DebConf11/Bosnia

DebConf 11 in Bosnia and Herzegovina v2.0

Bosnia and Herzegovina is the heart shaped land that lies in the heart of southeast Europe. It is here that eastern and western civilizations meet. The country's capital, Sarajevo is also known as a European Jerusalem; Sometimes conflicted, but often more enriched and reinforced each other throughout country's long and fascinating history.

Some 15 years ago (17 to be exact), Bosnia and Herzegovina was about to break up/fall apart completely as a country, slayed by mass genocide, war and mayhem. Now 15 years later, different times have came for our country, it's about time we (especially from technological spectra) start doing something and properly build one of the most important grounds of this country. We are ready to take initiative and host DebConf, and as we like to believe it, this could mean a major technological boost for our country. This type of event would provide new generations the opportunity to grow up with open source and free software. Because we're a young country we had opportunity to get GNU Linux in our government/parliament and this type of event would show our leaders that choosing free software would put on the map of the world. Unfortunately because there wasn't enough initiative the first time government didn't adopt free software.

Now we are ready to change this. Having an event such as DebConf would mean a change for the better, and this type of change is what Bosnia and Herzegovina needs now. Let us move forward :)

Getting to Bosnia?

Bosnia and Herzegovina is well connected to Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

It is easily accessible by air, bus, or train from any major European destination. The airport is only 20 minutes away from the city centre and has direct flights to many European capitals and thus indirect flights to everywhere else. Many local and international bus lines depart from the centre of town. The train schedule is less extensive, but does offer a few trips in comfortable trains at very modest prices.

Local team

• Adnan Hodzic aka AbsintheSyringe (dc7 local team member Sarajevo bid; dc9 volunteer, video team; dc10 organizer)
• Kemal Sanjta (DC7 local team member)
• Eddy Petrisor aka eddyp (Romanian localization team coordinator, translator; part of Debian Games Team; dc7 participant, dc9 some volunteering)
• Velimir Iveljic aka change
• Mirza Nakicevic aka crazy_m
• Amer Bosnjic
• Vedran Alajbegovic aka http://www.microsoft.ba

How local meetings look like: http://foolcontrol.org/?p=108

Although the team looks small, this is just the current situation because we want to make sure the people accepted in the team are indeed competent and fit for the chosen role.

*(LT) Strategy to "acquire" new people is the following:

Since I'm one of the influential students on my university (American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and starting the new school year I was planning to organize a group lecture to all of the students about the DebConf. The lecture/presentation would contain items from basics such as what is DebConf to why they should be involved in organization of one such event to more advanced topics of what type of tasks need to be covered by local team.

Besides my university I also planned visiting some other technological universities and possibly hand out brochures and/or hold lectures on the same topic.

AUBIH American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina / SUNY Canton (Tuzla, Sarajevo, Banja Luka):

• http://www.aubih.edu.ba
• http://www.aubih.edu.ba/en/spotlight/index.php?id=006
• http://foolcontrol.org/AUBiH2009-120sec.mpg

Faculty of Electronics, University of Tuzla (Tuzla):

• http://www.fe.untz.ba/web

Electrical Engineering Faculty, University of Sarajevo (Sarajevo):

• http://www.etf.unsa.ba

Electrical Engineering Faculty, University of Banja Luka (Banja Luka):

• http://www.etfbl.net

Since we're interested in promoting free software in Bosnia, I volunteered to cover DebConf9 for INFO (most popular national magazine that cover all spectra of technology http://www.info.ba). I'll write an article and I'm planning to announce in it the Bosnian bid for DebConf11 and make a call to gather all the interested parties to contact us. If you're wondering how this matches with our selection policy of our local team, you should know that target audience of the magazine are mostly highly skilled and experienced professionals.

TODOs of a local team

  * go to all selected cities and investigate its capabilities; post all the acquired information
  * get government to sign binding papers regarding their full support of DebConf
  * organize our Local Team (see *(LT) above)
  * organize and plan the start of the promotional campaign / already working on this
  * get the list of countries that need visa to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina (we expect the list to be very short)
  * seek sponsors (we already started negotiations with some of them)
  * find an internet provider (we are in the final phase of initial negotiations with bhtelecom )
  * gather the activities that can be sorted under fun and free time (access to mountains, seaside, rich cultural history, social mix)

Choice of city

We made our final decision, and our city of choice is Banja Luka.

Banja Luka:

• http://www.bhtourism.ba/eng/banjaluka.wbsp
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banja_Luka

Sarajevo

Venue

Since I'm closely connected to Tuzla and Sarajevo, these are the places which I currently proposing as possible future venues. All the information I'm presenting here is already checked and we investigated these even during the DebConf7 bid preparations.

How easy/convenient is it to get all the strange and regular kinds of hardware to the proposed venue?:

Incredibly easy, all of the noted places have stores such as Genelec (http://www.genelec.ba), NTCHS (http://www.comtradegroup.com), IT Computers (http://www.itcomputers.ba) and many others.

Concerning hardware/ Electronic/electricity acquisition, the local stores can cover all the needs of debconf.

There's a lot of Supermarkets all over the place (openning times: 7:30 - 21:00/21:30).

How accessible is the place?

This should not be a problem, considering that almost every building has an entrance for disabled people, streets are also made specially accessible for them.

