SFD Auckland 2011

[Tabitha]

Hi

I am hoping to organise this years SFD Auckland venue this week so as
to get flyers printed to hand out at Barcamp on Saturday 16 July.
I think last years venue - Orion Cafe - worked quite well with its big
main space and the separate room for presentations/talks/discussions,
carparking, cafe food and coffee available...
I would like to ask Orion Health if they would sponsor us again and
wanted to check in if anyone else had already started planning SFD
Auckland or had other suitable venues already arranged. If someone
else wants to lead this event then please jump up now!
If you can respond asap it would be appreciated so I can ask Orion and
we can get moving on flyers before Barcamp.

Thanks
Tabitha

[Nevyn]

Sod getting permission to do something... If we end up with 2 or 3
events.. that's cool too even if it kind of waters things down.

Is Albany Senior High School doing anything this year? I wouldn't mind
being "schooled" at a FPS again.

I think the advantages to Orion Cafe that was missed: Suitable for all
ages (dry and no hazards), close enough to town to be easily found and
close to public transport (trains and buses).

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Jaco]

Happy to help out! (not keen on any lead any time soon)

TB is available as a fall-back venue, in case Orion Cafe doesn't work out.

Is a date set for this year's event?

- J

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 10, 9:08 pm, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:

Trains often don't run at weekends and not much warning is given when
that happens. If they do run, I can come along to help, though I
don't have much of an idea what's wanted. Any interest in R or LaTeX?

Layda

Tuxkid



>
> Regards,
> Nevynhttp://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Nevyn]

On 11 July 2011 20:43, Tuxkid <kagy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Trains often don't run at weekends and not much warning is given when
> that happens.  If they do run, I can come along to help, though I
> don't have much of an idea what's wanted.  Any interest in R or LaTeX?
>
> Layda
>
> Tuxkid

In short, Auckland public transport is Awesome!

Personally, I have some interest in both R and LaTeX though I'd say
the focus at SFD should be people rather than specific technologies.
So looking at things from the other side - "we have a problem, how can
it be fixed?". Providing the solutions without the problem always
feels... backwards.

Think in terms of an unconference - if you're interested in something
and want to facilitate a discussion, come along and assign a slot for
your thing. Others who are interested will come along and it becomes a
discussion rather than a presentation.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 11, 9:02 pm, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 11 July 2011 20:43, Tuxkid <kagyu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> Personally, I have some interest in both R and LaTeX though I'd say
> the focus at SFD should be people rather than specific technologies.
> So looking at things from the other side - "we have a problem, how can
> it be fixed?". Providing the solutions without the problem always
> feels... backwards.

So my question is: "What sort of problem is likely to be brought up?"
I'm not particularly skilled with much, but I do know quite a lot
about R and a bit about LaTeX. Both are somewhat geekier than people
in general deal with. My guess is that knowledge of how to use Open
Office or maybe Thunderbird would be more useful for the ungeek.
Though R is a superb example of the benefits of free software, it's
still not the sort of thing many people find impressive or useful the
way they would with Android.

>
> Think in terms of an unconference - if you're interested in something
> and want to facilitate a discussion, come along and assign a slot for
> your thing. Others who are interested will come along and it becomes a
> discussion rather than a presentation.

I didn't fancy myself as a presenter without any sense of what the
audience needs to know beforehand. I've not been to one of these
myself, so it's tricky to get a sense of how to approach it.

Best

Tuxkid

[Nevyn]

On 11 July 2011 21:39, Tuxkid <kagy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 11, 9:02 pm, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 11 July 2011 20:43, Tuxkid <kagyu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Personally, I have some interest in both R and LaTeX though I'd say
>> the focus at SFD should be people rather than specific technologies.
>> So looking at things from the other side - "we have a problem, how can
>> it be fixed?". Providing the solutions without the problem always
>> feels... backwards.
>
> So my question is: "What sort of problem is likely to be brought up?"
> I'm not particularly skilled with much, but I do know quite a lot
> about R and a bit about LaTeX.  Both are somewhat geekier than people
> in general deal with. My guess is that knowledge of how to use Open
> Office or maybe Thunderbird would be more useful for the ungeek.
> Though R is a superb example of the benefits of free software, it's
> still not the  sort of thing many people find impressive or useful the
> way they would with Android.

