DebConf11/FinalReport
Contents |
[edit] README
Work on the report has now moved to debconf-data/reports/dc11 in SVN.
[edit] Attendee impressions of DebConf
Selection of attendee blog posts, with excerpts to avoid the need to click through (though for the report itself we'd want to use longer parts or whole posts):
"Now, since I remembered to push the correct buttons on my dashboard after I completely fueled up the car and checked the tire tension and other things, I am now proud to be able to present you with the following statistics on this trip"
"The venue looks great. It's full of nice spots for impromptu chats, beers, and the like, which I love. I had a good lengthy recovery sleep and I'm ready for the usual DebConf fun to begin."
"After that another security guy asked me to open my suitcase and started squishing my ‘Ligo’ cheese and declaring in a grave voice that it was ‘too soft to be legal’. As I kept calm and explained the DebConf cheese party to him, he looked around, put the cheese back in the bag and said ‘ok, ok, off you go’. So I still have that softness for the party."
"Arrived at the Hotel in Banja Luka in the middle of a wedding, which was amazingly loud (I could still hear it from the 5th floor at 2 am). There's also a casino at the hotel, so first impression was garish and loud! ... But now that it's a rainy Sunday, seems much nicer here."
"As I type this, it's just passed midnight. I'm in the back of a BMW somewhere in east Germany , and the Debian UK convoy is doing 110 mph on the autobahn, twenty hours into a twenty-five hour first leg of our trip to Banja Lunka."
"People are okay, the beer is not called “Nektar” by accident, and the Mark (subunit Fennig, funnily enough) is worth 1 DM. Price niveau is below Germany (even when we had the DM) in some things, below or at modern European in others. In short, very affordable. They don’t accept paper money though, it’s really hard to get coins in most places, and they only want those. The food is okay, and my hotel is very luxurious. It’s also got LAN."
"Food"
"Some might cringe at the idea of submitting yourself to such a treatment in Bosnia, but I have to say that Doctor Saša Dabić did a splendid job, even though we weren’t really able to communicate a lot."
"Better now though, and I found a place where I could get Cevapi, which are really some sort of quick imbiss / fast food here (no Đuveč pirinač though, and she didn’t have any Ajvar nor did she speak any language other than the local, but that wasn’t a problem, only a bit dry because I didn’t give in and took the offered Ketchup)."
"It feels good to be at DebConf again, this time in Banja Luka. This is my fifth consecutive DebConf."
"OK, I'll also blog about other DebConf activities, but I was just working on my sports software of choice and just summarized my running activities here in Banja Luka (it's 22h45 last day of Debconf)."
"So, the fifth Debconf I’ve had the chance to attend is clearly over now. It was great, and all organizers (and sponsors) really deserve huge “thank you” for making this event so successful. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition."
"The only missing ingredient for a perfect DebConf in the Balkans — Ćevapi — has hence been acquired before leaving the country. Everything else was already there: intense hacking, truckload of emotions, tiny teeny bit of stress, feeling of family, and physical exhaustion. No sign of DebConf flu (yet)."
"To compensate for that we had: very sunny Debcamp, cheap beer (!!!), great quality accommodations, very good looking venue, good network at the venue (after initial scalability issues with the wireless), good food (that did sometimes run out, though), short distances to all locations, oh and did I mention cheep beer?"
"I spent a full week in DebConf (from Sunday 24th to Sunday 31th) and as usual, it’s been a pleasure to meet again all my Debian friends. It’s always difficult to find a good balance between attending talks, working in the hacklab and socializing but I’m pretty happy with the result."
"I spent the last two weeks of July 2011 in Banja Luka. The occasion was the annual Debian developer's conference, Debconf11 and preceding work week known as Debcamp. This was my tenth successive year attending Debconf, and I had a very productive and pleasant time! The facilities were good, the local team was friendly, enthusiastic, and very helpful, and in addition to giving three talks and hosting a couple panel discussions, I managed to put a burst of energy into work on FreedomBox. Several other developers working on FreedomBox were also present, and a good number of Sheeva and Dream plugs were evident in the hacklabs sporting new FreedomBox stickers. Working together in the same place for several days, we made good progress on several projects, and also had some great discussions about what we want to do going forward."
"Unlike most computer conferences, DebConf is free to attend. (Professional and Corporate memberships are available for those who would like to financially support DebConf.) If you apply early enough, you can request help paying for food, lodging, and travel as well, but such support is limited and you have to justify it. This is all make possible by our generous sponsors, who include some major corporations who use Debian."
"Here is one more photo from Debconf11 that has been missed in all the excitement – t-shirts from all Debconfs so far: from Debconf3 up to Debconf11."
