From Teaching Open Source
This document is a draft. It is still undergoing revision and should not be considered an official bid process at this time. Mel Chua 06:30, 11 February 2011 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] Purpose
We created a POSSE bid process for several reasons.
- Greater community ownership of POSSE and removing Red Hat as a bottleneck. POSSE began as a workshop organized entirely by Red Hat as a means of giving something back to the education community. This was a nice sentiment in our first summer when we had one POSSE to run, and a dedicated intern to run it. However, as professors in multiple countries began requesting POSSEs at their schools, that intern (now a Red Hat full-timer) started reaching human limits as to how many countries a single person could organize and teach events at back to back without sleeping. When faculty at host locations began organizing logistics, recruiting attendees, and so forth, it was a huge relief and allowed POSSE to scale and reach more people more effectively - now the question is "how can we make that happen repeatedly?"
- Documenting the process of how a POSSE in a particular location comes to happen. For transparency, and also for improvement, we must have a clear decision-making process for giving the final green-light to a POSSE in a particular location. Also, we should store information for both potential locations and past locations, because we can always recycle these.
- Laying out what it takes to make a POSSE come together. It takes a certain amount of time, resources, infrastructure, attendees, and funding to make a POSSE happen. We should publicly document what the true cost of a POSSE is so that those looking to replicate or adapt part of all of it will know what they are getting into.
This page is a resource for people who are interested in leading the organization of a POSSE faculty workshop. It represents a bid process that allows the POSSE administrators to gather facts about potential locations for future workshops.
[edit] Initial RFP
The POSSE coordinator posts to the TOS mailing list the estimated available budget for POSSEs for the fiscal year (March-March), and the preferred date(s) for various regions if applicable (i.e. most North American POSSEs are June-August during the summer break, etc). Whenever possible, this announcement shall occur at least 3 months prior to the preferred date(s) announced.
[edit] Proposal Process
Interested parties may submit a proposal for a given venue for consideration. At a minimum such proposal should contain:
[edit] Focus Areas
- Type of event you are bidding for. There are two types of in-person POSSE workshops; the 2 day "POSSE Basics" course and a 4.5 full day "POSSE Intensive" course that includes the 2 day Basics course and the 5 core modules.
- A proposed disciplinary focus (CS, writing, design, etc).
- A proposed open source project focus and a letter from an established contributor of that project describing how that project would accommodate and mentor POSSE participants during that date range.
[edit] Logistics
- A proposed date range appropriate for the type of workshop you are bidding for.
- Description of proposed venue and estimated costs including room capacity, configuration, and internet connectivity. Need to link to room setup recommendations.
- Description of infrastructure expectations for participants; will they be responsible for bringing their own computers, is the venue a computer lab, will a laptop cart be available, etc.
- Description of proposed lodging and estimated costs for attendees.
- Outline of proximate restaurant locations for meals and graduation dinner.
- Deadlines for event reservation, etc. if applicable.
[edit] People
- Brief description of organizing team and their experience with POSSE or other TOS initiatives.
- Applications from a minimum of 12 faculty members who would attend the POSSE if it were given on that date. Need to link to faculty application.
- Optional but recommended: letters from POSSE instructors who would be willing to teach this specific workshop.
[edit] Funding
- The #Budget spreadsheet below filled in with proposals for who will cover each line item.
- Optional but recommended: supplementary/matching funding sources.
[edit] Budget
Prices quoted in USD.
Note that "Funded by" column entries in italics represent typical defaults. Higher proportions of external (non-Red-Hat) funding make a POSSE bid more likely to be accepted.
Estimates based on workshops with 2 instructors and 15 attendees. Estimates are intended to be generous.
- Flights: $500/roundtrip/person
- Housing: $150/night/person
- Perdiem: $50/day/person - refers primarily to food (breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee/snacks) but may include local transit (bus, train).
- Materials: $25/person + $75 for signs, posters, etc. Individual materials include printed booklets (readings and worksheets) and a POSSE live-image thumbdrive for each attendee.
[edit] Full-week budget
| Item | Cost estimate | Funded by |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor flights (2) | 1000 (2 x $500) | Red Hat |
| Instructor housing (2) | 1500 (2 x $150/night x 5 nights) | Red Hat |
| Instructor perdiem (2) | 500 (2 x $50/day x 5 days) | Red Hat |
| Instructor stipend (2) | 4000 (2 x $200) | Red Hat |
| Materials | 500 | Red Hat |
| Attendee flights (15) | 7500 (0 for local attendees; 15 x $500) | Attendees |
| Attendee lodging (15) | 11250 (0 for local attendees; 15 X $150 x 5 nights) | Attendees |
| Attendee perdiem (15) | 3750 (15 x $50 x 5 days) | Attendees |
| Graduation dinner | 1000 | Host school |
- Total: $31,000 ($2,066.67/attendee)
- Total, assuming 100% local attendees (no attendee flights/lodging): $12,250 ($816.67/attendee)
- Total, assuming attendees fully fund themselves (no attendee flights/lodging/perdiem): $8,500 ($566.67/attendee)
[edit] Two-day budget
| Item | Cost estimate | Funded by |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor flights (2) | 1000 (2 x $500) | Red Hat |
| Instructor housing (2) | 600 (2 x $150 x 2 nights) | Red Hat |
| Instructor perdiem (2) | 200 (2 x $50 x 2 days) | Red Hat |
| Instructor stipend (2) | 2000 (2 x $1000) | Red Hat |
| Materials | 500 | Red Hat |
| Attendee flights (15) | 7500 ($0 for local attendees; 15 x $500) | Attendees |
| Attendee lodging (15) | 4500 ($0 for local attendees; 15 x $150 x 2 nights) | Attendees |
| Attendee perdiem (15) | 1500 (15 x $50 x 2 days) | Attendees |
| Graduation dinner | 1000 | Host school |
- Total: $18,800 ($1,253.33/attendee)
- Total, assuming 100% local attendees (no attendee flights/lodging): $6,800 ($453.33/attendee)
- Total, assuming attendees fully fund themselves (no attendee flights/lodging/perdiem): $5,300 ($353.33/attendee)
[edit] Decision process
As of now, decisions on POSSE host locations are made by the POSSE coordinator. We will look for ways to democratize this process in the future. We'd like to have it made by a council of POSSE alumni.
[edit] Acceptance Criteria
- Drawing from the "release early, release often" mindset of open source communities, host locations are encouraged to submit drafts of their bid to the TOS list for feedback; the bid process is meant to be a collaborative discussion. In fact, a good way to increase your chances for acceptance is including links to mailing list posts that demonstrate you getting and incorporating feedback from the TOS community into your bid. Bids can be submitted as many times as you like; the approval process is iterative with the intent to get the best possible outcome, and we will give feedback on drafts of the proposal until it is acceptable.
- Need to articulate more.
[edit] Cancellation of a bid
- In the event that the successful bidding entity is not able to proceed, what happens? Need to figure out.
[edit] Post POSSE
- All participants of a POSSE event are expected to document how they will be incorporating the ideas in their respective environments.
- A periodic summary of successes (and failures) posted to the TOS mailing list per participants is expected.
[edit] Example bids
- POSSE Basics Raleigh 2011 bid - under consideration.