I always thought that LyX (a front end to LaTeX) was a great example
when describing what's fundamentally wrong with the way we approach
generating documents. Why would I want to spend my time controlling
the look of each and every character rather than just letting the
computer do it?

So I guess, in that case, it's a question of productivity. Word
processors haven't changed much since the humble text editor. Word
processors are a stalled technology. What are viable alternatives?
There's the problem, for which LaTeX is a possible answer...

>> Think in terms of an unconference - if you're interested in something
>> and want to facilitate a discussion, come along and assign a slot for
>> your thing. Others who are interested will come along and it becomes a
>> discussion rather than a presentation.
>
> I didn't fancy myself as a presenter without any sense of what the
> audience needs to know beforehand.  I've not been to one of these
> myself, so it's tricky to get a sense of how to approach it.

It's best if you don't see yourself as a presenter. Generally you'd
want to avoid that if you can. Don't be the guy at the front of the
room holding on to the whiteboard marker. Everyone get's annoyed by
"that guy". Get the people together and then become an active
participant in a discussion. There's the possibility that someone
needs to get a discussion on track but generally speaking, things tend
to loop back on track anyway. Oh - and someone has to make sure those
who might be intimidated get a foot in and participate - but then, the
nurturers tend to show themselves fairly early on.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Kubke]

I'd be in for an intro to R session - I'll ask around at Uni
Fabiana

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[Kubke]

there may be value in having one or 2 tutorial sessions - I know I could use them (eg, latex, R) and it could attract people that would otherwise not come.
Short tutorials might help lower adoption barriers - not all of us are clever enough to figure things out on our own.
I could bring up to 3 netbooks for hands on - though two of them run Windows :)

Fabiana

Sent from my iPhone

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 11, 10:02 pm, Kubke <mf.ku...@gmail.com> wrote:
> there may be value in having one or 2 tutorial sessions - I know I could use them (eg, latex, R) and it could attract people that would otherwise not come.
> Short tutorials might help lower adoption barriers - not all of us are clever enough to figure things out on our own.

It certainly takes a bit to get your head around its ways of doing
things. R is very flexible, so it has lots of options which means it
takes time to work out which of the options suit your task. It's
great for drawing graphs and that's easy to show off.

If you have a simple analysis that could use a nice Lattice plot to
display your results -- or even to simply get an overview of what your
data contains -- something impressive could be shown.

> I could bring up to 3 netbooks for hands on - though two of them run Windows :)
>

Using R on Windows is fairly painful, but most of that can be removed
by using a rather good port of Emacs and running R in ESS. It's
nearly the same as using it with Linux -- apart from all that extra
mouse clicking to make the desired window active which I have trouble
getting used to.:-( You can get Vincent's effort here:

http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca/en/emacs/windows/

That can be helpful for people who still feel a need to use a paid for
OS, though there is the downside of needing to get used to Emacs (not
Xemacs) -- well worth the effort.

Do you have some "typical data" that could be used?

Tuxkid.

[Kubke]

I could get some data - people could be encouraged to bring some too.

At least for me ( probably my generation) adoption is easier if we are shown the initial steps - in person! :)

F

Sent from my iPhone

[Nevyn]

On 11 July 2011 22:33, Tuxkid <kagy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> I could bring up to 3 netbooks for hands on - though two of them run Windows :)
>
> Using R on Windows is fairly painful, but most of that can be removed
> by using a rather good port of Emacs and running R in ESS.  It's
> nearly the same as using it with Linux -- apart from all that extra
> mouse clicking to make the desired window active which I have trouble
> getting used to.:-(  You can get Vincent's effort here:

This is one of the really annoying things about FLOSS on Windows. A
lot of it tends to be badly adapted to the platform. The number of
dodgy installers out there for gimp, the oft times annoying
dependencies which each application seems to want a different way of
doing it (such as installing gtk) etc.

