openjs-foundation/summit

Next Collaboration Summit - May 4-5 2017, Berlin

joshgav opened this issue ยท 87 comments

The days together in Austin, both at the conference and in the Summit afterwards, were IMO great at helping us reach consensus on some issues, review current and recent work, and make some short-term plans; not to mention strengthen our personal relationships! ๐Ÿป Although we communicate informally in many ways, I think it may be good for us to hold "official" Collaboration Summits more than once per year. @nodejs/collaborators what do you think?

When and where might we hold the next Collaboration Summit? Perhaps alongside a conference in the spring or summer?

EDIT:
Confirmed! May 4-5 2017, Berlin
-Wm
Location: http://co-up.de/ (google maps).

/cc @mikeal @nodejs/tsc

There have been talks about an event in Japan in April. Without going into to many details regarding that event, as it is not yet confirmed, I do think that it would be interesting to offer a summit (and code and learn) in another part of the world

There are several possible events to be attached on, including jsconfeu in May.

@mcollina Great Suggestion! I'm going to be there but I just hadn't thought of pairing up with that one yet :)

jsconf.eu at EUR 700 for a ticket is outrageously expensive, though. Maybe not a big deal for people with corporate sponsorship but for everyone else it's pretty steep.

@bnoordhuis the summit would be detached from JSConf.eu so people attending the summit wouldn't need a JSConf ticket. The foundation would fit the bill for the venue and catering, we'd just be doing it the same week as JSConf so that people who were already traveling into Berlin for it could easily extend their trip to attend.

jsconf.eu sounds extremely convenient, but then again I am based in Europe and was already planning to attend, so I might be a bit biased

How about doing it in Moscow eventually?

Moscow is a suboptimal choice logistically since most collaborators would need a visa to go there.

P.S. Did some calculations. Out of 78 collaborators who have specified their location, 72 would need a visa to Russia, 10 to USA, 9 to Japan and 8 to the Schengen area (assuming they are citizens of the countries they live in, which is wrong in at least one case).

Welcome to my world :) I need to get visa to practically every place except Russia and USA.

Would an exotic country be of good choice? ;) India... Seriously, a code and learn session here would be extremely useful.

How about doing it in Moscow eventually?

Oh, I'm in! ๐Ÿ˜€

If it's in Berlin I probably wouldn't mind paying for the flight as it's pretty close (~$200) and would love to attend.

I would be glad to attend this meeting (given that it would happen in 2017) =).

@ChALkeR no matter where it's held?

Going to make an effort for this meeting as well. Both Japan and Europe sounds like fun.

This shouldn't be a thread about fun places to visit :)

We are trying to co-locate with an event that is already drawing a lot of our contributors in order to reduce costs and maximize the number of contributors at the event.

From experience, JSConf.eu pulls a lot of people in from all over Europe. While I have thoroughly enjoyed all my trips to Japan for NodeFest, it tends to pull in a local audience more than an international audience. That doesn't mean we can'd do something great in Japan alongside one of their events, but something like Code & Learn is probably more fitting than a Collab Summit :)

Being that the last event was in the US I'd definitely like to see the next one located somewhere else to lower the barrier for our international contributors but we need to be strategic in where we put it in order to maximize participants and reduce costs.

@seishun I think that travel+entrance+hotel prices would be the limiting factor for me in some of the cases, as I don't have corporate sponsorship (I don't expect problems with visas for Europe or USA), also I would like to avoid some places (but I don't think that we would have a conference in those).

@mikeal sorry for the poor choice of wording, but I think it was good that you elaborated on rationale for choosing location. My comment was mostly about being able to do both locations.

@jbergstroem I didn't mean for that to be directed at you, the whole thread was going in that direction :)

@ChALkeR the foundation has travel stipends you can apply for.

@mikeal Thanks, I will take that into an account (in fact, I was aware of that, but the reason why I didn't travel to conferences in 2016 was not financial and thus wasn't solvable by travel stipends).

The main point of my previous message was that I would try to attend conferences in 2017 (unlike 2016), given that it would be feasable from the financial side (with or without travel stipends). It doesn't have to be in Moscow for that (though I would definitely attend an event in Moscow) =).

For me, not joining is mainly financially driven. If one were to be hosted in Japan, definitely count me in :)

@MylesBorins have there been any news about the event in Japan? Are the talks still ongoing?

To the best of my knowledge, the event in Japan is not happening.

We still need to start planning if we want a collaborator summit to happen in May/June, or flying people around is going to be costly.

I hope we can do something in Berlin during JSConf EU.

+1 to trying to arrange something in Berlin

The possibilities are the 4th and 5th or the 8th and 9th of May.

Since I am living in Berlin I am happy to support with organising, logistically or even financially. Just let me know.

Who would be the group of people deciding whether we do this or not? @nodejs/tsc? Iโ€™m adding the label but feel free to modify that if Iโ€™m mistakenโ€ฆ

Also /cc @williamkapke because he probably knows the actual answer to that question

@addaleax yup- the TSC would propose it to the Board and get final approval.

