Date:	Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:34:47 +0530
From:	"Sunil Naidu" <akula2.shark@...il.com>
To:	"Theodore Tso" <tytso@....edu>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, dirk.hohndel@...el.com,
	alan@...hat.com, ksummit-2006-discuss@...nk.org,
	"David Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: Re: [Ksummit-2006-discuss] 2007 Linux Kernel Summit

On 1/26/07, Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu> wrote:
>
> I did give you a response.  Find a way to pay for 80+ kernel summit
> invitees to travel to India (preferably in business class :-), and
> we'll talk.  That's not realistic?  Well, then perhaps having the
> concept of holding Kernel Summit in India is not realistic.

I did reply to you for your response on Jan 24th. I did ask in that -
when is the deadline date to decide about the location?

> As Dirk has pointed out, the Kernel Summit is a little unusual
> compared to events such as FOSDEM or FISL, where there are 4000-5000
> attendees, and the emphasis is on the power of a large number of
> people in the OSS community.  The Kernel Summit is a very different
> event, in that it is by-invitation with less than 100 people.  The
> whole point is to get the top contributors together to be able to talk
> amongst themselves in a high bandwidth environment.  You can't do that
> amongst a crowd of 800, never mind 2000 or 4000.

I do understand this & the objectives of the KS. I did mean whether is
it possible FOSS.in could be used or not after KS (you've said Kernel
developers would stick for 2-3 days in the location. Once the KS is
over, developers can take the stage of FOSS.in to interact with people
or hold a talk or whatever. I didn't put this point clearly, my
mistake.

> So the only reason why any organization would be willing to pay so
> that top contributors would come to some country like India would be
> if to attract visibility and excitement to some big conference or
> other big OSS/Linux initiative that happened right after the kernel
> summit.  But quite frankly, I personally wouldn't consider it a wise
> use of money; it would cost a heck of a lot of money and there are
> plenty of other, more cost effective ways to promote a big OSS
> conference in India.

I didn't understand your statement - some country like India! MIT has
Media Labs Asia in India. MIT selected India for the $100 Linux Laptop
project. Airbus & Boeing are in India. You are my fellow employee &
senior to me, IBM has India Research Labs!  Many corporates do promote
conferences here, sometimes cost need not to be a deciding factor at
all when quality comes first!  Anway, am yet to get a positive signal
from my Bosses.

> And if there's no business case for the Indian government or some
> local Indian companies to pay to fly all of the KS attendees to India,
> why in the world do you think that companies like HP, Intel, IBM, Red
> Hat, Novell, etc. will pay for their employees to travel to the Kernel
> Summit?  They don't have even less of the incentive than the local
> Indian companies/government to do so!  Maybe during the dot-com
> madness of the late 1990's, when people spent money like crazy on
> things that made no business sense whatsoever, but those days are long
> gone.  Money doesn't grow on trees any more, if it ever did.

Regarding getting funding from Indian Govt, have decided to write
personally to President of India, Dr. Kalam & to Minister for
Information Technology (this is as individual capacity). I hope
something happens on this...will try my best (this is a time consuming
process). I do know about why corporates fund the employees (I didn't
say anything -ve about this).

> The main reason why we are trying a one-year experiment in Cambridge
> is because approximately 1/3rd of the KS attendees are from Europe.
> At the moment I believe we have exactly one person from India, who has
> been selected through her own merit, to attend the Kernel Summit.  So
> does it make sense to fly everyone else to India?  It doesn't seem so
> to me!

I have never mentioned any objections for other locations, plus I do
understand the Geographical factors. Yep, I do know her, she is my
fellow employee and a senior like you ;-)

> So the real answer to how do get the Kernel Summit to happen in India?
> Bring a very large number of developers together in India.  Get them
> to work really hard, encourage them to participate on LKML, and
> produce lots of useful patches.  Eventually, some of them will do
> enough good work that they will be recognized as maintainers of key
> subsystems.  When there are 25-30+ people from India who have done
> enough for the Linux kernel community and risen to be recognized as
> top contributors in the Linux world such that they are invited to the
> Kernel Summit on their own merits, I'm sure there a Kernel Summit in
> India would very quickly follow.

This is quite interesting to me. I wanted to understand here, is
contributing on LKML (patches) is the ONLY criteria for holding a
Kernel Summit? There might be 25-30 people from India on LKML, but
they are scattered around the globe ;-). Anyway, to see 30 good &
right people based in India contributing on LKML might take another
2-3 years more :(  But, I will start this with me...

> Still, if someone wants to pay a vast quantity of money to pay travel
> for all so that the KS can be held in some exotic location (especially
> if it's Waikiki beach, or Aspen Colorado during the skiing season),
> I'm sure people will be willing to listen.  But realistically, it just
> doesn't make sense, so it's not likely someone would make us such an
> offer.  (Unless perhaps in some conspiracy theory scenario where
> Microsoft pays $$$ to some VC company to sponsor an event in Moskow,
> and then contracts out to the KGB to fill the meeting room with an
> aerosolized powder of Polonium 210 to kill off all of the top Linux
> developers in one fell swoop.  But that sort of thing only happens in
> spy novels.  :-)

I don't think even in a spy novel FSB (ex-KGB) can become a hand in a
glove for Microsoft ;-)


>
>                                                 - Ted

Thanks,

~Akula2
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