FOSS4G'13

Barry raised a good point in an email today about the need to reflect the change from a bid team to a hosting team. Thus:

1.       We need to refresh the website (as discussed yesterday in the telephone conference all and is in hand). I've changed the profile title, but the address remains the same.

2.       We need to update the twitter feed. I’ve changed the ‘title’ of the existing account, but the name renames the same. Creating a new account is needed….but how do we carry across the existing followers. Does anyone know a good method of doing this?

3.       Blog post informing people of the change. Please review this as a starter for 10: http://foss4g4uk.posterous.com/private/sxDchtrsrq

4.       Create and moderate the ‘official’ channels via the OSGeo pages – we need to keep a close eye on comments etc and be responsive to questions etc..

 

Also:

Logo: I liked the logo from Jo, but it does need to incorporate the FOSS ‘band’ somehow. Also, I do like the idea of opening this up as a competition (perhaps with a prize?) to the community. Let’s make this the “Peoples Conference” (sorry – is that too close to the Olympics?)

 

This then needs to be reflected in the new website, twitter, etc…but as these things need to be started asap, there will be a time lag between them being up and running and the logo being ready (especially if we do run a competition). Not a problem I guess, but we need to address it.

A few thoughts in no particular order:

1) I have a sparkly new amazon instance (purchased at the weekend) that we could put a wordpress install on asap. That would be free for the first year and then pay-as-you-go. We could transfer the site if necessary at some later date.

2) We do need to include the ribbon in any logo- I think we need to go back to the ideas we kicked around in the bid stage for starters and go from there. I like the idea of opening it up to the community better than the idea of going to one of these firms for it.

3) I don't think we'll have too much trouble recovering our twitter followers if we bag the foss4g2013 account and start tweeting away with the #foss4g hashtag. Happy to deal with the comms with the OSGeo lists and wiki etc.

If you want me (and web-designer hubby) to get the install going asap- happy to sort that this weekend and provide access to you guys to post. I'd want a quick discussion before anyone went too mad about the structure of the site though!

Thoughts?

Jo

Jo (and CSC):

1. Yes, I see no reason not to proceed with this plan. Did you get confirmation from OSGeo about the hosting requirements?

2. See this post (and comment please): http://foss4g4uk.posterous.com/private/JIevFjGalj

3. OK - I'll just do that then. FOSS4g2013 as the handle?

Picking up your other comments:

1. If you can act as main coordinator for the OSGeo channels that would be great, but please all CSC need to get involved. It's a big job

2. Hash tag: can we stick with #FOSS4G - it's the most widely accepted as Jo has stated.

Finally a comment on website design - for my money it needs to serve two purposes: a formal 'all the information you need about the conference, and how to take part' and a 'blog' element. The first part will evolve over the course of the next few months, but we can be fairly clear on what needs to be here (just see Denver for ideas). It will also be 'controlled' i.e. the information on there has to be right, and not open to change by all. Misinformation can be very damaging - as we've seen in China. The blog however is where we 'reach out' to people and engage. This needs to be easy for all of us to use and update/add posts etc...

Can this approach be accommodated easily?

Hi Rollo,

I asked Peter Batty what they did last year about the website, and they used third party hosting then moved it over to the osgeo drupal install. From behind-the-scenes communications about the osgeo drupal instance, that's not an approach I would want to go for! Peter has said that there are elements of the 2011 site that we might want to reuse- which would imply going with drupal, but since we're going to be hooking out to the AGI services for the difficult stuff, I'm not sure there's much point. Happy to go for either though!

Web-designer hubby says that these days it's horses for courses- there's not much that you can do in drupal that you can't do in wordpress, and wordpress is much easier to edit. He also says that it's not that hard to transition from one to the other if you need to.

In terms of controlling content- we can do that with both wordpress and drupal, using user management and a split between site "pages" and site "posts"- posts being where we blog.

Thoughts from anyone on the whole wordpress/drupal debate?

Jo

No question in my mind. It has to be Wordpress. 
I understand that the AGI might be migrating to WP - so there's an extra +1 there in terms of potential 'hand-holding'.

PS forgot to say- happy with the post announcing the logo comp, but how are we going to manage that? How do people submit and what will we do with the files? It might be worth deciding the max file size and type of file we'll accept, then maybe use a dropbox folder or something for people to email them to.

Jo

Good points. Well Made. I'll amend the post to address some basic house keeping.

Jo - Dropbox can't handle 'public' uploads (unless I'm missing something). Are you aware of any other tools, or else it's a good old email address. 

Should we also not have an official web address *@foss4g2013.com (or whatever our domain will be)? Ideally we'd have an info@ booking@ chair@ etc...

Hi Rollo

Re Dropbox- there are ways and means: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-send-files-dropbox-dropbox/

Not sure how much disk space we have with this basecamp account?

Yes we should be able to sort out official email addresses once the domain and site are set up- though I think we need to get some communication from the OSGeo webcom team as well (and they are being conspicuous by their absence at the moment- I suspect holidays)

Jo

Guys, I'm not sure just getting a PNG for a design is good enough. This is going to go on print, signage, web, and the 40-ft high banner to hang from the castle... j/k I don't want to see pixels.

It really needs to be a vector format (SVG), and we might want colour and b/w versions as well as PNGs rendered in various sizes. Obviously we have to make sure we have the rights to any clip-art and fonts used too.

I suggest that we use the PNGs as a filter and request scalable vector sources once we see some nice ones.

Yep- but we don't want people sending massive files of rubbish- so I think png in the first instance, then if/when we choose a winner we request it in a decent format.

PS don't forget the t-shirts- we need a design that looks good on a shirt! 

Testing out this thing!

Couple of items ... we used CrowdSpring to do our logo for Denver, cost a few hundred dollars but you get loads of designers submitting entries. We had about 70 entries in total I think. You can pick up to 10 and put them out for a public vote, which we did and I thought it was great for generating some interest in the community. I also find it's a good way to do it in general - the tricky thing about logos is everyone has different ideas and if you hire one person it can be hard to tell them you don't really like what they did. So overall I pretty strongly recommend CrowdSpring. But it's your deal so do what you want! The logo MUST include the "FOSS4G ribbon", this is not up for debate.

You can see previous FOSS4G logos here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2011_Logo

Also one thing that I thought worked out well on our web site was the searchable schedule. This alone is probably not worth using a version of our site. But it was a lot of manual work for us managing abstracts ... you get them submitted through one system, there is a system that Paul Ramsey runs for community voting and they get loaded into that, you get results back in a spreadsheet and then have to make changes to the community results, and then notify everyone and get them into a schedule and on the web site. There was lots of manual work and lots of scope for error. I felt with a little more work we could turn the drupal based system into an end to end system for handling the abstracts from submission to voting to final selection to scheduling to publication on the web site. That's not all there, but the foundations for it are (using a Drupal conference module). I could check with the contractor who worked on this for us if you're interested in exploring further. But if you want to go in a different direction that's fine too of course :).

Hi Peter

Welcome! In short- I think we have plans to use the AGI system for abstract submission, only with a crowd-sourced voting component a la Victoria but all of this is open for discussion. I think the general feeling is to move towards wordpress- we have a tame web-designer (my hubby) who's happy to handle most of the complexities of wordpress and most people felt we'd rather use that than drupal unless there was a compelling reason why not.

