posse_south_africa_final_sanity_check
LOGS
14:41:41 <mchua> #startmeeting
14:41:41 <zodbot> Meeting started Thu Sep 30 14:41:41 2010 UTC.  The chair is mchua. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
14:41:41 <zodbot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic.
14:41:46 <micadeyeye> I was about to send you an sms.
14:41:50 <mchua> #meetingname POSSE South Africa final sanity check
14:41:50 <zodbot> The meeting name has been set to 'posse_south_africa_final_sanity_check'
14:41:53 <mchua> #chair micadeyeye
14:41:53 <zodbot> Current chairs: mchua micadeyeye
14:42:18 <mchua> First of all, thanks for everything you've done to make this happen, Michael. I'm really looking forward to next week, and I know Jan and Pierros are as well, and my entire team.
14:42:30 <mchua> And thanks for taking time in the middle of a busy conference today to do our pre-flight checklist. :)
14:42:45 <mchua> How's the conference coming?
14:42:49 * mchua pulls up the POSSE page
14:43:16 <micadeyeye> You are welcome. The conference is going on fine.
14:43:43 <mchua> #topic Agenda
14:43:43 <mchua> #info * Curriculum status
14:43:43 <mchua> #info * Staffing and travel logistics status
14:43:43 <mchua> #info * Budget status
14:43:43 <mchua> #info * Enrollment/recruitment status
14:43:45 <mchua> #info * Visitors and guest lecturers status
14:43:48 <mchua> #info * PR status
14:43:50 <mchua> And then a few last minute things...
14:43:53 <mchua> #info * Meeting on Sunday?
14:44:04 <mchua> micadeyeye: Anything else you want to talk about today, just to make sure we're solid? Most of these, I think, should be pretty fast.
14:44:44 <micadeyeye> I Everything is order.
14:44:46 <mchua> I don't want to keep you from your conference too long, so I'll just go through things quickly and then if there's anything else you want to confirm, we can go through that. :)
14:44:50 <mchua> Okay.
14:44:53 <mchua> #topic Curriculum status
14:44:55 <mchua> #link http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_South_Africa#Schedule
14:45:08 <mchua> #info We're all set with curriculum, attendees have been mailed the schedule and pre-readings.
14:45:29 <mchua> #link http://teachingopensource.org/pipermail/posse-south-africa/2010-September/000001.html
14:45:31 <micadeyeye> Yeah, I have working on it.
14:45:34 <micadeyeye> been**
14:45:39 * mchua nods
14:45:52 <mchua> I think that's it for curriculum, we're set and I'll be bringing in printed copies of the schedule, etc.
14:46:19 <mchua> #info questions and comments about the curriculum should go to the tos list (for general curriculum commentary) and the posse-south-africa list (for specific "what do I do for this session?" questions).
14:46:27 <mchua> #topic staffing and travel logistics
14:46:36 <mchua> #info All set and taken care of, instructors will be in town by Sunday evening.
14:46:40 <mchua> #topic Budget status
14:47:08 <mchua> #info All set; we have spent/budgeted $6278.41 out of our $7000 max budget, so we have $721.59 remaining.
14:47:37 <mchua> #info We may use some of this for printing/copying materials, etc. and are generally leaving it as a buffer, just in case.
14:47:46 <mchua> #info Thank you to CPUT for sponsoring Thursday night's dinner!
14:47:51 <mchua> #topic Enrollment/recruitment
14:47:56 <micadeyeye> Great.
14:48:08 <mchua> #link http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_South_Africa#Professors
14:48:17 <mchua> #info Still missing information from Kruben Naidoo
14:48:29 <mchua> #action mchua to follow up with Kruben Naidoo on answers to the application questions
14:48:42 <micadeyeye> How about what down the street for the dinner? 10-15min.
14:48:45 <mchua> micadeyeye: We'll have a small class, but it looks like it's going to be a great one.
14:48:49 <mchua> micadeyeye: That sounds excellent.
14:49:20 <micadeyeye> I am also considering another venue that might requiring us join a shuttle.
14:49:35 <mchua> micadeyeye: I'm guessing we won't be getting full-week attendees at this point, but if people at the conference here, etc. are interested in coming by as guests, any of the purple items in the schedule are good for drop-bys, though we ask them to tell us a day in advance so we can prep.
