Hallo everyone.
I'm Paul from England, Europe and a Centos 5.6 user.
I would like to support efforts to promote the excellent Centos product.
I favour publicising Centos more. It really is a brilliant product created and maintained by a tiny few who are mainly unknown to the vast quantity of world users.
One of my recent suggestions is an annual week long Centos event on every continent.
For Europe, perhaps in sunny Belgium. To make it affordable for all it could be camping rather than expensive hotels and held in June, July or August.
We could make it happen in Europe in 2012 when the streets of London are grid-locked (that's American for jammed) with Olympic traffic and parts of London grind to a halt.
A welcome and refreshing break, good weather, stimulating thoughts and learning and discovering new things plus the tasty Belgium chips (USA = fries) and beer.
The suggestion is to get the European summer camping and conference event going, followed by a hotel based winter event and formal conference. November is probably a good month in Europe to exploit the slack times in hotel and conference centre bookings. Eastern Europe is likely to be a lot cheap that western Europe, although bargains can sometimes be found in amazing locations (usually if one promises not to publicise the low rates).
Centos lacks the money M$ had when it started promoting its product like it was washing-power or some every-day domestic product that everyone has or needs (that was in USA's Las Vegas when M$ had pillow cases in bedrooms printed with their product's name).
However, with virtually no cash but enthusiasm, vision, tenacity and a drop or two of inspiration and good co-operation we can make it happen.
Its your show. Can I join ?
hi,
I'm Bert from Belgium and not very active here, though a mailing list.
If you would decide to host such an event in Belgium, don't forget to ping me, I think I know the perfect location for a 2 day summit in Ghent, for a smaller group (max 100p/day).
anyway, I'll follow this thread, and I'll see where I can help :-)
cheers, Bert
On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 4:53 PM, Always Learning centos@u61.u22.net wrote:
Hallo everyone.
I'm Paul from England, Europe and a Centos 5.6 user.
I would like to support efforts to promote the excellent Centos product.
I favour publicising Centos more. It really is a brilliant product created and maintained by a tiny few who are mainly unknown to the vast quantity of world users.
One of my recent suggestions is an annual week long Centos event on every continent.
For Europe, perhaps in sunny Belgium. To make it affordable for all it could be camping rather than expensive hotels and held in June, July or August.
We could make it happen in Europe in 2012 when the streets of London are grid-locked (that's American for jammed) with Olympic traffic and parts of London grind to a halt.
A welcome and refreshing break, good weather, stimulating thoughts and learning and discovering new things plus the tasty Belgium chips (USA = fries) and beer.
The suggestion is to get the European summer camping and conference event going, followed by a hotel based winter event and formal conference. November is probably a good month in Europe to exploit the slack times in hotel and conference centre bookings. Eastern Europe is likely to be a lot cheap that western Europe, although bargains can sometimes be found in amazing locations (usually if one promises not to publicise the low rates).
Centos lacks the money M$ had when it started promoting its product like it was washing-power or some every-day domestic product that everyone has or needs (that was in USA's Las Vegas when M$ had pillow cases in bedrooms printed with their product's name).
However, with virtually no cash but enthusiasm, vision, tenacity and a drop or two of inspiration and good co-operation we can make it happen.
Its your show. Can I join ?
-- With best regards,
Paul. England, EU.
CentOS-promo mailing list CentOS-promo@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-promo
Hoi Bert,
If you would decide to host such an event in Belgium, don't forget to ping me, I think I know the perfect location for a 2 day summit in Ghent, for a smaller group (max 100p/day).
Never heard of Ghent. Google shows me 'Gent' which I have heard of. Is that 'op de weg' tussen Oostende en Antwerpen Kennedy Tunnel ?
I was thinking of 7 days with the main event in the middle of those 7 days. This would allow those with little time to attend only the main event and the others, with more time, to arrive early and depart late, explore the place and attend 'fringe' events and generally relax and enjoy themselves.
Is camping aanwezig in de buurt van Gent of de huur locatie ?