I think we've also decided to put the logo comp out to the community- there have been tweets about that already and I think Rollo is putting together a post to explain the rules- we were just debating how to get people to submit them (eg an email -> dropbox approach or something similar). Everyone's worrying about the ribbon, but we know the rules so that will be fine :-)

I think the aim with the website is to get something up super quick so that people are reassured it's happening- so we had plans to pop a wordpress site up on my sparkly new amazon instance this weekend unless anyone had a massively better idea...

Jo

1. Logo post is live - posting issues resolved.
2. Ribbon issue is addressed in the post.
3. Website - let's get something up asap. What we do now is not an irreversible decision.

I agree, getting a placeholder web site up asap would be great. Someone at OSGeo should be able to get foss4g.org pointed at your site.

Cool, in that case I'll get it installed over the weekend, get some admin users set up, and prod OSGeo webcom to point the domain at it.

Keeping a low profile on this for now as:

• you guys seem to have it covered
• I am on MapAction duty next week in Zambia running a QGIS course, so struggling with the Print Composer is taking all my brain power

However:

• Agree with WordPress, I can work that though I am paranoid about security having had a site hacked a couple of months ago (horrible), so please install Better WP Security plugin, use complex passwords etc etc (but you probably know all that)
• Am back on the 21st, after that I am happy to bang out some content, and get stuck in with other tasks
  
• Suggest we keep the site simple, just the things that people need for a conference, and a blog and twitter feed, maybe a photos page liked to flckr or something
• Might be good to fix a call or IRC for the CSC sometime in early August if that is possible?

Agreed with all of that and horribly jealous re Zambia! I'm off now, so have a good weekend y'all

Jo

Have fun in Zambia - a good cause and a holiday all in one ;-) 
Good luck.

I just wanted to acknowledge the energy and activity of you guys while I have been a bit offline. Thanks very much.

I presume everyone has picked up that we have "acquired" the login details for the @foss4g twitter account and have started posting on that account. We announced the shift on @foss4g4uk and the posterous site but will probably need to mention a few more times before abandoning @foss4g4uk

All

Have been looking at the WP site and propose to extend using Denver as a model and using the notes here https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1019641-website-content (btw please edit/annotate this as appropriate) as a guide. However I think I need more editing priviledges than I currently have to do this - Jo, are you OK to up my level?
thanks
Antony

Hi Antony,

I've increased your level to administrator on the blog, so hopefully that's sufficient. If you still have problems it's likely to be due to file permissions on the server or similar, so let me know and I'll sort. As it's a plain-vanilla ubuntu server occasionally it's missing libraries for php/mysql/apache but that's easy for me to fix. Less so for other people as it's ssh access at the moment!

Jo

How is everyone fixed for a call on comms stuff next week - I am pretty free, anyone want to suggest a couple of times?

Also I have changed the Twitter a/c to point at the new website.

Hi All, I'd need a call to be Mon, Tues or Weds, I'm out and about Thurs, Fri.

Cheers


Jo

OK how about Wed at 13.00 for a call? I can set up a WebEx if you want, or we can Skype.
If you can't make this, please suggest an alternative on Mon-Wed of next week.
thanks
Antony

Good for me

Jo

Good for me too.

OK, lets's go for Wed 13.00 - I will Skype everyone but if anyone has preferences for another medium please shout.

Dear Communication Committee; 
Apologies for my drop-out in the conference call. After I lost audio, my PC froze. Attempted to update the Programme element of the document, but that was about all I could do.

Anyway, we need to meet this week to resolve a few issues. My schedule this week is  hectic. I'm out of the office Tues - Thus, but could join in via a mobile at some specific points (not ideal). Otherwise it's Friday for me, or you proceed ahead without me on this one?

Action: Jo, I've posted this ( http://foss4g4uk.posterous.com/we-have-a-winner ) on the old FOSS4G4UK website (as that's where the competition was originally announced). Can you copy and paste (with the appropriate edit) to the official site please?

Suggestion: Can we stick to this thread for Comms discussions? I think I'm missing a lot of things across some of the other threads...or is that just me?

Rollo, sorry we lost you, spoke to Jo briefly at the end of the call and Friday should be OK. For me morning is best, I can set up a call - we have a new webex replacement I would quite like to try.

Jo, I am happy to update the website unless you've done it by the time I've got there.

Threads - agree I think, though I have started a few threads against 'To do' items which is quite useful as it tracks a specific job. I think I've included Comms group people in all those, the 'select people' thing in Basecamp makes it easy to do that. An item for our call I guess.

Also - the discussions recently have involved Barry but not Suchith. Barry, do you want to be in and Suchith, do you want to be out? A good point to agree either way, before we get into the next round of website stuff.
Antony

Rollo, also we pulled the castle one from the poll as it used the Nottingham Uni logo, so it should probably come off the posterous post.

Antony

I'm all for jumping into the comms group.

I've added Barry to the comms group. Friday is good for me though the number of times the site is going down at the moment, we might need some action more quickly. I'm going to do some fairly vigorous black-listing of IPs now to see if that helps.

Antony, happy for you to update the website with the results of the logo comp.

Jo

Rollo,

There has been an update to the twitter plugin, which required adding the social plugin as well. That seems to need the twitter account details again- which I can't remember. Is there any chance that you can either remind me of the account details, and/or add them in? (Or if anyone else can, that would be great)

Thanks

Jo

Have you tried using fail2ban to block hack attempts as they happen at the iptables level:

http://blog.somsip.com/2012/02/using-fail2ban-to-protect-wordpress/

I've only ever used it to block ssh dictionary attacks.

Jo

They are In Basecamp here https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1027329-communications

Also – you could remove the poll plugin, to see if that helps. Crashes seemed to increase after I installed.

Antony

Rollo,

There has been an update to the twitter plugin, which required adding the social plugin as well. That seems to need the twitter account details again- which I can't remember. Is there any chance that you can either remind me of the account details, and/or add them in? (Or if anyone else can, that would be great)

Thanks

Jo —

Thanks Antony- I've removed the poll plugin and updated the original page to say that the poll has closed. I've updated the twitter tools plugin- had someone removed the side-bar widget deliberately or did that just happen when I did the update?

@Barry- we're blocking attacks using htaccess and better wordpress security- to be honest the issue is one of resources on the amazon instance rather than anything else. I'm going to look into the costs of giving it more oomph when I get chance later today.

Jo

Anthony, All,

As I couldn’t get any time sofar to contribute to Comms Sub-Committee, could I request that I am removed from the sub committee. I can then concentrate on the academic theme. Thanks.

Suchith

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Thanks for letting us know Suchith- I've taken you out of this subgroup.

Jo

... though there doesn't seem to be a way of removing someone from notifications about a thread once you've set it up!

We might need to start a new thread to avoid spamming Suchith

Jo

Have added logo comp results and CfP (under 'Academic Track) to website with a quick news item.
@jo the widget must have been update-related, didn't touch it honest :-)

Notes from Comms Group Call 19th Oct 2012
Antony, Jo, Rollo (apols from Barry)

• Website hosting: Jo will look at upgrading resources, either with Amazon or with another host, to increase robustness. This will probably involve some cost.
  
• Platform: WordPress should be adequate for the task, we will proceed with it for as platform unless we run into significant problems.
• Website design: now logo is selected, we will contact Naomi Gale (Rollo has emailed) and ask for vector files and/or to redesign to fit with website. Barry R will be contact point with NG, and will work with Barry K (and Naomi?) on new website design for review by Comms Group. Sample pages look good, background map may need changing. Ideally design to be ready within next week or so.
  