14:49:59 <mchua> micadeyeye: Ok - I think, unless the food is way better at the 2nd place, we might want to go somewhere within walking distance just to simplify logistics a bit. :)
14:50:11 <mchua> But you're the local expert, so I defer to you on all matters of food and such. :)
14:50:55 <mchua> #topic Visitors and guest lecturers
14:50:55 <micadeyeye> Okay. we will decide on it later.
14:51:11 <mchua> #link http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_South_Africa#Professors
14:51:24 <mchua> micadeyeye: Yeah, I think as long as we know on Thursday when we're eating dinner, we should be okay.
14:51:28 <mchua> #undo
14:51:28 <zodbot> Removing item from minutes: <MeetBot.items.Link object at 0x2b7d2f3df890>
14:51:35 <mchua> #link http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_South_Africa#Guests
14:51:38 <mchua> There we go.
14:51:48 <mchua> So, guests are still trickling in, but it looks like we'll have some cool outside presence coming in person.
14:52:01 <mchua> And of course people who drop by this channel remotely while the workshop is in session.
14:52:13 <micadeyeye> Kruben Naidoo might not be keenly interested. I would expect him to drop by though. He's a 'Mirosoft' guy.
14:52:15 <mchua> We're basically set here, I'll continue to handle logistics for this through the week.
14:52:18 * mchua nods
14:52:27 <mchua> micadeyeye: Ok... I thought he was a full-week registrant.
14:53:02 <mchua> micadeyeye: Open source is a lot more than Linux, though. I mean, you're a Mozilla contributor, that's very much cross-platform. :)
14:53:07 <micadeyeye> He earlier showed interest.
14:53:21 <mchua> See, my main worry is attendance numbers - professors participating, ideally as full-week attendees but if not at least as guests.
14:54:10 <mchua> Because in terms of Red Hat's investment - we're spending a lot of budget (a big chunk of it in the form of people-time) to do this workshop, and so we're trying to justify it as "it cost us $X per professor."
14:55:07 <mchua> If we only have 4 full-time attendees, that's over $3k per attendee (though I'm definitely looking forward to meeting everyone who's signed up - they sound great!)
14:55:31 <mchua> That's the reason I've been pushing for more attendees, and for guests to come by; then we can show that we've "touched" a larger number of faculty.
14:55:50 <mchua> Which will make it easier to advocate for the funding for POSSEs in Africa that you want to run later on.
14:56:28 <micadeyeye> Mel, one thing have realized is that most of our professors (around the globe) tend to keep to themselves at first. It's not different here. I wonder why it took so long for those who applied to do so.
14:56:34 * mchua nods
14:56:45 <mchua> It's a lesson we're continuously learning. :)
14:57:33 <micadeyeye> I am getting in touch with the UCT professors.
14:57:38 <mchua> I know next week's POSSE is going to be fantastic - we have a small class, but it's a very good one.
14:57:44 * mchua nods
14:58:04 <micadeyeye> I want my HoD to contact their's.
14:58:41 <micadeyeye> I was glad Stefano mentioned that he saw the notices.
14:58:51 * mchua nods.
14:59:06 <mchua> micadeyeye: Do you think we could encourage professors (on a person-to-person basis) to come by for an hour or two?
14:59:45 <mchua> Not necessarily formally, through their departments... but have the professors who are coming invite their local colleagues to drop by for a curriculum workshop session, or a reading group, or a guided classroom session? (All the units are one hour each.)
14:59:45 <micadeyeye> Yes, we could. And that's what I have been doing here.
14:59:49 * mchua nods
14:59:51 <mchua> Thanks, Michael.
14:59:54 <mchua> I know you're on top of things. :)
15:00:03 <mchua> And a lot of times this sort of thing comes together at the last minute.
15:00:16 <mchua> Looking at http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_South_Africa#Schedule, the best times for drop-bys...
15:00:25 <micadeyeye> I did sent mails to a number of them both at the UCT and other instutitions in SA.
15:00:39 <micadeyeye> send**
15:00:44 <mchua> 1) the ones marked in green, which is when the group will be going through your own projects, so this would be a "come over and help me design a class" invitation.
15:00:52 <mchua> 2) the ones in yellow, which are reading/discussion groups in the morning.
