This is a draft and a page under construction. It will evolve rapidly when Sebastian Dziallas and I are at FUDCon Tempe - this is a first round of notes to start discussing with people. Mel Chua 18:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
Dates
Proposed: January 21-23, 2012 (Sat-Mon)
Olin residence halls open Sunday January 22 at 5pm, and classes begin on Tuesday January 24, so a Saturday-Sunday-Monday FUDCon would give us full use of facilities, overlap with the energy of the local student community, and be reasonable for the schedules of people traveling from out of town.
One format to consider might be doing a slight shuffle of the past FUDCon order.
Saturday: Unconference Sunday: Hackfests Monday: Half-day hackfests, half-day unconference track (to present hackfest work, etc).
This would allow area students to more easily participate in both the hackfests and unconference portions, and let people who need to leave early / arrive late to see both parts of FUDCon.
Location
About Needham
About Boston
Reference Links
Major Local Airports
Boston Logan International Airport (Airport Code: BOS) is the major airport servicing the greater Boston area.
The following airlines have flights going in / coming out of Logan. For a more complete list of regional airlines, please see Wikipedia. Note that international arrivals generally happen at Terminal E, whereas international departures may also occur from other Terminals (for example, a flight from Boston to London marketed by Air France might depart from Terminal A instead of Terminal E, if it is operated by Delta Air Lines).
- Terminal A:
- Alaska Airlines
- Continental Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Terminal B
- Air Canada
- American Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- US Airways
- Virgin America
- Terminal C
- AirTran Airways
- JetBlue Airways
- United Airlines
- Terminal E
- AerLingus
- Air France
- Alitalia
- British Airways
- Iberia
- Icelandair
- Lufthansa
- Porter Airlines
- SATA International
- Southwest Airlines
- Swiss International Air Lines
- TACV
- Virgin Atlantic Airways
Transit to/from airport
We are investigating the cost for setting up an hourly airport shuttle to/from Logan and the Olin campus. The student government at Olin was able to do this for $10 per passenger at a loss of only a few hundred dollars overall, running shuttles to/from campus on the hour for multiple days in a row.
For those staying with friends in the city, Logan is readily accessible via the Blue and Silver lines of the MBTA (Boston's metro rail).
- Silver Line connects to the Red Line, which goes to Alewife Station (at which point a shuttle to the hotel would be arranged by organizers and the hotel; there is an existing hotel shuttle running to/from this station).
- Blue line connects to the Green Line, the D line of which runs to the stop closest to Olin.
Local Mass Transit
Boston is served by the Metro Boston Transit Authority (MBTA) and also has local bus lines.
Needham is somewhat less accessible via public transit. The two best options are:
- Commuter Rail to Needham Center (2 miles from campus, easy to arrange rides to/from)
- MBTA Green D line to Eliot; a taxi is $20 (including tip) from this point. This would also be a convenient shuttle ride for organizers to set up, as the drive to campus is 15 minutes or less.
A single ride on the subway is $2. A one-day pass is $9; a one-week pass is $15.
Organizers can purchase and put MBTA passes into the attendee packs for pre-registrants ahead of time, if desired and if budget allows.
Local Restaurants
Sit-down Restaurants (aka, Finer Dining)
Fast(er) Food
Hotel
- Aloft Lexington: $99 per night
- Element Lexington: $119 per night (with breakfast)
Sebastian is in negotiations with the hotel. We're looking into getting their meeting rooms as hospitality suites, too. Mel and Sebastian are willing to confirm the awesomeness of both hotels.
Estimated Hotel Costs
Transit to/from FUDCon
Need to look into setting up a hotel-Olin shuttle bus. Transit time between location is approximately 30 minutes in moderate traffic. Here are some options we are looking into.
