Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: [linux-audio-user] LAD Meeting at ZKM, Karlsruhe/Germany 14.-16. March 2003
From: Frank Neumann (Frank.Neumann_AT_st.com)
Date: Thu Dec 05 2002 - 12:16:36 EET
Hi,
Martin Wolters wrote:
> This sounds like a great idea. I am not completely clear on the scope of
> the event. Besides the different focus of discussions, what is the
> difference between public and non-public? I am also interested in the
I'll give a few comments about that here: When a couple of us met at
this year's LinuxTag (also here in Karlsruhe) in June, we found that
though the exhibition lasted for 4 days, we had very little time in the
end to discuss our projects/problems/ideas. Most of the time was just
filled with demonstrating programs and explaining concepts to visitors
of the booth. After the fair had ended, most of us had to drive home
that same day in the afternoon, and so we (or at least I :-) felt like
there was not enough time for our own concerns.
This is something that could be tackled with a "programmer's meeting"
where we can sit together in a room for 2-3 days, "bring our own gear",
do hacking, talking, demoing to ourselves, and also preparing for the
NEXT LinuxTag, again in Karlsruhe in June 2003. I have organized similar
meetings (but with a different scope - then for Linux/m68k development)
a couple of years ago, and the participants (usually 15-20 persons) to
these meetings often were very happy about the rapid results of direct
face-to-face communication (as opposed to E-Mail or phone). This is the
"non-public" part.
The ZKM is sponsoring this planned meeting by giving us rooms, power
(and probably also network connectivity), but of course they also want
some "profit" out of this for themselves. We offer them to make this
meeting partially open by giving presentations (and probably also demos)
of our work. They can announce this, attract visitors, gain more public
attention through that, and thus have their "profit". This is the idea,
and the "public" part.
> expected quality and general structure of public sessions: Who do you
> expect will attend? How long is a presentation? Presentation language?
> Available equipment? Will there be presentations in parrallel or just
> sequentially in a single room?
Ok, several questions here -
Who will attend?
Hard to predict, this is the first time we're doing this. It will also
depend on the PR work that the ZKM (and we) put into this. My hope would
be that the audience is a mixture of audio-interested Linux people and
Linux-interested audio folks :-). It's ok (from my point of view) that
talks are somewhat technical, but it would probably also be good if they
are entertaining to some degree.
How long is a presentation?
No "slot times" were defined yet; I'd expect similar durations as on
Linux congress lectures: about 30 - 45 minutes for a presentation plus
15 minutes for questions and discussion. There might be good reasons to
prolong a presentation if the topic is complex, but at some point people
usually get a bit tired - no single presentation should (IMHO) last
longer than 90 minutes in total.
Language?
If we have english-speaking presenters (and I hope we do ;-), it's clear
what language to use. As for the german talkers, we could think about
either asking the audience at the start of the presentation if any
english-only folks are among them, and adapt, or rather hold the
presentations in german. Personally, I don't care; others might have
different opinions on this. Again, nothing has been decided here yet. I
think that when the "show begins", a poster near the entrance should
tell for each lecture when it begins, what speaker, what topic and what
language it is held in.
Available equipment?
Still to early to say. We get 2 rooms and a larger lecture room. I hope
that some kind of PA is installed in that lecture room, and getting a
beamer should be possible, too. Apart from that, as most of us bring
their own equipment, we should be able to improvise a lot if we do no
get from the ZKM what we need.
Presentations in parallel?
I don't think so. We are not going to have that much presentations
anyway (my guess right now is something between 3 and 6), and these
could all be handled sequentially on one day.
> I have two ideas, but I am not certain that they will fit the program:
>
> a) "Using Linux and OpenSource software for Digital Audio Signal
> Processing Development"
> (Related to a toots that I am trying to write since a few months. Maybe
> I can get that done by then - it certainly would be an incentive to
> finnish. Scope inlucdes Octave and various frameworks [ladspa,
> portaudio, simple GUI] that can be applied to audio signal processing
> development and related research)
>
> b) Open questions and FAQ
> This could be a session where key contributors are available to answer,
> present and discuss general issues. I am thinking of a single session
> with about 4-5 experts on certain areas [ALSA, MIDI/Sequencing, PCM
> recording (ardour ...), sound synthesis (pd, synths) ]. The audience can
> then ask specific questions ("How do I this or that?") without needing
> to know who can answer. And it can be demonstrated right during the
> session. We can even broadcast the session over the web (provided ZKM
> has high-speed internet access) and accept questions through an IRC or
> something. I am willing to help with the required preperation.
I like both ideas, and both would fit. The ZKM has (as far as I know) a
2MBit line, so I am not sure of the livestream-ability of this. Also,
it's very hard right now to estimate how many folks who actually have
Linux/ALSA/...-specific questions will show up there. After all, it's
some kind of experiment for us (as well as for the ZKM), but I'm very
interested in seeing how well this will work out.
Hope that answers your questions somewhat, and thanks for the offer,
Frank
--
Frank Neumann (Frank.Neumann_AT_st.com), VIONA Development Center
STMicroelectronics, Karlstraße 27, 76133 Karlsruhe
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