Anyway - the computer issue - it's not really an issue. I'm sure
something can be arranged. At the moment I carry around 3 (Linux)
netbooks. I'm not sure what it'll be like in September, but finding
Linux machines for a practical demonstration / some participation
(we're still likely to need to split up into groups - partners or
bigger depending on how popular such a session is).

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Tabitha Roder]

Could you run a Linux distribution from USB and put R on that? Avoiding windows?

Tabitha

[Mark Osborne]

Kia ora,
Albany Senior High would like to be involved again this year. Although it's quite a schlep north from the city, it's nice to be able to host teachers and like minds here at the school. I might even put on a juice or two for people who manage to make it all this way :-) We might do the Friday afternoon thing again and invite anyone who is interested. We've got some really interesting projects going in Scratch, Appinventer and some other things that would be worth showcasing.
I'm sure you'll see some of our students at Orion (or wherever) as well.
Have we got a date?
Mark

Hei konā mai,

Mark Osborne
Deputy Principal,
Albany Senior High School.
536 Albany Highway, North Shore City.
Find us on Open Street Map
Our Wikieducator Portal, e-learning@ASHS

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 12, 5:22 am, Tabitha Roder <tabi...@tabitha.net.nz> wrote:
> Could you run a Linux distribution from USB and put R on that? Avoiding
> windows?

That could be done, but I don't have the hardware to do it. It would
need to be at least a somewhat customized Linux. Ones that install
from CD will not have Emacs and for me, Emacs is essential to use R
(or LaTeX) -- though others get by fine without (and some get by with
Windows), but it ain't me, babe.


HTH

Tuxkid

>
> Tabitha

[Tim McNamara]

There are lots of useful data from government. Will connect this group to some of the data.govt.nz staff. They will be delighted to have it promoted

(Please excuse brevity, sent from my phone.)

[Tabitha Roder]

On 12 July 2011 07:57, Mark Osborne <mosb...@ashs.school.nz> wrote:

Kia ora,
Albany Senior High would like to be involved again this year.

Yay :-)

Have we got a date?

The official date is 18 September which falls on a Sunday this year, so we could head out to your school on Friday 16 September if that works for you.

[Nevyn]

On 12 July 2011 08:00, Tuxkid <kagy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Jul 12, 5:22 am, Tabitha Roder <tabi...@tabitha.net.nz> wrote:
>> Could you run a Linux distribution from USB and put R on that? Avoiding
>> windows?
>
> That could be done, but I don't have the hardware to do it.  It would
> need  to be at least a somewhat customized Linux.  Ones that install
> from CD will not have Emacs and for me, Emacs is essential to use R
> (or LaTeX) -- though others get by fine without (and some get by with
> Windows), but it ain't me, babe.
>
>
> HTH
>
> Tuxkid

Another non issue. At a pinch we could use a standard Ubuntu liveusb
and install the needed packages.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Jaco]

On 11/7/12 7:57 , Mark Osborne wrote:
> Kia ora,
> Albany Senior High would like to be involved again this year. Although
> it's quite a schlep north from the city, it's nice to be able to host
> teachers and like minds here at the school.

The whole education-sector has been growing into a really hot topic, &
would probably benefit from it's own stream.
Maybe get CC-NZ involved somehow to try & address some of those
outstanding concerns parents & teachers have that you've raised at the
NetHui?

- J

[Tabitha Roder]

On 12 July 2011 10:48, Jaco <frea...@gmail.com> wrote:

The whole education-sector has been growing into a really hot topic, & would probably benefit from it's own stream.
Maybe get CC-NZ involved somehow to try & address some of those outstanding concerns parents & teachers have that you've raised at the NetHui?

