Schoolforge-UK talk:Events

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Please add further comments about FLOSSIE 2005 to the TOP of this page. Thank you WikiSysop

'On 28-Oct-2004 Kyle Williamson wrote: '

  • (Combining FLOSSIE with OpenOffice.org) Fab Idea - Need to be careful to make sure that conference doesn't end up being "The Openoffice.org Conference with a bit of Flossie"
  • (Suggestion for topic) Moodle.

On 20-Jun-2004 Ian Lynch wrote:

I think we need to start thinking about the next FLOSSIE conference. We needa venue, date and keynote speaker and then a programme perhaps with a theme. Also need to think about financial implications. Here are my thoughts

Aim for February again - plenty of time to plan and its not too bad as faras other conferences etc are concerned. Another issue is whether to have itin school holiday or term time. I guess there are arguments both ways.

Venue - The LiE was expensive but quite a good place to host it. There wassome dissent about a London venue. We have access to a very low cost room inan ex-Manor house here in Tamworth that is more central and would holdaround 200. Lower cost accommodation available for those who do have to stayover and good road and rail links to most places. We could use a school butI think its maybe better to get people out of the school environment for achange.

Finance - The last conference just about broke even. If theINGOTs.org takesoff as planned, I could use it to subsidise the conference, so that it waseffectively free to delegates - we could say free to members of Schoolforeand the AFFS. AFFS costs £10 to join so coming to the conference would thenbe effectively £10 to anyone not already a member of the AFFS and it wouldhelp boost membership. theINGOTs.org would pay for the hall, AV,organisation and food. Some of this depends on how well we can recruitschools to theINGOTs programme so if your school isn't yet taking part oryou know a school that would be interested get them to contact me. If we canget this going, all future FLOSSIE conferences could be effectively free andwe could commit something to raising the profile through the media. In thelonger term we will also develop FLOSS resources and since the certificationrequires student involvement in the OpenOffice.org project this too willgenerate more FLOSS resources. I also think that INGOT Academy subscriptionscould be made eligible for ELCs if we provide downloads FROM the INGOTs website of learning content for the Academies. That would be a way of gettingsome ELC money channelled INTO FLOSS.

Keynote speaker. I thought of inviting Richard Allan MP who attended lastyear. We could ask Professor Hargreaves again but perhaps its better to tryand get a variety of keynote speakers. Any thoughts welcome.

On 21-Jun-2004 Richard Rothwell wrote:

February - Agreed

School holiday or term-time - Let's take a poll

Venue - Agreed, London is a pain. Good to get people out of school environment.

Finance - Great if the conference can be subsidised by theINGOTS

Keynote Speaker - Should not be Prof. Hargreaves again. Jim McQuillan if he's in UK? Jono Bacon? (jonobacon.org) I dislike politicians. We should get someone FROM OpenAdvantage to speak in some context.

  • Jim McQuillan is in USA I think - IanLynch
    • Yes - he's based in the states, but is in Europe quite often - RichardRothwell
      • Thing is politicians have disproportionate influence and there isadvantage in getting people FROM outside the normal circles involved asit spreads the influence. It is as much a political battle as atechnological one. - Ian Lynch
  • Agreed we can ask OpenAdvantage. Also some school input - we need plenty of education representation as its an education conference - RichardRothwell
    • OK, who? - IanLynch

On 23-Jun-2004 Yishay Mor wrote: We have a lecture hall at the Knowledge Lab, and I might be able to get it for free. Problem is it would seat 60-70 at most (and its in Central London, for good and bad).

  • I think we should aim at getting over 100 this time. If we can makeattendance free or near free we should get more people there so I thinkwe really need somewhere holding at least 2/300 being optmistic :-) - IanLynch

Question: does "Social equity, education and technology" sound better than Flossie (always reminds me of my dentist)?

