Posted by mdmattin on November 19, 2010 at 5:04pm
Umass update
Ascertained from Steve B. and OIT:
Wifi group guest access is doable:
We need to provide definitive date, number of attendees, location and the name of the gathering at least three business days in advance.
Power is everywhere. I think every seat we're talking about using has
power (except maybe in the auditorium and maybe even there).
Most parking is free on weekends -- most lots only restrict parking
during the days on weekdays. Parking should not be a problem.
We can't have food inside the classrooms, but it should be no problem to
have it in the atrium.
The next thing to do is to have some of us visit the the site and see what facilities are available, but it's looking good.
Comments
Thanks!
Thanks for this summary. And thanks to everyone who's jumping in to do stuff. Go! Go! Go, Team Go! :-)
I have requested the auditorium and atrium. The people who requested them, however, didn't really follow through. I have followed up with the scheduling office regarding the auditorium and will follow up regarding the use of the atrium (Evidently a request needs to be put in for custodial service.) But I have reasonable confidence that those resources will be available to us.
If all this comes to pass, we'll have a 300 seat auditorium all day, two 80-seat classrooms (one with computers (27" iMacs) and one without), a computer lab (with more 27" iMacs suitable for small-group activities and collaboration), a large conference room, two small conference rooms, and two more 24-seat computer classrooms if necessary. Every one of those spaces has data projection.
I will get graphical plans of the buildings, suitable for building maps and diagrams, showing locations, etc.
It would be good to have a tour of the facilities with organizers so that people can envision the space as we move forward.
Many thanks
Thank you, Steve, for following through with getting us access to this wonderful location. These are the things that had to be settled fast for the rest of the organizing to happen. And it sounds like they are almost settled.
Thanks,
Steve C-T
A few roadblocks
I just heard back from the room scheduling people: the auditorium can only be scheduled by departments for courses, otherwise you have to buy it through conference services. I can look into it, but I'm reluctant to involve conference services: I suspect they will tell us that everything has to be purchased through them.
Similarly, to use the atrium there will have to a payment for "custodial service". I haven't yet found out how much that is, but I'm getting pushback from the dean's business manager who says the dean won't pay for it.
The idea was to use the atrium for exhibitors -- if we want to do that, we may need to charge exhibitors (or get some kind of sponsorship).
I believe we can still use the conference rooms, the classrooms, and the computer labs without any further bureaucratic involvement.
I will provide more info as it becomes available.
Hi Steve, If you can get some
Hi Steve,
If you can get some estimates from inside channels w/o creating a scene it would help to know sooner rather than later so if we need to raise money we can. From our meeting, we planned not to do sponsors, exhibits, etc because it was just too much work in the time we have remaining. Still, if we can get a nice big open space it would be really useful I'm sure. And I'm trying to arrange some high-profile keynote speakers and a opening / closing session - all good for an audi. Worst comes to worst, a couple class rooms will totally do though, so don't stress yourself out about it.
Best,
Jacob
Estimate
I got an estimate this afternoon that the custodial service that would allow us to use the atrium would be around $400.
I haven't found out how much it would be to use the auditorium. Is there serious interest of having sessions in a 300 seat auditorium? I can contact conference services and ask them.
Thanks to everyone for jumping to make this project a reality -- its great to see it coming together.
Based on the informal interest I've gotten already, I predict there is going to be huge interest in the camp.
these really seems like a small fee we can all cover
So I will write the check or we can get a few people to write it etc but what ever it takes to not miss a due date?
Thanks for all the work on this !
Alfred Nutile
alfrednutile@gmail.com
http://www.alfrednutile.info/about
http://twitter.com/alnutile
Sounds good so far. Paying
Sounds good so far. Paying custodial services means no need for clean up volunteers?
We are hoping to officially announce the camp this Wednesday. It would be great to have a cost for the auditorium by then.
Reserved?
After a few more rounds of email tag, I am hopeful that the auditorium has been reserved without any additional fees being assessed.
I think it would still be appropriate for us to have volunteers to make a rough pass over everything, but the custodial staff will do the actual cleaning.
WIFI update
I talked to Vern at OIT today re numbers, login, etc. They can handle up to 400 simultaneous sessions, i.e. active connections by individual devices. There could be some latency if too many devices hit on the same transponder, but the building seems to be pretty well covered. There will be a single login for everyone, and no need for network registration.