- J

Jane Hornibrook is speaking at Unitec tomorrow and University of Auckland on Thursday. We might be able to ask her if she has any suggestions for CC-NZ presence at Software Freedom Day.
Tabitha

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 12, 10:08 am, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 12 July 2011 08:00, Tuxkid <kagyu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Jul 12, 5:22 am, Tabitha Roder <tabi...@tabitha.net.nz> wrote:
> >> Could you run a Linux distribution from USB and put R on that? Avoiding
> >> windows?
>
> > That could be done, but I don't have the hardware to do it.  It would
> > need  to be at least a somewhat customized Linux.  Ones that install
> > from CD will not have Emacs and for me, Emacs is essential to use R
> > (or LaTeX) -- though others get by fine without (and some get by with
> > Windows), but it ain't me, babe.
>
> > HTH
>
> > Tuxkid
>
> Another non issue. At a pinch we could use a standard Ubuntu liveusb
> and install the needed packages.

So you're saying we can assume we'll have bandwidth available. That's
an assumption I hadn't made since we don't know where it'll be yet.
In that case, it would be handy to show how simple it is to install
extra R packages. Great stuff.

Tuxkid

[Nevyn]

On 12 July 2011 22:09, Tuxkid <kagy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> So you're saying we can assume we'll have bandwidth available.  That's
> an assumption I hadn't made since we don't know where it'll be yet.
> In that case, it would be handy to show how simple it is to install
> extra R packages.  Great stuff.
>
> Tuxkid

Not at all what I'm saying. What I'm really saying is, how hard will
it be for one of us to be prepared and have the deb packages on a usb
stick? Sure, it'll take a little manual setting up but again, not
insurmountable.

When planning for worse case scenarios, always go for the lowest
common denominator. We can't assume that we'll have bandwidth or even
that wireless will work on the machines in question in which case
we're very unlikely to have ethernet ports to use. We can reasonably
expect each of the machines to have working usb - given that we're
looking to boot off usb.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Jaco]

> What I'm really saying is, how hard will
> it be for one of us to be prepared and have the deb packages on a usb
> stick?

Run a local caching-proxy containing the requisite packages?

- J

[Nevyn]

Scales well but a lot of work if you're talking about less than...
say... 10 machines.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Tabitha]

I am pleased to advise that Orion Health have agreed to sponsor us
again this year. We can now progress the next stage of the planning.

We need to get the word out - print flyers or cards or something to
give out with date and venue. I am hoping to get something together to
give out at Barcamp this weekend if possible. Anyone with some design
talent please step forward as I could do with some help.

We also need to firm up some exhibitors, and prizes would be nice.
Some other sponsors would be great to help with prizes and to cover
any costs (such as printing advertising).

I spoke to Jane Hornibrook today (and she also spoke with Robin? at
Tangleball yesterday) about the possibility of getting a Creative
Commons Aotearoa presence at all SFD events around NZ. She will be in
Poland but would like to arrange other people to help. I suggested we
have some information about CC available.

Exciting!
Tabitha

[Nevyn]

Who's going to register the team?

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Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Tabitha Roder]

On 13 July 2011 22:07, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:

Who's going to register the team?

Given your enjoyment in dreaming up team names, you can if you like.

If anyone is sending anything they can send to Orion Health, attention Tom Parker.
Orion House, Level 2, Cnr Mary & Enfield Streets, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024
PO Box 8273, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150, NEW ZEALAND

[Nevyn]

How many cd's do we want? I think I grabbed around 100 last time and
gave the excess away to another event. I had 50 odd prior to that
which all pretty much went to UALUG before hand.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Abhishek Reddy]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Tabitha <tabith...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am pleased to advise that Orion Health have agreed to sponsor us
again this year. We can now progress the next stage of the planning.

Great news!

I spoke to Jane Hornibrook today (and she also spoke with Robin? at
Tangleball yesterday) about the possibility of getting a Creative
Commons Aotearoa presence at all SFD events around NZ.

That was probably (also) me. I would like to find or initiate some kind of CC-centric meetup or group in Auckland, and volunteered to do something around that at SFD.
 

