Meeting:Board meeting 2009-01-13

= Fedora Project Board Meeting :: Tuesday 2009-01-13 =

Roll Call
Attendees: John Poelstra, Paul Frields, Seth Vidal, Matt Domsch, Chris Aillon, Spot Callaway, Dimitris Glezos, Bill Nottingham, Harald Hoyer, Chris Tyler, and Jesse Keating

Welcome New Board Memebers

 * Chris Aillon
 * Dimitris Glezos
 * Reminder that as much business as possible should be conducted on the fedora-advisory-board@redhat.com mailing list
 * fedora-board-list@redhat.com should be used for confidential matters that cannot be discussed publicly
 * Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are not required for non-Red Hat members and the board would like to keep it this way
 * Ask that issues confidential and legal issues which cannot be discussed publicly remain confidential

Net Neutrality hearings in Canada

 * Chris Tyler may be participating in hearings and using Fedora as an example of an open source project
 * may request a letter from Fedora
 * Paul Frields also working to provide resources from Red Hat
 * ACTIONS:
 * Check back with Paul to see that information has been provided

Things That Went Well

 * No conflict with the Red Hat Summit like last time
 * Lots of talks at barcamp
 * Audio and video streaming very helpful for people not physically present
 * Hotel and venue close to T (public transpiration) was fantastic!

Observations and Possible Changes

 * Some participants felt that the overall conference was poorly organized
 * Hard to know how to get involved or what was going on when they showed up at Friday's hackfest
 * Examine structure of FUDCon and order of sessions--have barcamp on day #1 followed by two days of hackfest
 * Move to a Saturday, Sunday, Monday schedule?
 * Some barcamp sessions were not presented or organized very well
 * What if we required a slide deck prepared a week before FUDCon?
 * Doing pitches online could add more time to the barcamp day itself
 * Move last-minute topics or shorter topics to a "lightning talk" slots
 * Some sessions consumed a lot of time while presenter tried to get their demo to be functional
 * Could we message better what happens on each day and what people can expect?
 * Tension between between making conference more organized and stifling flexibility
 * Can we survey past attendees to identify other areas that were deficient?
 * Only five time slots for barcamp presentations
 * Lots of presentations which resulted in 45 total sessions
 * Resulted in too many conflicts
 * Some sessions were the "same old people" where the information being presented was already known by a majority of the audience
 * FUDPub worked well in the shared environment where it wasn't just a private party
 * By the third day a lot of people seem tired and less engaged
 * What about encapsulating the event and lodging in one location (hotel)?
 * Wireless connections were unreliable at MIT
 * Having FUDCon Boston in the heart of winter does not make a lot of sense
 * Extend barcamp day to have talks after dinner break
 * Break up days by having barcamp in morning, hackfest in afternoons across multiple days

Future FUDCons

 * Moving to Fedora Activity Day (FAD) structure
 * Will not be holding FUDCon in conjunction with Red Hat Summit in Chicago, September 2009
 * Funding for FUDCon in Boston in 2010 looks unlikely at this point
 * Would be a great time/location for a Fedora Activity Day
 * Why can't someone write a barcamp application do the counting, room scheduling, and conflict resolution?
 * Could this be a Google summer of code project?
 * Barcamps are happening everywhere--seems like there could be a lot of uptake from conferences

Xuropa

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-January/msg00016.html
 * FEL/OEM requests for trademark clearance:
 * At first glance, TM guidelines appear to allow use of the trademark to show support for FEL/Fedora, provided other requirements are met
 * Is the revenue stream worth pursuing?
 * Transparency of accounting issues:
 * Max could track funds, which helps
 * Donors would need to know up front what fraction supports Fedora
 * Not sure this minor revenue stream is required or desirable