<soapbox size="large"> FOSDEM is amazing; the organizers are excellent people. But it would be even better if there were name tags with affiliation. Every other great conference I've been to does this; FOSDEM is the sole exception. And name tags are a source of great joy. They allow people to strike up a conversation with you (as many did this weekend when seeing my WineHQ name tag). They allow you to figure out that the guy next to you in the beer line is a guy who graciously helped you fix a flaw in your patch - and now you can buy him a beer to say thanks! I know name tags are hard and fiddly. But the reward for doing a fantastic job is being asked to do more <grin>. Maybe the booklets could have a preprinted punch out name tag? Maybe each room could have a stash of blank tags by the door with pens, or just have a table in each of the main buildings? Last year, Benjamin Henrion publicly volunteered to do the work[1], but was silently ignored. Cheers, Jeremy </SOAPBOX> [1] https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2013-February/001794.html
Hello, Some projects already have blank tags, usually at their booths. It's been the case for KDE for years, and IIRC also for Mozilla and others. But yes, I do agree a proper badge is better. I usually bring one from some other conference. On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:08 PM, Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com> wrote:
<soapbox size="large">
FOSDEM is amazing; the organizers are excellent people.
But it would be even better if there were name tags with affiliation.
Every other great conference I've been to does this; FOSDEM is the sole exception.
And name tags are a source of great joy. They allow people to strike up a conversation with you (as many did this weekend when seeing my WineHQ name tag). They allow you to figure out that the guy next to you in the beer line is a guy who graciously helped you fix a flaw in your patch - and now you can buy him a beer to say thanks!
I know name tags are hard and fiddly. But the reward for doing a fantastic job is being asked to do more <grin>.
Maybe the booklets could have a preprinted punch out name tag?
Maybe each room could have a stash of blank tags by the door with pens, or just have a table in each of the main buildings?
Last year, Benjamin Henrion publicly volunteered to do the work[1], but was silently ignored.
Cheers,
Jeremy
</SOAPBOX>
[1] https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2013-February/001794.html _______________________________________________ FOSDEM mailing list FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem
-- Pau Garcia i Quiles http://www.elpauer.org (Due to my workload, I may need 10 days to answer)
On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:08 PM, Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com> wrote:
Maybe the booklets could have a preprinted punch out name tag?
That would be the only of the proposed solutions you actially need a bit of main organizer staff support for. It might also have an effect on the price of the booklets printing as having pre punched paper inside is an extra feature.
Maybe each room could have a stash of blank tags by the door with pens, or just have a table in each of the main buildings?
Last year, Benjamin Henrion publicly volunteered to do the work[1], but was silently ignored.
Spelling it that way sounds a bit like it happened "actively", but I guess Fosdem staff is busy with many other things that have higher priorities (to them). I say this without judging - it sounds like a good idea, while other things also sound important, and it's known that organizers are *very* busy with all they have to do already. Basically, most of your suggestions could just be done by anyone who feels the thing is important(e.g. you and the other guy you mention). Just buy tags in advance(eventually find a sponsor as 4000 tags will sum up to quite a bit), appear to FOSDEM and place yourself on the infodesk as volunteer to do exactly this task - handing out these tags and pens to write names on them. I hope/assume you will happily get some place on the info desk to do it, otherwise place yourself in the entrance of each building somehow. Should be doable. Cheers, Henning
On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 12:12 PM, Henning Sprang <henning.sprang@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:08 PM, Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com> wrote:
Maybe the booklets could have a preprinted punch out name tag?
That would be the only of the proposed solutions you actially need a bit of main organizer staff support for. It might also have an effect on the price of the booklets printing as having pre punched paper inside is an extra feature.
Maybe each room could have a stash of blank tags by the door with pens, or just have a table in each of the main buildings?
Last year, Benjamin Henrion publicly volunteered to do the work[1], but was silently ignored.
Spelling it that way sounds a bit like it happened "actively", but I guess Fosdem staff is busy with many other things that have higher priorities (to them). I say this without judging - it sounds like a good idea, while other things also sound important, and it's known that organizers are *very* busy with all they have to do already.
Basically, most of your suggestions could just be done by anyone who feels the thing is important(e.g. you and the other guy you mention). Just buy tags in advance(eventually find a sponsor as 4000 tags will sum up to quite a bit), appear to FOSDEM and place yourself on the infodesk as volunteer to do exactly this task - handing out these tags and pens to write names on them. I hope/assume you will happily get some place on the info desk to do it, otherwise place yourself in the entrance of each building somehow. Should be doable.
Providing an editable tag template on fosdem.org and allowing people to print it before coming, might make things even easier. Emil -- https://jitsi.org
Basically, most of your suggestions could just be done by anyone who feels the thing is important(e.g. you and the other guy you mention). Just buy tags in advance(eventually find a sponsor as 4000 tags will sum up to quite a bit), appear to FOSDEM and place yourself on the infodesk as volunteer to do exactly this task - handing out these tags and pens to write names on them. I hope/assume you will happily get some place on the info desk to do it, otherwise place yourself in the entrance of each building somehow. Should be doable.