15:01:23 <mchua> 3) the ones in purple, which are hands-on workshop sessions - as opposed to project time, which is less optimal for drop-by.
15:01:43 <mchua> micadeyeye: basically, "if it's not pink, it should work."
15:02:31 <mchua> micadeyeye: Anything I can do to help you with this from a distnace?
15:02:34 <mchua> er, distance?
15:03:07 <micadeyeye> The schedule is awesome.
15:03:13 <mchua> I'm looking forward to it. :)
15:03:33 <mchua> I'll drop a few notes about PR here, and then we can come back to guest recruiment or whatever else you'd like.
15:03:36 <mchua> #topic PR status
15:03:48 <mchua> #info http://opensource.com liveblogging will go on throughout the week
15:04:16 <mchua> #info We already have an article queued up to go live before the weekend, telling people we're doing the POSSE
15:04:20 <mchua> #link http://opensource.com/education/10/9/south-africa-welcomes-posse-what-means
15:04:28 <mchua> (it's not live yet, but will be pushed out soon as they have a graphic)
15:04:49 <micadeyeye> I get it.
15:04:58 <mchua> #action mchua find Kara in person today wrt press release status.
15:05:11 <mchua> I haven't heard back from her re: contacting CPUT's PR department, so I'm just going to walk by her desk and see what's up with that.
15:05:38 <mchua> We should be pretty good - the material will be going out on opensource.com, and that will make it easier to point to for followup PR for both our institutions.
15:06:07 <micadeyeye> Great. I am not sure either if they have been in touch.
15:06:09 <mchua> That's all I had, other than a few odds-and-ends questions.
15:06:11 * mchua nods
15:06:15 <mchua> micadeyeye: I'll let you know what I find out.
15:06:18 <mchua> #topic Q&A
15:06:35 <mchua> micadeyeye: A few last minute things... do you need help with setup Sunday evening, would you like to get together for dinner near CPUT/our hotel?
15:06:41 <mchua> (my treat, of course :)
15:06:52 <micadeyeye> I will come by.
15:06:58 <mchua> So you can meet Jan and Pierros ahead of time, talk about what's going to happen...
15:07:01 * mchua nods
15:07:06 <mchua> micadeyeye: Okay, we have phone numbers, so I think we should be all right. :)
15:07:24 <mchua> The three of us will be spending the meeting with in-person prep, since we've been syncing remotely but have never actually met each other face to face before.
15:07:28 <micadeyeye> I used my cellphone to call you. You can save the number.
15:07:28 <mchua> (myself, Jan, and Pierros)
15:07:31 <mchua> micadeyeye: Got it.
15:07:57 <micadeyeye> Really?
15:08:12 * micadeyeye nods
15:08:16 <mchua> micadeyeye: In terms of classroom setup - internet/wireless is ok? Will everyone be bringing their own computers, or are there machines in the room? I don't recall.
15:08:34 <micadeyeye> no machines in the room.
15:08:45 <mchua> Ok, I told everyone to bring their own machines anyhow, so we should be all right.
15:08:46 <micadeyeye> Everyone has to bring their computers.
15:08:52 <mchua> Cool, just making sure. :)
15:09:40 <mchua> micadeyeye: I think everything else we can figure out on Sunday night - like what time to meet up to open the classrooms (if we need you there for that), etc.
15:09:53 <micadeyeye> And preferences regarding the refreshments and dinner?
15:10:18 <mchua> micadeyeye: Yep, that too - anything we don't think of before I get on a plane. :)
15:10:36 <mchua> micadeyeye: ...I'm feeling great about next week, really!
15:10:49 * micadeyeye too
15:11:07 <mchua> I'll go to the office this afternoon and hunt down Kara re: the PR, and... let me know if there's anything I can do to help you pull in guests.
15:11:17 <micadeyeye> sunday nite - 5.30pm
15:11:21 <mchua> Thank you so much, Michael - you've been doing a *tremendous* amount of work to make this happen, and I really appreciate it
15:11:33 <micadeyeye> thanks Mel.
15:11:43 <mchua> and hope we can get you geared up to do lots of regional POSSEs in the future, and support whatever projects you'd like to take on. :)
15:12:11 <mchua> micadeyeye: 5:30pm Sunday night sounds like a good target; I think Jan and I will be able to make it from the airport to the hotel by then. I'll let you know via SMS when he and I find each other at the airport.