• Other design templates: will follow from website. 11 Design (Sheffield) are a possibility, or Nottingham Tourist Board? (List of what we might need to apply design to is here https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1438792-marketing-collateral)
  
• Sponsorship package: will be published when ready and design in place.. 2 pages max if possible. Professional-looking publication is required.
  
• Registration: should be handled by AGI system.
• Paper submission/review: Barry R investigating options.
• Next call: tba, w/c 26/10?
  

Update:

• I'm minded to go with commercial hosting rather than upgrade the amazon instance- mainly to ensure we have a fixed cost to budget for. I've sent an email to the webcom people at foss4g to clarify what they need from me to point the domain at a new site. It will then take around a day to create the new site and move all the existing content and database over from the amazon instance. There will be some unavoidable down-time as the dns changes propagate- can't be helped, I'm afraid!
• As a side note, the poll wasn't the only culprit in the instability- I've had to reboot a couple of times over the last few days. Not as bad as it was, but not fixed- hence the decision above.

Jo

Have you got a host in mind?

A2, been using them for years, service great, prices great too :-)

I'm not getting much action from the osgeo sysadmins for getting access to the osgeo servers for installing OCS or OJS which we need for paper submissions and review management. Should we host these on an A2 host also? Otherwise I'll requisition a spare virtual server from Lancaster...

Barry, can you point me to a link where I can find out how about OCS/OJS? Will we need both? I've actually had an offer from Frank Warmerdam of hosting the whole site at OSGeo, but whatever we go for, I need to know what dependencies these things need on the server.

Thanks

Jo

These things are part of the Public Knowledge Project:

http://pkp.sfu.ca/software

Do we need both? I'm not sure until I've had a chance to check them out
thoroughly. I don't think OCS provides sufficiently blind and anonymous
reviewing for the Academic Track papers, which we have to treat as
submissions to a journal, hence the need for OJS. OCS might not even be
sufficient for the Main Track paper review system (but I think we'll have
to roll our own community vote system for that anyway).

I think they need PHP with nothing much special beyond database access.

Comms peeps, I've finally gotten around to adding our recent planning and comms meeting minutes to the osgeo wiki and have had a look at the OCS/OJS software. 

I've kind of changed my mind about moving the site to a different package, as I'm totally snowed under and can't really afford the day to do that, so I'm going to scale up the amazon instance for a limited time to see a) if that resolves the issues and b) how much it costs. I don't mind covering the costs for a bit while I experiment (I'm not expecting it to cost much). So... there will be a short down-time (minutes- you might not even notice) while I bring the site down so I can change the instance type.

Barry- if I give you the Amazon .pem file, would you be happy installing OCS and OJS on the instance? It's a standard 64-bit Ubuntu server. Otherwise it will be next week some time before I get chance.

Also, if we now have a finalised sponsorship document, could I get someone to pop it up on the site? (I'm only in for half a day today)

Thanks

Jo

Am happy to install stuff.

Is the .pem file a private key? Isn't the right way to do this for you to
create a user for me with sudo rights? If you don't want to use passwords
I've got a public key somewhere.

Hi Barry, I'm happy to hand the .pem file over- it's not quite the same as a private key, but you're right, I probably should spend 10 minutes figuring out how to create new ones! I'll get back to you.

I'm just creating a snapshot of the instance before upgrading it... what fun

Jo

The sponsorship doc text has been finalised. If it saves time and you just want to post it as a page on the website that is fine with me, I don't need a pdf to do the mailing.

If it is going on the web site can you include a contacts link to me so that interested parties can contact me.

The amazon instance has been upgraded- it's now "small" rather than "micro" so I'll monitor that for a bit for stability and charges. The website is back up and running (that was remarkable- no more than 5 minutes downtime) so if someone wants to add the sponsorship page, that should be fine.

Jo

Hi Comms people

There's a few things we need to tackle at the moment (some of which are in progress) - pushing the call for papers/workshops (which is nearly ready), getting the news on the website regularly updated, publicizing  sponsors etc. Shall we have a call to make sure we've got everything covered (my preference) or shall we do it through basecamp? I think we should try start getting stuff out this week and probably every week if we can.
Antony

Agreed. The earliest meeting slot I have is Friday this week (traveling). Otherwise it's via basecamp. I've updated my contact details to work email (rollo.home@ordnancesurvey.co.uk) in order to ensure that I get stuff in a more timely fashion...
Update: we should have a working CfM (maps) by middle of this week (with Ken). Seeing Jeremy tonight/tomorrow to discuss CfP (presentations).

OK, let’s crack on in the meantime – we have a full LOC call on Friday pm anyway so could cover it then, though we may want a quick catchup in the morning to get our story straight? I am available all day anyway.

Hi Jo/Barry
I think we are just about ready to go with the CfP link, Claire is going to add the subject areas. Could it now go on the website? The link is here, assume it will go at the top of the CfP page.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/foss4g2013callforpresentations

Also - we need to get out this consultation on the community voting system, which lists should it go on? Would one of you be able to put it out if we get some text together?

Antony

I disseminated the AT Call for Paper through some lists of collected emails addresses plus

conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org
discuss@lists.osgeo.org (hopefully)
marketing@lists.osgeo.org

several LinkedIn groups

Franz-Josef

All
We now have a call for presentations http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/foss4g2013callforpresentations site and a call for workshops  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FOSS4G2013Callforworkshops site ready to roll (thanks Claire). Could Barry or Jo get the links up on the website? We can then start pushing out some publicity. I can have a crack at this at the weekend unless anyone has time before.
Paul Ramsey has offered to run the community voting system (see https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1664910-programme-stage-1 for details), so we are going to go with that - we'll just need to put up a link after the submission deadline.
Antony

Hi Antony,

We're going to put up the links as soon as the discount on early bird sponsorship is out of the way so we have a free widget on the home page. I have an action to deal with all of that so no worries- if I run out of time I'll give you a shout :-)

Jo

OK the Sponsorship early bird discount has expired. We have 19 confirmed sponsors now (2 have not yet got their logos to Jo so are not visible on the site yet). We can expect at least a couple more in the next few weeks.

Is it time to get a press release out about the massive support for FOSS4G? We can use the quote that I have up my sleeve from Peter ter Haar and I can come up with something cheesy from the chair. 

Time to get the Call for Presentations and Call for Workshops on the home page widget and start publishing on the mailing lists, twitter and press releases. Some blogging would be good (hint to self). Please can we get the CfP and CfW live tomorrow, Feb 1st seems a symbolic date.

Call for Presentations and Workshops now up on site, with widget. Comments welcome

Jo

Thanks Jo, looks good though I haven't fully tested.
I have suggested to the programme group that we put back the deadline for the call for workshops - end Feb is not very long away... will let you know.
Antony

Can we ban the use of "click <a href="...">here</a> for more" from the website please?

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www/click.html

Feel free to rewrite however you see fit :-)

I came across Twitter willing to post soemthing about FOSS4G 2013 and had the impression that sometimes the conference is entitled as FOSS4GUK. Or did I misinterprete something? I just wanted to say that we should use a general term to avoid confusion.

During the bid phase we used "foss4g4uk" as if it was "FOSS 4g For the UK", but when we won the bid we stopped using that. But yes, we should never use #foss4guk to refer to the conference so that it is clear this isn't a UK conference, this is the global conference. #foss4g2013 should be the hashtag, and we should try and use the word 'global' as much as possible. There's quite a fragmentation of FOSS4g conferences now.

