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<<< DebConf6

As there seem to be some requirements that had not been fulfilled by the software that has been used to support the organisation of DebConf5, and I (HenningSprang) saw people talking about what other tools could be used, I have proposed to go for a structured approach; First analyze requirements for the software, then see what products meet them, or which ones come as close as possible and can easily enhanced with the missing features.

Requirements for DebConf6

features needed / use cases that need to be solved

  • Registration (The following proccesses need to be supported and all steps should have timestamps on them)
    • Online registration, (all their relevant info is recorded e.g. name, contact info, food-preference, etc.)
    • Confirmation round a few weeks before the conference starts (during this round people will need to enter when they are arriving and leaving and confirm their registration)
    • Check-in when arriving at the conference. (The steps below describe the process used during ["DC5"])
      • Check identification
      • Mark him as checked-in and record his arrival date if its different then what he indicated earlier
      • Which room is he assigned to?
      • Hand out a key (if a deposit is needed, it should be indicated if the person left the deposit and how much)
      • Did he request a laptop?
      • Handout laptop if requested and take a deposit in return (it needs to be recorded what the deposit was, and a small contract on use of the laptop is signed)
      • Handout the conference bag
    • Check-out when leaving the conference
      • Receive the key
      • Give back the key-deposit if that person left it previously (record this happened)
      • Receive the laptop when it was borrowed and give back the deposit (record this happened)
      • Mark the person has signed out and indicate day of departure if it differs from the one given previously
    • Late registrants
      • Have them fill a form with all appropriate info
      • Print their badge and hand it out
  • Issue tracking
    • Keep track of assigned tasks
    • Remind people of assigned tasks
    • Produces an overview of outstanding tasks
  • Planner / Calendar
    • Overview of upcoming milestones or other important moment like meetings
    • Send out periodic reminders of upcoming calendar entries
  • Talks management
    • Clear moment when voting starts (all talks are know and decided on)
    • Clear deadline when voting closes
    • Automatic conflict resolution for talks with a lot of votes
    • Generating the most optimal talsk/bofs schedule
    • Lunches and other such moment need to be accounted for
    • Not all rooms might be available at all times
    • Type of talk (technical, social, bof, etc.)
    • Online conference calendar
    • A place to upload/link slides and info about talk.
  • Organisation oriented communication
    • Regular meetings
    • Recording of decisions and minutes of meetings
    • Planning
    • Other thoughts and stuff to share
  • Communication before the event with registrants and other people
    • Information is mostly static (e.g. how to travel to the conference, where it is location, etc.)
    • Announcements of major milestones (e.g. registration is open/closed)
    • Press releases
    • Other news
  • Communication during the event with registrants and other people
    • Latest news and announcements
    • Up to date information about various issues (e.g. food, network, talks, etc.)
  • Communication after the event
    • Photos from participants
    • Final report
  • Volunteer management
    • which roles do we need
    • What skills are needed for certain roles
    • What skills can be trained in time
    • When are volunteers scheduled to do their work or training
    • Which volunteers are available
    • What skills do the volunteers have
  • Financial management
    • Keep track of sponsors
    • Keep track of overall budget
    • Keep track of expenses
    • Overview of available funds
  • we should look at ?DebConf5WhatToImprove what we can get from there as requirements for the next debconf software ( especially the sections website and conference management)

  • those links also provide information about the requirements of the conference management:

soft requirements (e.g. how specific things should behave)

  • Any web-based software should be available through the debconf.org domain.
  • everything should be easily usable
  • any data should be easily exportable, because we could need it suddenly in a specific format that's not provided by the system, so we need some generic output that we can adjust to our needs (XML/CSV)
  • anything must work in at least english language, having other additional languages is a plus.
  • flexibility: the system should be easily adaptable to specific needs, that might occur on a short notice, and that should be possible to do from as many people as possible, while anything less than two persons is not acceptable

Software that has been used for organising DebConf5

  • spreadsheets
  • mailinglists
  • wikis
  • dupral
  • vim

Registration

  • Comas

Internal communication

  • List-server - hosted by Lars Wirzenius - lists are available under the DebConf domain