DebConf6 Over - Thanks to all and pictures for the gallery (Posted by: The DebConf6 Orga Team)
As you probably know by now: DebConf6 is over! It was an excellent event at a nice location with some amazing network details - such as 1.8km of cable to get all our areas linked into the local network, and having a fiber link into the tower - with 10mbit hubs.
We would like to say thank you to all the people who helped to run and organize this conference, taking on tasks such as
- Getting the reception to do the right things at the right time
- Running our info desk, handling a very broad set of tasks
- Getting the local network running, including all the cables and wireless parts
- Getting the uplink running
- Maintaining the local servers and video machines
- Recording videos of the talks, workshops and BoFs
- Managing the sound equipment
- Streaming the videos to the world
- Printing name tags and food tickets
- Packing the bags for the participants
- Managing Talks
- Collecting food tickets
- Laundry management
- Translating Spanish to English, and vice versa
- Maintaining the schedule
- Taking people to the medical service
- Making T-Shirts
- Managing the Formal Dinner
- Tidying up
- Arranging a great day trip
- Translating texts
- All the tasks we missed to mention here but still got done
Additional thanks go to all the people who lent us their hardware, our sponsors for making the event possible in the first place (see the full list at debconf6.debconf.org), and to all the attendees who managed to keep on smiling even when things didn’t always turn out as expected.
While we are at it: There is a central gallery for DebConf6 behind gallery.debconf.org. As it is open for everyone, just create a user there and send a little mail to gallery-admins@debconf.org to get your account activated.
We would like to have this as a central point for all pictures taken at DebConf6 (and all prior / following DebConf-Events), so we would really appreciate if you can (in addition to your own gallery) upload the pictures from DebConf6 or all prior events you attended there.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Sat, 20 May 2006
Today is DebConf hug day (Posted by: Alexander Schmehl)
As pointed out by mooch: Today is DebConf hug day!
You are allowed to hug anyone at any time. Especially volunteers and members of the orga team, but of course everyone else, who looks like he needs a hug, should be hugged, too.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Fri, 19 May 2006
Announcement from the DebConf Organisational team (Posted by: DebConf Organisational team)
Hi all,
Today we have made the unfortunate decision to ask an attendee of DebConf6 to leave the conference.
Due to some disturbances that have occurred during the conference, accumulating in a incident at the formal dinner, we feel that it is inappropriate for the attendee to remain a participant of DebConf.
This is a decision we have not taken lightly, however, we believe that it is essential to ensure a productive and pleasant atmosphere for the DebConf community.
Further details are available for Debian Developers on the debian-private list, or for other conference attendees by visiting the information desk.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Well, at least it was memorable… (Posted by: Neil McGovern)
I think people now appreciate the huge amount of effort that goes into creating such an event.
An indoor waterfall and a light show isn’t the easiest thing in the world to create. Neither is an indoor paddling pool :)
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Wed, 17 May 2006
We’re off to the daytrip! (Posted by: Rodrigo Gallardo)
We are leaving in a couple hours for Xochicalco, one of the many archeological sites here in Mexico. All in all, we are very pleased with the trip we are offering, and really hope everyone likes it.We do have a long day ahead of us, since it will take almost two hours to get there, then we’ll be touring the place for about three hours, go for lunch and then head for Cuernavaca, where we’ll spend a few more hours before heading back here.
I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of pictures of the site for those of you following along at home, so check people’s galleries afterwards.
And, it’s kind of late to say this, since everyone has seen Gunnar’s feeling better, but still: Gunnar, you’ve made some terrific work here! Us mexicans are very proud of you.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Mon, 15 May 2006
If you are one of those watching this years session via the video stream… (Posted by: Alexander Schmehl)
Update: Fixed a typo in the channel names.
… and would to participate more interactivly, you’ll be pleased ot hear that we created two special irc channels for you on irc.debian.org. They are called #debconf-talks-tower and #dc6-talks-hacklab. Full schedule available updated as soon as we need to make a change is available at wiki.debian.org.
Our Moderators, Nattie and Tolimar will try to keep an eye on those channels and proxy your questions.
Please use those channels only to ask questions. No general discussion about the talks, no chatting, or we might loose track and ignore the channels ;) Thanks!
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Fri, 12 May 2006
A small note for your time management: (Posted by: Alexander Tolimar
Schmehl)
As might already noticed (or will soon), distances down here are a bit longer than expected.
So if you stay at the hacklab, and wait for the last second to get to a session in the parliamentary tower, please reserve enough time! It takes you at least 10 minutes (while walking at a quite normal speed - and you might not want to try fast walking in the high noon sun).
