Re: FOSDEM Planning

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 5:58 AM, John Layt <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Well FOSDEM is only two weeks away now and I was wondering what the state of
> planning is?  Do we have any idea what our purpose is besides just showing the
> flag? Are we there to attract new users, new devs, new KF5 clients, new JTG
> supporters, or just whoever turns up?  I think the Qt Project has a stall too,
> do we want to try co-ordinate anything with them?

Showing the flag is plenty good. However, at U.S. shows at least,
people are only vaguely aware of what KDE offers beyond an infinitely
adjustable desktop for Linux, kinda like GNOME, bloated compared to
XFCE. In other words, poorly informed.

Listen to people. Appreciate their perspective. There have been
several occasions where an exuberant KDE person just started talking
without regard for what the stall visitor was actually interested in.
Why is _that_ person here? What are they interested in? What made them
notice KDE? Talk to _them_, not the voice in your head.

Unless you're really good at tradeshow interactions, it really doesn't
work to try to make people come to the stall. The people who show up
are the right people. KDE only has a few used car salespeople types.
Be comfortable with who you are and have your own version of fun.

Don't make shit up. If you don't know, say so and find someone who
does. Ask the person to return when the right person will be there.

Don't gang up on visitors. If someone is having a conversation, butt
out. Make them right. Be the Manifesto and the Code of Conduct. Ask
graciously to interrupt.

Hack in the stall. KDE was distinct at QDD-US in that regard. Mostly
the booths had people waiting to jump on anyone who walked by (common
trade show behavior - avert your eyes, someone might try to sell you
something you don't want). KDE and Ispirata (Dario and Riccardo) had
people alert to answer questions, but also had people working  on
computers or discussing tech topics. Visitors were warmly included.

Cornelius and the Board have recommended concentrating on 3 things --
new users, new developers, new companies (users and sponsors).

It's possible to start conversations about corporate sponsorship, but
those should go to Claudia before they get very far. These
conversations need to relate to what the company is about and
WIIFM...what's in it for me? (from their perspective). What does KDE
offer that is valuable to _that_ person/company? Listen and understand
their situation.

Yes, coordinate with the Qt Project. Half of the presentations at
QDD-Berlin were by people with strong ties to KDE; 1/3 at QDD-US. KDE
is a big user and contributor (in many ways). The Qt5/Frameworks 5
symbiosis is interesting to people, including especially Qt
developers.

Major topics of interest at the shows where I've represented KDE -
LinuxFest NW (grass roots, like FOSDEM on a small scale), LinuxCon
(big time, commercial), Qt Developer Days:
* Notable, visible KDE applications - Krita, ownCloud, Plasma Active
... leading to discussions of other KDE applications depending on what
the stall visitor is interested in. At LinuxFest, we had a Wacom
tablet and Krita available for artistic experimentation. It was a hit,
particularly when a reasonably good artist was working.

Is there someone who could do caricatures or cartoons with Krita? At
LinuxCon, there was quite a line for a person who was drawing cartoons
with PhotoShop. Krita is cooler than that.
* Free and open - KDE is a leading example
* The KDE Community - open and inviting
* Open tablet (Plasma Active running on ExoPC)
* Qt - Qt is big and growing; KDE's contributions to Qt are
exceptionally valuable. Qt 5 > Frameworks 5 + modular KDElib
relationships are interesting to developers.
* Google Summer of Code and Code-In participation

Presentations can be used to send people to the stall...
https://fosdem.org/2013/schedule/track/cross_desktop/

A really important part of the context for participation...
We are doing amazingly cool stuff. KDE is a leader. In technology.
Community. Organizationally. Sociologically. Freedom.

... more specifics below ...

>
> More practically, how far are we with stuff for the stall, do we have:
> * Good condition large tablecloths, preferably KDE blue
> * Large KDE signs for front of table (not allowed any on walls)
> * Poster stands with KDE specific posters
> * Swag to sell / giveaway
> * Distro CD's
> * Join The Game forms, poster
> * Fiduciary Licensing Agreement forms
> * KDE Manifesto?
> * Handouts for new users/devs
> * ???

For those who are not aware, KDE@FOSDEM is organized at:
http://community.kde.org/Promo/Events/FOSDEM/2013

For LinuxCon and Qt Dev Days in the U.S., we produced brochures the
size of a U.S. business card (2x3.5in; ~50x89mm). PDFs attached. These
are easy to hand out, and easy for people to keep.

KDETechCardBack&Front.pdf (attached) brochure for QDD for a handout
and to support the presentations Martin Klapetek, David Edmundson and
I gave. I can provide the Scribus source if someone wants to tweak the
brochure.
The QR code text is:
Main KDE site http://kde.org/
#kde-devel on irc.freenode.net
KDE TechCentral http://techbase.kde.org/
Maillist https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel
KDE APIs http://api.kde.org/
KDE and Google Summer of Code http://bit.ly/qIAqty

KDEBizCard.pdf (attached)
Jos and I worked together on this brochure for LinuxCon. When it was
produced, the Manifesto had not yet been approved. This was a take-off
on material Jos has produced for openSUSE.

Carl

>
> I have a couple of those roll-up poster stands we could stick posters onto,
> but the posters would need to be big to cover up what's underneath.
>
> I can bring the following hardware with me if needed:
> * A 21" widescreen touchscreen monitor that I could try set up as a giant
> Plasma Active demo
> * A 17" standard monitor if no-one else can bring one
> * 2 x Acer Nettops, one with Windows 7 to demo KDE Windows
> * A 13" Macbook with KDE MacPorts
> * A 11.6" HP Notebook with Windows 7 or Linux
> * A Wetab with Plasma Active
>
> If anyone who lives closer, or is more directly involved in say Active, and
> can bring better hardware or better configured software it would save me
> carrying stuff across from the UK.  Anyone have N9 or BB10 devices with Qt/KDE
> stuff on them to demo?
>
> I've been out of things for a little, what KDE features are we most likely to
> get asked about, i.e. what do I need to swat up on?
> * Activities
> * Plasma Active
> * Current state of PIM
> * Qt5 plans
> * ???
>
> Cheers!
>
> John.
>
>
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