Ronja Workshop

See notes at end for possible change of date...

Bristol Wireless will be running a Ronja building workshop with the author of the Ronja project Karel 'Clock' Kulhavy, members of Wireless London and, of course, members of Bristol Wireless.

Exact details are to be confirmed soon and will be confirmed both here and on the Bristol Wireless mailing list (you can subscribe at http://bristolwireless.net) but please sign up below if interested to give us some idea of numbers.

Please also indicate which of the proposed dates work for you and whether you woul like help finding accommodation in Bristol. Cheap travel from London on Megabus, or use this page to share a ride with someone.

Ronja building workshop

Venue:	TBC, probably Easton Community Centre http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=BS5+9JF+%28Easton+Community+Centre%29
Date:	TBC, probably Sat 17 & Sun 18 Dec 2005, or - more likely - early in the new year
Cost:	TBC, will be kept to an absolute minimum, just enough to cover expenses

There will be a social on the Saturday evening. :-) There may even be Free Beer. ;-)

Could/should we make it longer than two days?

Attendees:

• Karel 'Clock' Kulhavy
• SaulAlbert - coming from london, would prefer December thinking about it.
• Jim Farrand - In Bristol, I have no preferences
• Ben Green - Bristol, not fussy either
• Thomas Toseland
• Andy Laurence - Bristol, either dates fine.
• Amias Channer
• Steve Woods - Bristol

Interested but commitment-phobic or can't do that weekend:

• Peter Ferne - that weekend looks bad, already in Bristol
• Rich Higgs - away from 9 Dec to...? but would really like to come
• TenYen
• ?Matthew Toseland - Bristol, interested, saturday is fine, as is sunday afternoon
• Martin Ling - based in Edinburgh, would prefer December.
• Marcus Valentine - Bristol
• SeanKenny - can't make that weekend I'm afraid
• Matt Hamilton
• Scott at Netsight
• Jake Rayson
• Alan Parry @ HP

We are rather worried that the mid December dates aren't going to work for this. The funding we thought we had for the workshop has fallen through and whilst it may well be possible to make it self financing there are a number of open questions which worry us and which we think we need to answer before we can ask people to commit to paying to attend.

Workshop format

On the Ronja website FAQ it says that it takes about 70h to build one for the first time. Going on the interest shown on the wiki we would expect somewhere between six and sixteen people at the workshop. We need to know how many Ronjas we will be building and how people will be organised into teams. How many people can effectively collaborate on building one? If we had twelve people should we aim to build say six in parallel? In which case should we buy parts for seven so that we have spares?

Is a weekend long enough or should we extend it to include a day or two either side? We suspect many people who would be able to attend for a weekend will not be able to attend a three or four day workshop. Can anyone thinking of coming let us know whether this is an issue for them? (It certainly is for me.)

Venue

Clearly the size of the workshop also affects the kind of venue we need to book. We have a couple of possible venues in mind but are there any other requirements beyond adequate power outlets, lighting and table/bench space for close work? Do we need to be able to apply spray paint or do welding for example?

Timing

Some of the Bristol Wireless people including myself and Rich can't make that weekend. We are also worried that it is quite close to Xmas which means that people are busy and venues are hard to book.

There seems to be a three week lead time on PCBs unless we pay for a faster turnaround - but we want to keep the costs as low as possible. And we can't place an order until we know how many we are building. And we will almost certainly need to stock up on certain tools in advance of the workshop too.

General feeling amongst the BW volunteers seems to be that some time early in the new year would allow us more time to organise everything a bit better, and get people to commit (and pay) upfront.

We hate to disappoint anybody but it seems more likely that we can make a better go of it with a bit more preparation. Clock if you're coming over to the UK anyway for dorkbot london we'd still be delighted to see you and any of the wireless london guys for an informal get together in Bristol.

What do people think?
--
petef