DebConf10/Quito

This is the proposal for holding DC10 on Quito, Ecuador.

DC10 at UIO

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the DC10 bid page for Quito, Ecuador!

Yes, we (the local team, meet us in a while) know the deadline for bids was New Year's Eve. But Quito would make such a nice host for DC10 that the local team wanted to wait until all this information was put together to run for it!

Ecuador is a major tourist destination in Latin America. The local currency is the US Dollar, and most people speak english (and maybe other languages!) in most establishments. Quito has an excellent record hosting big conventions, and both the city and the national government invest lots of money in tourism every year.

Our first financial approach make us think that we can expect to be in a budget similar to that of DC6. This, of course, might go up with inflation or go down as long as we get sponsors, which we have actually done with some success. May-July is an appropriate window for the DC10 to eventually happen in Quito. July can be a very attractive month since you get clear blue skies with a nice temperature.

Enjoy our bid, support us and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

(Image credits go to Byron Calisto and Droman87, taken from Wikimedia Commons)

Local team

• Please name the main local team and describe their commitment (i.e. connection, work they have done before, how long...) in organizing events and working in Free Software projects. Are they perhaps even known inside Debian?
• Of these people, which have been present at a previous Debconfs and who have participated as organizers and/or volunteers (the line might be quite blurry at times) of a previous Debconf?

This is a list of people who have already committed to take this bid on. As more people will join this initiative, they will be listed in this page.

Active

• José Miguel Parrella Romero (bureado) Debian Developer, have been attending DebConfs since DC6
• Ailé Carelén Filippi Sánchez (ailefi) Debian User, part of Debian Women-ES, attended DC8
• Yonel Meza (rvntone) Debian User, programmer and works for a local Debian-based consulting firm
• Juan Guillermo García, Debian User, programmer, graphic designer, works for a local Debian-based consulting firm
• Juan Sebastián Baquerizo, Ubuntu User and local manager of a Debian-based consulting firm
• Sueyling Hung, marketing manager of several local businesses

Reserves

• Pedro Franco Alvarado, ubuntu LoCo Team Ecuador member, teacher, activist from SL and chief of FLOSS consulting firm.
• Gina Brito Bárcenes, ubuntu LoCo Team Ecuador member, phycologist, and CEO of FLOSS consulting firm.
• Santiago Zarate (santiago-ve) ubuntu member, LoCo Team Venezuela
• Julio C. Ortega (Roliverio) debian user, FLOSS activist
• Rubén Romero (huayra) ubuntu member, Ubuntu Ecuador LoCo founder and CIO of Norwegian FLOSS and IT Governance company.
• People who have offered support: Maximiliano Cáceres, Carlos Llumiquinga, Jaime Casanova and Milton Labanda.

Why Quito?

• Are you suggesting a city, a town, a village, a spa in the middle of nowhere?
  • Quito is the capital of Ecuador, the most important city in the country

• How many people live there?
  • About 1.8 million people in metropolitan areas, 1.3 million in Quito City

• How easy/convenient is the proposed place to get all strange and regular kinds of hardware?
  • Electronic/electricity shops
    • Ecuador has few, if any, import restrictions on personal electronics. Importronic is a major electronic/electricity component importer with a large stock in Quito
  • Computer stores (A "media market" like enduser oriented store doesn't count)
    • Ecuador has few, if any, import restrictions on personal electronics. As a result, there are several local distributors (Akros, DOS Compuequip, OCM Computer, CEDECOMP) which have specific hardware on stock in Quito or can bring it from Guayaquil in 48 hours or less.
    • There are several computer chains which can provide almost anything needed, specifically Computron.
  • Supermarkets, etc.
    • Supermarket chains are huge and provide not only food but also clothes, books and electronics, such as Supermaxi. There are several Supermaxi's in Quito, as well as other market chains.