"This [debian-l10-serbian] wouldn't certainly have happened if we held DebConf11 elsewhere. "
"In one word: AWESOME Every year I worry that DebConf might not be as good as I hope, or not as good as previous years. Well, I've yet to be let down!" "As always, my own personal TODO list picked up huge amounts of extra stuff from those discussions. Catching up with, and socialising with, Debian friends from all over the world was also fun as always!"
[edit] Final report sections and assignments
- Message from the DPL -- zack
- Budget -- darst?
- DebCamp -- vedran omeragic
- Debian Day -- aroundthfur
- Food -- aroundthfur
- Networking -- dkg
- Numbers (to be completed later) -- gwolf
- Personal impressions -- gather from blogs during/after DebConf
- Purpose -- repeat from last year?
- Registration and sponsorship -- nattie(ish)
- Selecting Banja Luka (bid process)
- Social events/day trip -- aroundthfur/vedran omeragic (w&c party)
- Talk selection -- gwolf
- Venue -- aroundthfur
- Video team
[edit] Final Report
[edit] f00d
- my first draft of the f00d report, please edit/delete/change anything you like (aroundthfur)
Since the planning stages of DebConf11, the local team tried to arrange the best food option for DebConf attendees. We had to keep in mind that there are a lot of people that have a special diet and we wanted to keep everyone happy. After considering a few options, we decided to go with the hotel Bosna restaurant, as we thought they (the hotel) would be able to quickly adjust to everyone's needs in case of any problems.
During DebCamp, food was really good and I asked around to see if people are happy, to which I received positive answers. However, when DebConf started, the food started to get worse at some point. We reacted quickly but the hotel didn't fix many of the problems in due time and I think that was a huge disappointment for some of the attendees. Also, there were some days when the food arrived really late and some attendees either waited for too long, or just gave up and went to eat elsewhere.
Lunch was served as a "normal" meal, meaning everyone got a soup, main course with salad and a dessert. In the end I think the food was ok, but for the price we paid, it could have been much better.
The prices we paid were: 7.5€ per meal per person (both lunch and dinner) and we only paid for the meals we used. Breakfast was included with the room price and everyone ate breakfast at the hotel they were staying in (since we used 3 different hotels). For lunch and dinner we first arranged for people to take meal tickets at the hotel Bosna front desk, and give them to the waiters in the eating area. That didn't work quite well as we noticed that the hotel staff that were handing out meal tickets weren't checking the list. We ended up changing the "routine" almost every two days, since a lot of people got involved in the "routine" planning and it was impossible to keep everyone happy at this point.
[edit] day trip
- my first draft of the day trip report, please edit/delete/change anything you like (aroundthfur)
- I take it we're crediting the text to Velimir and Vicm3 jointly?
As it has been the tradition for many DebConf's now, during the marathon 7 days (plus the first 7 days of DebCamp) without much sleep and so much work to do, the Day Trip is hotly anticipated.
This year we decided to have two options available. The first option was a visit to the village of Krupa na Vrbasu. Attendees had a chance to visit the 13th-century orthodox monastery, waterfalls of the Vrbas river, walk in the woods, walk up the hill to the medieval ruins of Greben. The second option was to go rafting in the Vrbas river.
The first option was a nice trip to the monastery, with a guide who explained most of the history and even to told us about some legends of the area. The monastery and surrounding area was a good place to visit, but the really beautiful part was the waterfalls and the village of Krupa na Vrbasu, with their water mills and a very nice river and forest setting, excellent for walking, talking, rest, and relaxation. The only regret most of the people that like hiking had was that the time there was all too short.
The rafting option took an unexpected turn. We were expecting to go rafting all at once (about 75 people), but since we had a misunderstanding with the tourist agency we ended up having to take turns in groups (8 people in each group) until all of us got to experience the beauty of the Vrbas river in a boat. While waiting for their turn, attendees were either having drinks or swimming in the river and making new friends or just making old friendships stronger over a beer.
After all of the activities, we had a barbecue lunch at the restaurant on the Vrbas river.
The most important part is that most of us had a day off from DebConf work, had time to sleep and rest for a day.
[edit] venue
- my first draft of the venue report, please edit/delete/change anything you like (aroundthfur)
Selecting the Venue for DebConf11 was more or less straightforward. Since the government of Republika Srpska sponsored a large part of the conference, they gave us two options: the government building or Banski Dvor, the Cultural Center of Banja Luka. Considering the pain of having to show some kind of ID and needing to go pass the security check every time one entered the government building, we decided to go with the Banski Dvor. The other reason for choosing Banski Dvor was that is was very close to the accommodation we had arranged for the attendees.
