18:35:35 <tumbleweed> #startmeeting
18:35:35 <MeetBot> Meeting started Wed Dec  9 18:35:35 2015 UTC.  The chair is tumbleweed. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
18:35:35 <MeetBot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #help #info #idea #link #topic.
18:35:44 <tumbleweed> #link //deb.li/DC16meet1 agenda
18:35:47 <tumbleweed> grr
18:35:52 <tumbleweed> #link http://deb.li/DC16meet1 agenda
18:35:57 <tumbleweed> #topic fundraising
18:36:11 <tumbleweed> bgupta: how are things?
18:36:29 <bgupta> better.
18:36:50 <tumbleweed> :P
18:37:17 <bgupta> fundraising wise, we're a bit behind where I'd like to be with global fundriasing, but I'm not really worried about that piece, a few sprints will fix that.
18:37:30 <bgupta> I'm more concerned about ZA fundraising..
18:38:01 <bgupta> basically the long story short is that indiebio isn't getting a lot of traction with ZA entities.. I suspect that she is reaching out to entities that don't know what Debian is, and/or entities where we aren't able to leverage personal connections.
18:38:32 <tumbleweed> yeah, Debian doesn't have the same profile as TedX
18:38:46 <tumbleweed> this doesn't suprise me
18:39:07 <bgupta> Do these entities not exist, or are we missing something?
18:39:39 <tumbleweed> all the companies we listed as potential sponsors are real and have money
18:39:59 <tumbleweed> but it doesn't come easily
18:40:02 <bgupta> That's not what I meant. I mean do companies that use Debian exist?
18:40:05 <DLange> and are as close to Debian as we can think of
18:40:21 <tumbleweed> oh
18:40:46 <tumbleweed> I am not aware of any really big companies using debian extensively
18:40:54 <DLange> because not that many companies use it in a business context in ZA (and talk about it so we know)
18:41:01 <DLange> yeah, what tumbleweed says
18:41:23 <gwolf> Maybe extending the fundraising focus and mention explicitly Debian derivatives?
18:41:28 <indiebio> I spoke to Andrew from LSD (who told me not to lick his business card and
18:41:34 <indiebio> I took ages to get it...)
18:41:37 <gwolf> I'm sure there will be many more... :)
18:41:48 <bgupta> At this point we don't just need big compaies that use debian. companies of all sizes are welcome.
18:41:59 <indiebio> And he said Debian is great for start-ups, but big corporates want someone et can shout at, or sue.
18:42:20 <tumbleweed> right, and for Debian, that is usually Ubuntu
18:42:21 <bgupta> I'm wondering does mark cannonical still have connections to ZA, and could we ask folks there for ideas?
18:42:29 <indiebio> He was not overly confident we will get lots of ZA big companies to sponsor
18:42:35 <tumbleweed> which benefits enormously from Debian, especially on the server
18:43:00 <DLange> Canonical will probably sponsor. Mark even has an investment branch just for ZA.
18:43:03 <tumbleweed> but I guess the big companies don't see that as much as we do
18:43:28 <bgupta> well, the reality is we need bronze and silver sponsors to, so we're likely to raise more money from small companies that use debian/ubuntu than large companies that use RedHat.
18:43:31 <indiebio> Gwolf: agree. I reworked the email and am busy contacting everyone with that. The content is based on 'what is Debian'
18:44:12 <tumbleweed> bgupta: I'd really expect to get money out of some of the big software development employers in cape town, even though none of them use debian/ubuntu as far as I know
18:44:21 <tumbleweed> they sponsor everything that moves
18:44:22 <bgupta> The exception to this is if local team members have high level connections to these companies.
18:44:32 <bgupta> ok.
18:44:50 <bgupta> there are those but are there enough?
18:45:15 <tumbleweed> probably not. Also I haven't been involved in raising money from them before :(
18:45:15 <indiebio> Tumbleweed: it would help if the team is willing to get involved in sponsorship. Even if they just agree to be copied on the email I send their connections and then help chase them.
18:45:38 <indiebio> I'm going in cold here, there's only so much I can do.
18:45:56 <bgupta> That would really help if people pursued their own connections.
18:45:59 <indiebio> And I am not sure .i
18:46:05 <indiebio> Excuse the typis
18:46:18 <indiebio> Argh. Typos, I'm on mobile
18:46:22 <bgupta> Or at least started it off with a handoff email..
