Ethical/Political Issues

Is it advisable to draw the line about political or ethical issues? Do we need to care about those issues “as an organisation” and to what extent? The answer to these questions are sometimes complex and I think that from the LGM stand point, they belong to the individual field. Some people are never going to go to the US because of patents issues and possible judiciary threat. This is serious. This is not a theoretical issue. It’s real world. I think we “as an organisation” cannot make those calls on behalf of someone else. At some point it is up to each individual to decide whether he or she would want to go or not to a specific country.

“As an organisation” we need to pass the following test:

1. to consider how many individuals would make such a dramatic decision as to refuse to go to a country for ethical or political issues and

2. evaluate to what extent would that in itself be a blocking issue to the organisation for the event.

3. This is not an automatic call. We need to gather the information from the people and from the teams.

Security

It is implied that we would not organise an LGM in a country where the security of people would be at risk. Risk being understood as a real threat (war, epidemic, natural disaster). Otherwise, it is up to each individuals to decide whether they come or not.

Given the case, the same test apply as in [1.]

Health

We need to gather the relevant information about possible health hazards when travelling to any country. It is up to each individuals to decide whether they are ready to cope with various health issues while going to LGM for a few days. Yellow fever, typhoid, paludism, cholera, most of tropical or subtropical illnesses are serious issues for travellers. People have to know. As organisers, we have to find out how many people feel comfortable with being vaccined and/or under pills treatment for such health hazards.

Given the case, the same test apply as in [1.]

• list of vaccines that travelers must have

Free Software Acceptance or Support in the Host Country

The question has been raised and I think we have to answer. As a possible answer, I think this is not relevant per se to isolate countries based on how they accept or refuse Free Software. France and Germany are well-known to have a strong political support for FLOSS and we have never been to Germany and once only to France. Canada’s record with regards to FLOSS is rather deceptive. And we’re not sure about Poland. From that point of view, countries like Brazil have embraced FLOSS at the state level and they are making this a strong commitment.

Really, again, beside the judiciary threat to developers, I would advise not to consider this an argument against a country because it defeats the purpose of having such an event like LGM on the first place.

To summarize: Not an issue and perhaps even an argument in favour of going and celebrating free software and showing its goodness…

Money

Budget is a critical issue and certainly the most blocking issue if not solved adequately. We definitely need to put down the numbers.

Expense

• What does it cost to travel to the proposed venue?
• What are the costs related to other expenses?
• Administrative costs
• Unexpected extra costs (or losses)
• Balance for the next year (could be zero, but it’s time we think of having money in the bank)

Income

• Corporate sponsoring
• Local sponsoring
• Institutional sponsoring
• Community Pledgie Campaign

As the LGM organisation reimburses the travel expenses of the developers and speakers, this question has to be answered to the complete satisfaction of the organisation.

The budget varies a lot from year to year but we struggle all the time very hard to gather all this money. It is NOT easy, no matter the strength of the will we have to organise the LGM to any place in the world. On the debriefing of LGM 5, we have discussed about securing the budget 6 months prior to the event in order to be able to make commitments to the sponsored participants before they buy their ticket. I think this is a perfect goal for the 6th year of LGM and from then on. We need to get this mechanism to work.

• It would be great to see participants who wish to organise a LGM be part of the organising team for at least a year prior to organise one themselves.
• Short list of potential local and foreign sponsors with someone listed as contact, which in this case could make easier the international group to make a follow up of sponsorship status.
• Small list with items that usually need to get paid.

Time

How long is the trip for the developers ? This needs to be considered. Since LGM 3 we have a 4-days conference. The LGM takes time. When in Europe or in North America, for most of the developers it’s a one-week trip, sometimes even less. Lots of LGM project’s developers live in Europe and a fair bunch lives in the Americas. Going anywhere else puts pressure on the total length of the trip for the majority of developers.

By no mean this is to be understood as a “no go” to Asia, India, South America or Africa. But we need to keep an eye on the time frame and on how individuals are going to react once they realise that an LGM in those parts of the world is at least a 2-week time off their regular day-to-day work. This can be planned ahead and may be a good occasion to organise a longer trip, if one can afford it. But we need to be realistic. It’s a real question that needs a real answer.

