Everything in this mail is "As far as I know". I haven't confirmed the details yet.
RMS is in England & Scotland for the last third of May and he's looking for something to do on the 22nd and 23rd (Sat & Sun).
Should we invite him over to give a talk?
(1) We'd need a (big-ish?) venue. Dublin city centre would be ideal. Is Trinity possible? Any other ideas?
(2) We'd need to fund his flights, taxis, food, bed, venue. This shouldn't be mad expensive, I might be able to fund most of it myself.
(3) What talk should we ask him to give?
He's currently doing a tour of Europe to raise awareness about software patents, so he'll probably want to give his software patents talk if he comes over here.
I think his Free Software talk would be better.
The general awareness of software politics/ethics in Ireland is very low. A talk about software patents may not attract many people, and it may be throwing people too far in at the.
I think it would be better to use the event to spread awareness about Free Software and IFSO, and then make it our job to educate the new people about software patents. We could make print outs of his software patents essays available, a flyer about the current situation, some ffii docs etc.
His free software speech would attract a larger audience and would be easier to publicise. Also, his free software speech has a patents summary in it anyway.
Agree/disagree?
...and the venue suggestions?
Should we invite him over to give a talk?
Yes.
(1) We'd need a (big-ish?) venue. Dublin city centre would be ideal. Is Trinity possible? Any other ideas?
I can ask intersocs (I'm a member, being the current president of Maynooth Netsoc)
(2) We'd need to fund his flights, taxis, food, bed, venue. This shouldn't be mad expensive, I might be able to fund most of it myself.
If the talk is with intersocs (or just maynooth netsoc), MiNDS> will be able to fund some of the cost.
(3) What talk should we ask him to give?
I'm not so sure. Maybe the FS talk and invite some journos? Don't worry about a venue, if we host with intersocs this is not a problem.
Are you suggestion IFSO put on the talk on it's own or are you asking for help with the room/finances? If so many of the Intersocs societies (Minds, Ucd Netsoc ...) would be willing to help. Speaking for UCD Netsoc we can offer support, but i'd need to check it with the rest of the committe since it's outside term time.
His free software speech would attract a larger audience and would be easier to publicise. Also, his free software speech has a patents summary in it anyway.
Who is the talk for? Is it going to be a case of preaching to the converted again, or are we aiming this at general aeudience?
Agree/disagree?...and the venue suggestions?
Are you suggestion IFSO put on the talk on it's own or are you asking for help with the room/finances?
I can organise/finance everything except a room. I wouldn't know where to start, and it might be too expensive for a member of the public like me to rent a big room at the weekend.
So I need help with the room. Finance help would be nice since my current plan is to use up my credit card limit, but it's not a show stopper.
Aidan mailed me saying maybe Maynooth, but It'd be better to have it closer to Dublin city centre.
It's 6 years since he was here, and it could be another 6 before he returns, so I think we should only do this *if* we can do a great job of it.
Who is the talk for? Is it going to be a case of preaching to the converted again, or are we aiming this at general aeudience?
General audience. If he was doing a software patents talk, I don't see how anyone but the converted would show up.
His free software speech should be of interest to every [G]LUG member, hobbyist, computer student, and many IT workers.
Also, if the venue isn't in or close to the city centre, I think only the converted would make the trip - so is there any venue in the city centre (academic or not, trinity being ideal IMO) that we could use?
Failing the city centre, what's the next best thing? UCD?
On Mon, May 03, 2004 at 06:41:21PM +0100, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
Are you suggestion IFSO put on the talk on it's own or are you asking for help with the room/finances?
Failing the city centre, what's the next best thing? UCD?
If needed, UCD Netsoc would be willing to offer a room (lecture theather) and a video of the talk. But as you say trinity would be a better place, I'll post on the intersocs list to see if TCD Netsoc are interested.
David
If needed, UCD Netsoc would be willing to offer a room (lecture theather) and a video of the talk. But as you say trinity would be a better place, I'll post on the intersocs list to see if TCD Netsoc are interested.
Ok, thanks. please drop me a mail asap if you get a reply.
I think we should use UCD over Maynooth since it's more well known, but either way, now that there's a definite venue I'll send RMS a mail and see if he's still free/interested.
The final venue can be sorted out later.
The final venue can be sorted out later.
Liberty Hall was used for last years ILUG AGM, and for the Doolin tech talks series in spring 2003. The room used for the Doolin talks was ~70 for 2 hours, but was small enough. The ILUG people used the basement, which was a plenty bigger and prettier venue, though still nothing like a large lecture hall, and I don't know what the cost was.
-kev