18:46:31 <tumbleweed> indiebio: I got nothing back from anyone I prodded. I must prod more.
18:46:47 <indiebio> I'm not sure I can reach out to non-industry sponsors with the commercial allergies of this group...
18:47:01 <tumbleweed> indiebio: another mail to all the local people to ask for help?
18:47:25 <bgupta> succesful local fundriaisng is a team effort.. and the most succesful efforts have been all hands.. and not delegated to one or two folks on the local team
18:47:26 <indiebio> I'm busy developing business cases for my post-PhD life, and a mentor told me 'be pushy' so, ditto, tumbleweed
18:48:07 <indiebio> Tumbleweed: you can send an email to the local people please. I'm still out.
18:48:09 <tumbleweed> bgupta: OK. we should get more people to join the fundraising team then
18:48:18 <bgupta> yes..
18:48:46 <tumbleweed> #action tumbleweed to persuade more locals to join the sponsorship team
18:49:25 <tumbleweed> anything else here?
18:49:46 <bgupta> I think that's it for fundraising.
18:50:21 <tumbleweed> #topic banners
18:50:29 <tumbleweed> tamo: anything you want to talk about? still around?
18:51:28 * tumbleweed guesses not
18:52:21 <DLange> we have the costs for DC15 in ledger and the invoices too
18:52:27 <gwolf> (sorry for the lack of participation... I'm working on stuff with RL humans in front of me :( )
18:52:37 <DLange> so I guess these are a good estimate for what it will cost in ZA as well
18:52:56 <DLange> gwolf: say hello from us on IRC :)
18:53:03 <tumbleweed> DLange: yeah, probably
18:53:06 <tumbleweed> #topic DC17
18:54:14 <tumbleweed> we have to form/revive the bid selection team
18:54:38 <bgupta> Could the bid selection team from last year be used?
18:54:59 <bgupta> (At least until we get a delegation)
18:55:12 <tumbleweed> that's probably the way to go, yes
18:55:20 <tumbleweed> I wasn't involved (obviously) so I can't help much here :P
18:56:04 <bgupta> So do we know who was invovled last year?
18:56:11 <bgupta> gwolf?
18:56:26 <DLange> madduck has been poking everybody and the deadline is 15th with possible extension to end of the month or even mid January
18:56:47 <gwolf> moo? (reading)
18:56:48 <tumbleweed> OK, so things are happening. I just can't see any of it
18:56:54 <tumbleweed> that's good news
18:57:08 <bgupta> how is this deadline being set?
18:57:19 <tumbleweed> we discussed it in the last meeting or two
18:57:23 <bgupta> I haven't seen any emails from the chairs.
18:57:26 <gwolf> Well, we had set it in the past between the working people
18:57:30 <tumbleweed> bgupta: lol chairs :P
18:57:33 <bgupta> so it should be from dpl
18:57:33 <DLange> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/BidProcess + Email from 11/29
18:58:15 <gwolf> but anyway, it should not set us back — Bidding teams are working their way, and (at least Montreal) publicly saying so
18:58:26 <bgupta> any other teams?
18:58:29 <gwolf> I think we can float some dates. I'd very much rather not set a fixed decision date
18:58:35 <tumbleweed> nobody else has announced
18:58:39 <bgupta> I thought Cambridge was interested?
18:58:47 <tumbleweed> paris too
18:58:50 <gwolf> and .cz IIRC
18:58:58 <DLange> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf17#Bids is what is online yet
18:59:08 <tumbleweed> err prague not paris :( that was last year
18:59:28 <DLange> Cambridge has a official "non bid" so not sure yet whether they want to throw their hat in the ring or not
19:01:30 <gwolf> so maybe some wider calls should be made — post to Planet, maybe even a blurb calling for bids to d-d-a (not sure)?
19:01:41 <DLange> we should probably poke ondrej for the Czech bid status
19:02:48 <tumbleweed> are we done? it sounds like we've run out of discussion
19:02:52 <bgupta> gwolf: It seems reasonable.
19:03:15 <DLange> #info DLange poked ondrej
19:03:52 <bgupta> done?
19:03:55 <gwolf> s/ed/es/ ?
19:04:12 <DLange> yup
19:04:13 <DLange> o/
19:04:15 <gwolf> :)
19:04:24 <tumbleweed> #topic Any other business
19:06:04 <tumbleweed> I guess not
19:06:07 <tumbleweed> #endmeeting