Needed:-
Commercial sponsorship, multiple
good, low rates
speakers
exhibits
classes in Linux/Centos (free or very low cost)
comparison with Windoze and Centos/KDE/Gnome etc.
promotion materials
cheap but good quality Centos branded goods (caps, tee-shirts, polos, sweat shirts, mugs enz.)
primary language English, but good, clearly spoken and devoid of jargon, colloquialisms
free hand-outs including CDs/DVDs of Centos
endorsement from de gemeente / regional government etc.
reasonable admission cost with invoices for companies wishing to charge everything to business expenses. Perhaps very low for private indidivuals and higher for companies ?
IMPORTANT: some rain for Mr K B Singh who will feel unwelcome unless he gets wet :-)
Paul.
On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 7:11 PM, Always Learning centos@u61.u22.net wrote:
Hoi Bert,
If you would decide to host such an event in Belgium, don't forget to ping me, I think I know the perfect location for a 2 day summit in Ghent, for a smaller group (max 100p/day).
Never heard of Ghent. Google shows me 'Gent' which I have heard of. Is that 'op de weg' tussen Oostende en Antwerpen Kennedy Tunnel ?
it seems you are more Dutch (or Flemish) than I thought, Ghent is just the English name for Gent :-) Anyway, yes, it's a nice city, not expensive, university and colleges, tech companies, everything you want.
I was thinking of 7 days with the main event in the middle of those 7 days. This would allow those with little time to attend only the main event and the others, with more time, to arrive early and depart late, explore the place and attend 'fringe' events and generally relax and enjoy themselves.
if you want to do a 7 days event (which is very long, and I'm not sure if a lot of people would want to take a whole week off) we should do it during a school holiday and try to host it in the buildings of $college I think. But as I said, from my Fedora -FUDCon- experiences, 3 or 4 days is already enough to host talks, brainstorm sessions and more. You can not forget how costly such an event is, even if you try to make it low budget.
Is camping aanwezig in de buurt van Gent of de huur locatie ?
sure, I just don't know any - but I know people who go camping a lot, so that's covered :-)
Needed:-
Commercial sponsorship, multiple good, low rates speakers exhibits classes in Linux/Centos (free or very low cost) comparison with Windoze and Centos/KDE/Gnome etc. promotion materials cheap but good quality Centos branded goods (caps, tee-shirts, polos, sweat shirts, mugs enz.) primary language English, but good, clearly spoken and devoid of jargon, colloquialisms free hand-outs including CDs/DVDs of Centos endorsement from de gemeente / regional government etc. reasonable admission cost with invoices for companies wishing to charge everything to business expenses. Perhaps very low for private indidivuals and higher for companies ? IMPORTANT: some rain for Mr K B Singh who will feel unwelcome unless he gets wet :-)Paul.
CentOS-promo mailing list CentOS-promo@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-promo
On Sun, 2011-08-28 at 20:51 +0200, Bert Desmet wrote:
it seems you are more Dutch (or Flemish) than I thought, Ghent is just the English name for Gent :-)
The English often use third-country spellings for some second country names. It is like calling Mme de Ville, Mrs Stad or Dhr van Drie, Mr Three. Call them by their real names is my preference. Gent is always Gent. Köln, München, Bayern, Lisboa, Roma, Vlaanderen, Porto (Oporto), Danmark, and of course Vlissingen (Flushing) too.
I'm just an ordinary English man. An European who thinks the Euro arrived 30 years late and Britain is often an European embarrassment with poor education, lack of European languages, more knowledge of the USA and little, if any, daily knowledge of the rest, partially the western part, of mainland Europe. British politicians and the BBC actively replace English words with Americanisms which confuses the public. Ever heard of 'passporting money' and 'outturn' ?
Anyway, yes, it's a nice city, not expensive, university and colleges, tech companies, everything you want.
The add-ons are important for the rest of the family etc.
Shopping is always a big attraction for the women.
if you want to do a 7 days event (which is very long, and I'm not sure if a lot of people would want to take a whole week off) we should do it during a school holiday and try to host it in the buildings of $college I think.
7 days =
day 1 : arrival day 2 : minor events day 3 : major events day 4 : THE EVENT day 5 : major events day 6 : minor events day 7 : departure
Something for 'all the family' is needed because whilst you can expect a computer fascinated person to attend, his wife, girl-friend and possibly children may not share that interest with equal enthusiasm.
Sometimes it is easier to get away, especially if you have a spouse or full-time partner and even children, if they will enjoy themselves too.
