In the past, the planning and execution of FUDCon events was handled
completely by a few Red Hat employees. This seemed out of alignment
with the principles of Fedora, so in late January of this year, we
kicked off an effort to fix that issue. We wanted to increase the
effectiveness and transparency of FUDCon, and our other premier Fedora
events. So we assembled a Fedora Activity Day specifically to change
the way that we plan FUDCon.
In accordance with those changes, we opened a bid process for FUDCon
events. The process encourages Fedora contributors to propose
locations for the FUDCon event in their region, pursuant to their
commitment to help with the logistics of the event. The first event
that went through this lightweight process is the upcoming FUDCon in
Zurich, Switzerland, which happens September 17-19, and is being
planned by long-time Fedora contributors including Sandro Mathys and
Marcus Moeller. In April of this year, we opened bids for the next
North American FUDCon event.
As a result of that process, and thanks to the continuing work of
Fedora contributors Robyn Bergeron and Ryan Rix, our next
community-powered, North American FUDCon event will be held in Tempe,
Arizona from January 29-31, 2011, on the Arizona State University
campus. We'd also like to thank Adam McCullough from the ASU LUG and
the faculty of the ASU School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision
Systems Engineering (CIDSE) for their invaluable assistance thus far.
* * *
FUDCon events are held around the globe each year. Our most recent
event was held just a couple weeks ago in Santiago, Chile, where
contributors from around the Latin American region gathered to
exchange information, share ideas, and collaborate on various aspects
of Fedora. In the past we've held other FUDCons in diverse places
like Berlin, Porto Alegre, Brno, and Boston.
Our last North American FUDCon was in Toronto, Canada. The year
previous it was in Boston, MA. We always encourage feedback from the
contributors, and the one answer that popped up more often than any
other was, "Let's go somewhere warm this coming winter!" So we're
pleased our fellow community members in a warmer part of the USA took
up that challenge, and stepped forward to work on organizing the next
FUDCon.
With that warmer climate in winter, of course, comes higher demand for
travel lodging where people vacation. So as with previous FUDCons,
we'll once again provide travel subsidies for contributors.
Furthermore, our sponsor Red Hat is making an even larger commitment
to these subsidies than in previous years, to offset the higher
lodging costs. We all want to do our part to help everyone stay
together at the conference, for the best possible collaborative
experience after hours -- because collaboration is what FUDCon is all
about!
* * *
As in the past, we encourage our community members to get involved by
offering talks and other sessions of interest. The content provided
by the attendees is what makes FUDCon events so special and exciting.
Over the next few days planners will be setting up more information at
the event wiki page: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Tempe_2011
We'll have more details appearing soon there, including but not
limited to:
* A schedule that makes it easier to see more of the talks you enjoy
and value
* Lightning talks and hackfest pitches to get attendees excited and
motivated to collaborate
* The ever popular FUDPub event!
We hope you'll join us for the best North American FUDCon yet. If you
want to get involved and help plan the details of the event, you're
welcome to join our planning list:
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fudcon-planning
--
Jared Smith
Fedora Project Leader
