The shape of FUDCons to come

The Fedora Board Recap for January 13, 2009 included a lengthy discussion of FUDCon 11 and how to make future FUDCons better. FUDCon (Fedora Users and Developers Conference) provides a chance for developers to get together, hack and learn, have some beer and some laughs and generally get to know one another. This is important in a culture that encourages global participation. DebConf and the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) serve a similar purpose.

DebConf takes place annually and provides a chance for Debian Developers to get together, meet and talk about common interests. Both UDS and FUDCon are held every six months and are venues to hash out new features and define the next version of their OS. UDS and DebConf are held in different places around the world, which allows a different subset of developers a better chance to attend. FUDCons are typically held in the U.S., usually near a Red Hat office. This is convenient for many developers, especially Red Hat employees who work on Fedora either full or part time. Many Fedora volunteers live in other countries and have little chance of attending, especially since FUDCons have a very limited budget for sponsoring users and developers. FUDCon is the shortest of these events, at least in part because of their limited budget. Red Hat funds FUDCon while other events find many corporate sponsors.

FUDCon 10 was held in conjunction with a Red Hat Summit, but FUDCon 11 went much better without the added distraction of a Summit. Other things that make FUDCon successful include lots of BarCamp talks, easy access to public transportation, and streaming audio and video.

In order to make FUDCon useful for the maximum number of people there is a post event survey that attendees, or want-to-be attendees, can fill out. Surveys such as this can make the next FUDCon a better experience for others.

Things that help make a conference successful include reliable wireless connections, good food, and as previously mentioned good quality audio and streaming video. The latter is useful not only for people who missed a session, but also for review by people who were there.

The future of FUDCon currently seems uncertain. Since scheduling FUDCon with Red Hat Summit proved not to work well, there will be no FUDCon at the Red Hat Summit in Chicago, in September 2009. Funding for a 2010 FUDCon in Boston is uncertain, although there may be a Fedora Activity Day (FAD) instead. More of the three day FUDCons may be shortened to a FAD. Fedora is becoming more independent from Red Hat, even though there will always be a strong connection. As part of that independence perhaps some additional sponsors for FUDCon would help preserve a vital event.

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