FOSS4G'13

We have another mailing list:
http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/foss4g2013-private

OSGeo would like us to use that for all of our confidential discussions. I'm not sure how one goes about signing up to that yet, but again I am admin so no doubt it will become clear shortly. 

Rather than double-handling things with respect to discussions in basecamp as well, I think we should use the mailing list for discussions with osgeo and our more mundane things, like "when's the next meeting" and so on can be done on here. Basically the mailing list is archivable and searchable so really useful for future LOCs.

All the best

Jo

I think it's slightly amusing that while there's been such pressure to 'get things moving', it is only after we've started on the actions that we get directions on how to conduct the process. But never mind. Teething issues I'm sure.

I don't really like the idea of having multiple work areas, however Jo's proposal makes sense as at least with BaseCamp we can share documents, set-up tasks etc...which we can't do with the mailing list.

Jo, when I try that link it asks me for a password. Is that something you can share? Do we require our own?

(wry smile)

Which link are you trying, Rollo? The public or private? I'm still trying to ensure they are set up correctly as there are issues posting to them, so I am hassling the sys admins at OSGeo about that at the moment. I'll let you know when they are working OK

Jo

I know the feeling :). I had quite a few frustrations when doing this that I found out lots of things much later than I would have liked. Will do my best to give you warning of some of the things I found out late!

Also, I very highly recommend that you read the lessons learned from previous events:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2011_Lessons_Learned (and earlier ones linked from there)

I'm sure it's not comprehensive, but there's a lot of useful stuff in there I think. I encourage you to create a 2013 lessons learned page now and populate it as you go along, for the benefit of future generations :) !!

Public mailing list should work now- you will need to subscribe. I think the private list is working as well, but I don't intend on doing anything to test that till Monday!

Jo

Peter, I think we're going to benefit greatly from your insights. The wiki page is a clearly a sensible idea - I was looking at doing this tonight but have fallen at the first hurdle: my password management is not what is should be (I blame lastpass personally). When resolved I'll look to get something sorted.

Jo, I've subscribed to the public mailing list without any problems. The private one (not surprisingly) requires a password. It was this that I was wondering how you were going to administer (if indeed it is anything to do with you?!).

(PS I'll bring some cider up the F2F - remind me nearer the time).

Hi Rollo,

I've subscribed everyone to the private list (well, everyone who's on basecamp anyhow) so you should have an email welcoming you. Yes it's me that administers it- if we need additional admins that's cool.

Basic wordpress site is now up and running, and I've submitted a ticket to get the 2013.foss4g.org domain pointed at it- once that's done and I can finish the settings, I'll assign admin usernames to you guys so you can get posting.

Jo

Good stuff Jo!

Regards

Chris Holcroft
Sent from my iPhone

Good stuff Jo!

Regards

Chris Holcroft
Sent from my iPhone

I'm struggling to work out why we want to use the private mailing list as opposed to the basecamp? Can someone suggest some examples?

????
Steven

Hi Steven,

Because unless we keep paying for basecamp in perpetuity then nothing will be archived for future LOCs to look at, and "because that's the way it has always been done"... 

It's up to us if we actually use it, after all... but it might be useful for these contract discussions we need to have, if I sign up peter, paul ramsey and the other board members.

Thoughts?

Jo

OK I get that using the private mailing list would provide a permanent version. I am slightly nervous about maintaining two private discussion channels - basecamp and mailing list, it seems a cert to me that we will get confused.

How about we use private mail list for communications with the board only and we use basecamp for all of our internal comms? We can also use basecamp as our doc drop for the project although we may choose to use Google docs for some collaborative documents, particularly spreadsheets.

When the conference is over and we want to wind up our basecamp service we can export everything using this feaure http://help.37signals.com/basecamp/questions/164-can-we-export-our-basecamp-data

The public mailing list should be one of multiple ways (twitter, website) that we communicate with the OSGeo community and through which they can contact us.

I will go along with whatever the majority prefer but we should all have a shared understanding of what we are using for what.

steven

I totally agree and was kind of rail-roaded into having the private mailing list, to be honest!

Yes to using it for comms with the board- and the conf committee- I guess the best thing I can do is ask the board and Paul who should be on the list then I can register them.

Jo

Could we somehow subscribe Basecamp as a recipient for the private email list, so at least there's one channel that receives all the private in--bound mail?  Or is that too messy in terms of getting replies back to the right list?

Possibly- there is an option for emailing discussions to basecamp- it's personalised for each user. So if I created a "mailing list" user then I could potentially sign that user's personalised email up to the mailing lists. Hell, why not, I'll give it a go, I have the power to unsubscribe it if necessary! (Evil laugh)

Jo

and here is silly old me thinking that tech was meant to make our lives simpler and more efficient

I'll find a pigeon

I'm happy with the idea of a 'formal and private' means of communicating with the board outside of our discussion area (i.e. the private discussion list). We need to keep our channel of communication with the board clean and simple. Indeed I'd propose that only the Chair posts to it as he is the link between the LOC and OSGeo (in addition to the more 'informal and informed' links that we have with Jo and Peter).
It's clear the discussion lists can become echo chambers - having multiple people jumping in with a response can lead to a lot of additional work being created. As two nations divided by a common language we have to careful of the potential of poor communication creating unnecessary issues ;-)