Also on the comms front, the 'news' box on the home page is looking a bit like old news... does this need some blog posts on the site or something?

1) the old twitter account was also @foss4guk but that changed when we won the bid. As Barry says use the global hashtag or account now.
2) news comes from blog posts on the site so feel free to update I just haven't had time.

Jo

#foss4g2013 is even better than just #foss4g.

The link to LinkedIn is broken:

Ands I wonder if there should be a *contact email address*.

-fj

Agree we need to adjust the call for workshops to later, can't recall why we thought it needed to close so early. Anyone?

No idea, let's go for end March. Have drafted a blog post for the website, it's saved as a draft - happy for Jo/Barry to edit if required and/or press the Publish button. Have also done a quick trawl of the site to update dates.
I guess we should do a press release on the CfP too?

Shall I delete the old @foss4g4uk account? I left it thinking it had some providence, but perhaps it's just confusing now. The same question for the www.foss4g4uk.posterous.com blog site....I can archive this. The only thing keep me from stopping this was the 'pledge page'. Perhaps we could add something to the existing site?

As long as they both point clearly to the right current places, I would tend to leave them there for now, but I don’t feel strongly...

I think delete the old twitter account if there's any chance of confusion. With the pledge page on the old posterous blog, if we can extract the list of names and pop them in a spreadsheet or something I think that will do for now.  We can decide nearer the time how we deal with volunteer sign-ups.

Jo

OK - action is to archive the twitter and blog pages. Will do so. Regards.

I've deleted the links to Linked in and The Pledge on the Contacts page.

Cheers Barry.
Twitter - deleted (I have the archive should anyone want it)
Blog - set to private. Let me know if you want access and I'll add you.
Regards

In my IE browser, the enumeration list of "Significant dates to note for
submissions" has an uncommon style (§ sign):

Can anybody check this (and fix it)?

Regards Franz-Josef

Same in every browser I've tried. Has this been pasted in from Word?

Will fix on Monday unless someone else beats me to it.

Now replaced with vanilla bullets.
Antony

With all this talk of #Maptember, I wonder if we should not have a page dedicated to it? It would help build the case for our International delegates to attend? Perhaps under Registration we could have 'why attend' section? One of the reasons would have to be sheer focus of geocontent that is happening in the UK that month...?
Any thoughts?

Would anyone like to register www.maptember.(org|com|net|org.uk) right now?
Seems to be free...

Are people available for a call to catch up/ramp up on comms issues following the team call (and if so when), or shall we do it through BaseCamp? One thing I was also wondering about was a structured calendar page on the website, to cover both FOSS4G and other events.

I can't do anything until after Wednesday. Hosting a foreign delegation to the UK....hush hush don't you know? (Not)

Thurs/Fri is good for me, no top-secret foreign delegations for me though,
I have a meeting in Birmingham and then treating myself to a two-day city
break staying on the 18th floor of the Rotunda...


Can we do a meeting via skype?

Thursday/Friday would also be good for me, in fact the only days I can do this week. Though that's nothing to do with Rollo's top secret mission either.

Jo

10 am Friday, skype?

Sounds good- can you send an invite?

Jo

On Skype and waiting for the call.....

How does this work? Is Antony starting a conference call? And then invites
us?

Do we get a text channel as well?

Notes from Comms Group call 1/3/13: Barry, Rollo, Antony, Jo

• Press releases – Claire will distribute if we write (though her list has a UK focus)
• International channels? – Jo to raise on the conf list
• Regular posts on osgeo lists to keep people in the loop and on board - Jo/others?
  
• Current focus must be on call for workshops/ presentations/ registration, with a goal of getting something out every 2 -3 weeks – Antony to draft schedule
• Use this list as master list of active channels https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1027329-communications
  
• Focus on GIS Professional as main print channel
  
• Rollo will write press releases (or delegate)
  
• Twitter – all comms group to take responsibility, at least daily tweets
• Lanyrd page needs editing - Rollo (done! If you follow a link to call that is closed, the status shows closed when you go to the page. That's just the way Lanyrd works).
  
• Website – media sponsorship, Jo to add page [done], Barry to reduce prominence of media sponsors [done]
  
• Rollo to seek more media sponsors
• Website news item should be added at least after each LOC call - comms group to take responsibility for ensuring it's raised/actioned
  
• Maptember almost ready to roll, could be press released when DNS sorted, Barry tweaking. Get fit for Maptember?
  
• Comms group call every alt Fri 10am (between LOC calls)

A useful comment from Matt Ball who did this sort of thing for Denver:

"I was sure to make announcements on workshops, keynotes, exhibit space, registration deadlines, preliminary program availability, and any other unique feature or outreach effort. Tying the event to government objectives or newsworthy issues is always key. An emphasis on free, given the financial crisis, will certainly resonate."

Might be worth focusing on those milestones for our press release schedule.

Jo

Not really sure that this is a good idea: http://lanyrd.com/2013/maptember/
I was thinking that it could be a 'forum' for people who were going to all three and wanted to work share the logistics of doing so....but it doesn't really function like that. Any thoughts before I delete?

UPDATE: deleted

I have updated the main Basecamp calendar with key dates, and also dropped in a schedule of suggested dates and topics for press releases. Rollo (or anyone else who sends a FOSS4G press release), could you update/amend this as the dates come along so we have a record of when we actually sent stuff?
The first on the list is the keynotes if we are ready to announce these (which we should if can), and also flag up looming deadlines.
Claire, we are working on the assumption that if we (probably Rollo) puts the PRs together, you will be able to distribute, so please shout/liaise with Rollo if any of these dates are problematic for you.
Antony

Agree, it probably doesn’t work for something that isn’t an event as such.

OK. Consider it done - just as soon as I get the privileges assigned to me to allow it(!).
Dates look good - that's a handy list.

As long as the dates can allow me to move 1 day later then I am happy with all of them.  For example, I am in a Council meeting all day on Monday so may have to wait until Tuesday to send out - please let me know if the dates are set in stone.

Claire

That’s fine, the dates are definitely moveable by the odd day – best if Rollo coordinates with you direct on the timing for each as they come along.

Do we have a press release yet?  I am going to be on leave after today until Tuesday.

Claire,

When you do send out your press releases, could you add the following names to your list:

Matt Ball mattball@vector1media.com
Alexandre Leroux (Slashgeo) alexandre.leroux@ec.gc.ca

Thanks

Jo

A general question really...

We've got a list of print magazine connections- and some additions that Cameron Shorter sent through. Should we simply add them to the list that Claire uses for sending press releases to, or should we contact them and ask if they would like to be media partners for the event?

Jo

Can we not do both?

Steve, Jo: I see no reason not to do both. I've added text about media sponsors to the Editors Notes of all the press releases. I would also suggest we make direct approaches to key magazines.
Barry: where has the page gone with the FOSS4G logo details? I could understand if you've decided it wasn't wise to make this public - is it possible to have a link for use in the Editors Notes?

Logos etc: http://2013.foss4g.org/Style/

The logos page is wonderful. Shouldn't we mention Naomi Gale as the designer and provide a link to her?

The logo page is intended to be internal only - Naomi has a credit in the footer of every web page, which I could easily make into a link, just not sure where to...

Maybe ask Naomi if she would like a link?

Is everyone OK for a skype call tomorrow (Fri) at 10?

