Today is pre-OOoCon day, for mostly internal community meetings. I had planned on a leisurely day with nothing to do until the Marketing project meeting at 11 – then Louis asked me if I could go to Community Council at 9. So much for the lie-in.

So, an early breakfast (classe economique again – but the chocolat chaud was Max Havelaar – Fairtrade in a one star hotel!). Public transport in Lyon is great, but there was no obvious route from hotel to conference centre at INSA (so who put this hotel as number two on the list of recommended hotels? grrr). So, a walk alongside the peripherique (horror), through a park (ok) and a tram to INSA – 45 minutes.

I’ve been a deputy attender at Community Council (CC) for some time. However, meetings are IRC during working hours, which I can’t attend. I also hate IRC for anything other than quick queries. I think I would prefer to work via carrier pigeon – IRC is so slow, disjointed, and impossible to have real conversations. Despite this, CC has grown on me – the members represent a variety of interests, which they are not afraid to stand up for, but equally everyone is prepared to listen. I’m always amused to hear community members demanding the CC take executive action on something or other (but only if they think CC will agree with them…)

Fortunately, the CC members understand exactly the limits of what they can do (“how many divisions has the Pope?”). Sponsors who fund developers expect to set their agendas. Volunteers will only do what interest them. The CC can and does attempt to influence both, but it cannot control.

I ended up taking the notes for the meeting; they are public record, so I’ll not repeat them here.

The Marketing Project meeting was a bit of a disaster (mea culpa). I was persuaded to hold one quite late on, after the schedule had gone to the printers and after many people had made their travel arrangements. So, not everyone was in Lyon, and some of those who were couldn’t find the meeting Those who made it had an excellent exchange of news and ideas, and agreed to do some work to promote the role of Marketing Contacts (MarCons) after discussions with the Native-Language Confederation (NLC). The local French TV took some footage of the meeting, and I had my first experience of being interviewed in French (off camera I hasten to add).

The NLC meeting in comparison was very well attended. The NLC is the backbone of the community, bringing together the grass-roots activists from around the world. The session was a bit unstructured – I think we all need to think how to get every last drop of value out of these annual two-hour sessions – not a second should be allowed to go to waste!

The night finished with the annual highlight of OOoCon – the NLC party, this year a cruise and a meal on the Rhone. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a meal literally bring tears to someone’s eyes. The Italian girl sitting next to me took a great spoonfull of what she thought was a sweet blancmange, only to find she had a mouthful of a quite tart cheesy/yoghourty local speciality…

I left when the boat docked. The party went on for some time, but I was dubious about my route back from the city centre to my exile on the outskirts. A tram ride took me to the station, where I discovered the last bus had gone and so it was a taxi back to the hotel. Memo for next year – stay in more convenient hotel – it’s probably cheaper than paying taxis. I collapsed in bed last night at 12.30 exhausted, and the conference hasn’t even started.

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