Dear Martin and all, There is a lot to say on your message, so I renamed it tech corner to have more visibility.
B) IMO the devroom should cater to two types of people: ones who might be there the whole day (like me, probably) and want to know about projects and network with people who are interested in the subject, and the rest of probably tens if not hundreds of "hop-on, hop-off" visitors who come browsing or for a specific talk.
You can count on me to help.
For those who'll show up in the morning (in addition to the talker who gets scheduled for the first slot ;)) I'd still like to have an introductory round, to get to know the people myself and to introduce the folks who'll make the day (vs giving a word to all project participants who show up, even if they don't have a presenting slot, like originally planned). But keep it short, maybe during the tech setup time. This gives +1h more time for actual talks.
OK.
C) For hands-on training session, I got feedback from the Debian miniconf that it is not really effective in a "classroom style". Yet it would be extremely beneficial to a) show some tech and flashing LEDs b) help people get on the bandwagon with hands-on practice.
There is a barrier of languages here, I don't understand. What do you mean? At Debian miniconf, there were two talks: a developer talk from Ludovic, a training from me with people manipulating hardware.
Jean-Michel, I thus suggest you to a) re-do your proposal, taking into account the one slot, up to 30 per talker limitation and b) prepare for a "hands on tech corner" in the devroom for any training and showcasing stuff to people who want to see and touch.
If you have ever been at FOSDEM, I don't know if this is possible. Some classrooms are round, theater style. So I doubt I can sit at a corner, as people will not be in front of me. Also, we may not be able to discuss during a presentation. By definition, the audience should not discuss too much.
Organizers have suggested that a) tables might not be available inside rooms (but could probably be arranged), only seats with embedded foldable tables b) no activity outside of the room (hallways will be packed) c) be prepared for a HUGE crowd (meaning it is not physically possible to deal with handing out samples and such for the whole devroom)
OK, here is my proposal, at first: * Please send me the email of organizers. I can probably join some training rooms and offer free training during the day. * I would like to present crypto hardware in 15 minutes, near the beginning of the session. This does not need to be 30 minutes (this would be too long). The subject would be "Choosing the right security hardware: smartcards, security tokens and OTPs". I will also offer a bunch of free OTPs and smartcards to the audience. Interested people will be able to have a training, preferably outside the devroom (if we can arrange that). Kind regards, Jean-Michel -- Jean-Michel Pouré - Gooze - http://www.gooze.eu