Ok, given that, as @mcollina mentioned above, there are really two dates for an event around JSConf EU that make the most sense, maybe we should we have a quick poll to see what collaborators would prefer?

@nodejs/collaborators: Could you please

  • ๐Ÿ˜„ this comment if you would be able to be at a summit on May 4th/5th
  • ๐ŸŽ‰ this comment if you would be able to be at a summit on May 8th/9th
    ? :)

Edit: Remember that you can use multiple reactions! ;)

Have we looked into available spaces for this? The dates may be limited by this

I donโ€™t think so (and, like, my little poll wasnโ€™t intended to be a definitive vote for the date). If weโ€™d really only going to be on the order of 10 people (and still decide to do it) finding a space should be pretty easyโ€ฆ

@MylesBorins I put out a call on twitter but didn't hear back yet, I'm going to poke some people individually next.

I've just been talking to @janl and he thinks co-up could work.

Co-up is a great space, I've been there many times and is one of the focal points of the Berlin open source and JS scene :)

We talked about this a bit in this weekโ€™s TSC meeting, and right now it would be good to see some suggestions for concrete issues that we should discuss, so that we can estimate whether a one-day or two-day summit makes the most sense.

/cc @nodejs/collaborators feel free to brainstorm!

@addaleax I'd phrase it another terms: do we want to do a "Code & Learn" as well or not?

do we want to do a "Code & Learn" as well or not?

I know that would not be included in the 2017 budget plans for Code & Learn, so โ€“ and @hackygolucky or @mikeal, correct me if Iโ€™m wrong โ€“ I think that can be answered as something we wonโ€™t do?

@mcollina @addaleax I've been thinking that "Code & Learn" and "Collaborators' Summit" are similar concepts at heart which happen to manifest differently because they target different audiences. That is, both "Code & Learn" and "Collaboration Summit" bring together a bunch of developers and architects to discuss, contribute to and enhance Node core; Collab Summits just happen to attract those of us who've had a bit more experience and time here, and maybe come in with work items to discuss.

With that in mind, perhaps as part of Code & Learn we should offer additional domains at a deeper depth for more experienced contributors, as a form of Collaboration Summit. For example, I could spend an hour discussing Diagnostics projects and needed work, such as Trace Controller and Inspector, and a group could hack on and discuss these items for a couple days. That group could include members of the Diag WG if/when feasible.

It might be useful to discuss the community committee more. Since it's still in its infancy, there's lots to be done. It does depend on how many of the community committee members will be in attendance (there's not many of us). cc @hackygolucky.

Ah, so is this happening around the time of JSConfEU? I didn't realize the discussions were that far along. @nebrius it's a super busy time of year for me, but I can make sure I'm there if I need to be for this(was on the side of attending JSConfEU anyway for advocacy work). I would loooove to have more people from the Collaborators group participating in the CommComm discussions!

@addaleax Yeah, we didn't budget for a Code & Learn attached to a spring Collab Summit. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen. It just wouldn't have budget to support travel/space/food&bev but that just means a more DIY approach if y'all would like to. The travel for y'all would already be covered from the TSC travel fund anyway for Collab Summit, right?

Trott commented

Two more options, which are not mutually exclusive:

  • We could do a smaller/quieter/unfunded Code & Learn (and just call it NodeTodo if the Foundation doesn't want to do small quiet things).

  • Instead or even at the same time, maybe spend some time working on clearing out the backlog of pull requests and issues on the project. Seriously, if we could close 50 old PRs and 50 old issues, that would be huge. I think it is discouraging for both the people who contributed the PRs and issues as well as discouraging to others to see large numbers of open PRs/issues that are basically perpetually ignored.

Hey all... I don't want to be that human but I think we need to settle on a day. Are we doing one day or two days.

It is started to make sense to me to run this before jsconf as people will already be around

Also want to mention that quite a bit of the V8 team is going to be in town on the Friday before JSConf.

As such I would like to push that we move forward with running the summit the 4th and 5th. I also think that we should plan a node + V8 dinner for the evening of the 5th.

I agree @MylesBorins. So does May 4th and 5th work for enough people? Something to vote on in the next TSC meeting?

Let me know if y'all want any kind of help coordinating. I'm still having to figure out whether I can make it, but we def got feedback after the last one. I'll make a separate issue about the Fall summit.

If we can get a good number of contributors present then definite +1. We should look at having a more organized agenda than the last couple we had.

Yeah, I think weโ€™re pretty much settled on May 4th + 5th. Itโ€™s on the TSC agenda, so I guess thereโ€™s nothing speaking against confirming this on Thursday in the meeting.

Given that @mikeal indicated the space might be available to us without cost, and the idea was to bring in collaborators on the TSC budget, I donโ€™t think the TSC actually needs to ask the Board for anything?

And I agree that it would still be good to have a good indication of how many @nodejs/collaborators (and maybe V8 people, @nodejs/v8) would be able to attend. You can still react to #39 (comment), fwiw.