Exciting!
Tabitha

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To post to this group, send email to sfd...@googlegroups.com
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Abhishek Reddy
http://abhishek.geek.nz

[Nevyn]

On 13 July 2011 22:52, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> How many cd's do we want? I think I grabbed around 100 last time and
> gave the excess away to another event. I had 50 odd prior to that
> which all pretty much went to UALUG before hand.
>
> Regards,
> Nevyn
> http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

Finally getting around to register only to find....

http://softwarefreedomday.org/en/participate/register-your-team

It seems registration isn't yet open :/

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Jaco]

Isn't there an IRC channel too?

#sfd or #sfd-nz or something?

[Nevyn]

Not sure... haven't touched IRC for years. Even when I had to use a
very generous person installed a cgi app on their server for me. Me
and IRC just don't get along...

If you get on there, let us know... in the meantime, I'll get onto
shipit and order a bunch of cd's.

On 19 July 2011 12:59, Jaco <frea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Isn't there an IRC channel too?
>
> #sfd or #sfd-nz or something?

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Nevyn]

On 19 July 2011 13:03, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If you get on there, let us know... in the meantime, I'll get onto
> shipit and order a bunch of cd's.

Whoops.... shipit is closed. More's the pity. I guess we should start
looking for sponsors of usb sticks?

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Jaco]

Think Google & Ubuntu were (gold/platinum/premiun?) sponsors last
year... but the whole "sponsorship-thing" is way outside my experience.

[Vik Olliver]

On 19/07/11 13:31, Jaco wrote:
> Think Google & Ubuntu were (gold/platinum/premiun?) sponsors last
> year... but the whole "sponsorship-thing" is way outside my experience.

Yeah, and the cheapest 2GB devices I can find still cost US$5.34 in 10
off. Still slightly more than a CD...

Vik :v)

[Nevyn]

On 13 July 2011 15:22, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 13 July 2011 09:32, Jaco <frea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> What I'm really saying is, how hard will
>>> it be for one of us to be prepared and have the deb packages on a usb
>>> stick?
>>
>> Run a local caching-proxy containing the requisite packages?
>>
>> - J
>
> Scales well but a lot of work if you're talking about less than...
> say... 10 machines.

I fear we've gotten WAY off topic here. The question is, if we're to
do a presentation on R, then how can we make it accessible for people?
And if the answer is we need to provide people with a live
distribution and have them comfortable in emacs, we've already failed.

If promoting Free software, I think we need it to be comfortable and
functional within environments people are comfortable. It's about
empowering people, not dictating how they should do things.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

[Tuxkid]

On Jul 21, 3:23 pm, Nevyn <nev...@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

> I fear we've gotten WAY off topic here. The question is, if we're to
> do a presentation on R, then how can we make it accessible for people?
> And if the answer is we need to provide people with a live
> distribution and have them comfortable in emacs, we've already failed.

Fear not. What needs to be set up to give an interesting
demonstration and what others use to do it themselves need not be the
same. I've seen people do some nifty stuff using vi which I don't
use, but that didn't stop me from achieving the same using Emacs or
others using Kate or Gedit.

I couldn't make R look interesting if I had to do it the clunky way,
so it would be essential to have it on a properly set up machine.
There's no need for Emacs to be essential dress-code for onlookers.

What happens in R when code is moved between Emacs buffers is no
different from what happens when someone does it a clunky way. How
the line of code gets there is different. Seeing how cool using Emacs
is can inspire onlookers to get their heads around it to make life
easier. If it doesn't, they can still use R the clunky way and
they'll still see how they could do that. That's probably still
better for many uses than any poke-and-hope interface they're likely
to find.

>
> If promoting Free software, I think we need it to be comfortable and
> functional within environments people are comfortable. It's about
> empowering people, not dictating how they should do things.

No disagreement there. That's why I'd like to mention that it's not
even necessary to use Linux to use Emacs and R.

best

Tuxkid