Events on g.d.o. use cases

Below is a dump of use cases that vistiors, users and camp organizers might need for Events functionality on g.d.o. that webchick, jerdavis and I came up with in IRC. :

Please add your own, and if some kind soul could also tidy this up, that would be super.

Event use cases

(possible mockup: https://img.skitch.com/20110423-dwx7gikkya2m38qsr48mpfbcy8.png)

• I am traveling to a strange new city, and want to easily find out if there are any events happening while I'm there.
• I want to find out what DrupalCamps/Regional Summits are happening around the world and when so that I can plan my year's travel budget
• I want a broad view of all of the events in groups I'm a part of
• I want a big-ass map of all Drupal events to show off how awesome and vast the Drupal community is! (yes!)
• I want a list of upcoming DrupalCamps in a particular region (e.g. East coast of USA, or Australia) so I can plan to present or sponsor
• As a student, I need to know what events are free or affordable
• As a [newbie|expert|designer|developer], I want to find events that cater to me, no matter where they're located.
• I need to see a list of all my upcoming local meetups so I can add them to my calendar/plan around them
• I need to easily find details of the next DrupalCon(s)

what about some of the "off" event types: online, training, "other"? what are the use cases around those?

• As someone who cannot travel easily, I need to know when upcoming online webinars/presentations are (and duration).
• I need to know if an online presentation will be repeated (if I cannot make it -ok maybe this is a "tough luck" situation
• I want to be able to subscribe to notifications about a type of event

Event organizer use cases

• Big call to action to Add their event to the event listing (what is the "event listing"? is this a call to action to organizers or attendees?)
• Reminder of best practices for adding event to site (this already exist, just make it more obvious - where does it exist?)
• Automatic status (like Signup is open/Signup is closed - automatic based on preset dates? based on the date of the event?)
• Waiting lists that notify users when they've been moved from waiting list to attendee list
• Integration with PayPal to let people buy tickets for events (this is a wishlist, right?)
• Designate a date and time that signup will open for an event
• COD on gdo infrastructure?

Stuff we need to fulfill said use cases:

• Events marked with a location (lat/lon) for proximity searching
• Users marked with a location (lat/lon) for proximity searching -- only possible for auth
  • d.o captures this, can we pull down from there?
  • IP-based location resolution?
• Interface to search by both where I am now and groups I belong to now, but also somewhere else. (my parents' city)
• Some kind of mapping module to show a map, if we want that
• Events belonging to a group for "My groups" searching (this already exists)
• Events having a start/end date to search for date ranges (this already exists)
• Events having a start/end time to schedule in calendar (this already exists?)
• The ability to repeat events multiple times (e.g. Git training sessions) but with different sign-up forms each time
• Event list filterable by:
  • Date range
  • Location (mine)
  • Location (arbitrary)
  • Groups (mine)
  • Groups (arbitrary)
  • Event type (online vs. camp vs. ...)
  • Ability to promote or feature events e.g. DrupalCon?

My impression is that this is an excellent project, here's something I imagine might be useful as interim step while this project is underway...

Interim organizing tool for regional groups organizing an event...

1. Someone should go through and look at maybe 20-30 past events and set up some pointers to key people for events categorized by size, date, etc. Send me a list of past events and I'll do that.

2. Prepare some guidelines on how various formats (scheduled onference/unconference/hybrid) work. Maybe the best practices material mentioned above has useable stuff.

3. Possibly using a quick & dirty taxonomy, create some forms pages and beat the drums for people to use them ... These could be used by some people as rudimentary event-organizing meta-project-management tool - and will give you a lot to work with for the roject above. I think the forms should include items like:

• Date(s)
• Location
• Theme (on theming, on GIS, on GIT....)
• Format (scheduled conference, unconference, hybrid)
• Ticket price(s), if...,
• Ticketing system used, if...

And a lot more about people...

Organizers broken down where possible by some kinds of roles, for example,

• Venue search person
• Venue contact person
• GDO contact person
• Event website coordinator
• Event ticketing coordinator
• Event hospitality/lodging coordinator
• Event onsite signage coordinator
• Event topic coordinator for events with scheduled sessions
• Unconference suggestion coordinator
• During-event communications planning coordinator (IRC/Twitter/Something structured)
• Event recording/streaming coordinator
• vvvvvEvent evaluation coordinator
• Event sponsor coordinator, if sponsored
• Afterparty coordinator, if....

Day of event management people

• Welcome table/signup people
• Food people
• Signage people
• People explaining during event evaluations, if....
• Roving troubleshooter coordinator
• Cleanup crew

Post event

• Thank you coordinator
• Group doing Analysis of attendee surveys, sponsor attendee surveys, etc team
• Lessons learned writeup coordinator and team
• Date & time of discussions intended to identify follow-on & other future events, with emphasis on providing opportunities for mentored succession of organizers

You'll maybe want to have people do some kind of structured self-report re experience organizing events, experience with drupal, and willingness/ability to mentor.

This leaves out the nitty-gritty of when/how the various groups actually collaborate. One coüld add that for completeness, if nothing else. The goal here is to try and come up with something that's form-driven and useful for event planning that will also generate data that can inform the larger project that's the subject of this page.