Sure; 'patches welcome'. I guess I'm not as sure of your hope/assumption; I had the sense from Benjamin Henrion's email that a previous patch was rejected, and I wanted to know if the patch was rejected because it was incomplete and ill formed, or if such a patch will never be taken in :-/. So let's make that my basic question: if a group of volunteers built a name tag generating web site, and arranged the production and distribution of lanyards and blank name tags, would such an arrangement be accepted and affirmed? Because it would require some integration with main stream FOSDEM (messaging on the web site, and room at info desks). Cheers, Jeremy
On 2014-02-04 07:54:50 (-0600), Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com> wrote:
Basically, most of your suggestions could just be done by anyone who feels the thing is important(e.g. you and the other guy you mention). Just buy tags in advance(eventually find a sponsor as 4000 tags will sum up to quite a bit), appear to FOSDEM and place yourself on the infodesk as volunteer to do exactly this task - handing out these tags and pens to write names on them. I hope/assume you will happily get some place on the info desk to do it, otherwise place yourself in the entrance of each building somehow. Should be doable.
Sure; 'patches welcome'. I guess I'm not as sure of your hope/assumption; I had the sense from Benjamin Henrion's email that a previous patch was rejected, and I wanted to know if the patch was rejected because it was incomplete and ill formed, or if such a patch will never be taken in :-/.
Benjamin's proposal was that FOSDEM should do nametags. That proposal is useless and impossible to implement. There is no registration. We don't know what the nametags should say. Other proposals along the lines of "leave blank tags and a marker at the infodesk" obviously don't scale to FOSDEM.
So let's make that my basic question: if a group of volunteers built a name tag generating web site, and arranged the production and distribution of lanyards and blank name tags, would such an arrangement be accepted and affirmed? Because it would require some integration with main stream FOSDEM (messaging on the web site, and room at info desks).
We could provide a pointer to a hypothetical FOSDEM nametag generator running on somebody else's computer with a note that, if it breaks, somebody else should be shouted at. How would you see the distribution of lanyards in practice? I can't imagine a huge box with thousands of lanyards and tags in no particular order behind an infodesk going well. What kind of system would you propose? On the whole, I think the push-out blank tag in the booklet may be much easier than any "technical" solution with a supplychain and distribution requirement. Philip -- Philip Paeps Senior Reality Engineer Ministry of Information
We could provide a pointer to a hypothetical FOSDEM nametag generator running on somebody else's computer with a note that, if it breaks, somebody else should be shouted at.
<grin>
How would you see the distribution of lanyards in practice? I can't imagine a huge box with thousands of lanyards and tags in no particular order behind an infodesk going well. What kind of system would you propose?
I was not thinking of a central registration database where you enter your name and when you arrive, go look for your already printed name tag - I agree that is untenable. Instead, I was thinking of a web app where you enter your name and then we generate a pretty name tag to go to *your* printer, where you cut it out. Ideally, you also then place it into a lanyard you already have and just bring it. But if you don't have an existing lanyard, you can come grab one from the box we have behind the info desk. And if you didn't print one out ahead of time, we have blank cards as well. (Pens are probably a bad idea; probably better to make them take the blank card off to a corner and fill it out with their own pen). Still a pain, and creates a lot of traffic; I'd defer to your judgment as to whether it would be manageable or not.
On the whole, I think the push-out blank tag in the booklet may be much easier than any "technical" solution with a supplychain and distribution requirement.
Sure. My main agenda is to encourage a cultural shift so that everyone is *expected* to wear a name tag. Cheers, Jeremy p.s. Both years, the only thing I have really felt like shouting was: Philip does amazing work with great humor, patience, and cheer. Huzzah!
On 2014-02-03 14:08:09 (-0600), Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com> wrote:
Maybe the booklets could have a preprinted punch out name tag?
That's a good idea, and that can easily be implemented. I've added it to my (long) booklet todo list. Philip -- Philip Paeps Senior Reality Engineer Ministry of Information
On Monday 03 February 2014 14:08:09 Jeremy White wrote:
<soapbox size="large">
FOSDEM is amazing; the organizers are excellent people.
But it would be even better if there were name tags with affiliation.
Just another idea. Your name + all your projects printed on a paper you can ducktape on your notebook lid :) -- andreas -- Andreas Schneider GPG-ID: CC014E3D www.cryptomilk.org asn@cryptomilk.org
On 2014-02-04 15:57, Andreas Schneider wrote:
On Monday 03 February 2014 14:08:09 Jeremy White wrote:
<soapbox size="large">
FOSDEM is amazing; the organizers are excellent people.
But it would be even better if there were name tags with affiliation.
Just another idea. Your name + all your projects printed on a paper you can ducktape on your notebook lid :)
and put a QR-code on it too.
-- andreas
And broadcast it as RFID and bluetooth Jo 2014-02-04 Pander <pander@users.sourceforge.net>:
On 2014-02-04 15:57, Andreas Schneider wrote:
On Monday 03 February 2014 14:08:09 Jeremy White wrote:
<soapbox size="large">
FOSDEM is amazing; the organizers are excellent people.
But it would be even better if there were name tags with affiliation.
Just another idea. Your name + all your projects printed on a paper you can ducktape on your notebook lid :)
and put a QR-code on it too.
-- andreas
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participants (8)
-
Andreas Schneider -
Emil Ivov -
Henning Sprang -
Jeremy White -
Jo -
Pander -
Pau Garcia i Quiles -
Philip Paeps