• How easy is to handicapped people move there?
  • Far easier than most Latin American cities (maybe except for Brazil and Argentina), as public transportation and most sidewalks feature ramps and facilities for people with reduced mobility.
  • Bigger avenues also feature auditive signals for crosswalks.
• The proposed venue, as well as the most touristic parts of the city is ready for handicapped people.
  • Special biking streets, bike rental and bike tours!
  • Locals work very hard on mobility, and they're amazed if it takes you twenty minutes to go from one side of the city to another

• Which is the nearest airport?
  • Mariscal Antonio José de Sucre International Airport (UIO) serves most major international destinations in the Americas and Europe.

• Are there any cheap airlines flying near the chosen city?
  • There are no local "low-fare" airlines, but it would be very cheap to travel with traditional airlines.
  • It would be cheap for people from LatAm countries to visit Ecuador (220 USD CCS-UIO-CCS)
  • It would be cheap for people from the US to visit Ecuador (376 USD MIA-UIO-MIA)
  • It would be cheap for people from Europe to visit Ecuador (893 USD MAD-BOG-UIO-BOG-MAD)
  • Ecuador is a very cheap country at least for food, lodging, transportation and entertainment

• How long does the trip from the airport to the venue take?
  • Less than 15 minutes on a taxi, as the airport is located in the city.

• 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.)
  • No. Ecuador has few, if any, import regulations for personal effects.

• Language: Do most people talk English? How hard is it for a foreigner to find their way around?
  • Most, if not all, hosts in Quito speak english (as well as lots of the citizens), and there's a lot of english-based tourism information around. This also holds true for some european countries.
  • Ecuador is, by far, one of the most welcoming country for tourism in Latin America, receiving more than one million tourists in 2008.
  • New York Times, National Geographic and several other travel guides highly recommend Quito and Ecuador as a travel destination.

UPDATE: New York Times: 53 places to go in 2008 - Quito

UPDATE: Lonely Planet: Ecuador and Traveller's Point: Ecuador

UPDATE: airlines checked: American Airlines (US), Avianca and SBA (LatAm) and Iberia (Europe)

UPDATE: VisaHQ Requirements for Ecuador, official source for no-visa requirements (spanish)

Das Venue

• We have a proposed venue and two backup plans: the proposed venue is Centro de Convenciones Eugenio Espejo in downtown Quito
  • A large room for 300+ people, a gallery and a garden (!) and the bandwidth access is quoted for less than 1500 USD/day
  • At the venue we can pick larger or smaller rooms suited for hacklabs, workshops, talks and orga team
  • We can get a huge (200+ square meters) room for 300 people, or smaller ones for parallel tracks
  • The venue is ready for handicapped people, and has elevators and ramps
  • Speakers, mikes and beamers are available on-site as the usual deal

• Plan B would be Hotel Sebastián near La Mariscal, with six rooms which can fit up to 500 people/room each. Hacklabs would be on-site. Some 60-70 people could sleep in the hotel, and the rest of them in nearby hotels/hostels. All would be on walking distance.

• Plan C would be Círculo Militar near La Mariscal, with 10+ rooms which can fit up to 400 people/room each. People would sleep in Hotel Sebastián and nearby hotels/hostels. All on walking distance.

• Both Plan B and Plan C would also get custom connectivity, either by DSL or fibre, with CNT.

• How much does it cost to rent these facilities?
  • 15,750 USD, three rooms, two weeks.

• How far away are the locations from each other? (auditoriums, hacklabs, restaurant, sleeping quarters, info desk)
  • It would be around 10 minutes to move people from La Mariscal (sleeping quarters, nightlife, restaurants) and the Convention Center.

• • What kind of places are available suitable for hacklabs, workshops, BoFs and talks?
    • Above

• • How many people fit in each of them?
    • Above

• • How flexible can that be handled?
    • Quite flexible. We can shrink or enlarge rooms, and we can select from 10+ rooms.

• • • ~-Can smaller auditoriums be merged into a bigger one?-~
    • Yes.

• • • Are tables/chairs fixed, or can we arrange them to fit more people/give more room to the people that we need?
      • We can arrange them.

