David Maxwell wrote:
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:20:13AM -0500, Jason Dixon wrote:On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 05:01:45PM -0800, Kevin Lahey wrote:Well, we successfully flew the NetBSD flag at yet another Southern California Linux Expo -- for the fifth year in a row. Big thanks toI'm glad to hear you enjoyed so much success at SCaLE. However, I'm personally a bit disappointed to hear that NetBSD put forth so much effort into representation at a Linux conference, while having zero presence at DCBSDCon 2009, a BSD conference aimed at celebrating BSD software, developers and the community. Please understand I'm not trying to rest all of this on your shoulders. I just think this is a good opportunity to address the lack of participation by the NetBSD project at some of our own conferences (from my experience, particularly at NYCBSDCon and DCBSDCon). I know thatNetBSD has a strong U.S. East-coast footprint, so I'm confused as to how these events can be overlooked.If there's anything we, as organizers, can do to make ourselves more engaging to the NetBSD speakers and developers, please let us know. I personally sent numerous emails to this list and to team members trying to get some participation. My pleas were met with silence.I think there's really just one simple answer - 'NetBSD' didn't put forth effort into representation at SCALE - individuals did.
Kind of semantics, DM. . .
Likewise, 'NetBSD' didn't fail to represent at DCBSDCon, but individuals didn't come forward to do so.
NBSD has had a centralized organized board for how long now?Just speaking from the NYCBSDCon experience, it's like pulling teeth to get CFPs, table people, etc.
Historically, NetBSD participation in shows (from the ones I've seen) has largely been dependent on getting free booth space from the event organizers, and having local volunteers who could spare the time to participate and equipment to put on the desk. In the case of SCALE, I happened to be going to the conference to present for my day job with Coverity, but there was no Coverity booth on the show floor which required my time, so I was free to man the NetBSD booth. Kevin and John are locals.
DM. . . I even spend time stalking the DBA crew each year on this. . . and hit a good number of the NBSD devs in NYC each year. . .
And of course, we provide a free table.
That said - perhaps the project can assemble a list of speakers and representatives to reach out to about upcoming events, and see if there's a way to develop a greater presence. I'll ask some of the people I know from other BSDs how they've managed to get the turnouts they do.
Please do David. . . I'm glad Jason brought this up. . . it's very frustrating.
If we chased the remote OpenBSD people to participate in NYCBSDCon like I did the local NetBSD people, we'd be sleeping on a lot of coaches in .ca.
g