Given the case, the same test apply as in [1.]

• Colliding events with estimated dates where LGM would be done.

The LGM Projects’ teams

What do LGM Teams think of the venue is also crucial for the organisation. If a team decides not to come to a certain venue, it can also defeat the purpose and goals of LGM. On top of individual comments, the organisers need a specific and clear answer from each LGM Team leaders.

Test apply as in [1.]

The Local Teams

We can count on a dedicated LGM core team made of people who can work together in an efficient manner, remotely.

However LGM cannot be organised remotely. We need a solid local team.
We need to make sure the local team is capable of successfully carrying the project until the end.

What should we ask for?

• As a first draft here are a couple of things to consider.
• The local team must be well identified
• People must be available, quick and reactive on answers during the whole organisation process and during LGM
• Needs to be backed-up locally by an institution, a university or an organisation
• Must have organising skills of similar event
• Must have a good knowledge of LGM
• Must have the confidence of the LGM teams
• Persona listing (preferable indicate time-availability)
• Previous experience
• Local organizations support (can they send visa request letters?)
• Local groups/college/etc interested in LibreGraphics

Venue and On-Site Infrastructure

The Venue and its infrastructure should be up to the needs of the LGM conference.

LGM Venue & Infrastructure Checklist

• Good accessibility of the host-city and the venue
• Major airport
• Means of transport from the airport to the venue
• Typical prices from typical places (from USA, EU, Japan etc; booked 3 months in advance / short in advance)
• Wi-fi access with appropriate bandwidth
• Electrical power for everyone
• Auditorium
• Hands-free microphone for the speakers
• Rooms for BoFs and Team Meetings
• Audio/Video equipment
• Radio-microphones (ideal)
• Microphones (minimum)
• Beamer
• Computer
• Food and drinks
• Even if would be better to have a gratis venue, if so, costs should be added as info.
• Network access (ssh, git, imap, smtp, ftp, pop3, irc, xmpp, svn…)
• Tons of power plugs, cables, …
• Translation needed?
• Available rooms (description)

Accomodation

LGM Accomodation Checklist

• Where people are going to stay?
• At what cost?
• Please give details
• What are the services?
• Can they gather easily on the site of LGM? if not, where?
• Do they have access to Wi-fi while at the hotel? At what cost?
• Are they sleeping at a place that is at a walkable distance from LGM?
• If not, is it possible to organise a shuttle bus?
• Maps showing a list of hospitals and other important information.
• Nearby hotel and cost information (wifi)
• transportation routes and costs

Environment

We aim at an environmental friendly LGM.

• Is it possible to organise a Carbon Zero event?
• Is it possible to organise a Zero Waste event?

Alternation of the venues

• Alternate between Europe and North America is an idea that was raised at the end of the very first LGM.
• So I think it’s ok to say we’d like the “alternate” concept to remain.
• Now, alternate between what and to what extent?
• Alternate between more continents? Great! Here the discussion is open!

Proposal (–Ale 15:53, 23 June 2010 (UTC)): We should have an alternation policy which we will adapt to the venues actually proposed (and which will evolve in the future, with the evolution of our community). Considering that our virtual communities are global but our physical locations can be mainly identified with one or two regions (“Center-North Europe” or “Center-North Europe & North America”) and considering the fact that most people don’t seem to wish to travel too much around the world, I’d like to propose one of two models:

• a three year alternation between Europe, North America and the rest of the world
• a two year alternation between Europe and the rest of the world

My point point of view may be very europe-centric, so, please, do comment on this!

Femke 15:28, 23 June 2010 (UTC) model three (alternation between continents): LGM is a truly international event. Subsequent events therefore take place in different host-countries. While keeping in mind travelcosts and -times (many developers currently involved in LGM live and work in Europe and/or Northern America), we aim to alternate between continents.

Gregp 2:47 26 June 2010 (UTC): in the same way that now Vietnam is being considered, I think we need to break away from any preconceived notion of alternation between continents, hemispheres, or whatever. Better to stick to the core issues of what makes a site a good/adequate location for the meeting. The only other consideration is that there should hopefully be some way to be sure that the meeting is not so inconvenient for the majority leading to poor attendance. I don’t think it makes sense to have an LGM without a good percentage of project team members in attendance.