• • Is the venue ready for handicapped people? Note: Keep in mind that it's not only motion-handicapped - Is the area safe for people with any kind of handicap? (There are sight and hearing-impaired people, too.) Bonus: What people is it not good for?
    • Yes. The venue is in a quiet spot of the city, they have ramps and elevators in all areas.

• • • Access to all areas with ramps and/or elevators? (Note: carrying somebody over some steps is not usually an acceptable option.)
      • Yes.

• • • Are there people with experience handling handicapped people, who checked that?
      • They have

• Are blueprints with exact distances available to us (to be kept confidential on request)?
  • We could request them.

• What kind of audio equipment is already present at the auditoriums?
  • Mics, speakers, a mixer panel and cables. Most conferences happen here without needing to bring external audio equipment.

• • Wireless or stationary mics?
    • Both.

• • clip-on kind of mics or cary in your hand mics?
    • Carry in your hand.

• • How many of them?
    • As many as we need. They work with an outsourcing company which enables them with anything we need on both sound, video and connectivity.

• Will the hacklabs be allowed to stay open 24x7? What time schedule do they offer?
  • No, they are only allowed until 2000, and then we'll have to schedule a hacklab at or near the hostels.

• What kind of security will be there?
  • There's private security 24/7 on the venue. The hostels also has a 24/7 private security service.

• Are there any limitations regarding the consumptions of food / alcohol? Where do what limitations apply?
  • Smoking is only allowed at the garden.
  • Alcohols is only allowed to be consumed moderately.

• • How far is it to the nearest convenience stores / all-night restaurants?
  • In the sleeping quarters, each block has all-night restaurants and every two- or three- blocks have convenience stores open until late or 24/7.
  • In the meeting rooms, a 5-minute walk to Historical Downtown provides you with restaurants and convenience stores until dawn.

Food FTW

• We held meetings with a local catering company (Grupo EDG) which fulfilled these questions:

• How much are the meals per person per day?
  • Around 5 USD per each meal (lunch or dinner, no breakfast)

• Is the eating place near the talks place / the hacklabs?
  • On-site, in a separate gallery near the talk rooms

• What kind of food would be served?
  • Catered buffets. Anyway food is very cheap in Ecuador (from 5 USD to maybe 15 USD in the trendier places) so people could take dinner near the sleeping quarters by themselves

• • In what fashion? (service to the table, limited buffet, open buffet, etc.)
    • Open buffet, in a separate gallery near the talk rooms

• Would food for vegetarians / vegan / lactose-alergic / religious (of any denomination) people be available?
  • Definitely.

• • How much meals do we need to order to get those kind of "special" meals?
    • They don't require us to buy a special number

• • Will it cost extra to get those special meals?
    • No, not at this moment at least

• In a two week period, how many more or less equal meals can we expect?
  • The menu would probably repeat the second week.

The Intarweb

• Is the area already wired with regular network infrastructure? (much preferrably: 100Mbps or 1Gbps switched)
  • Yes, we have wired and wireless infrastructure on-site, with a 2 Mbps dedicated connection.

• How much does it cost and how difficult is it to get a big internet connection? (10/20 Mbits at least)
  • Getting a copper or cable DSL by CNT or TV Cable could cost us 60 USD/month for a 1024/256 link.
  • Each 2 Mbps fibre link (CNT) is 700 USD/month, so it's 2800 USD/month. A local company has already committed to pay for this.

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

• If we use someone else's infrastructure, how easy / flexible can that be handled, regarding routing / firewall / ip-range / public access / other stuff?
  • CCEE outsources the networking service with a local company which knows the business and can fulfill our demands regarding networking.

• • Do we have restrictions on allowed ports?
    • No.

• • Are we traffic-shaped? Or can we set a traffic shaper if we need so?
    • We are not traffic shaped, we can set up networking as stated above.

• 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.)
  • Definitely, as long as we don't mess with ongoing conferences.

