Debian Events Box
This was already announced back in February 2011 (blame LucaCapello...) and it is something that Debian really needs. Two perfect examples are the European and North America GNOME Events Boxes (thanks to Annette for the links).
All the material in the box should be available according to the The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), thus there should be a debian-events-box package in the Debian archive containing all this kind of stuff (quite surely under the Publicity umbrella).
absolutely needed
Prices are indicative as found on Google: in case of multiple models, an average prices was inserted.
- [300 USD][14.0 kg] 1x case
2x Pelicase PL-1500 (432*290*155mm) are available from the video team
LucaCapello: they are really too small, i.e. one is not enough for everything (not event for the 17" LCD) and moreover they do not have any wheels
Pelicase PL-1650 (72.5 x 44.5 x 27 cm) seems to be the best option, given that the Pelicase PL-1660 (71.6 x 49.9 x 44.8 cm) looks too deep
- [200 USD][01.0 kg] 1x demo PC
when helping organizing booths, Axel Beckert usually brings his ASUS EeeBox
given that it will run BabelBox in a VM, the CPU should have hardware virtualization support
- [080 USD][04.0 kg] 1x 17" LCD
LucaCapello: a projector could also be useful, but not in all situation, given the need for a whiteboard
- [070 USD][00.5 kg] 1x keyboard/mouse
StefanoZacchiroli: the GNOME folks seem to use wireless stuff for this; they are more expensive but I can see how they could help in 1) keeping clean the booth table and 2) allowing people to play with the OS more easily...
LucaCapello: I see at least two disadvantages with wireless keyboard/mouse as 1) they can ben stolen more easily and 2) they can ran out of batteries (which means that the box's keeper should check them before shipment)
- [070 USD][00.5 kg] 1x Wi-Fi AP with a 4-port hub
Buffalo WHR-G54 (used at DebConf)
- [020 USD][01.0 kg] 2+ power strips with worldwide adapter
- "related" plugs should be connected to the same strip to avoid spare cables around the booth
- [020 USD][01.0 kg] various network/VGA/USB cables
- [000 USD][00.5 kg] lockable cash box
[010 USD][00.5 kg] debian-flyers - Print Advertising
- at least in English, better if both in English and the main language the event is taking place in
LucaCapello: posters are useful as well, but we need a whiteboard or a foldable panel, which will not fit into the case
LucaCapello: a leafleft rack is very much needed (e.g. for FOSDEM), but it will quitely sure not fit the Pelicase PL-1650.
AlexanderReichle-Schmehl: we should also have general Debian business cards with some useful links, and and the backside space for notes for the visitor
- [000 USD][01.0 kg] T-Shirts for the booth staff
- [015 USD][01.5 kg] 2 Kensington-compatible locks. I'm not very sure about the weight. Three or more keys per lock would be a plus.
The total price sums up to 785 USD, obviously for a single box, thus to be finally multiplied by two.
The total weight sums up to 25.5 kg for a single box. All the major companies (USPS, DHL, ?FedEx and UPS) need to know the sending/receiving postal codes to obtain a shipping quote.
LucaCapello: the Swiss Post uses TNT for express delivery. Prices for 30 kg and 100 x 60 x 60 cm within nearby (zone 1) and island or farther (zone 2) Europe are around 105 and 160 USD for Priority (up to 10 days) shipment and 85 and 130 USD for Economy (up to 20 days), respectively, including automatic insurance up to 1200 USD, but electronic equipment are excluded from the liability. NB, the prices above are for private customers.
merchandise
These stuff are intended to be sold, not all of them could be included in the main box:
- foilstickers
T-Shirts - DebianArt proposals
d-i multi-arch or live CDs/DVDs
at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2011 there were 32-bit DVDs given away for a simbolic price
stuff to do with a demo box
Thanks to Alexander! The following should be done automatically by the debian-events-box package, something like
# apt-get install debian-events-box # debian-events-box setup
- Create a Demo-User with all sudo-rights on everything.
Install LibreOffice.
AlexanderReichle-Schmehl: the debian-events-box package should add the Debian squeeze backports and auto-install LibreOffice from there
Use Alexander's presentation; it contains a makro, which with you can run in endlessly.
Install virtualbox and in it a BabelBox.
- why not libvirt + QEMU/KVM?
Install xpenguins and xpenguins-applet (often a good eyecatcher).
Check if local mirror works.
I usually have a local mirror with me on expos. If you have to show something to a visitor, you don't want him to wait till you finished download a dozens of packages via slow conference lan
+1 on this: usually we have ASUS WL-500g router running ?DebWrt with an external hard-drive serving a full up-to-date mirror
use either cdn.debian.net or internal APT mirror resolver
- Provide a small GUI to burn CD/DVD/BluRay images and/or make a bootable USB-stick, yet to be coded.
Provide ready-to-copy-and-import (in VirtualBox) virtual appliance so people could give a try to Debian without even rebooting their non-Debian systems
We have been doing that with NeuroDebian Virtual Appliance with good success
Some random ideas of for improvement of the above:
- Is there a way to automate setting up the babelbox?
check Lars's vmdebootstrap and fboxlite
- Is there a way to enter the name of the conference and languages to be displayed for the presentation without having to edit it?
ChristianPerrier: without having to edit "it" ("it" being the babelbox), I don't think so, but an external script that would make this happen is probably possible.
- Is there a way to include (random) comments from the users of out user list on the web?
ChristianPerrier: This, I'm less sure about..
StefanoZacchiroli: check out the Identi.ca Debian tag and group feeds, but they could include both positive and negative dents
AlexanderReichle-Schmehl: we have a nice list of users at http://www.debian.org/users/ including a (more or less small) comment, why they choose Debian