[Infopoint] Infopoint - lets make it happen!!

[Jono Bacon]

Hi all,

Right, as many of you know, the Infopoint project has been rather
inactive for quite some time. This has been partially down to the lack
of volunteers and partially down to the lack of time from the people
who do volunteer.

I have been thinking about this today, and had a quick discussion with
Tony and I have a bit of an action plan. I am utterly, insanely
convinced that we just need to give the Infopoint community some
momentum and then it can get on its feet like any other project. This
will need to regular posters and interested parties to collaborate
together a lot at first, and then it should run smoothly.

So, what is the plan. Here are my thoughts:

 - First, lets change the focus of the project slightly. We are rather
to restricted to computer fairs. People may want to run Infopoints at
sci-fi shows, shopping malls, universities and other places.

 - Next, lets de-centralise the idea that we make contacts with
computer fair organisers and dish out Infopoint dates. This is a bit
too disorganised and is too centralised for the occassion when someone
gets a dog and does less Infopoint stuff. :P Lets allow anyone to run
an Infopoint, and although encourage people who simply work to make
contacts with organisations to allow Infopoints to happen. So, as an
example, Kat's contribution may be to just manage BCF dates, whereas
Tony may do the actual Infopoint at the shows. This way anyone can
contribute.

 - We need to really, really, super importantly push resources on the
website for helping people run Infopoints. We need resources for how
to make contacts, printable posters, press release information and
more. We also need to provide a solid list of events that people are
doing.

I think the best way forward is to get the site up and running and
revamped first. Lets also make contacts with the computer fairs to
ensure the bridges are still there to book free tables. Tony is
interested in BCF and I think Kat is interested in other fairs.

With a site that is attractive and with some good instructions of how
to get involved, we should then attract new members. I will make a
strong effort to attract people to the project. I will write some
articles for O'Reilly, do some talks and push it at OpenAdvantage.

Thoughts?

  Jono