[Kde-latam] Akademy-BR

[Helio Chissini de Castro]

On Wednesday 17 March 2010 22:57:18 Alvaro Soliverez wrote:
> Hello,
> I know there is a backstage and events behind the scenes we don't
> know, but last time there were emails on this list, the possibility to
> organize an Akademy in South America was mentioned. The next thing we
> hear is a BR-only Akademy. I feel happy on one side because this
> brings attention to South America, and kind of disappointed on the
> other because people from other Latam countries were left out.

No no, there *still* the plans of Akademy, was never left out. Before that was 
the Akademy-br plans, from Sandro and Maurício, which i deliberately keep away 
to organize and we are using this as a test lab of how difficult is to organize 
a conference, big one at all.
This is not only the first .br conference, this is our alpha for next big step, 
be a LA conference or th big prize :-)
We never intended to let *any* of LA kde community away.
For the akademy.br case, i know that we're even need to cut some brazilian 
people, since the expected request to attending was way higher.
Even i decided to drop stay and same place and request any resource from kde 
to allow space for another person. I will cover my own expenses, including 
travel,

> What I can gather from Mauricio's post on the planet is that there are
> no more vacancies, and we have to wait for the next event. Any step
> forward is good, and I reckon that Brazil has the strongest KDE
> community and many have been in KDE for a much longer time and are
> much more deeply involved than the rest of us, save a few brilliant
> exceptions.

Is ont that big right now, but is growing exponentially. Is work from 
Maurício, guys from Live Blue, and the new borns, like MG people.

> Now, how can we work together and not be shadowed by the sheer size of
> the Brazilian community? What can we do to help organize an event that
> gets all Latam communities together, or at least the main contributors
> from each community together, and do it on a regular basis? I helped
> organize the KDE Finance event, but I've only dealt with the
> intragroup issues, and not the relationship with the Board to get the
> budget approval. I take it you are more familiar with that.

Well, to be sincere, i saw that as natural, communities are starting to 
integrate in all sides of LA, mostly Chile, Peru and Argentina, and are 
discussing pontual things that i offered some help, but still nobody delivered 
the exact requests.
Today i can see discussions of website, location of hosting, etc..
If everyones agree to do a bold move, i personally can create spaces we have 
to br.kde.org, to ar.kde.org, cl.kde.org and pe.kde.org the same way, but i 
need to know *exactly* what the needs to see what i can do.
Same thing is thinking if a big LA site is viable.
But sites are secondary, are a point of aggregation. What i would like to see 
is if you guys have the possibility to organize sprints, or small events and 
push this to be public allowing others to know whats happening. Others == 
World.
As happened in Brazil, if a reasonable contained event is planned, we can get 
resources from eV to that, including some local travels. It just need:
* Be planned with long time 
* Have some commited persons to organize and be responsible ( this is really 
serious )
* Have a strong subject to validate such event, not only  "KDE meeting"

> Can we set a goal to organize a Latam event in the mid-term, and then,
> with your orientation, get all what's needed to make it happen? The
> experience you make with Akademy-BR will certainly help a lot.

Yes, because one issue.
I want Akademy in LA, long time. But next Akademy will be the one together 
with Gnome again, which will make things a little more difficult than usual.
So, LA akademy, and for geographic reasons and suggestion, at Chille, would be 
a start to think ( i'm not rulling out any country, this is my suggestion only  
and everyone, even the Chile guys can disagree strongly :-).
One important thing, but really upset for the majority, there will be the need 
of a kabal for this kind of conference. Can't be public discussion until 
previous country, places, costs, and everything are confirmed by a closed 
organizer group, including travelling to the place to analyze. Really serious 
thing.

[]'s

-- 
Helio Chissini de Castro
South America and Brazil Primary Contact
KDE Developer since 2002