FOSS4G'13

Steven's responses...

Thanks for the update which I have forwarded to the Basecamp (incidentally
you can forward or bcc a mail to our basecamp project by mailing to
project-762306-136bb7c339745e88a90eebfe@basecamp.com)

I note your confidence in the team organising the hackathon and the
engagement of participants. Please don't think that I or any of the LOC do
not "trust" you, it is simply that we have no experience of a Met Office
run hackathon and we have not been getting any updates to let us know what
is going on, the LOC would appreciate regular updates on your progress as
this hackahton is part of the overall FOSS4G, it is not a stand alone event.

*Logistics*
*
*
Logistics should not form a constraint on delegate numbers or any other
element of your plans

- We have established that the power supply into the GeoCamp should not
be a limiting factor (I understand that we have a potential capacity of 600
amps, JM to confirm). We still have to confirm how many power points we
will install, the current proposal is for 16 double 13 amp sockets = 32
points which can be extended/multiplied with trailing leads and we can
easily request more points (say 24?) at an additional cost. Remember that
most people do not need to have continuous access to power points so a
socket can support more than one hacker.
- We have discussed with F&L a combined heating/ventilation system which
can be installed if needed. We will be reviewing this with F&L as we
approach the date of the event and have better forecasts of the weather (do
you know anyone who could provide us with reliable hour by hour weather
forecasts for that part of Nottingham between 16th and 21st September?)
- I am not sure what you mean by "exact details of the wireless
service". The LOC have agreed a contribution to the costs for installing an
extra pipe into the site and deVere have confirmed that they will be
extending the coverage into the GeoCamp. The plan is for deVere to complete
the extension of wifi into the GeoCamp on Sunday so your team will be
able to test on the Monday morning, a technician will be on hand during
the working day throughout the event.
- BTW I would advise you that as of now there are no catering plans in
place for the Tuesday night. You need to let us know what if anything
you wish us to get deVere to arrange

Let me and Jeremy know if you have any further logistical questions or
requests.

I look forward to hearing more from you on Wednesday

Have a good break

Cheers

Catering was agreed at the last F2F - one pizza per person and two beers?

Very pleased with the power and ventilation arrangements. I'll see if there
are any options for targeted forecasting for the event/region, but I think
it's unlikely we'd provide anything other than the usual publicly availble
hourly and 5 days forecasts.

Hackathon update promised by Wed eve.

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Ian Edwards <iedwards.pub@gmail.com>wrote:

@Ian E

We will organise the pizza and beers for those staying Tuesday night, can you aim to give us a number say 7-10 days beforehand please

No problem, we'll make sure we can give final catering numbers in that time
frame.

Update:
Challenges are in. I think six have been determined ready to go live,
there are more on the way, but we can announce them as they are added.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to put these 6 online this evening so that
they are up before the end of July, but I'm time-squeezed this evening so
there's a chance it will get delayed.

If they go up then feel free to announce that the first challenges are
online in the next weekly update and/or other channels.

We haven't contacted people who have registered interest yet. I will do
this next wednesday.

The missing data link has been taken down temporarily (the smart-cities
people are trying to get new data for the recent heatwave in Birmingham).

That's where we at on the hackathon. More next week, I'll be on the team
call next time.

Thanks Ian

Hi All, Three challenges are now up. I have to stop before I put my
marriage in further jeopardy... but the next three will go up next
Wednesday and it looks like we may well have three more the week after...

Hi Ian, can you please provide an update on the logistics of the hackathon. I've seen the challenges on the website. Where are we with partners for the problem statements, numbers for the hackathon, media and announcement and supporting the legacy of the hack?

I'm also wondering which problem statements are related to the theme of climate change, however, this now at the Met's discretion. 

*Geohack update 9th August*

There are 6 geohack challenges online so far. There are more in the
pipeline, but we will probably delay putting up too many until we have a
better idea of attendees. Most of the challenges have either been
contributed by partners, or are being supported by partners (e.g. providing
access to data etc).

Eventbrite registrations are at 46. I'll contact with those people this
weekend and get confirmation that they are attending - and make sure they
have accommodation booked etc.

Steven - I'll draft a short promotion piece for your next update and have
this to you by end of Sunday.

Most of the logistics are with the LOC with Jeremy negotiating with DeVere
and Field and lawn... (from the June questions list)

DeVere: WiFi, WiFi support technician, power, catering, water cooler

Field and Lawn: Power sockets near tables, rectangular tables, chairs for
tables, chairs for stage, stage, projector, screen, AV,
power at stage, power and food point, heating/cooling, lighting

also, Jo is now taking care of wristbands

I think we agreed that final numbers (for catering and tables etc) has to
be at least 1 week before.
Also I think the projector/screen may not quite be agreed yet.

Ian, I'd recommend not delaying with anything. We are less than 40 days to the event, I'd strongly reiterate that this is supposed to be a community event, consequently let the community decide on what they are going to hack on. We really need to be releasing data now to try and get groups and awareness around the hack. These key groups will form a nucleus which people on the day can form around.

I would also not worry too much about accommodation. My experience here is that it's common for hackers to come without a plan, the idea being that these groups will form more than a common work bond to continue post hack. Crashing on a cheap sofa in the travelodge is a great way for that to happen!

Will the Met office twitter account be tweeting about this? How should promotions from our end be dealt with? How will hacks be followed up? Out of the challenges presented how many will be present during the hack itself?

Will the Met office twitter account be tweeting about this?
No, it's not a mainstream Met Office activity. We do have twitter
accounts and email lists for our previous hackathons that are being used to
make sure previous attendees are aware of the event

How should promotions from our end be dealt with?
To conference delegates - via Steven's updates
To people in UK GIS community - JISC email lists
To OSGeo international community - OSGeo mailing lists
We have emailed around partner organisations to make their networks aware
We could look for specific environmental networks that we could use for
promotion
We could also consider a press release focusing on the hackathon

How will hacks be followed up?
This is currently individual to each challenge. Some have good support
networks in place and plans for future work, others are very new and the
presenters may not yet be sure how the results will be taken forward

Out of the challenges presented how many will be present during the hack
itself?
The submitted challenges all followed the original template and each
named a person to introduce their challenge on the day

I was just about to try and publicise the geohack to some non osgeo-y types and on reading the page it wasn't clear that you didnt need to be attending foss4g to go to the hack. I did a bit of editing on the geohack page to make this hopefully clear, and added a line about needing to sort your own accommodation. If either of these two things is wrong then I'll undo it as soon as you let me know!

Thanks

The changes are perfect - thanks Barry