Apologies, but am not in the office today and no decent network speed from
here.

Barry

Yes - I can make it. Maybe 5 min. late setting up Skype on this machine ;-)

Comms group call 15/3/2013, Antony, Jo. Rollo, apols from Barry

• Press releases – first one has gone, Rollo putting together press pack with help from OS press dept, to go on Basecamp
• Logo guidelines are here, include in press release pack http://2013.foss4g.org/Style/
• International channels - not much response from list. How to reach non OSGeo people? EU channels? Geopoint geobusiness? Ask LOC for suggestions - Antony
  
• Directions magazine- media sponsor? Rollo to contact
• GIS Professional also now media sponsor
• Schedule of press releases now on Basecamp calendar
  
• Use this list as master list of active channels https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1027329-co…
  
• Twitter – all comms group to take responsibility, at least daily tweets
• Lanyrd page up to date
  
• Website – Buzz to be removed, Jo
• Website news item should be added at least after each LOC call - comms group to take responsibility for ensuring it's raised/actioned
  
• Maptember Get fit for Maptember: Press Release - Rollo
  
• Comms group call every alt Fri 10am (between LOC calls)
• WordPress updates on website - Jo and Barry to manage, everyone else ignore
  

Our next scheduled call is Good Friday - how about Thur 28th at 10?

Barry - thanks for the link. That's perfect.

I notice that the SOTM folk have got a Maptember page http://2013.stateofthemap.org/info/september-2013/. Shall we have one too, perhaps with a widget box on the home page bottom left?

I definitely want to put 'part of Maptember' somewhere on the site, and we could also have a "Part of Maptember" page under 'About FOSS4G'. I'll try and do those on Monday.

Excellent idea re Maptember

I like the use of the term "mappiness" on SotM

Quick question re press releases- Rollo has suggested a Media tab with the press releases under that. I could do that, though I'd probably have 1 press release page with the individual ones linked from there. I would also move the current media sponsorship package to the same place. Alternatively I can make a press release page under the current news tab.

Thoughts?

Media tab sounds like a good idea. Yes to moving media sponsorship to that page. What about putting the buzz page as a sub menu to the Media section rather than canning it - I promise to write something this week :)

Too many top-level menu tabs already! Could we lose "Dates" and drop that page into the "About" menu?

Or would the 'Media' tab mean getting rid of the News tab?

I'm slightly concerned about the menu items with no drop downs - its not entirely obvious that the menu headings are clickable. Maybe links should underline on hover..

I agree with Barry- I think we're getting too many headings. News and Media are not interchangeable though, and I definitely don't think Buzz belongs in Media- though it hasn't been canned, I just removed the menu item for now :-)

Press releases should go under News, I would say.

Barry, fancy creating a banner ad? It's for Directions Media. format:

• Right Column#2: up to 300(w) x 100(h) pixels
• Formats accepted: JPG, GIF, SWF (Flash)
• For Flash-created banners, embed a clickTAG variable within the banner code
• Maximum image file size of 50KB

Example:  http://archive.directionsmedia.net/banner.specifications/example/sites/right.column.php

Not linked in the Style page at the moment, but here's one (in png, jpg, and inkscape source format):

http://2013.foss4g.org/Style/banners/

Nice. Thanks.

I've copied a mail from Jeremy below:

One small thing. I just had a brief interaction with Frank Warmerdam on Google+. Good news, he's planning on coming to Nottingham. Bad news: he didn't realise our call was open. Another mailshot or two perhaps before the deadline?

This echoes with my own niggling anxiety that we are not making our voice heard sufficiently. We only have 24 papers and 20 workshops in to date, you can see the running totals at https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/2312091-running-total-of

I know submissions usually come in at the tail end and workshops close on 31/3 and presentations on 12/4 but I think we need to making a bit more noise and a bit more regularly. I will do a mail to the sponsor targets who even if they haven't sponsored us yet are strong candidates to attend the event and to present. What else can we do? I think pushing up our submissions for the program is our top priority in the next week or so.

steven

My gut feeling with this is that our announcements on the OSGeo discuss lists in particular are getting conflated with/drowned out by announcements about other "FOSS4G" events such as NA or CEE. In previous years anything FOSS4G would have related to the international event. 

We can certainly remind people again that the call is open- and I think your idea of mailing the sponsors is good, but I'm not sure what else to suggest other than "more of what we're already doing"

The call for papers for Geocom only have 11 submissions so far and we usually get around 100 by the closing date.  People really do leave it until the last minute to submit - So even though the call for papers should be pushed as much as possible, all you can really do is hope that loads of submissions come in during the last couple of days.

Wonderchooks tweet just now made me more concerned than I was (as I would have taken Claire's view). Are we loosing people to OK Festival? http://okfestival.org/organising-team/. When did that get announced anyway? It's in the same venue that the Helsinki bid team were proposing (if I remember rightly) but I don't remember them referencing the event in the bid.

I think it's mainly a different audience to be honest- and we can't worry about competing events too much- that way lies madness!

Agree with Jo, OK is very opendata activist should not have much impact on us

Comms peeps, I will be unable to make a call this Friday (or indeed the one in two weeks). I'm off Thursday afternoon through to Tuesday next week, so could we rearrange around that please?

Jo

Nor me... I’m available Thur before 10, Wed anytime apart from 10-11, or Tue or Wed next week.

Antony

Wednesday is the only day for me if not Friday. Can we say PM (2?)?

2pm Weds is fine with me

We are talking this Wed (27), correct?

Yes

We doing skype or is there a webex link?

Skype I assume.

Comms Group call notes, 27/3/13: Barry, Jo, Rollo, Antony

• Press releases – two now gone (the last last covered deadlines). Rollo to put on Basecamp/send formatted version to Jo for web site.
• Deadlines - no immediate need to extend submission deadlines - workshops should be OK, review presos nearer the time
  
• International channels - see actions from main LOC call
  
• Directions magazine now media sponsor, Rollo has also contacted GIS Business (German), Mondo (Spanish), GIS [?] (India) - see https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/2347627-media-partnership for latest details.
  
• Twitter – keep up the tweets
• Website – press releases to go under News, also link to Media sponsors - Jo
• Website news item to be added - deadlines - Antony
  
• Maptember link in widget on web site front page - Barry
• Marketing collateral - what, when, where? Review on site at F2F with Claire. Discuss at next LOC call, rationalise current basecamp page - Antony
• Workshop programme - when will this be finalised, can it be before F2F? Discuss next LOC call.
  
• Next Comms group call Wed 10 April 10 am
  

I've added a widget to my test site, do you think this is okay:

http://ma-wwwprod.lancs.ac.uk:8080/wordpress/

note also I have been looking at updates for WP - the test site is
currently running the latest version of the parent theme which did mean
some changes to the child foss4g theme customisations. I've not tried
updating WP yet on the test site.

Barry

Looks good – worth adding a tag line? Eg Three [?] of the greatest geographic and mapping meetings all on one piece of land.

Are we set for the skype call at 10am today?

Yup, ready to roll.

I could do with it being really quick, as I'm only in the office for a flying visit in between various train journeys

OK here's a quick agenda to crack through.

• Press releases
  
• Programme proposals/deadlines (is this us or Prog group?)
  
• Website actions
  
• Marketing collateral (next LOC call)
• Email contacts
• AOB
  
• Next call
  

Comms Group call 10/3/12: Jo, Barry, Rollo, Antony

• Press releases: two now gone, will be uploaded to website (Jo). 'Double Diamond' (OS/Met Office) awaiting Met Office confirmation. Next one to cover community voting - Antony to confirm details with Paul Ramsey and report back.
  
