on that funding request than that would be great and we could move on with planning :)