Which is the nearest airport?:

Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Sarajevo (http://www.sia.ba)

Tuzla (http://www.tuzla-airport.ba)

Banja Luka (http://www.banjaluka-airport.com)

Mostar (http://www.mostar-airport.ba)

Croatia:

Zagreb (http://www.zagreb-airport.hr)

Dubrovnik (http://www.airport-dubrovnik.hr)

Split (http://www.split-airport.hr)

Osijek (http://www.osijek-airport.hr)

Pula (http://www.airport-pula.com)

Zadar (http://www.zadar-airport.hr)

Serbia:

Belgrade (http://www.airport-belgrade.co.yu)

Nis (http://www.airportnis.rs)

Vrsac (http://www.jat.com)

Montenegro:

Podgorica (http://www.montenegroairports.com)

Sarajevo airport price chart: http://www.sarajevo-airport.ba/files/Cjenovnika%20avijacijskih%20usluga%20za%202009.pdf

How friendly is your country towards foreigners?:

Very.

Almost all the people here like tourists which we don't see very often unfortunately. People are generally friendly towards foreigners, and like to help in any way if they can. Bosnia is a known place for its hospitality.

Visas:

With the right papers, entering Bosnia and Herzegovina is easy (see below). Procedures at both the borders and the airport are standardized and uncomplicated.

Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be entered with a valid passport, while for some country all you need is ID. EU, American, Australian, Canadian and most of the Latin American citizens do not require a visa to enter the country for stays up to 90 days. Most other countries don't need Visas either, but for those which do, getting one is possible through the Bosnian embassies/representations in your (or neighboring) countries. Fees for visas issued by diplomatic/consular offices:

• Single entry-exit visas and transit visas 31.00 EUR
• Multiple entry-exit visas for periods up to 90 days 57.00 EUR
• Multiple entry-exit visa for periods over 90 days 72.00 EUR

Further visa information can be retrieved at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs website: (Just select the state (country) for which you need visa information for in the upper right corner.) http://www.mfa.gov.ba/HTML/Ambasade/Preporuke_eng/Vize_eng.html

Are there any import regulations, which might affect DebConf? (e.g. a limit to number of notebooks / DVDs / other media you can bring in; hard regulations for money transfers; etc.)

None.

Language: Do most people talk English? How hard is it for a foreigner to find their way around?

Almost everybody speaks English. Especially the younger population.

Smoking: What are the local regulations about smoking?

None whatsoever *puff. (Not sure if this will change until 2011).

Conference Facilities

A Hotel would be the best solution for sleeping quarters, info desk.

And for auditoriums, hacklabs, restaurant we should find something close to each other (university buildings, coffee shops, etc.)

FOOD

How much are the meals per person per day?

Around 5-10$ per day.

Is the eating place near the talks place / the hacklabs?

This can be organized, without some major effort.

What kind of food would be served? && Would food for vegetarian / vegan / lactose-intolerant / gluten-sensitive / religious (of any denomination) people be available?

Various kinds of food is available. We ourselves have different cultures here, and eat different kinds of food everyday. Special kinds of food (vegetarian / vegan / lactose-intolerant / gluten-sensitive / religious (of any denomination)) are at the same prices as regular food.

Remember to try burek, cevapi, hurmasice and rakija ;)

In a two week period, how many more or less equal meals can we expect?

We'll make sure there's different food on the menu every single day so you try most of it.

Network connectivity

We are aiming at Bihnet (http://bhtelecom.ba). They can give us the best service, and we should be able to get them to sponsor us or at least give us a discount (especially since we already talked to them - see above).

Is the area already wired with regular network infrastructure? (much preferrably: 100Mbps or 1Gbps switched):

Bihnet has a ADSL2+ offer (Commercially it is notable for its maximum theoretical download speed of 24 Mbit/s.) (adsl coverage can be seen at: http://www.bhtelecom.ba/portaladsldostupnost.html)

How much does it cost and how difficult is it to get a big internet connection? (10/20 Mbits at least):

(Amer should look into this, since he has connections there.)

How much work does it imply to cover the area with wireless links?

All depending on the location, it shouldn't be nothing that local team can't cover.

If we use someone else's infrastructure, how easy / flexible can that be handled, regarding routing / firewall / ip-range / public access / other stuff?

Again, all depending on the location, but generally it shouldn't be a problem.

Would it be possible to set up the network before Debcamp? (a day or two, earlier would be nicer, in order to handle problems gracefully. Additional weeks for wireless.)

Yes.

Special rooms

Mentioned above

Accommodation

Hotels? Since some of the options are to have our venue at one of the hotels where you could also get a room separately, but remain in the same place at the same time.

And it should be possible to reserve the whole place and enough rooms upfront without too much problems.

Fun and Free time

What activities can be done during the free time?

• Mountain climbing/hiking, pyramids anyone? [1] :)

• Having DJ play live music along with free beer :)

• Trip to a nearby lake/river/pools

Timing

Around end of July beginning of August?

History and Trivia

• Accepted currencies are BAM and EUR (Euro)
• BAM (Bosnia-Herzegovina Convertible Mark) 1 BAM/km = 0.51 EUR; 0.72 USD
• In clubs/bars/discotheques and other public places half liter (0.5) of beer usually costs no more then 4 BAM / 2 EUR / 2.84 USD
• DebConf7 Sarajevo bid (http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf7/Sarajevo)

Communication

Supported languages: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

• IRC: #debconf11-bosnia on irc.debian.org aka OFTC
• Mailing list: debconf11-bosnia@lists.debconf.net
• Archive: http:http://lists.debconf.net/lurker-net/list/debconf11-bosnia.html
• Subscription: http://lists.debconf.net/mailman/listinfo/debconf11-bosnia