  • I think we want to keep the focus on free and open source software.Putting social equity in the title makes it sound more like a generalleft wing political organisation. I think we want to avoid partypolitics as much as possible. Also keep changing the name gets confusingand since we have the backing of AFFS, the open source name was simplyextended to free libre open source. Flossie might also make some peoplethink of candy floss, or even flossie the sheep which is the mascot. Aslong as they remember it it doesn't matter why. Brands are aboutremembering things. _IanLynch
    • But I do think our focus on FLOSS is rather narrow, because we are alsointerested in free/open content educational resources. For example, I think the BBC's decision to publish their archives under a CreativeCommons licence is every bit as significant as using a FLOSS system toaccess it. It seems to me that our context is wider than FLOSS, even thoughsoftware, electronic formats and freedom are essential ingredients. How about Free/Libre Open Resources for Education (FLORE)? (Reminds meof margarine & marathons...) - JohnIngleby
    • Hmmm,I think FLOSS is ok and known - but that only opinion. The BBC is a good idea for a speaker about their decision to use CC? - RichardRothwell
      • Anyone a name to contact? - IanLynch
    • I agree with Ian, we should concentrate on OpenSource Software for Schools so that everyone knows what we are talking about. My experience with other organisations has convinced me that you can always get more people attending a conference in London that anywhere else in the country. - GrahameLeon-Smith

On 23-Jun-2004 IanLynch wrote:

Would that be true if the conference was free in the Midlands but cost say £50 to attend in London? Thing is, given the current level ofinterest in the INGOTs I can commit to organising free in the Midlandsbut maybe not in London - unless we can get an ultra low cost venue or Isuddenly get swamped with schools wanting to be INGOT academies. I have nearly 30 teachers signed up for the training next week so its a good start but I will be committing to the conference strategy before thereis really enough actual money to pay for it and be hoping that I cancover the costs before too long. I estimate the INGOTs has already costabout £20k to set up to this point so cash flow dictates that I can't be too cavalier about costs.

One way of encouraging membership of Schoolforge and the AFFS would beto say that the conference is free to members of Schoolforge and AFFS and say £100 to anyone else. We could also say that the free offer endssay 2 months before the date (bit like Easyjet :-) ) and the priceincreases as we get neare to the date. This whould encourage people toregister early so we knew what we were dealing with well in advance. Infact if someone wants to come and is not a member of Schoolforge andAFFS all they need do is register as a member of SF on the web site andpay £10 to join AFFS. That small cost should be enough to deter peoplewho have no real interest, but be small enough to include anyone whohas. It also boosts the memberships of AFFS and SF and enables them tohave a stronger voice in the general political arena.

On breadth of remit:I think that content is covered by FLOSSIE anyway. If we are distrubuting electronically we are not talking about *any* educationalresources such as bunsen burners, musical instruments or classroomassistants. Its difficult enough when we have no funding dealing withsoftware applications and associated content without diversifyingfurther. I think we need a consistent and focused message which drawsstrength FROM existing pressure groups associated with the FLOSSmovement. I think getting drawn too much INTO either general politicalissues or general resource areas will weaken what we are trying to achieve.

On 24-Jun-2004 JohnIngleby wrote:

OK, I agree, FLOSS is the banner we're marching under. I think it isgaining wider recognition these days, so any association with dentistryshould diminish as time goes by.

But I do think it's helpful to go step back and ask: WHO do we want tocome to the conference? And WHAT do we want them to go away with? I can see at least two DISTINCT groups:

1. The "unconverted but interested" - people who have heard about FLOSS,and want to know what's involved in making the change. Hopefully theyare decision-makers at all levels, and I think they should go away withall kinds of positive messages, and an array of resources to call upon.

2. The "converted" - I hope the conference will also appeal to many of"us", because the time spent in one-to-one discussions between "us" and"them" is every bit as valuable as the speaker programme. Moreover,strengthening the ties between ourselves is important, too.

IMHO about the only shortcoming of the our February conference was thatwe didn't use the opportunity to meet together as the SF-UK governingbody and look ahead. Or perhaps that should happen soon after the conference, when the figures are added up.BTW we're close to announcing the new prototype SF-UK web site, so I'll create a "Next Conference" page on it.

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