Both for server and video rooms:

• General conditions for the rooms
  • We can get an office on-site which allows us to store equipment and set some servers.

• • Size
    • Around 60 square meters for the office.

• • Have they/do they need air conditioning?
    • No. Quito is a chilly city, and these kinds of rooms, away from IT datacenters, are not used to have air conditioning

• • What electrical load can they handle?
    • Definitely not datacenter-grade, but should be OK for tower servers.

UPDATE: sent RFQs to glbx (impsat), puntonet and telconet. Will call transnexa. Offered sponsor spots. All of them are able to provide us with n E1, but have to check availability and costs.

UPDATE: Andinatel quoted us as many symmetrical 2 Mbps fiber links as we want for 700 USD/month/each plus installation. They have availability on the Convention Center. A local sponsor already committed to pay for it.

Sleepycat

• The plan is to host everyone in La Mariscal, Quito's entertainment district.
  • ...and provide 2x 24/7 buses to the venue, which would cost USD 1000/week.
  • ...staying at La Mariscal, we can get double rooms for 20 to 60 USD/person/day depending on what we want (a hostel or a four-star hotel)
  • ...there are hotels in the district ready for handicapped people
• In the district we can easily host 400 hackers
  • ...in a district which is no larger than six or seven blocks.
• The Zone, as locals call it, is 100% english-compliant

• How much does it cost per person per night?
  • For example, a hostel (Hostal Santa Bárbara) costs 22 USD/person/night in a single (double-sized bed) room, and a four-star hotel (Hotel Sebastián) costs 60 USD/person/night in a single (double-sized bed) room.

• Is the place where people are going to sleep near the conference facilities?
  • Depends on the conference facilities we select. If we use CCEE, we would have to move people with a bus. If we use Hotel Sebastián or Círculo Militar, it would be on walking distance.

• Is it able to handle a varying number from 20 to 400 of people?
  • Indeed!

• Is it able to handle non-native speaking people? (i.e. do the people at the sleeping facilities speak English?)
  • Spanish and english are guaranteed, french is also spoken in several places.

• Will there be a need of a "Debconf" info-desk, or would the local (hotel or such) people be able to handle that themselves? (See InfoDesk for details on duties)
  • The hotel/hostel can handle this.

• Will it be possible for couples to stay in their own rooms?
  • Yes.

• How many room keys would be available?
  • One key per person.

• Are there other hotels around?
  • Around twenty (not counting 4 and 5 star hotels which are around but out of the budget)

• Are there rooms ready for handicapped people? How many?
  • Yes, but we should know our numbers in advance since most places only have one-two fully accessible rooms (while some hotels have ramps or elevators)

Procrastinating

• The Zone of La Mariscal is the main entertainment area in Quito
  • ...it boasts lots of restaurants, clubs and underground establishments (heh)
  • ...you can decide between the full-of-tourists zone around Plaza El Quinde
  • ...or you can explore the underground establishments
• Attractions around Quito include La Mitad del Mundo, which is a monument marking the equator imaginary line
  • ...you might not be welcome to show that Coriolis also doesn't apply to toilets or basins in the equator
• Ecotourism is, by far, one of the best things you can do in Ecuador.
  • We recommend everyone to stay a couple days after/before the conference and go to Galapagos Island.
  • ...or maybe take a walk on world's largest lung (Amazonas)
  • ...or maybe take a dip in the Pacific Ocean
• We plan to arrange a day trip to Otavalo and Cotacachi which are beautiful towns near (less than 2 hours) Quito

Local bling

• Take a look at our budget draft
• The City of Quito itself is willing to participate as a sponsor
  • Locals take great care of their tourists, and having the city to help us out will help us solve any challenge
• Several businesses in La Mariscal are willing to offer discounts in beds, entertainment and food
• A couple of local Debian-based consulting firms will help out with money and logistics
• We're still talking with national government sponsors which could help us out with connectivity and money
• There is an operation of HP here, which we'll have to poke until they agree to sponsor us