@geekle & @anthonygoddard (Melbourne represent yo.)
We talked about the need to decentralize DoD as much as possible, with the aim of reducing dependence on Patrick for the small stuff, letting him concentrate on the Big Stuff™
herinlies the challenge. One idea we discussed was to follow the "TEDx" model, where independent organizers are given a time-limited 'license' to run a single event. The license is applied for online, approved by core-organizers who can run through a simple checklist (is the event name too ambiguous (devopsdays USA, devopsdays california, is the event scheduled too close to another geographically close event etc) and in applying for the license, the licensee has to agree to some simple terms (tickets must be available to the general public, videos must be recorded of the talks, tickets mustn't cost more than $x, no vendor talks etc). Licenses would be simple to renew, but can be revoked in cases where the proposed event clearly won't be a devopsdays event and will give people the wrong impression about the quality of a devopsdays event.
We discussed the feeling from some folk that people seem to arrive at a DoD expecting either culture or tools, and that we should ensure that folks know the OpenSpace agenda will be driven by the attendees but that the event might have a theme, or a flavor of talks which will likely direct the type of attendees. Without a theme, it could be worthwhile encouraging organizers to keep a minimum % of cultural or tools talks in the event, or even encourage an openspace that shows the top 10 culture talks or the top 10 tools talks from other events?
There are so many great talks that are given and recorded at events, but it's not easy to track down individual talks to share online. We should put some effort into getting the talks uploaded to youtube as individual talks, and this could possibly be part of the agreement which the licensees agree to (for TEDx, videos are uploaded by each event and then checked by the core TEDx/TED team, who also offer post production advice if required)
If we can get the video thing happening, a potential new sponsorship opportunity could open up by events selling t he right to advertise pre-roll and post-roll on videos - "This video brought to you by BMC and Dell" After or before the DevOpsDays logo.
When applying for a license, we should ask people what they plan on charging for tickets and not set a global max. Some cities are more expensive then others and we need to be sensitive to that--say in NY you could be justified in charging 3x the ticket price in Atlanta. We cant always guarantee a free venue or low costs for basics like wireless and food. Lets let the organizer set the price and we do an internal gut check to whether it is reasonable.
In line with that, the license to run a devops days event should be given to those that have the following:
Should we require that they have previously attended a DoD event? Maybe that is a good idea.
On the videos, they look good > https://vimeo.com/user9086015/videos
We might want to map that to videos.devopsdays.org but they are great and posted. I agree that posting the event videos is a must for a new devops days. It would be cool if we put them all on our vimeo account.
On the tools vs culture. I think that no one will ever be happy with the balance, however if we lose the culture we lose the movement. I always lean more towards culture talks than tool talks. Culture in practice is what we need and if we lose the culture or have all-tools devops days events then we will be killing the movement.