BoFs at SEE 2009
From Symbian Developer Community
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Notes from BoFs at SEE 2009
If you ran a BoF, add a page to this wiki so that others can join your conversation.
- Add stories, what you learned, what you discussed, who attended, etc.
- Please put your BoF page in the Presentation category so it can be found easily.
Please add a link to your BoF page here:
- Building knowledge through wiki documentation - Jo Stichbury, Symbian Technical Communications
- Persistent Data, File Systems and Memory – Past, Present and Future - Chris Dudding and Stefan Williams, Nokia
- Multimedia Architecture Evolution slides shown at the BoF
- Symbian in a Linux World - Sebastian Brannstrom
- Mobile development with Qt for Symbian - Salvatore Rinaldo, Technology Specialist
What can we do better next year
Let the Symbian Foundation know, how BoFs can be improved next year
- The acoustics in the big hall were such that it was very hard to hear people talk unless they spoke very loudly. Perhaps we could have some (movable?) partition walls around the BoFs in future or hold them in some kind of tent - I think that would stop the sound dissipating :-) The hard part would be to do this in a way that preserves the openness and approachability of the BoFs.
- Related to the above point: There was a group of people chatting right next to a BoF I attended and their chatter made it really hard to listen to the BoF. If BoF's were a little more insulated that would perhaps help keep noisy people away too. Alternatively we could maybe have some signs asking people nearby who are not part of the BoF to be quiet.
- Add more chairs/bean bags so that it is easier for people to join after the BoF started. I had comments from some people after my BoF that they didn't try to join because there were no free seats. Part of the problem might have been that we needed to sit quite close together to hear each other so maybe the group seemed closed.
- Have bigger signs for the different areas, preferably with the name of the BoF.
- Add your comment
What worked well
Let the Symbian Foundation know, what worked well and that we should retain for BoFs next year
- Add your comment
What is a BoF
BoFs can be organized for any topic. Typically BoFs in the following areas work well:
- BoFs to help build a community around a technology, open source project or similar (in Symbian terminology these would be BoFs around a technology domain, group of packages, a package, a volunteer program)
- BoFs to share experiences and best practices
- BoFs to discuss hot or controversial technology topics
- BoFs to discuss process and infrastructure improvements affecting a community
- BoFs to discuss the evolution or importance of standards
Preparing for a BoF : Tips & Tricks
BoF Etiquette
- If you decide to hold a BoF, you turn up to facilitate the BoF. Not turning up is unfair to attendees and other people wanting to hold a BoF.
- You should be able to facilitate the BoF and have something to say. Don't waste other people's time.
Preparation
- If you organize a BoF for a topic, you will want to make sure that a core set of people who you know turn up (on time). Otherwise, there is a danger that interested people will not stay, and the BoF fizzles out before it starts.
- Do some advertising using your informal networks, such as LinkedIn, twitter, Blog, mailing lists of projects/packages technology domains, e-mail, and so on. Get friendly contacts to do the same.
- BoFs are not about the organizer talking, but about discussion and often about building trust. You should have facilitated a discussion before; if not, do a BoF with somebody who has.
- BoFs are a vehicle for debate, to share experiences and build relationships. They are NOT presentations! They are NOT private meetings!
- If you have contacts who are passionate about a topic, AND like to talk, invite them up-front. They can help with silent moments.
- Sometimes BoFs are about a goal: for example, network, get to know companies, building trust, build a community, get contributions, and so on. It is easier to achieve a goal if friendly contacts at the BoF know about your goal and supports you. This may require a bit of horse-trading before the BoF.
Tips & Tricks
- Getting Started: It can be hard to get a discussion started. There are a number of techniques
- Brief intros can help
- Icebreakers can help, e.g. ask for a view on something
- Ask what attendees want to get out of the BoF
- Silent Moments: A silent moment can kill a discussion, ...
- Prepare material, or an idea which may be controversial, etc. for such moments. You probably don't need more than two for an hour. Doing this will help with your confidence (all bases covered) and it will avoid awkwardness.
- A friendly contact, can help raise a point during a silent moment and keep things going. Make sure they know to help you out in such a situation.
- Prepare a bit of material: Prepared material, by yourself, an existing community member, a friendly contact can help seed the discussion, or keep going when a conversation dies.
BoFs to build communities
- Working with your Technology Manager is a good idea
- Make sure you start off with an accessible sub-topic: otherwise you may scare off contributors. Save difficult stuff for the end.
- If the aim of the BoF is to build a contributor community, the following techniques help build momentum:
- Make sure existing community members are there. If it feels empty, prospective community members may weel scared off. Get your technolgoy managers to help.
- Make sure existing community members have something to say, or something prepared. In a contributor community, it is in the interest of ALL contributors, to grow the contributor base.
- Create, or get existing community members to create some material. For a technology domain BoF, this could be ...
- Roadmap Overviews
- Interesting Usage / Contribution plans
- Highlight Problems that have been raised by the "community" (and need somebody else to invest $$$'s)
- Interesting problems
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