If the idea is to cater for single people, including those who leave their wives, girl-friends etc. at home, then obviously that becomes a material factor.
After the daytime events, then social events and even presentations and courses are possible in the evenings. Thus it is not a 10:00 - 18:00 hours happening. Education, enlightenment and enjoyment is the objective.
But as I said, from my Fedora -FUDCon- experiences, 3 or 4 days is already enough to host talks, brainstorm sessions and more. You can not forget how costly such an event is, even if you try to make it low budget.
Never heard of FUDCON or FOSDEM (in KB's email later on) until you and KB mentioned them. That shows the failure to widely publicise those events.
I think it essential to entertain, inspire, enlighten and educate in a manner that makes people want to join-in. Computer events in the Western world are big, usually boring, and good for getting carrier bags of free 'give-aways'. There should be no 'hard sell' but an atmosphere that people can remember long after and want to tell others about.
University residential blocks, although convenient, are not always so cheap in my experience. Good idea for a short event of 2 or 3 days. Camping, for example, is different. In the good warm weather of June, July, August it adds an extra and different dimension that hotel and university accommodation lacks. It will attract those who have have had enough of hotel centred events. With camping for example, one can stay longer after the event or arrive a week before. It is more flexible and relatively cheap and relaxing.
Apart from inviting the VICP (very interested computer person) the joint-objective should be to welcome non-VICPs too. "Come and see Linux in person. See a real alternative to blue screens, slow computers, expensive software and top prize if you can spot which computer screen in not running Windoze."
"With Centos you can play on Facebook, read your Hotmail emails, play games, browse the Internet and you can use it for doing serious business work too. You can install Centos on your ordinary computer and when it starts-up you can chose to use M$ Windoze or Centos' windows Gnome and KDE and ..."
All this makes me re-examine what is the core sector that will attend an event. Joe Public or the Centos fanatics? Business users or home users ? What would they like to experience ? What are their real needs ?
Is Centos too business orientated ? It is not leading edge like Fedora, just a stable, dull (because it just works without all the M$ hassle) and dependable operating system.
What should any 'Centos' event think of offering attendees ? A company paid break, enlightenment and technical workshops, a social meeting and exchanging of experiences and opinions, a vision of the future (which is primarily controlled by Red Hat) ?
Perhaps a camping event with hotels for those that want them ?
Bert Desmet 0477/305361
I don't (yet) have a Belgium number. My nearest to you is in Holland and my furthest is in USA. VOIP is the future of telecoms (PAP2, SPA941, SPA942) and EU is the future of the 47 countries in Europe (46 excluding Russia).
Paul.
On 08/28/2011 03:53 PM, Always Learning wrote:
One of my recent suggestions is an annual week long Centos event on every continent.
a week long is going to be too much. I would suggest starting with a 1 or 2 day long event first. Step-1 would be getting some ideas together about what the aim is, what the agenda might be and who is likely to attend.
Finding a location in London should not be too hard.
Alternatively, as Bert has some location options, perhaps the friday before Fosdem ( has been recommended earlier as well ), is a good time to do something in Belgium.
- KB
Karanbir Singh wrote:
On 08/28/2011 03:53 PM, Always Learning wrote:
One of my recent suggestions is an annual week long Centos event on every continent.
a week long is going to be too much. I would suggest starting with a 1 or 2 day long event first. Step-1 would be getting some ideas together about what the aim is, what the agenda might be and who is likely to attend.
Finding a location in London should not be too hard.
Alternatively, as Bert has some location options, perhaps the friday before Fosdem ( has been recommended earlier as well ), is a good time to do something in Belgium.
- KB
CentOS-promo mailing list CentOS-promo@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-promo
+1 for 1 or 2 days before FOSDEM
That time off year obviously eliminates the camping option.
Chrisg
On Mon, 2011-08-29 at 09:02 +0200, Chris Geldenhuis wrote:
Karanbir Singh wrote:
Alternatively, as Bert has some location options, perhaps the friday before Fosdem ( has been recommended earlier as well ), is a good time to do something in Belgium.
+1 for 1 or 2 days before FOSDEM
That time off year obviously eliminates the camping option.
I'm sure the university will object to tent pegs nailed into the floors :-)
-
Always Learning -
Bert Desmet -
Chris Geldenhuis -
Karanbir Singh