Calligra sprint in Randa?

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

On 21 May 2012 16:09, Arjen Hiemstra <djfreestyler at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday 21 May 2012 02:07:21 Inge Wallin wrote:
>> I have been asked by Mario Fux (unormal) about whether the Calligra
>> community is interested in participating in a big sprint in september.  You
>> can see the relevant doodle here: http://www.doodle.com/svghf38ibdg6k9dv .
>>
>> This will be held in Randa, Switzerland in a brobdingnagian[1] house which
>> allows several KDE groups to have their own sprints simultaneously while at
>> the same time allow for shared discussions. I hear it's really useful.
>>
>> If we accept the offer and let Mario arrange a nice sprint, we will have
>> good food, good surroundings and good rooms. Did I mention sponsorship from
>> the e.V and some local sponsors is already secured?
>>
>> I think the timing is not bad. We have just gone a full spring without a
>> Calligra sprint and we also have shortened our release cycle to 4 months.
>> Given the schedule for Calligra 2.5[2] this date should be around the middle
>> of the development cycle for 2.6 (or 3.0). We probably need a sprint soon
>> and this is as good time as any.
>>
>> On the other hand, a full week is really long.  Perhaps we can have a
>> dedicated Calligra sprint over the weekend. The Randa sprint itself will be
>> friday to thursday) so we could maybe have friday - monday or so and then
>> people who want to discuss or hack on something particularly complex could
>> stay a few more days.
>>
>> I think that in general it's a very good offer and we should take it.  The
>> details can be worked out later.
>>
>>       -Inge
>
> Having been there at the first multimedia sprint I can only say: Yes please!
>
> Admittedly I am a little biased since Switzerland is one of my favourite
> countries to visit, but Mario and the people helping him also take really good
> care of everything. Compared to something like Berlin, this is actually a
> really big advantage, since next to not losing time on travel, you are also
> not losing time on stuff like getting lunch/dinner. And since everything is in
> the same building, usually people will spend long evenings continuing whatever
> they were working on.
>
> I personally do not see travel as an issue. The Swiss train system works very
> well and there are plenty of trains from Geneva into the Rhône valley. It is
> also a very pleasant trip, I remember spending most of my trip to Randa just
> looking out of the window.

The look out of the window, while nice, is not especially relevant for
sprints if it's at the cost of not inviting someone because KDE e.V.
has certain budget. Or at the cost of smaller budget for subsequent
sprints or for Akademy sponsorship. No doubt the country is more
expensive destination. The advantages of the place are more important
for longer sprints; less for typical Calligra meetings that happen
during a weekend. OTOH there are advantages (social and savings) when
coordinating with other sprints indeed.

If there is no alternative location and e.V. is OK with covering the
costs I am happily accepting it.

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam, Jaroslaw Staniek
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/jstaniek
 Kexi & Calligra (kexi-project.org, identi.ca/kexi, calligra-suite.org)
 KDE Software Development Platform on MS Windows (windows.kde.org)