Banski Dvor was almost perfect for DebConf. We had two lecture rooms, the Auditorium, in which we were able to fit more than 400 people, and the Round Room which could contain around 100 people. When DebConf started we got one more small room for BoFs. The main hacklab was on the ground floor of the Banski Dvor, which was open 24/7 every day. The only drawback about the hacklab was that it did not have any air conditioning. We set up several fans in the hacklab, so it was cool enough for everyone. There was another hacklab upstairs, which had air conditioning and was a bit larger than the one downstairs. It too was open 24/7.
A local academic and research network/group provided us with a 1 Gbit/s link, so the internet was really good!
I have to mention that we had problems regarding accessibility. Since the building was old, it did not have any permanent ramps, so we ended up using a portable one, which wasn't 100% what we needed.
We had two options for sleeping facilities. One was that we put everyone in expensive hotels, the other one was a free of charge students dorm. Since we had enough sponsoring from the govt. we ended up using the hotels, since they were much much MUCH closer to the Venue building (one hotel was literally across the street, the other two were 50 meters away). The hotels were the best ones that the city had to offer, and I didn't hear anyone complain :). Only problem, and I have to say a big one, was the accessibility in he hotel rooms, since none of the hotels had specially equipped bathrooms.
[edit] Debian Day
This years Debian Day was a "little" different than past DebConf's, mainly because we had a few government officials: the president of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of Republika Srpska Aleksandar Dzombic, the minister of Science and Technology Jasmin Komic and General Director of m:tel Pregrag Culibrk, which all gave a short welcome talk on the beginning of Debian Day.
The minister of Science and Technology talked about how he thinks that Free Software is important and how he would like to see more of it in government institutions and IT infrastructure.
M:tel General Director Predrag Culibrk also said how m:tel supports Free Software and uses it for conducting their business.
After that, there was a press conference in front of the main talk room (Auditorium) with all of them.
Later in the day, Adnan opened DebianDay/DebConf and that's when everything actually started: Bdale Garbee talked about Debian, what it is all about and how it all started and what it is today.
After the lunch break, talks continued to follow. A detailed list of talks is presented below:
Start: 10:00 Title: OPENING CEREMONY WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS Speaker: Aleksandar Dzombic Speaker: Jasmin Komic Speaker: Milorad Dodik Speaker: Pregrag Culibrk Speaker: Adnan Hodzic
Start: 11:30 Title: DEBIAN DAY OPENING PLENARY Subtitle: Welcome to Debian Day Speaker: Adnan Hodzic
Start: 12:00 Title: UNDERSTANDING DEBIAN Speaker: Bdale Garbee
Start: 15:00 Title: LIFE IN DEBIAN Subtitle: Snapshots of everyday life in Debian Speaker: Enrico Zini
Start: 16:00 Title: HOW TO CONTRIBUTE AND GET INVOLVED Speaker: Alexander Reichle-Schmehl Speaker: Meike Reichle
Start: 17:00 Title: DEBIAN IN ENTERPRISE: A GOOGLE CASE STUDY Subtitle: Debian in Google Speaker: Jesus Climent
Start: 18:00 Title: AUSTRIAN E-HEALTH SYSTEM Subtitle: How Debian runs the Austrian e-health system Speaker: Gerfried Fuchs
The talks were all held in English, as there was, and I am so disappointed to say this, so little interest from the local community to give talks. I think the reason for this was mainly that the people who were contacted were either too scared to do it in front of ~400 people, or were too busy to do it.
After we realized that no one from the local GNU/Linux/Debian community will talk, we did our best to schedule talks that had an introductory nature, what is Debian, how to contribute to the Debian community, also some talks about how Debian is being used in different kinds of businesses, etc.
All in all i think that Debian Day was really good, the main talk room (Auditorium) was full for the entire day (it fits around 400 people), there were a lot of people who came to see the talks and get familiar with Debian. At the same time there was another IT event happening in Banja Luka, EESTEC Workshop: Let the Penguin In (http://eestec.net, http://eestec.etfbl.net) so we (Bojana Borkovic from the local team) invited them to Debian Day.
More to come if need be?
[edit] Video team
Holger Levsen
DebConf11 was the 6th DebConf with video coverage, and for the most part, the video work went along very smoothly. This allowed video team members to participate more in DebConf and to do more Debian work during the conference, while at the same time providing the quality videos everybody has become used to. The reasons for this are twofold: first, our workflows are well defined and documented by now. We had cheat-sheets printed in every recorded room for every device, plus a general checklist for the room coordinator. The role of the room coordinator is new on our team and involves making sure that signed up volunteers actually show up and provide replacements in case of absence. The second factor was that this year we were able to ship a complete set of video gear for covering two rooms to the venue. We are very grateful IRILL (irill.org) and HP (hp.com) for their generous donations. In future, I expect the video team's work to go even more smoothly thanks to even better preparation, as the hardware will stay with us, resulting in even better videos and more DebConf participation by the video team members.
