Next up: Paul Liu and "madduck" will present the DebConf 18 bids.
Hello everyone. I'm Paul, from Taiwan
and today I'm here to bid for Debconf18 for Taiwan.
Let me introduce it. Where is Taiwan?
It's here - this small island. Let's look closer:
We are here, near China, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong - they are around us.
Taipei is a modern, convenient and safe city.
How convenient?
It's safe to walk outside even at midnight - that kind of safe.
Convenience stores are mostly open 24 hours so you can buy food or drinks any time.
And also many direct flights from anywhere to Taipei, including these airports.
So what's good in Taiwan? Basically food!
And food...
... and more food.
We present our culture by food.
So when you eat the food, you can taste our culture.
This is our tallest building in Taiwan - the I.T. industry is very good
so you can see that we have our friends here - Google and Canonical.
Local transportation is very high-density, so you can go everywhere just by MRT.
You can use the EasyCard, a contact-less card, to take the bus or train to anywhere.
And in less than two hours, the high-speed railway to the South part of Taiwan.
The network is also very cheap, for example US $15 for 10 days usage
and free Wi-Fi has good coverage in the city, but you have to stay
in the same spot to use it - it's not mobile.
OK, I don't have much time, so I will just show some pictures of Taiwan.
All these places can be reached by the MRT so they're really near.
At the city zoo and cable car you can drink some Chinese tea
and this is also a good place.
Along the roadside you can see there are food stands everywhere
so that's why food is so good.
So, if you have questions you can contact us in IRC or by email.
We have a good team contributing and preparing the bid.
Thank you. (applause)
(audience) Do you have ideas for possible venues?
Yes, I am looking at the universities in Taipei
because of the price.
(audience) Do you have any idea about dates?
Yes, we want to go for June because in May it's humid and rainy
and in July and August there are typhoons and strong winds
so that's not good.
The best time is June.
There is a wiki page if you're interested in following more about Taipei
so for instance the venue option currently being investigated is here.
We also answered the question about the potential dates here.
So if you have interest please go to the wiki and develop questions there.
(audience) What's it like for visas?
For many European countries and USA there is a waiver, so you don't need visas.
Also some Asian visitors have 30 days without needing a visa.
(audience) How many people are in the local team?
Currently four committed, but I am trying to build the team more.
(applause)
Now, I am standing up here
not because you should be afraid that I will organise another DebConf
but...
Oh, hmm.
but because I am not a member of the DebConf decision team I can
stand in for the Prague people who can't be here
to present their bid.
So even though Taipei would be the first DebConf in Asia -
and that's fantastic, so thank you very much for coming forward -
we're just not going to make it that easy for you, there is competition!
Prague ran last year but Montreal was selected
so they stood up and are doing it again.
I'm not going to mention the E.U. joke on here.
So Prague: a lot of people have been there and a lot of people have heard about it.
It's a very beautiful city in the heart of Europe
and the cradle of the first university as far as I can tell.
It has a big international airport with direct connections from
pretty much anywhere else in the world.
As I suspect a lot of DebConfers will travel there by train or bus because
that is already an adventure.
There are multiple venue options being looked at; we had one for DebConf 17
but that needs to be re-negotiated because the Dean of the university changed
but that's always an opportunity as well, isn't it?
And then of course in terms of leisure options
for when we're not working hard at the venue
there is the historic city, many parks, the Prague zoo, excellent public transport
- curiously I don't know why Ondrej sent me these slides today, because
last year he specifically mentioned beer about fifty times during these slides
but there is no beer in here, he has one picture of Prague,
and then another one, and one of the zoo
which is the fourth best zoo in the world (laughter)
That would make a great day trip option.
So just imagine that you see beer here
and when I talked to Ondrej earlier he's running up the team again.
They're prepared and committed to improving the bid they sent last year
so by the bid deadline we expect to have a very competitive suggestion
for DebConf 18 in the Czech Republic.
And that concludes this presentation,
are there any questions that I can answer or proxy?
(audience) Will there be beer?
No, there isn't going to be any beer.
(audience) Will there be food?
Help. (audience laughter)
I can't answer that question but I'm happy to relay it to the team.
Well, thank you very much and Didier would like your attention.
(applause)
I don't have any slides, but just a small reminder for teams
who would like to present something for DebConf 18
about what the procedure is.
As you might have been made aware at previous DebConfs
you're supposed to build a team
gather all the information you can and prepare it on the DebConf wiki.
You can ask for a mailing list, either on DebConf or Debian infrastructure
if you need to co-ordinate the work.
The deadline for bids is 1st December of this year, and you are encouraged
to join the existing DebConf list - debconf-team@lists.debconf.org
You can ask for assistance or feedback on your bid, and make sure your bid
is really super-good by 1st December.
Then we will have some interactions with your team to enhance your bid
and then the DebConf committee will try to get the decision done
some time in February.
So we will announce the schedule when we have it, but that is roughly it.
To recap: get everything ready for 1st December
get involved, talk to people who have been organising this DebConf and next.
Get involved in Montreal and their bid to see how they work
and if possible be part of the local team next year
and that's it. Are there any questions?
Wow, that looks so simple when we say it like that, but...
(audience) Is it nice to organise a DebConf?
It is nice to get DebConf organised. (laughter)
It's very cool to host DebConf - energy-consuming, certainly
but very cool if you can organise one in your country.
So it's apparently time for penguins.