• Programme proposals/deadlines: Decision needed after Friday on whether to extend, based on no. of proposals. Balance of workshops/papers could be changed if necc. Rollo to lead decision on extending deadlines once numbers are known. In the meantime, continue to tweet, post etc
  
• Website actions: Press releases under 'News' (Jo/Barry). Maptember link (done). News item on deadlines (Antony)
  
• Marketing collateral: all to review/annotate list in prep for next LOC call https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1438792-marketing-collateral
  
• Email contacts: mostly already exist, need to be consolidated onto contact page and ensure they are pointed at right people (Jo/Barry)
  
• Advert: Barry working on joint advert for AGI/FOSS4G
  
• Next call: 10am 10th May
  

Regarding the potential decision to 'extend the deadline'; we need to consider the impacts on timings - for example the community voting and then F2F (would we not need to shift back?). I can't see that being easy to accommodate, although we could overlap the community voting and the F2F

Antony, are you also able to check with Paul how he needs to receive the data from Claire?

Claire, if you are able to provide the daily updates for today/Thurs/Fri that would be excellent. 2011 received 89% of their 289 papers in the last three days......

I have updated the running totals.  18 have come in since Friday (total 58)

Yes, putting the deadline back would cause big problems with community voting and face to face programme review, so should be a very last resort only IMO.

Clare, subject to extensions, would you be able to get the spreadsheet to Paul on Mon 13th?
pramsey@cleverelephant.ca

See below for details of the community voting (from Paul):
Respondents see all proposals, in a personal random order (each person gets their own order, but their order remains the same if they do multiple sessions). They can score as many or as few as they like. Scoring is 0, 1, 2, with 0 being the default, "don't care", 1 being "some interest" and 2 being "very interested". This allows folks to just troll down the list and pick off items of interest, they don't have to carefully ranking the entire set.
It is not easy to administer (sql commandline on the database!), but I'm volunteering to run the process, which just involves sending me the spreadsheet of abstracts and presenters to load into the database. Then I'll send you back the score totals. The system was used by 2007, 2011, foss4gna 2012, and will be used for foss4gna again this year.

'where' does this happen? Is there a link to the voting environment?

Not yet. Will see if Paul can give us one upfront, but maybe best to create a page on our website which we drop the link onto only once Paul has loaded the data and it’s live. I can do this later in the week (under Programme, presumably).

Also posted into running totals convo:

Our email is down until probably Monday because our servers are being relocated.  Is anyone able to send confirmations to anyone submitting papers?  I can send the emails and the confirmation to whoever, alternatively I can send it from my gmail account.

Hi All,

I've caught up with adding all the press releases to the website (3 of them so far). They are blog posts, with a category of "Press Releases" which means they automatically get added to the News/Press Releases part of the top menu. I understand we're still waiting for the Met Office one to be approved.

@Barry it would be nice if we could remove the "Blog Archives" heading that appears in both News and Press Releases. I can't see anything simple in the wordpress dashboard, so I was wondering if it was something that could be easily hidden/removed in the template. Don't worry if it's a big hassle though, I'm sure it's not a deal breaker!

BTW thanks to everyone for looking after things last week while I was travelling- I very much appreciated it.

Jo

Question regarding the 'media sponsorship' from GeoConnexion:

Hi Rollo

 

Hope you are well.  Just want to check with you the following outstanding items:

 

eNewsletter:  Providing sponsorship slot on monthly eNewsletter (suggest April, June - each £150 (50% discount), which goes out to over 14,000 email addresses: Rollo wrote:  we’ll hold on the April newsletter in preference for June as that would align nicely with our early bird dates. I’ll confirm on that nearer the time.  Highlight the event in eNews of May, July. thanks.  We will be sending out May eNews at end of April, June eNews at end of May, please let me know if you would like me to save a spot for your event.  

 

Web Banner on Events Section, we will provide you a 40% discounted price which will be £108 per month.  A typical web banner on GeoConnexion.com gets over 1,000 clicks and 466,719 impressions each month. Rollo wrote:  Can we revisit this nearer the time? Our budgets are fairly limited.

 

Rollo wrote:  I don’t see a problem with the distribution list, although this puts a ‘cost’ on you for postage. We can ‘give’ a copy to every delegate as they register. It’s just that we’re not providing a bag as the feedback has become very negative of them in recent years.  Please let me know how best we can get a copy of the magazine to every register?  if we leave a pile of magazines at the event, I doubt many will remember to pick up and take home.  I was proposed that you supply us a list for one time usage so we will ensure that everyone receives a copy.  What's do you think Rollo.

 

Best

 

As I understand it, the decision for the conference bag (as with the t-shirt) is yet to be made, but if we don't go ahead with it then we're OK for GeoConnexion to use the list for (a once only) mailing of the mag?

Any interest in the conference banner or email blast? Costs associated.

Hi all, fyi I am away from today until 6th May.
cheers
Antony

Hi all, we are due a comms group call at 10 tomorrow (Fri) - is everyone OK for this?
Antony

I'm busy with interviews for a new RA post but could do the afternoon.

If not then some thoughts, comments for discussion:

 1. I'm working with Rollo on the timetabling and general conference management system.
 2. Do we need a protocol for handling email to info@2013? I just feel things may get lost or handled twice (with possible contradictory responses) if we dont sort this soon, as the volume (currently 1 every day or two) will probably ramp up shortly.
 3. Related to 2. do we need more targeted email aliases? e.g. registration@2013 that goes straight to Claire, volunteer@2013 that goes to Abi and so on?

I can't make the afternoon as we're off to Oban to go diving. I don't have much to contribute right now, so if you wanted to leave it till early next week (Tuesday at earliest) then that would be OK with me. Regarding Barry's points:
1: Yippee :-)
2: I think as long as the person that responds also cc's info@ so we all know someone has replied, then it's OK at the moment.
3: Yes, probably

@rollo- did you get those forwarded emails that I sent about people who wanted their speaking slots on particular days? If not, shall I find somewhere on basecamp pop the information?

Agree with Jo's comments. How about Tuesday at 10 for everyone?

Time: let's do tomorrow PM (2pm?) - time is flying, and we can bring Jo up to speed on all the actions we've given her ;-)

Jo: yes, I did get those emails - not that I've taken account of them as yet.

Info@ : I think Jo's solution is potentially simpler - people wouldn't use the right email anyway, and unless we have a 1-1 relationship between person and address, we get a potential duplication issue anyway. So it would be adding complication without solving the problem.

Agenda items:
- 'marketing collateral': this seems to have fallen to us as of the F2F, correct? I need to be brought up to speed on this (conference bags??!)
- PR: are we hitting the mark? Do we need to revise our campaign?
- Programme: not one for this committee, but if Barry is on the phone it would make sense to discuss this.
- Room requirements: need to be able to firm up on the rooms needed asap to Jeremy

Meeting via Skype?

That's not working - what else shall we try?

NB: you've probably seen it. i've shored up the room bookings and listed them in a text doc in Basecamp (and closed the original discussion on the topic).

Please use the text doc as the master list of rooms outside EMCC.

I'd suggest particularly thinking about the profile of rooms needed day by day (Tues / Weds/ Thurs / Fri / Saturday / Sunday) to see that we have the right mix (e.g. we have fewer seminar rooms on Tuesday).