In total, we recorded and streamed 75 sessions on six days. These recordings are available in two different encoding qualities, resulting in 34GB for the high quality recordings and 6GB for the low quality ones. The team consisted of 49 "official" members and uncounted unofficial helpers.
We collected thanks from 23 countries from basically all continents on http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf11/Videoteam/Thanks
[edit] Networking
We have a gigabit uplink from SARNET at Banski Dvor. The connectivity comes into a 4-processor amd64 gateway ("dc11fw") with a total of 7 gigabit NICs available. We have been allocated an IPv4 /22 block. We're assigning public IP addresses to infrastructure machinery (attached directly to the dc11fw). We've connected the main internal network as a single flat ethernet domain, connected to dc11fw on an interface named "eth-users". dc11fw provides DHCP for an RFC 1918 /21 range of IPv4 and a NAT for outbound traffic.
We don't have direct IPv6 connectivity, but dc11fw also has a 6to4 tunnel connected to a host in Germany. dc11fw runs radvd to announce public IPv6 addresses and routes to machines on the internal network.
The server room is wired with cat 5e directly to an unmanaged gigabit switch backstage upstairs of the main talks room, and cat 5e cabling runs from the backstage switch throughout the rest of the building. We have several Buffalo WHR-G54S acting both as access points for 802.11b/g wireless clients and as 10/100 miniswitches. The network topology looks something like this:
server room - backstage - upstairs hacklab - downstairs hacklab - front desk
| \ \
Auditorium 3rd hacklab Round Room
We have a 48-port managed 10/100 switch (Cisco Catalyst 3550) in each of the two hacklabs, each with a very simple configuration.
[edit] Wireless
The wireless APs (Buffalo WHR-G54S) (flashed with backfire with a 2.4 kernel) are configured and deployed to provide roaming capabilities, and efforts have been made to ensure neighboring nodes use distinct channels to avoid interference.
During DebCamp, we found that the wireless was subject to severe packet loss during times of peak use, which caused some people to switch to wired networking.
[edit] Video network
We've provided a separate physical ethernet domain for exclusive use of the video team. This is connected to dc11fw via a dedicated NIC, and runs between camera stations in both talk rooms. This subnet is allocated its own /24 of RFC 1918 addresses, and no DHCP service is run. Video-Team machines are manually-configured. The network topology looks like this:
server room - backstage - Auditorium balcony - Auditorium stage
|
Round Room
This network is unmanaged gigabit throughout. We tested point-to-point connections between machines with iperf, and saw performance of ~930Mbps for unidirectional TCP streams.
[edit] Previous final reports
DebConf10:
budgeting-tables.tex purpose.txt budgeting.txt registration-and-sponsorship.txt debcamp.txt selecting-new-york-city.txt debianday.txt social-events-day-trip.txt dpl-welcome.txt social-events-not-added.txt food.txt social-events.txt networking.txt talkselection.txt numbers.txt venue-considerations.txt personal-impressions.txt video-team.txt
DebConf9:
budget-schultmc.txt personal-impressions-gregor-herrmann.txt cheese-wine-christian-perrier.txt personal-impressions-jonathan-mcdowell.txt credits-final-report.txt personal-impressions-other.txt credits.txt Stats_and_Numbers-gwolf.txt daytrip-andrew-mcmillan.txt talklist-edited.txt DPL_Steve_McIntyre.txt talkselection-gunnar-wolf.txt front-desk-damyan-ivanov.txt talkslist2-richard.txt fundraising-steve-mcintyre.txt talkslist-richard.txt index.txt travel-sponsorship-schultmc.txt localteam-anto-recio.spanish.txt video-bwh-h01ger-marga.txt localteam-anto-recio.txt wine-h10ger.txt openday-ana_beatriz_guerrero_lópez.txt wireless-networking-andrew-mcmillan.txt personal-impressions-angel-vivas.txt
DebConf8:
Ana_Guerrero.txt Daytrip-Melisa.txt Intro-Marga-Tincho.txt Andreas_Tille.txt DPL_Steve_McIntyre.txt Localteam+Venue_Tincho.txt Aurelien_Jarno.txt Electric_Installation-Lisandro.txt Network-Sebastian.txt Budget-Marga.txt Frederic_Lehobey.txt openBar.txt budget.ods FrontDesk-Romanella.txt Tango-Martin-Romanella.txt Cheese_and_Wine-Christian.txt Gregor_Herrmann.txt Videoteam_Holger_Levsen.txt Credits.txt Gunnar_Wolf.txt Volunteers-Matias-Nicolas.txt