15:12:19 <mchua> #info 5:30pm Sunday night instructor + Michael meetup
15:12:37 <mchua> micadeyeye: Anything else?
15:12:41 <mchua> I think I'm pretty set. :)
15:13:26 <micadeyeye> And when is Pierros coming in?
15:13:44 <mchua> micadeyeye: He lands on Saturday night.
15:13:56 <micadeyeye> Great.
15:14:18 <micadeyeye> Any plans to tour Cape Town, the mother city?
15:15:07 <mchua> micadeyeye: I'd like to do that some afternoon, but probably Tuesday or Wednesday when things are a bit more set - it's something we can talk about on Sunday, too.
15:15:16 <mchua> micadeyeye: spevack wants me to get a picture of a penguin. ;)
15:15:29 * mchua forwards micadeyeye flight info for myself, Jan, and Pierros
15:15:32 <micadeyeye> lol!!
15:16:19 <mchua> micadeyeye: I may ask you about that on Sunday, just so you know. :)
15:16:31 <mchua> micadeyeye: Anything else? I don't want to keep you from your conference too long - I know you're incredibly busy right now.
15:16:37 <mchua> (Thank you, again, for taking the time to do this!)
15:16:55 <micadeyeye> Mel, I was thinking of something. Can you draft an invitation letter that I could send to the department of CS, UCT?
15:17:39 <micadeyeye> I would have loved my HoD to do that but am not sure of when he will be doing so.
15:17:43 <micadeyeye> I have a draft.
15:17:52 <micadeyeye> Am sending over shortly.
15:18:00 <mchua> micadeyeye: Sure, send me the draft and I'll put it on letterhead and turn around a PDF to you before I go to lunch.
15:18:11 <micadeyeye> Great.
15:18:12 <mchua> Red Hat letterhead okay?
15:18:31 <micadeyeye> It would be nice to have it on a letterhand.
15:18:45 <mchua> Will do.
15:18:55 <mchua> I'll send you a pdf with Red Hat branding all over it. :)
15:19:51 <micadeyeye> sent!!
15:20:00 <mchua> micadeyeye: Awesome, thanks! I'll get you that letter, then I'll eat lunch and go track town Kara.
15:20:05 <mchua> er, s/town/down.
15:20:09 <mchua> micadeyeye: All set? :)
15:20:17 <micadeyeye> Red-Hat letterhead is fine.
15:20:33 <mchua> Excellent.
15:20:35 <mchua> Will do.
15:21:21 <mchua> micadeyeye: Anything else? That's all I had, I think we're set until Sunday, and we have the mailing list to pass notes to attendees too.
15:21:42 <micadeyeye> How about you sending it?
15:22:04 <micadeyeye> Really, my department should be doing this.
15:22:04 <mchua> micadeyeye: Sending the letter pdf to... you, or directly to the professors?
15:22:07 * mchua nods
15:22:13 <micadeyeye> to the HoD.
15:22:30 <micadeyeye> I was thinking that we are running short on time.
15:22:38 * mchua nods
15:23:03 <mchua> micadeyeye: I'm a bit confused - I thought I would be taking the letter text you sent me, signing it with my name instead of your HoD's, and giving it back to you on Red Hat letterhead so you could use that as an invitation letter to send out.
15:23:07 * mchua may have misunderstood
15:25:01 <micadeyeye> lol!! I got it. You just the mail I sent you. Okay, send it back to me.
15:25:38 <mchua> micadeyeye: One sec, generating pdf now. :)
15:26:24 <micadeyeye> okay.
15:27:12 <mchua> micadeyeye: sent.
15:27:20 <micadeyeye> great.
15:28:14 <micadeyeye> That's awesome.
15:28:29 <micadeyeye> I will be sending it to them shortly.
15:28:55 <mchua> micadeyeye: Excellent. Anything else I can do for you?
15:29:01 <mchua> Otherwise, I'll get lunch and then start hunting down Kara. :)
15:29:18 <micadeyeye> I am fine
15:29:36 <mchua> Awesome.
15:29:45 <mchua> Thanks, micadeyeye - I'll see you Sunday night, then. :)
15:29:58 <micadeyeye> you too. bye
15:30:01 <mchua> #endmeeting