FUDCon Cusco 2013: ¡Kausachun Fedora! [EN]

FUDCon Cusco was a unique adventure. Its impact locally was impressive. Honestly, since I left Panama I knew that this event would be a success.

Pre-FUDCon

My adventure starts coming out of Panama City in the morning. At the airport, I found Kiara Navarro and then we started going to the desired place. We had a stopover in Lima.

While we were waiting of Lima's airport, we met Juan Barba. We agreed to meet in Cusco. Finally, we landed at the International Airport Alejandro Velasco Astete. At that moment I thought: I'm in Cusco, it's time to work!

We were received by Cesar Villacorta and Eduardo Echeverria. Cesar is one of the main organizers of the event. A great guy, very helpful, he guided and accompanied us during our stay in Cusco.

We drove to the apartment where we were staying for the night, as they finished to get everyone to come together at the hotel Antawasi. The department was very comfortable. There we worked on our presentations and talked about our expectations of the event.

That night I participated, along with Eduardo, a 30-minute interview for Solar TV channel. At that time we promote the project and highlight the relevance of FUDCon for the people of Cusco.

The next day we all met at the hotel Antawasi, a place that would be the operations base for the Fedora community. Everything was fine except for the internet bandwidth that was not enough.

This day was used to settling into the hotel, walk the town and end our presentations. Somewhat surprising was the architecture. The buildings keeps the old colonial style. Even places as KFC and McDonald's respected the style.

Also went to the convention center of the Municipality of Cusco to see that all the technical part was working properly for the event. We reviewed all the rooms we had available and the different capabilities that each offered.

That night we shared the initial event dinner in the restaurant Ima Sumaq. After that, at the hotel, we saw the final details of the event such as posters and promotional media. A big concern that we had was that next day was to be given a transport strike.

First Day

This was the most awaited day for everyone. We arrived early to the convention center with the curiosity of how many people were arriving. Meanwhile we settled and prepare the strategy for the BarCamp.

Passed only a few minutes when we got a lot of people, approximately 900 people were around. The great room was filling with people who were eager for knowledge.

The event began with the national anthem, the welcome words from the dean of the college, the mayor of Cusco and Jared Smith as Fedora Project Leader representation.

Particularly, the mayor's words were very moving. He said a few words in Quechua (Inca native language) that were taxed in the minds of all who attended the event: Qosqo Kausachun! (which means "Long live Cusco!").

Then he gave badges and books in gratitude for attending the event. I want to highlight the hard work of local partners. They were always attentive to the details that were needed at the time.

Later, we all introduced ourselves. We indicate our countries of origin and the work we have in the Fedora Project. At the event were over 20 contributors from different countries: Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, United States, Brazil and Argentina.

Followed by the substantial point of the event: BarCamp. This time I explained to the participants what is an unconference event and the instructions that would follow in the event. Then the people came to propose their presentations. In total there were about 65 proposals for lectures and workshops.

Before the voting process, Matias, Wolnei and Valentin had a speech about free software philosophy and the relevance of the Fedora Project in this. Also shared their experiences throughout their lifes participating in Fedora Project.

Following this was the voting process. All worked in a harmonious way. Teachers, local assistants and project contributors helped to maintain the order and consistency of voting. Meanwhile, I gave a short summary of what would be each of the presentations.

After this complicated process, the participants were posing for the group photo, classic on FUDCon events. The photographer was Jared Smith. At the same time, many of the contributors were counting the votes and putting together the schedule for the first presentations of the day.

After lunch the talks and workshops officially began. We had four rooms: one large and three small. The attendees were very enthusiastic and attentive to presentations schedules.

That night we celebrated the birthday of Jared. It is really difficult to pass such a celebration away from family, so we try to make Jared feel as comfortable as possible. We bought a cake and shared a delicious dinner.

After everyone was resting, Alejandro Perez and I dedicated the rest of the night to organize all the presentations for the following days, considering the total number of votes, participants and consistency of the topics. It was hard work, but we made it. At the end, we upload the information on the wiki and social networks.

Second Day

It started as early as the first day. There was a high attendance. I estimate that about 700 people came. The presentations were varied.

On this day I presented, along Itamar, Eduardo and Luis, a small talk about the packaging process in the Fedora Project. At least 3 participants were interested in contribute on this subproject.

Also I gave my presentation with Yohan about creating a programming environment for Android and Java using Fedora and Eclipse. Then I talked about oVirt, which is a technology for managing data centers. I had a good attendance. Theoretical concepts were explained and then I shared a demo.

At the end of the day we had an ambassadors meeting, leaded by Alejandro Pérez. He explained the situation about budgeting and encouraged everyone to promote the project during the event, in order to obtain new contributors.

Third Day

On this day I was able to deliver two presentations. The first was about MariaDB Galera Cluster, its features and benefits, including a demostration. The second presentation was about the concept of Big Data in Fedora, how it works and why it is special. Also I set up a demonstration using Elasticsearch, Kibana and Logstash.

At noon, we moved to a restaurant called El Palacio del Inca where we shared lunch with the principal of the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad of Cusco. He expressed his deep gratitude for our presence in Cusco and the relationship of free software with the Inca culture. In the end he shared ​​some gifts and made ​​a toast.

We then returned to the convention center to end the presentations and close the event. Despite being the last day, the attendance exceeded 250 people. When we shut down the event, each of us gave a word of thanks and shared our contact details.

At the end, local contributors showed us some inca dances. Everybody was taking pictures. People were happy. Even Dennis Gilmore was dacing. It was a successful event.

Then we shared dinner in the restaurant Ima Sumaq. People were more relaxed, happy for all the achievements obtained, considering the challenges to be overcome on next FUDCon.

FUDPub

We got up early to find transport to take us to the village of Urcos.

That's where we would be celebrating FUDPub, living the Inca Worship to the Water Festival, organized by the municipality of this place.

We lunch together and play football. Then we went to the ruins of Pikillaqta. At the end of the day we returned to the hotel and we prepared our bags to return to our respective homes.

Post-FUDCon

It was time to say goodbye to our old and new friends, to the land that housed us for about a week. I returned to Panama with a deep joy in knowing that we did a magnificent job in Cusco FUDCon 2013. This was one of the best events that has had the Latin American community. I would like to thank Alex and Cesar for their excellent organization.

See you at the next FUDCon!