We have a small picture guide showing you the way from the hacklab to the tower
in our internal wiki at
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Desperate - written some hours ago (Posted by: Gunnar Wolf)
Note: This entry was written at least 24 hours ago. After a very long day filled with frustration and hope, the situation right now is quite different - But I still want to share what I already wrote ;-)
I’m sad.
I have worked towards having a Debconf in Mexico for a long time - I started playing with the idea maybe three years ago, after being at Oslo, and started pushing for it one year later, in Brazil. Last year, before leaving to Finland, it was a fact: I convinced everybody that our country could be a great place to host Debconf. The last month or so, basically my whole time has been devoted to making this conference something worth remembering. And this has been an exciting year of work.
But a couple of weeks ago, I realized it was probably not such a good idea, probably this is not the best way in which I can contribute to Debian being better, or get more Mexicans involved in Free Software. And I fear that, if something does not change soon, we will break the impressing steady growing and professionalization of our conference.
What was the problem? Lack of people. Lack of committment. Lack of time. Things that -by whatever means it has been possible- we have been solving. But right now, the main problem is the network. I trusted to have enough network quality in a semi-rural setting, we didn’t actually have the time to properly test our plans were well laid out, we didn’t test if the line of sight we supposed we would have would work, I didn’t press for the hardware to be ready on time, we had communication errors that led different teams into believing the other would provide specific equipment we needed… This is not so bad, as it is solved only with enough devoted time at the beginning of the conference itself - But once the pieces were already in place, the situation didn’t improve - Maybe because the hardware was less than what we expected, or because we rely on having access to the roof of the neighbour of the neighbour of a friend… Who knows. The fact is, we do not have network access - And when we have it, it is darn slow and with a tremendous amount of packet loss. And it seems that the only thing you really need for a good Debconf is a bunch of friendly geeks, which we have, and good network access - which we don’t.
I wanted also to misspell the bad impression many people have of Mexicans, about us being informal, never really committed, and always having an excuse. But… Well, I also failed miserably on that. I really didn’t want this to be the “mañana” Debconf. That is a sad prejidice I don’t want my country to have - As many of you surely know by now, I love this country and talk about its beauty and good things every time I can. Of course, not all problems are to be blamed on Mexicans, it would be foolish for me to believe so, but we do have our fair share of guilt.
Still… Hope is not yet lost. Debconf hasn’t formally started - We are at Debcamp still. Up to today, we are a group of forty-something geeky friends having a good time, talking, having sun and pool time, and laughing and complaining about the network and about the heat. The Debian community will not forget Mexico. And progress is being made every day. There are some really really cool things about this, and I’ll try to cool down and enjoy what we have. The strongest stress seems to be over (at least for now, wait until most people arrive on Friday/Saturday/Sunday). And it is good that I can identify a forming depression - maybe this can help disspell it before it is too late - We only have Debconf once a year, and I do not want to be sad during it.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Sat, 06 May 2006
DebConf6 Blog - Live from Mexico, Oaxtepec, first day down here (Posted by: Joerg Jaspert)
So, this should be the first blog post of the “DebConf6 Live Blog”, run by the DebConf6 Organizers, which appears on Planet Debian.
Lets start with some pictures: I have put up some pictures from my flight (the food :) ), and then from today here in Oaxtepec online. You can find them at our gallery, below the DebConf6 album. Everyone else who takes picture: Feel free to register at the gallery, and then send a little mail to gallery-admins@debconf.org, then you can put all your pictures also online there.
On the network side - well, we dont have network up in the Vacational Centre yet, Im sitting in a Internet Cafe down in the town, where some locals are building up Wifi Stuff to get Net to our events place. Lets see how that works out.
For the rest: Its a very nice place, really.
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
Mon, 01 May 2006
DebConf6 Blog - Live from Mexico, Oaxtepec (Posted by: Joerg Jaspert)
Ok, as we just decided in our meeting (today, May 1st, for those of you with Alzheimer :) ), we will have a DebConf6 Blog. This is intended as another way for us orga-druids to show all those that can’t attend this years DebConf what they all miss. This feed will be submitted to planet.debian.org on the 6th of May and will stay there until the end of May, this way covering the whole DebCamp, the DebConf and the short phase after it where we start to recover.
What should be blogged here, and not in your personal blog? Well, everything, forget your own blog. :) Oh well, no, interesting parts around the whole conference, how’s live at DebConf, including images (put them into media.debconf.org and then link them. (Thats the debconf6-data website/media/dc6 folder in svn).
How to blog is also easy. A blog entry is a pure textfile, with two exceptions: The very first line is the title of the entry and the second-line is special and needs to start with “meta-author: ” followed by your name, eg “meta-author: Joerg Jaspert”. That name will then be included in the blog-post, so it is clear who wrote it. See this existing file for an example. All those files are put into the debconf6-data svn, subfolder blog.
Now, have fun with it!
Timestamp: [/debconf6] permanent link
