CodeCampPlanning

Contibutor Camp Planning Page

In order to be more productive we need to commit to at least one if not two contributor camp locations and dates ahead. This page serves as a repository of information for the planning thereof.

Below, some basic requirements as listed. That said, it is sometimes necessary to get creative in trying to meet the underlying requirements in different ways, particularly given the lack of any formal funding. Also note that, as these camps become more successful at attracting more participants, the space needs will evolve:

• PERIOD:
  • 7 full days beginning Tuesday morning at 9ish and ending the following Tuesday evening
  • plan half day off over the weekend including optional group activity (e.g. hikes, board games, tourist visiting etc)
• LODGING:
  • Hotel/guest house with 15-20 (depends on expected size) rooms available for the camp (small discounts would be great too)
  • Lodging should provide free wifi and large common space (bar/lounge/gathering).
  • Access to exercised facilities is a strong plus.
  • Lodging can be made by pre-arranged block or just listed as the workshop hotel and folks encouraged to stay there. However, local organizers should discuss with the hotel and understand what the hotel can provide as facilities.
  • However room costs should also factor to keep the participants costs lower (see costs section below).
• ROOMS/SPACE:
  • At least two working rooms available, preferably 3.
    • NOTE: Participants must be able to access the space for the full 7 day period. The weekend access may put restrictions on what spaces are suitable. In the past it has been necessary to swap rooms during the camp, but it is strongly preferred to avoid the need for that if at all possible, at least for the main room.
    • One room should be able to hold at least 25 classroom style with enough space to code and have a notepad or a 2nd monitor each. This probably means it should accommodate 30 or more normally. In general this would be where the group works together. The bigger the better to accommodate break-out groups
    • The other rooms are mostly for breakouts and should hold at least 6 classroom and preferably larger. Often this can be a conference room with a big table. There should be a white board or flipcharts available for discussions.
  • Preferably there should be plenty of open gathering spaces nearby and/or more rooms
  • Space/access to provide coffee, tea, water and snacks is a requirement as is the ability to serve Pizza (or otherwise catered) working lunch (see costs section below).
  • Space for posters to be displayed throughout the 7 day workshop, ideally in the large common working room. NOTE: this is a new feature introduced at the Munich camp and deemed very useful.
• FACILITIES NEEDED
  • Computer Projection Presentation ability should be available in the main room at least. Availability in breakouts is as strong plus. This is for both presentations and possible hybrid discussions. Rooms do not need to be video conferencing ready but would be a plus (VC can be conducted using individual laptops as necessary).
  • WIFI: Good wifi for group is needed.
    • work does not generally involve streaming so should be standardly available most places
    • One caveat is that Eduroam, while extremely useful, is not always sufficient as some people (particularly from US facilities) will likely not have eduroam access. So need a general "guest" wifi available. This MAY be possible to set up ourselves if we can plug an access point into an ethernet port?
• COSTS
  • The SasView organization has no funds of its own so all costs are born either by the participants or the hosting institution.
  • No registration fee is asked of participants - they donate their time, the flight, hotel and their meal costs.
  • The hosting institution provides the room access, wifi etc. Often this can be done without incurring costs to grants but may sometimes require some funding. The host institution is responsible for working that out.
  • Coffee, tea, and snacks are de rigueur for hackathon style activities. This has been at times provided by senior members of the active SasView contributors team and other times by the host institution. Sometimes by a bit of both.
  • Traditionally, a final pizza lunch is provided to the participants on the last Monday in the working rooms to aid in the final sprint. The cost of this has traditionally been born again by senior members of the active SasView contributors team. This may need to evolve with time.
  • Costs for participants should otherwise be kept as low as reasonably achievable within above constraints.

Other considerations

• Variety of food options nearby venue/housing
• Interesting location to visit

Potential Sites

Potential sites can be locations where there is an existing or potential SasView community or some other connections or it could be more remote. This latter being more suitable for focusing on the core development while the former is helpful to promote the dual purpose of advancing the development with developing and engaging the broader community.

Potential SasView community sites:

• SOLEIL (Paris)
• Charles University Prague
• The University of TN - smokeys nearby. Nice renovated downtown and strip area. near SNS. nice but small, not international airport
• UMD in DC area has strong connection to NIST
• Beijing (there are several facilities in China)
• Hongkong?
• PSI
• Seattle - University of Washington - soft matter scattering connections
• Mineapolis MN - soft and hard matter scattering connections
• Gainsville or Tallahassee FL (magnetic focus?)
• Berlin - BAM?
• Brookhaven
• Berkeley

** Sites visited one or more times already that would probably be willing to host again:**

• ILL/ESRF
• ESS/DMSC
• ISIS/Diamond (Cosner's house?)
• NIST/Washington DC area (UD, UMD most likely)
• SNS/ORNL

Potential more remote sites for focused work:

• Hotel Jakuszyce Poland on Czech border - could go back?
• Hotel Ještĕd in Czechia an hour from Prague
  • an interesting video "review" can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A3IywLiVTE
• Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in the swiss alps seems to allow summer retreats (used by PSI)
• Mount Pilatus in the swiss alps above Lucerne. Rooms seem a bit pricey but quite nice meeting spaces
• Mount Washington New Hamshire. Again, the rooms seem quite pricey but may be opportunities for a group off-season?

Boot camps

http://trac.sasview.org/wiki/BootCamp