Black Tie Limo- 1800-624-9990 www.blacktielimo.com Largest and most diverse fleets in Boston area From Limousines to 55 passenger Coaches Call for pricing Corporate Limousine- 1 617-864-4801 www.corplimousine.com Limousines to 14 passenger vans Call for pricing Local Motion of Boston – 781-535-6344 From 10 Passenger Bus to 55 Passenger Motor Coach Call for pricing Boston Common Coach – 617-723-3833 13 Passenger Vans, 47 & 55 Passenger Coaches Luxury Coaches; adjustable foot rests, Reclining Seats, DVD & Monitor Call for pricing Boston Chauffeur – 866-570-5466 Info@bostonchauffeur.com Mercedes and Hybrid Sedans Escalade and Hummer Limousines 14 – 55 Passenger Shuttle/ Coaches Call for pricing Harrison Transportation – 781-863-2626 Taxi Services Sedan and Town Car Ford Fusion Hybrids (less $$ than sedan or town car) Limo and SUV Services Executive Van 10 – 14 passenger Prestige Transportation – 617-816-8509 Full range of transportation services The Coach Transportation www.thecoachtransportation.com Logan/ Lexington Fare: $72 One Way, $144 Round Trip Prices include tolls, taxes, and gratuity. Hourly: $50/hr Minimum 3hrs, does not include tax or gratuity
Transit to/from Boston
For FUDPub and other social events in Boston, there is a shuttle from the hotel to Alewife (a major stop on the MBTA red line). Ride time estimate is 15 minutes.
Room Capacities and Configuration
Internet Capabilities
Alternate Venues for Meeting (not in a hotel
Availability
Need to check.
Parking
Parking at Olin is ample and free.
Room Spaces and Costs
Need map, costs.
We're thinking of asking for the entire 3rd floor of the Academic Center, which gives us classrooms with projectors, whiteboards, and moveable tables and chairs. 7 classrooms, the auditorium (capacity ~300), and dining hall access should be sufficient.
The buildings are unlocked during the day, and students have 24/7 card access, so admission to the building should not be a problem.
Networking
Olin has a guest network. Need to check capacity. High-speed wifi is available throughout the entire campus and supports 300+ students and 40+ faculty who use laptops and connectivity extensively; we're fairly confident that 300 Fedora hackers can't possibly use any more of the network than 300 Olin students could.
Food and Catering
Local food (within walking distance of Olin's campus)
- Masala Art (Indian, $$)
- Not Your Average Joe's (contemporary American, $$)
- Friendly's (American diner, $)
- Stone Hearth Pizza (Upscale pizza, $)
List other places.
Shirts!
Check with Mo where FUDCon Boston shirts have formerly been printed.
Transportation to Event
Flight estimates from kayak.com. February 2011 has been checked since flights in Jan 2012 are not available yet, but cost should be comparable.
Costs from RDU (Raleigh, NC)
- Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $109 as of 1/18
Costs from ORD (Chicago, IL)
- Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $179 as of 1/18
Costs from LAX (Los Angeles, CA)
- Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $289 as of 1/18
Costs from JFK (New York, NY)
- Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $99 as of 1/18
Or take a Chinatown bus for $15-30 each way. Some buses (Bolt Bus, etc) have wifi.
Costs from LHR (London, UK)
- Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $555 (one layover) or $652 (nonstop) as of 1/18
FUDPub Options
Flat Top Johnny's, where we had the last Boston FUDPub. Easily accessable via shuttle + subway from the proposed hotel locations.
Family Fun
Thinking of bringing your family to Boston? There are tons of activities to do.
In town
- Boston Children's Museum
- Boston Museum of Science
- MIT Museum
- Duck Boats
- Harvard Square
- Massachusetts Avenue
- Boston Commons
- Shopping Get help with this section for non-geeky stuff. Lots of unique and geeky stores here, from the MIT Press Bookstore to MicroCenter and You-Do-It Electronics.
Out of Town
- New Hampshire - White Mountains
- Skiing (MBTA-accessible, including one right next to the Westford Red Hat office)
More notes needed to flesh in this section.
About the Organizers - Previous FUDCon Experience, etc.
Primary owner: Sebastian Dziallas (student at Olin College). Sebastian has organized open source events before (LinuxCon Education Mini-Summit). He attended FUDCon Berlin 2009, Toronto 2009, and Tempe 2011, and has spoken and represented Fedora at LinuxTag 2009 and 2010 and LinuxCon 2010, among other events.
Secondary owner: Mel Chua (alumni of Olin College, current Red Hat employee in Raleigh NC) - Mel has organized an open source event at Olin before (OLPC Game Jam, June 2007) and was one of the organizers of the Toronto FUDCon in December 2009. She also attended the Boston FUDCon in January 2009 and the Tempe FUDCon in January 2011.
Deadlines
None yet; need to investigate deadlines for hosting events at Olin.
Pros and Cons of Proposed Location
Engineers from the Westford office are close to this location, saving on travel costs. Mel Chua 18:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
RIT students can road-trip to the location easily. Mel Chua 18:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)