Comms Group 10/5/13: Antony, Barry, Rollo (apols from Jo)
Notes/actions

• Clipboard/lightweight notebook/pens - Jo to investigate
• Lanyards: Rollo to investigate (recent conference example)
• Live DVDs: Ian E (check)
• AGI mailshot: Antony draft email for Claire
  
• T-shirts: Barry to mockup example - no competition
• Preso template: to be done, only for LOC use. PPT + Impress
  
• PR: press releases going out regularly. Next one a reminder about early bird. Rollo will look at Linkedin discussion groups. Ramp up comms for early bird at end May.
  
• Lanyrd: ask speakers to sign up in next mailing.
• Bloggers: need to identify key bloggers - Antony to put page on Basecamp for suggestions, mailshot asking for coverage to follow
  
• Workshops: there is an osgeo mailing list, workshop presenters should be encouraged to join. Ian H to notify.
• Extra emails: volunteer (Abi), registration (Claire) - Barry to set up
  
• Programme: Rollo leading themes/schedule. Will produce first draft, poss call to discuss.
• Next call: 10am 14th May (Antony at Test Match, apologies)
  

There's not much on the website about the hackathon - just a news items with a link to the EventBrite page. Should we have a page? I would have thought it would be useful. Could Ian/Mark put something together?

There's a private page at the moment. I'm going to tweak it and make it public because I think its getting to the point where stuff just has to go live. At the very least things are going to need reliable URLs.

Okay, I've written something, and added a mini-FAQ which needs answers:
"""
This is the hackathon which delivers on "Geo For All". Do you fancy using OSGeo tools to build something useful and help with humanitarian projects worldwide? The GeoCamp at FOSS4G, in Nottingham is the venue.

This is a two-day event, register your interest on Eventbrite.
FAQ

Do I have to attend both days?
Who is sponsoring the hackathon?
What are we going to produce?
"""
 - can the hackathon ppl please QUICKLY write some answers and supply any other copy text and I'll make this live TODAY.

Thanks Barry - I'll fill in some gaps and send back by lunch time

*Global Geohack*
* *



This is the hackathon which delivers on "Geo For All". Do you fancy using
OSGeo tools to build something useful and help with environmental and
humanitarian issues worldwide? Perhaps you’re keen to find out about the
latest sources of open data, or just interested in meeting new people and
helping to design useful and innovative solutions to some of the world’s
most pressing problems?


The GeoCamp at FOSS4G in Nottingham is the venue. This is a two-day event,
register your interest on Eventbrite.

FAQ

Do I have to attend both days?
- No, hackathons are very flexible and we expect that a number of people
may wish to experience the event without committing to both days. Just let
us know which days you are attending when you register.



Is the event restricted to software hackers?

- If you like writing code then it’s true that this is the event for you!
But the most successful hackathons have a very diverse range of people,
from experienced programmers to people who have no interest in writing code
but have a passion for developing solutions. Previous hackathons led by
the same hosts have had a very diverse range of people - some teams have
worked with plasticine, lego and 3D printing; we also expect to have
hardware hackers with remote sensors and Raspberry Pis.



Who is sponsoring the hackathon?

- The hackathon is sponsored and led by the UK Met Office with other groups
also actively involved. The Met Office has held a series of successful
hackathons around the country and they also offer additional open source
software and open data into the mix.


What are we going to produce?

- Before September we will release a set of problem statements that will
guide the majority of projects, but the results of the event will depend on
the unique mix of people who attend. Common solutions include web and
mobile apps, plugins, graphics and art, hardware solutions, sensors etc.

Reads very nicely :)

Page is now LIVE!

Great - that's a relief. Could I get a log in to add extra information as
it become available?

I've added a new user "ianedwards" to wordpress on the site. Go to:

http://2013.foss4g.org/wp-login.php

and recover your password, email is iedwards.pub@gmail.com

Would be very nice to add in some creative commons images from flickr to make some of the pages (not just hack page but others too) more visual

Comms peeps, are we having a call today?

Jo

Sorry - late. Yes, we could. Should. Who's here?

Barry and I are trying to call each other at the moment and failing :-)

I am in Leeds on the way to the cricket... Rain rain rain

Comms. meeting 24/05/2013:

• Clipboard/lightweight notebook/pens -Jo to investigate
• Lanyards: Rollo to investigate (recent conference example): note - prefer old Skool (self-editable version)
  
• Live DVDs: Ian E (check) Note: OSGeo to pick up costs?
  
• DONE: AGI mailshot: Antony draft email for Claire
  
• T-shirts: Barry to mockup example - no competition
• Started: Preso template: to be done, only for LOC use. PPT + Impress: Barry made a first draft (final draft for August)
  
• PR: press releases going out regularly. Next one a reminder about early bird. delayed due to potential extension of EB). Ramp up comms for early bird at end May.
  
• Lanyrd: RWH to review programme options.
  
• DONE: Bloggers: need to identify key bloggers - Antony to put page on Basecamp for suggestions, mailshot asking for coverage to follow.
  
• Workshops: there is an osgeo mailing list, workshop presenters should be encouraged to join. (RWH to ensure that Ian H & Matt actions).
• DONE: Extra emails: volunteer (Abi), registration (Claire)
  
• Hackathone/CodeSprint: need to advertise? RWH to liaise with Ian and CodeSprint organiser?? Do we need to put out a request to OpenList requesting 'ideas'/'leaders'? (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2013_Code_Sprint)
  

Main actions to have ready for next meeting (June 7th 10am)
- Clipboard options to be presented by Jo
- T-Shirt design options to be presented by Barry
- Lanyard design options to be presented by Rollo

Hi comms, just to say I'm away from tomorrow (Sat) to the 8th, so won't be able to make call next week.

Re: T-Shirts. I have just dug out the costs for the W3G t-shirts. These went down pretty well at the event. I still use it and can confirm the print quality and colour have remained strong despite the abuse.
Attached is a the design and the invoice (company: FireLabel - they were very helpful), but in summary:

• t-shirts: £1.75 each for 100
• printing: £1.01 per screen print (i.e. front/back - an arm print would have cost same). Single colour.

So £4/shirt, plus VAT and postage took us to £468 for 100 shirts.
http://www.firelabel.co.uk/t-shirts/mens/crew-neck-t-shirts/61212-fruit-of-the-loom-heavy-cotton-t-shirt.html

Remember we will want a few colour options on the t shirt for LOC, Volunteers and maybe maptember t shirts as prizes

Anyone ever got a thermos type travel mug or water bottle at a conference? Quite useful

Comms Peeps- there's a very good chance that I am double-booked for a meeting this morning- happy to rearrange for this afternoon or some other time? Apols for the short notice- it's been one of those weeks...

Let's re-arrange. 2pm?

Sounds good to me

Are we doing this via Skype? Who's signing in? Barry is away, Antony, are your around?

Items:
1. Lanyards
2. T-shirts
3. 'gift' (i.e. bag/clipboard/whatever)
4. conference programme
5. Communications - review of announcements

I'm around, but it looks as if it's just us two. Shall we postpone? I'm investigating the bag/clipboard options at the moment.

