Perl Community Backchannels

YAPC::Europe::2015September 2-4Granada, Spain

Salve J. Nilsen@sjoshuan

About me

● Salve J. Nilsen● Active in Perl community since 2002● Organized lots of events with Oslo.pm● Likes beer● Twitter: @sjoshuan● Website: http://code.foo.no/

Who is this talk for?

● Want to create some activity– Hackathon

– Workshop

– YAPC

● New to the community– Value networking

– Appreciates learning & teaching

– Curious about who's who

“Backchannels”

● Where and how to get help?● Which resources are available?● How to get in touch with resourceful or

experienced people?

● Some “public secrets”● Almost all is public knowledge

Opinions or Facts?

● I'll mix facts and opinion!● Caveat: this talk is an outsider's view

– Not complete or thorough

– I am not involved in any of these organizations or projects

– Tuits found may or may not be real

● Also, this talk is a conversation● Please offer comments, rebuttals and/or new info! :)

But first….

sjn (it's me!)

The Perl Foundation

● USA-based non-profit● Legal entity for many community resources

– Owns the onion logo & other trademarks

– Runs lots of community websites, the TPF grants

– Deciding where YAPC::NA will be next year

● http://perlfoundation.org● Can help with advice, tips and experience● But little direct help for organizing things in Europe● Curtis “Ovid” Poe is member of Board of Directors● Tuits: very few

Ovid

The Perl Foundation

● What's the most useful TPC committee?● Marketing (mark@perlfoundation.org or

pr@perlfoundation.org, Mark Keating)– Can offer flyers and other promotional material

– Great sounding-board if you want to promote Perl

– Tuits: very few

mdk

The Perl Foundation

● Offers grants for projects, worldwide– Max USD 6,000 per grant, anyone can apply

– Grants given every 2 months

– See website for proposal guidelines and application rules

● Grant managers include Elizabeth “lizmat” Mattijsen and Alberto “ambs” Simões– http://perlfoundation.org/grants_committee

– http://perlfoundation.org/how_to_write_a_proposal

● Tuits: barely enough, it seems

ambs

The Perl NOC

● Ask Bjørn Hansen & Robert Spier● Can help with perl.org and pm.org DNS, email, mailing

lists, websites● Sysadmins for

– pm.org

– perl.org, perl.com, search.cpan.org and many more

● http://noc.perl.org – Main website● http://log.perl.org – Blog & news● Tuits: very, very few

Mailing lists

● http://lists.perl.org– conferences@perl.org (very little activity)

– nordic-workshop@perl.org (very little activity)

● http://lists.yapceurope.org/mailman/listinfo– organizers@yapceurope.org (some activity)

– conferences@yapceurope.org (some activity)

● http://mongueurs.net/services/listes.html● http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo

– Many more || less active Perl Mongers

– Some other lists (e.g. yapc@pm.org)

– Note-worthies? – London.pm, definitely; Others?

Perl Jam

● http://perljam.info● “How to organize a conference … and live to tell the

tale”● Written by Barbie (w/community help)● A book filled with experiences and great tips● Work in progress (read it, give feedback!)● Get it here: https://github.com/barbie/perl-jam● Tuits: practically none

Conference survey system

● http://yapc-surveys.org● Fantastic resource for getting feedback to

organizers and speakers● Managed by Barbie of Birmingham.pm (UK)● Want to use it for your event?

– barbie@cpan.org

● Tuits: low

Barbie

YAPC Europe Foundation

● Dutch organization w/French bank account● http://yapc.eu● Help Perl events in Europe (and other places)

– Banking/payment infrastructure

– Conference management website (Act)

● Decides who gets to organize YAPC::EU● Largely inactive, currently discussing it's own future (New

organization? New board?). Needs donations.● Tuits available: very, very few

lizmat

A Conference Toolkit

● Made and maintained by the French Perl Mongers● http://act.mongueurs.net/● Most Perl events use it● Some non-Perl events too!● There are some forks out there, and several have tried

to re-implement it– Latest attempt: http://act-voyager.org/

– MCT, YACT, ACT2, xsawyerx/Act and others

– None are as feature-rich as Act

A Conference Toolkit

● Act maintainance & support– Act Users <act@mongueurs.net> (much activity)

– Act Devs <act-dev@mongueurs.net> (almost no activity)

– Subscribe: http://listes.mongueurs.net/mailman/listinfo

– #act on irc.perl.org

– Sébastien “Maddingue” Aperghis-Tramoni = Act sysadmin

● Many have experience with making websites.– Copy templates from another site and improve it

– Act is getting old, complex and crufty. Expect some pain

● Tuits available: very few

Maddingue

Act payment backend

● Act payment backends– Dummy (test), Paypal and YEF

– Contact YEF and Philippe “BooK” Bruhat (Lyon.pm)

● Free banking services for Perl events! (YEF covers expenses). Yay!

● It's crufty, but works.● Requires a signed contract with YEF● Tuits available: very few

YEF Cashflow page

● YAPC Europe Foundation keeps track of ticket cashflow for events using Act

● http://yapceurope.org/finance/cashflow.html● Very useful for getting an idea how much an

event may bring in!● Managed and kept up-to-date by BooK● Tuits: barely enough

BooK

Perl Community Calendar

● Great overview of events in the Perl sphere● Managed by brian d foy (Chicago.pm) and

Renée Bäcker (Frankfurt.pm).● http://theperlreview.com/community_calendar● To add your event, send mail to brian

– brian.d.foy@gmail.com

“Secret resources”

● Seasoned YAPC organizers– Can give lots of advice and ask good questions

– A fantastic resource!

● “Cloud Orga”– Unofficial emergency conference aid

– Gathers in #yapceu and #yapc

– Volunteers help with conferences schedule, finding speakers and sponsors

– $(Perl Community)++ # Awesomeness

– BUT: Remember to keep them informed! (bi-weekly status meetings might be enough)

HotaHota (JJMerelo)

Awesome People

● Josette Garcia– Formerly O'Reilly community manager, now

2ndQuadrant

– Has still a fantastic community network

– can help you find people

– Be nice & polite with her. She deserves our respect!

– josetteorama@gmail.com

Awesome People

● YAPC Organizers!– All mentioned have organized major events

– YAPC::EU::2008 (Copenhagen) – Anton “Grrrr” Berezin

– YAPC::EU::2010 (Lisbon) – Alberto “ambs” Simões

– YAPC::EU::2014 (Sofia) – Hackman

– YAPC::EU::2015 (Granada) – JJMerelo

● And many more!– Just be nice when you ask :)

Grrrr

Awesome People

● News channels and fora where we can reach out to other Perl people– Perlmonks (Max “corion” Maischein)

● http://perlmonks.org/

– perlbuzz.com (Andy Lester)● editors@perlbuzz.com● Twitter: @perlbuzz

corion

Awesome People

● Liz & Wendy– They can bring their Perl booth to your event!

– Send them a mail if you want stickers, tuits, buttons or other marketing material!

– wendy@wendy.org

● Gabor “szabgab” Szabo– Can help with visibility and much useful advice!

– gabor@szabgab.com

Wendy

External Resources

– Perl Meetup groups● http://perl.meetup.com/● Brilliant for reaching outside the Perl bubble

– Hackerspaces● http://hackerspaces.org/● Very accepting places where anyone can come to show

& tell about anything interesting!

More? Let's discuss!

Thanks for coming!

Oh, and this wouldn't be possible without….

TimToady & Gloria

BECAUSE WE'RE JAPANESE!