Survey results from the first FOSDEM.

• Introduction
  • Where did you hear about OSDEM?
  • What do you think of the date at which OSDEM was organised?
  • What was your main transportation mean to come to OSDEM?
  • What did you think about the website, and more specifically:
    • the schedule
    • the mailing list
    • the design
    • the topics
    • Signup process
    • Speakers pages
    • Overall appreciation
  • What about the price?
  • During OSDEM, did you get accurate info about the schedule?
  • Were the organisers available during the event?
  • Was it easy to get something to eat?
  • Was it easy to get something to drink?
  • Did you come from abroad?
  • Where did you come from?
  • Have you experienced schedule conflicts?
  • What about the length of the presentations?
  • What did you think about the quality of the presentations?
  • What did you think about the relevance of the presentations?
  • How good did you unserstand the talks?
  • Was the talk material sufficient?
  • Did you have possibilities to ask questions?
  • Did you appreciate the meeting?
  • Will you attend next year?
  
  
• About this document ...

Introduction

Feedback papers were ditributed sunday afternoon. A total of 87 were collected which is a rather low number compared to the number of visitors to the event (an estimated 1200 for the whole week-end). This is due to the fact that the forms arrived late, there weren't enough printed, and maybe some got lost. Having compiled all results, it is however possible to see trends in the answers of those 87 forms.

The first event was called OSDEM. The next edition will be called FOSDEM, to underline the importance of the Free Software projects in the community. Those projects were also preeminent during the first edition. Top

Where did you hear about OSDEM?

This is showing the best communication mean in the community is the word of mouth. To initiate this word of mouth, the best means are internet based, namely websites (slashdot and more local community sites) and mailing lists. Top

What do you think of the date at which OSDEM was organised?

Not difficlut to draw conclusions from this question: FOSDEM should be organised around the same time, that's in february. Top

What was your main transportation mean to come to OSDEM?

Proximity of the metro station was not superfluous as those coming by train supposedly took metro to arrive on the site. That amounts to 45% taking the metro to arrive onsite. The plane was not mentioned as a possibility. Top

What did you think about the website, and more specifically:

the schedule

The schedule info on the site was rather good apparently. It was rather late to appear on the site, but like I thought, it was better to put a more or less definitive schedule, rather than one that changed every day. Top

the mailing list

For those bothering answering this question, the mailing list was of medium quality. Now comes the right question: what to do to make it better next time. Top

the design

Not too bad, but it seems it could be better. Top

the topics

The topics were apprecieated. As the webteam is already working on the website, next edition's content could be more complete, but it seems it should be focused on the session and speakers present. Top

Signup process

Ah, that good old KISS principle..... Top

Speakers pages

It should be possible to do a lot better with a team of web editors. If enthousiasm shown in the start phase is significant, we could have a rather precise speaker's section. Top

Overall appreciation

I seems we can keep the concept of last year's site, with a little improvement on clarity and update frequences. Top

What about the price?

Though some are ready to pay a little fee to help the organisation, a lot of people think this should stay a free event. This is the goal of the organiser. It is also the goal not to make it a commercial event, which would destroy the popularity of this event. So we'll have to find sponsors working with the community, which are not pushing for commercial proeminence.... Top

During OSDEM, did you get accurate info about the schedule?

The little changes in the schedule were not as annoying as expected thanks to the team who put posters for each of the 2 or 3 modifications we had to make to the schedule. Top

Were the organisers available during the event?

Though there was some improvisation during the event, results were quite good. Can we say we had a great team? Let's hope we can have the complete team ar FOSDEM next year. Top

Was it easy to get something to eat?

Was it easy to get something to drink?

Kudos go to the CI! Top

Did you come from abroad?

OSDEM became an event with international interest with one third of attendants coming from abroad. Top

Where did you come from?

People have com to OSDEM from all countries near Belgium and some came from even further. Top

Have you experienced schedule conflicts?

Even though we had tried to avoid conflicts, we haven't manage to achieve it. A consolation could be that there have been conflicts due to the quality of the speakers present at the event. Top

What about the length of the presentations?

Conclusion: don't touch this ;-) Top

What did you think about the quality of the presentations?

Kudos to the speakers, who confirmed to the visitors they really are great people, not only in progamming, but also in communication and human contact. Top

What did you think about the relevance of the presentations?

It seems we found a good balance in the fields covered by the presentations. Top

How good did you unserstand the talks?

Speakers were asked to make technical presentations, and it was the good choice because we've had a rather technical audience. This was also a popular characteristic of the event. Top

Was the talk material sufficient?

Did you have possibilities to ask questions?

The goal was to continue discussion in the classes after the talk. This was not always possible, but questions were still possible during the talk too. Top

Did you appreciate the meeting?

As known, the event was a succes. Top

Will you attend next year?

About this document ...

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