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Today's Topics:

  1.  Montreal/Quebec city report (Canada) for SFD 2012
      (Fabian Rodriguez)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:20:58 -0400
From: Fabian Rodriguez <magicfab@member.fsf.org>
Subject: [SFD-discuss] Montreal/Quebec city report (Canada) for SFD
    2012
To: sfd-discuss@sf-day.org
Cc: libreplanet-ca-qc@libreplanet.org
Message-ID: <505C69BA.7060200@member.fsf.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


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(BCC: Gabriel Cossette, SFD 2012 organizer in Quebec city / CC:
LibrePlanet QC mailing list)

Hello,

This year we had exceptionally low participation at SFD 2012 in Montreal
and Quebec city.

In Montreal we had a full day of activities on Friday Sept. 14:
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Montreal/LPQC

In Quebec we had a smaller event, "happy hour" in a bar on Saturday,
Sept. 15:
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Quebec/LinuQ

I was leading the Montreal event while another free software activist
here, Gabriel Cossette was leading the Quebec city event. This was
advertised only a couple of weeks before the events, although it's not
unusual in our context (lots of events in Quebec, last-minute volunteer
organization).

In Montreal very few showed up, two were presenters. One of them was a
blind, long-time GNU/Linux user. Instead of following the schedule we
made the best of our time, trying to liberate an Android phone, testing
Trisquel for accessibility, testing new USB keys I had created with
multisystem (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/) and generally talking about
community reinforcement and advocacy ( a new local Mozilla community is
coming up ). The venue for Montreal was graciously offered by the
/Consulado General de la Rep?blica Bolivariana de Venezuela en
Montreal//,/ they have a beautiful place equiped with multimedia
equipment and Internet. While a bit disappointing in attendance, low
numbers meant we had lots of time to discuss one-on-one and experiment /
test / exchange.

On the positive side, I reviewed past year's communications, updated a
few wiki resources, and kept open that important contact for the venue -
free (as in beer), "compatible" venues for free open source software
events are not easily found.

In Quebec city something similar happened. I am told by Gabriel their
meetup there started at 6 PM and lasted until 11PM, lots of informal
discussion and exchanges: few people showed up but a great time was had :)

I blame the low turn out on lack of proper planning beforehand - but
specifically on my choice of Friday for the main event. The venue we had
available for Montreal on such short notice was only available on Friday
so I took a bet (and lost). The Quebec event wasn't coordinated with
Montreal's - although I know Gabriel well the usual cooperation didn't
happen. We missed the deadline for registrations too so promo material
wasn't available other than what I produced on my own.

This serves as a reminder we can't improvise, and we also need to
coordinate better events between different locations. Last year we had
prepared for over a month and the event was on a Saturday, very
different (great) results. Keeping all the above in mind, I hope I ( or
anyone else doing this in Quebec province next year) can avoid such
mistakes for next year.

tldr; lack of preparation and coordination resulted in low turnout,
hopefully we learn from this and nail it next year

Happy Hacking,

Fabi?n Rodr?guez
http://fsf.magicfab.ca
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