A momentous occasion occurred last week: Max, Greg, Karsten, and I were all in the same room at the same time. For four consecutive days. Usually getting us all in the same timezone is already an impossible accomplishment. However, for the Community Architecture retreat, the heavens move. What follows is a Mel's-eye-view.

Sunday October 11

  • 5:25am flight. Yay.
  • Rental cars are much cheaper when Karsten drives! (I am going to have such a big celebration on my 25th birthday when we no longer have to pay Young Driver fees.)
  • Wow, Raleigh has beaches. Also: spicy pineapple marmalade is one of those things that sounds weird, but tastes fantastic.
  • Want North Carolina BBQ.

Monday October 12

  • What is this "community" thing that we do, and how does it fit into Red Hat? How can we set a good example - and do even more active outreach around that example? We need to do more work on the notion of a "community health dashboard" and articulate the difference between goals and assists - there's a difference between "we did it," "it wouldn't
    have happened without us," and "it may have happened anyway, but we helped."
  • Paul Frields drives down from VA to join us! Planning for Fedora 12 filming later in the week ensues, a fascinating process to me because I've never heard this type of conversation from the other side of the camera before (I was an A/V workstudy in high school).
  • Education - what's happening in this space? Answer: teachingopensource.org (particularly work on the textbook) and hfoss.org (particularly a working group designing a certificate program) and a strong focus on post-secondary education because that's where there's space to move right now; we only have bandwidth to amplify and connect the K12 activity we come across for now - there are others doing fantastic work in the K12 space.
  • POSSE - the upcoming POSSE APAC and how POSSE will totally kick ass as it expands around the world. (Okay, I'm biased, this was my section.)
  • Large amounts of grilled fish for dinner. Mmm. And shrimp. And mussels. Still waiting for North Carolina BBQ.


Tuesday October 13

  • Summer of Code session: Karsten lays out Fedora's performance and progress (very good) and whether we should continue (oh yes).
  • Fedora marketing: Mel explains the challenges (biggest blocker: lack of capacity and domain expertise) and triumphs (Fedora Insight coming out!) so far. Making the production of marketing deliverables into an easy, regular thing by building a library of examples, HOWTOs, and good tools will give us breathing room to be able to think more strategically for the F13 cycle.
  • FUDCon Toronto update: it's going to rock.
  • A general "what's up in Fedora?" update all-around, because the flood of public mailing lists is impossible for any one person to read, and everyone's got different bits they have been watching.
  • Exodus to bar. Discovery of multiple types of chocolate beer (via mpdehaan's beverage choices); awe.
  • Still waiting for North Carolina BBQ.


Wednesday October 14

  • How do we do that dashboard we've been thinking about for so long?
  • Watch Carolina Hurricanes get clobbered by Pittsburgh Penguins in an extended shootout. Watching hockey is fun! It's the first time for both me and Karsten; Max and Greg share season passes. Everybody yells a lot. (Voices are noticeably scratchier the next morning.)
  • Still waiting for North Carolina BBQ.

The team, at hockey. I'm not in the shot because I'm crammed into the corner taking the picture, but there is a Mel in the shot that isn't me; bonus points for whoever can explain, and mega bonus points for up-close pictorial evidence on why Greg's jacket in this picture is hilarious. Also: I think I may have either the shortest - if not, second shortest - hair on the team, despite being the only female; I do know from pictures that everyone else on the team has had, at some point, longer hair than I have ever had in my entire life. This is the only picture I took that week that wasn't of a whiteboard filled with notes.

Thursday October 15

  • Wrap up, set priorities
  • Wow, we're traveling a lot between now and 2010. (Everyone else: "Awww." Me: "AWWW YEAH!")
  • NORTH CAROLINA BBQ!
  • ...followed by terrible weather in Atlanta that strands Karsten in GA and causes me to ditch my plane ride for a rental car and a 285mi drive north in the middle of the night; Karsten and I eventually get home.


Friday October 15

  • I miss North Carolina BBQ.
  • I am spending the summer in Raleigh. PIGS, FEAR ME!

Quotes of the week:

Greg: We do not have fixed resources. We have variable resources of unknown quantity until we go and do this:
Greg: ping!
Greg: ping!
Greg: ping!
Greg: ping!
Greg (shouting, standing up, waving arms frantically) GO GO GO GO GO BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Karsten (to Max): You worry too much. But keep doing it.

Somebody, I Forget Who: Community is not a magic wand. It will force-multiply on what already exists.

CommArch, shortly before hockey game starts: Oh no, Mel found a book!