[okfn-coord] [Fwd: COMMUNIA workshop/OKCon dates]

Mon Oct 27 18:58:56 UTC 2008

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 4:54 PM,  <jo at frot.org> wrote:
> dear Jonny, all,
>
>> Pro and I previously discussed having OKCon - 14th, CC Europe - 15th,
>> and COMMUNIA workshop on 15th-17th. I think Rufus may have had some
>> reservations about these dates due to conflict with other events?
>>
>> The other thing is, we should think about 'theme' for OKCon 2009 ASAP,
>> if its going ahead, so we can circulate a CFP and invite speakers ASAP.
>> I suggest opening up this question on discuss list - if there are no
>
> "If" - what are the restraining factors - finding time and energy to
> organise another event? Finances? Does COMMUNIA come with a grant for
> rent of space and is the CC Europe event also institutionally
> supported? Venues for these things are already lined up?

The exact right questions Jo :)

Basically this won't require much funding or other stuff but will
require some energy from us to organize (though we are getting better
and more efficient at it as time goes by). Given that Communia is now
happening I think it would be crazy of us not to do OKCon.

BTW I would emphasize we can't use COMMUNIA funding to support OKCon
itself (that is only for the COMMUNIA workshop) but I don't think it
would be problematic if a speaker who was flown in for COMMUNIA was
also invited to OKCon (furthermore from a simple people point of view
those who come to COMMUNIA may well be interested in OKCon and vice
versa).

> My feeling re OKCon is that it would be good to do one as mostly "Open Space"
> with a couple of keynote presentations at the beginning and a chance
> for the audience to break into smaller groups. The whole four days

I am agreed on this. I think we could limit ourselves to only having
proper 'talks' before lunch and having the whole of the afternoon for
workshops etc.

> could be presented as "OKFN Presents..." and try to get the COMMUNIA
> crowd along for the whole thing.

I think we should definitely get as many people along from COMMUNIA as
possible though I think we probably need to distinguish the two events
(the workshop I imagine as being substantially more
academiccy/policy-makerish whereas OKCon has always been much more
informal, techno-social geeky and lowfi).

> Theme-wise I would suggest something like "Compatibility and
> Co-operation" - how do we create successful compromises and combine
> both data and organising effort while maintaining integrity (of both
> data and effort ;) )

That seems to me an excellent title. Something we could run with
already pretty much.

> Did anything come of the discussion about use of the venue at The Hub KX
> (and the possibility of freebie or good discount there?) I can put a
> couple of hundred quid towards costs this year.

There's a discussion on okfn-help which has been drifting a bit. It
would definitely be good to coordinate with those guys but I'm not
entirely clear that our interests align sufficiently regarding this
particular event.

> I am happy with those dates and would love to come over for those 4
> days though there is a bit of unplannable uncertainty, as Archer's
> Canadian grandfather is expecting a kidney transplant sometime in
> March, we wanted to be around for it, and it may be a while before the
> op is definitely scheduled.

Quite understand. It is now looking like this will all take place in
last week of March.

Regards,

Rufus