[Pycon-openspaces] Open Spaces planning

Mon Jan 18 13:20:40 EST 2016

Thank you for your input, Kinga!

I still have concerns to be honest but if you both think it’s a great idea I’m certainly willing to try this approach. I just think it would be important that we communicate clearly that this is just „market research“ as Kinga called it and that this is non-binding.
I wonder what the right platform for this would be to reach the most people. I’m thinking it would be best to implement this into the Open Spaces section on the PyCon website since I assume this is the place where people go to read about Open Spaces. I would guess a Google form or survey monkey would be less effective.

I can chat to Brandon about this and ask him if this is possible. Would one of you be willing to take this on if we’re allowed to add this to the PyCon website?

Thank you!
Anna

> Am 18.01.2016 um 19:09 schrieb Kinga Kięczkowska <k.kieczkowska at gmail.com>:
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I understand your points (both of you :) ). I personally think that it is possible to do both things, that is: preserve the "free spirit" of open spaces and have a voting system. I wouldn't treat it as something final or binding, though; it might just be a good way of seeing what people are interested in. The poll could have an option of adding your own idea and voting for any number of options you find interesting. A bit like market research! That can also help people who feel like organising something, but aren't sure what exactly, or are hesitant about a couple of topics and don't know which one to choose.
> 
> I'm also for not pressuring people, but if I was organising an open space myself, I'd want to know if there's anyone interested in participating. Seeing 0 votes next to my idea online would be less disappointing for me than seeing 0 people show up to my open space onsite.
> 
> Of course, the options in the poll should not be in any way "binding" - people should of course be able to organize whatever comes to their minds during the conference ad hoc.
> 
> Kinga
> 
> 2016-01-18 18:01 GMT+00:00 Anna Ossowski <ossanna16 at gmx.de <mailto:ossanna16 at gmx.de>>:
> That’s an interesting thought. Thank you for explaining that to me, Hobson!
> So I’m a bit torn. On the one hand I understand the issue and think polling might be a good idea, on the other hand the big advantage of the Open Spaces is that they are very „free“ and informal in a way, unlike talks, which are chosen based on what people would like to see so if we did a poll I’m afraid we might scare people away from Open Spaces or put some sort of pressure on them to offer what others want to see and not what they would like their Open Space to be about. In general I’m a fan of letting people do what they love. 
> 
> If we did the poll beforehand it would also be an issue that our list of topics wouldn’t be extensive because people tend to come up with topics at PyCon spontaneously. I wonder if we could put up a second board and somehow facilitate a poll onsite but that’s just a thought.
> 
> Maybe Kinga and Brandon can chime in. I’d be interested in their opinion on this.
> 
> Thank you!
> Anna
> 
>> Am 18.01.2016 um 18:52 schrieb Hobson Lane <hobsonlane at gmail.com <mailto:hobsonlane at gmail.com>>:
>> 
>> Gotcha. Perhaps polling would still be a way to inform organizers about the interests of their audience. It's also a good way to inform attendees about open spaces and get their "buy-in" for the range of topics/activities offered. Some of the open spaces seemed lightly attended in past years. I know when I hosted an open space last year, I would have benefited from such a survey. Only one person showed up to my open space on neural nets. If I'd known the interest level was so low I might have adjusted my topic and activity suggestion a bit.
>> 
>> --Hobson
>> 
>> --Hobson
>> (503) 974-6274 <tel:%28503%29%20974-6274>
>> gh <https://github.com/hobson/> twtr <https://twitter.com/hobsonlane> li <https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane> g+ <http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/> so <http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs>
>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 8:32 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16 at gmx.de <mailto:ossanna16 at gmx.de>> wrote:
>> Thank you Hobson!
>> 
>> I just wanted to clarify what our job as the Open Space committee is to make sure we’re all on the same page. Our main job is to facilitate the Open Spaces, which means we make it possible for people to organize their own little Open Spaces by providing rooms, a sign up board, ideas for Open Spaces, general infrastructure, and promotion. Our job is not to organize each little Open Space ourselves. The PyCon attendees will pick a topic, pick a room and a time onsite themselves. Onsite our main job will be to make sure to put up the sign up board everyday, monitor the board and make sure the Open Space topics are CoC appropriate, document the topics, and be there in case of questions.
>> 
>> I hope this clarifies while voting on topics for example is not necessary as the people will sort of make that decision for themselves onsite :)
>> 
>> Have a good week everyone and please feel free to add new cards, assign yourselves to cards, etc.
>> 
>> Anna 
>> 
>>> Am 15.01.2016 um 21:46 schrieb Hobson Lane <hobsonlane at gmail.com <mailto:hobsonlane at gmail.com>>:
>>> 
>>> Thank you. I may not have been logging on or searching for boards correctly. I see it now, and I added a couple cards. Feel free to edit or delete anything I put up.
>>> 
>>> --Hobson
>>> 
>>> On Jan 15, 2016 6:02 AM, "Anna Ossowski" <ossanna16 at gmx.de <mailto:ossanna16 at gmx.de>> wrote:
>>> Hi Hobson,
>>> 
>>> I must have added the wrong Hobson Lane (user name hobsonlane) the first time. That’s strange because I used your email address to find you. Anyway, just readded you under the right user name :)
>>> 
>>> Anna
>>>> Am 15.01.2016 um 14:49 schrieb Hobson Lane <hobsonlane at gmail.com <mailto:hobsonlane at gmail.com>>:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Anna,
>>>> 
>>>> I cant find the Open Space trello board under my user name "hobs".  Could you re-add me?
>>>> 
>>>> --Hobson
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 14, 2016 10:20 AM, "Anna Ossowski" <ossanna16 at gmx.de <mailto:ossanna16 at gmx.de>> wrote:
>>>> Hello Hobson and Kinga,
>>>> 
>>>> I hope you’re both well!
>>>> It’s the new year and PyCon is happening in just a few months. While our main work won’t start until closer to the conference, I just wanted to check in with both of you so we can start planning.
>>>> 
>>>> I just created a Trello board for us, which I added both of you to. If you didn’t get added for some reason, please let me know your Trello name and I’ll add you again. Trello is a great tool for planning and collaboration so I thought it would be useful for us.
>>>> 
>>>> I created 5 boards so far „To Do“, „In Progress“, „Done“, To Contact“, and „Ideas“. Please feel free to create new boards, add cards, or move cards around. I would also like to encourage you to assign yourself to tasks that you would like to tackle. I think the board names are pretty self-explanatory :) When you start working on a task, please just move it to the „In Progress“ board and when it’s done please move it to the „Done“ board.
>>>> 
>>>> My guess is that we should start working on things in March at the latest to have enough time to get everything done before PyCon starts at the end of May but there are things we can start preparing now so feel free to tackle tasks whenever you have time. The only thing we should wait with until closer to PyCon is contacting people. If we contact them too early people might forget about it.
>>>> 
>>>> If you have any questions or need anything, please feel free to contact me anytime :)
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you!
>>>> Anna
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>>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> -- 
> K.Kięczkowska

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