OK. Barry was on Skype but got bored :-). In regard to clipboards/notebooks I noted Peters comments about how these things were not really likely to be well used by the majority of delegates who will taking notes (if any) on their Macs. We started this line of thought on the basis that bags were not likely to be useful (the main purpose of the bag at any conference is to hold the swag/marketing material that they swamp you with - we won't be doing that). So giving something is likely to less useful seems odd. 
The registration pack so far includes:
1. programme booklet (hopefully a nice keep sake in it's own right)
2. t-shirt
3. lanyard (also hopefully nice enough to want to keep)
4. OSGeo Live DVD (printed with FOSS logo's?)
What can we add to this list that makes sense? 
Steven suggested themos/insulated coffee cups
Perhaps wrist bands? (might be useful - different colours for those with access to social events etc.?

I disagree with Peter to be honest. We're giving people a bunch of stuff (DVDs etc) so they need somewhere to put it and a clipboard with a folder would be really useful for that. It's also useful for resting your laptop on when in a conference room without those nifty fold-down arm things :-) 

Well that's actually quite cool - lets not call it a clip board then, but a laptop rest?! We could even print 'instructions for use' on it (1. put on lap. 2. put laptop on top of laptop rest. 3. enjoy!)

Did you see my comment on lapel pin badges and medals?

+1 for wristbands as entrance tickets.

I like the idea of wrist bands and pin badges, less keen on the other ideas (given the limited budget)

No "laptop lap rest" then? :-(

No that's a given now- the integrated laptop rest and paper organiser! 

Great :-)
I'll get costs for wrist bands - any thoughts on how many different colours we want?
e.g.:
workshop delegates?
for Individual social events or just...?

I guess we need them for whatever events we're going to be restricting entry for- but would people then need multiple wrist bands if they are attending different things?

+1 to lapel badges

I've shared a link to a google doc (https://docs.google.com/a/astuntechnology.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsG7QYXpWgk7dFUtRzlNdzZkSVNzUUdCOFU2ekNHN1E&usp=sharing) with you all, which has my first attempts at pricing up all of our promo items. The good news is, it's coming in at the required price :-)

I've used one company for the prices, on the grounds that their website seems nice (compared to other companies in the field), they offer eco-friendly versions of some items, which is important to me, and I hope that by using one company for everything it might be easier and they might do us a bulk discount (I haven't asked yet).

I have a couple of questions- should the programme booklet go in there as well, and if so do we have a cost per person for this yet? Secondly, with the t-shirts option I'm not sure if the amount we order can be mixed size, or whether we have to order each size separately. I'm also not sure how many female ones we would need, so those prices may change somewhat.

For many of the items I chose the 3-colour logo option where I could- in some cases if we start with a white background we might be able to go for a 2-colour logo- this will bring prices down a little as well.

Please take a look, add any additional items that you think might be nice, let me know if I should share it with anyone else (I included Claire).

Ta :-)

Jo

I should have added that the company  I was looking at do a lot of event signage stuff as well- and things like table decorations. If we have an idea what we're looking at there, and the budget, I'm happy to cost that up as well

Jo

Jo, for comparison only I have quotes for lanyards and wrist bands (attached). The exact numbers of colour for the bands doesn't change the price.
Unit price for 800:
£0.43 lanyard
£0.33 wrist band

Attached are some images of the lanyard 'name badge' that am investigating reproducing. Any thoughts on this as an approach?

I've some costs for the below:

A6 cards(150 x 105) printed colour 2 sides on 300gm silk and drill one hole

 

500 £45 + VAT (i.e. £9/100 A6 sheets)

1000 £65 + VAT (i.e. £6.50/100 A6 sheets)

 

( 500 x 4 = £180 + VAT)

 

To laminate 500 = £20 + VAT and £40 + VAT for 1000

Therefore I'd say for our needs:
800 delegates 4 cards (8 sides) one of which is laminated:
= (8 x £9 x 4)+ (8 x £4) = £320+VAT

I can get the design done at OS.

Any thoughts?

Re comment about banners etc. I think that there is a need to 'brand' the venue a bit. This has been a bug bear for me with Geocom - there's never any real visibility of what the conference externally. That said, the venue is not that easy to brand. Is this something that we could add to our site visit on the 5th July (is someone producing an agenda for that visit?)

Rollo, can you add your lanyard and wristband quotes to the spreadsheet (not sure how we do alternative costs but it would be nice to see them in, with a link to the website). The lanyard looks fabulous- really nice.

Banners- if I stick another sheet into that google doc- we can start adding the kind of things we'd like and then address it at the meeting.

I would like the LOC to have a special something - jacket, sweatshirt, hoodie - options on http://www.firelabel.co.uk/

Steven: agreed- and we talked about something different for volunteers too. We might have to fight a little about exactly what we choose for the LOC :-)

For external branding, we were also talking about these 'aero flag' things - see Marketing Collateral page. Good to check out possibilities when you do the site visit.
http://www.wallaceexhibitions.com/aero_feather_flags.html

All, I'm at the OGC this week and so will not be available for the web-call on Friday. My outstanding actions:
- PR - latest release has been pushed back from tomorrow to allow time for the volunteer pages to be updated (Abi to advise)
- Lanyards - Steven is to talk to designer about costs of design and printing. Alternatively I could use OS resources for design and local printing connection (prices already defined)
I think that was it for me for now.

Was just thinking about the programme book and wondered about whether there is budget for a branded highlighter to go with that? Just an idea... thinking about how to make the programme most use-able for the delegates as there is a lot going on.

Great idea- we've budgeted for a pen, so I might look and see if there's a double-ended pen/highlighter/thingy at a reasonable price

I'm not around Friday morning either, though afternoon after about 3 should be OK. Do we want a call, or postpone?

Let's postpone till next week (Monday?) unless anyone can think of an urgent need to speak tomorrow- if so then 3PM is fine with me.

Sorry, should have said that I'm away next week on an exercise, so sounds like you should go ahead Mon if that works for all.

Horrible grainy blurry t-shirt first-draft design. Plenty of space on the front for more blurbage if needed, and then anything on the back.

I really cant make the logo work on black, we could do pale t-shirts in white, light blue, fawn, maybe red (although red+green...)

We could have a list of all the FOSS4G's on the back like a rock tour t-shirt - with Nottingham in big print

Or we could have different back prints - Volunteer, Speaker, Team, Community etc

Or we could have a maptember graphic on the back (or are we having a special limited edition maptember t-shirt)

Barry, I like the 'off-set' of the design. Nice. Wonder if for colours you could use the 'inverted' logo (as shown on http://2013.foss4g.org/Style/). People do not like 'pale' colour t-shirts.....

The problem with listing previous FOSS4Gs on the back is the 'what happened in 2012?' question.

Will have another play with design on dark ground this weekend (hard to do with ballpoint on paper).

Solution to the 2012 question: don't put years, just cities. 

Here's some front n backs in various colours. I reckon black for the masses, red for visibility of volunteers, and Lincoln Green for the committee!

The other idea I had for the back was a Robin Hood 'cast list' with the committee as various players. But I think there's too many of us and not enough characters.

Barry - I think I saw a question from you about t-shirt printers? Can't find it now, but the place that I've used for W3G is Firelabel: http://www.firelabel.co.uk/t-shirts/mens/crew-neck-t-shirts/61212-fruit-of-the-loom-heavy-cotton-t-shirt.html. (I'd posted it originally near the top of this thread)

I really like the design - my only concern will be whether the printer can get that near the edge of the t-shirt, but let's let them worry about that.....

Doing a #maptember one?

If we wanted a cast list on the back of the conference team t-shirts then I think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Men gives a long enough list for us to work with