Re: No FOSDEM 2008 stand/devroom this year: new Plans for GNUstep-Dev-Meeting & How to attract General Public?

[Gregory John Casamento]

All,

I'm extremely disappointed in this news.

While I see it as a setback, I also see it as confirmation of what we discussed 
earlier.  We really aren't marketing ourselves well and we desperately need to 
change that, as we discussed these past few weeks.    Out of every bad thing 
comes something good and the good that may come out of this is that we 
shouldn't focus on a show at FOSDEM we should focus on (not in order of 
priority):

On the marketing side...
==================
1) Getting the website changed as we discussed.
2) Creating the official forums.
3) Updating documentation and examples so that they are current and correspond 
with what GNUstep is today
 
On the software side...
=================
1) Making GNUstep easier to install  (RPMs, DEBs, etc)
2) Theming
3) Completing existing features.

And all of the other things we've discussed recently.

BTW, the meeting in Frankfurt sounds like a good idea.   I very much want to be 
there this year.  I will get back to you on timing.

Later, GJC

--
Gregory Casamento -- OLC, Inc 
# GNUstep Chief Maintainer

----- Original Message ----
From: "hns@computer.org" <hns@computer.org>
To: discuss-gnustep@gnu.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:29:00 AM
Subject: No FOSDEM 2008 stand/devroom this year: new Plans for  
GNUstep-Dev-Meeting & How to attract General Public?


Hi all,

we just got the note that they have so many project requests at FOSDEM
2008 so that they had to decide between them. And, the decision is
that we do not get a stand/devroom this time.

So, the good side is that there is nothing ot organize :-)
And everyone can decide her/himself to visit FOSDEM and is not obliged
to man the stand.

But in the recent discussion how to do better marketing for GNUstep
and to attract new developers, this is a major setback. Where else can
we easly have approx. 3000 people running around a GNUstep
presentation?

The other downside is that we had planned a Pre-FOSDEM Workshop (2
days) so that all developers from all continents could meet, discuss,
make plans for next phases etc. but still spend travel expenses only
once.

Since Brussels in February isn't the most easy location to get (cheap)
accommodation for a larger group anyway, I want to propose that we
shift the workshop in time and location to meet somewhere near
Frankfurt (big Airbase Hub) after Easter time.

Question to the prospective overseas visitors: which timing would be
most convenient?

And, when looking at the Google statistics (they estimate 45 active
members on this list), the recent discussions and that I have seen
here many (new) names of contributors, I am sure we can gain a lot of
momentum - but we also must make this publically known. So, a good
question will be how to involve and ttract the "general public" in
such an event.

Nikolaus

PS: there will still be 15min Lightning Talks at FOSDEM where one can
outline a project and ask for participants - I am heavily considering
to use this opportunity for Simple WebKit, and there should be someone
to talk about GNUstep
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