+1 to discussing and finalizing at the next TSC meeting. I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say that the sooner this is finalized, the more time we have to arrange travel and go through the necessary steps of getting it approved.

Following up: we officially confirmed May 4th + 5th for the summit at today's TSC meeting, so everyone feel free to start booking travel!

Also, count me in as an attendee. I'm confirmed going.

I'll be there, too.

I am looking forward to this summit. I will be Berlin in 4th and 5th May. But I concern about the start time, according to my current flight schedule, I will be Berlin at 7:00 PM 4th May... but I can arrange this schedule flexible.

@nebrius Is the exact schedule (like the start time and end time) available? What is the exact location (is it Arena Berlin)?

I will definitely be there as well.

@ChALkeR the venue is still being secured (paging @mikeal), and the schedule is still to be determined. I would plan on each day being a typical full day, probably 9am-ish to 5pm-ish.

\o I will be there

\o Plan to be there as well

I will be at the collaborator summit!

Once we lock in the venue details we should add to http://wwwtf.berlin/

i'll join you! :) ๐ŸŽ‰

Sorry to say this, but I won't be able to make it after all :( (just removed my above participation)

Qard commented

I'm going to sit this one out. I'd love to go, but I can't afford it and I can't really justify asking for assistance again with how uninvolved I've been lately... ๐Ÿ˜ž

It would be rad for us to get a schedule set up similar to what we did in Austin(our team set up a spreadsheet and @williamkapke had fun getting it up on screen and shared with everyone), with the spreadsheet of times that various groups could schedule into ahead. I know some of this happens onsite at the beginning of Collab Summit, but any ahead of time scheduling is usually helpful for people to maximize attending the most sessions!

Indeed @hackygolucky! Many people ended up looking at that TV to figure out what was happening & where. It was a fairly low-tech solution, but I think it worked fine.

Here's the previous schedule BTW: #38

@Qard, the TSC has a travel fund you (and everyone else!) should ask about. We have the money set aside for this- we should use it!

Depending on what WG's we have represented at the event, it would be excellent to have a structured plenary session with a 20-30 minute presentation and discussion from each WG to update everyone on recent activities, current objectives, etc. Then, of course, open time for each of the WG's to get together. The structured plenary could come at the end of the collaborator summit event so if the WG's want, they could present what was discussed / planned at the summit itself.

Rough sketch schedule:

Day 1: Morning:
Opening Breakfast / Introduction (30 minutes)
WG Sessions
Lunch
WG Sessions

Day 2: Morning
Opening Breakfast
WG Sessions
Lunch
TSC/CTC Panel (TSC/CTC members fielding questions and discussion from collaborators)
WG Presentations

The WG Sessions would be unconference open schedule type things kind of like what we did in Austin.

Thinking about it further, it would be beneficial during the plenary session to include an update presentation from @mikeal or @hackygolucky about what is happening on the Foundation side of things along with an update on the Community Committee.

@jasnell Cool. Sounds good to me.

Qard commented

@williamkapke Yeah, I used it for Austin. I don't really like asking for foundation money when there's probably plenty of other people more in need or more deserving of that money than I though. It'd also be quite an expensive trip from Vancouver to Berlin!

I'd love to be more involved again, but I've just been doing contract work for awhile and it's not awarding me the time and financial ability to be as involved as I'd like in the community. ๐Ÿ˜”

How about having a quick plenary at the beginning for all WGs to give a quick intro and mentioned what needs to be worked on (I'm thinking 2 minutes each)? I think this could help people decide which sessions to sit on in the case that they want to be in more than one. Then at the end, we could have the longer plenary to discuss what was accomplished and what the next steps are.

Is it confirmed that the summit will take place at co.up? Trying to find a hotel nearby...

@targos Iโ€™d say thatโ€™s a reasonable assumption to make. The funds should get approved in tomorrows board meeting, thatโ€™s the only thing weโ€™re waiting for.

excellent. I'm going to be there

I can be there pending funding, talking to my work to see if they can cover all or (more likely) some of the cost and will put in a funding request based on that.

Anyone attending interested in discussing some website issues?
(Updating foundation/TSC/governance stuff, events, discussing possible redesign topics, translations, etc)

I'm going to try and make it.

Funding for the Berlin venue was approved in today's board meeting.

Can someone modify the description to include up-to-date date/time/venue information? I'm trawling the thread, trying to confirm its Thursday/Friday May 4th and 5th.

Is the venue fixed already?

Don't know... makes it hard to book hotels.

Yes, this will be happening at http://co-up.de/ (google maps).

Thanks @addaleax - I don't have edit rights, do you? could you add that to the issue description?

@sam-github Done. Does anybody here mind if I give the collaborators team write access here? It only seems reasonable to do thatโ€ฆ

(edit: did that. yell at me if you disagree. :))

Yes, given that its a collaborators summit, seems like collaborators should have write access.

Is this the planning issue or #41? I'm wondering which is a better place for everyone to be going for further details as we're all helping out.

Iโ€™ll just close this out, this thread is simply too long for newcomers to oversee. Letโ€™s move things to #41.