6 ms·

Frab – free and open conference management system

193 points by weinzierl 7y ago

jph 7y ago
Thank you for writing and sharing - I especially like the feature for a call for papers. I'm adding Frab to a list of Meetup alternatives and related meeting software: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/social_network_plan/blob/master/docs/ideas/alternatives/meetup.md https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/social_network_plan/b...
- Quanttek 7y ago
  Pretalx was also mentioned in the comments
dbrgn 7y ago
This system is regularly used by the German CCC to organize their conferences.
ggm 7y ago
Anyone reviewed how it compares to indico or eventbirght?
- fnord123 7y ago
  Or easy chair: https://www.easychair.org/ https://www.easychair.org/
  - faster 7y ago
    Or OpenConferenceWare: http://openconferenceware.org/ http://openconferenceware.org/
jedimastert 7y ago
Is this more geared towards educational/business conferences (where the primary motivation is speakers disseminating information to large groups of people) can it do more entertainment conferences or fan cons with booths and a show floor and the like? Edit: I just realized that I meant to say "conventions" for the second part, and also that there's a lot more crossover than I would have originally thought.
- artemist 7y ago
  I believe it is more focused on educational conferences. the CCC uses this for all its conferences, including Congress and Camp.
hirundo 7y ago
From Frab's schema.rb: create_table "people", force: :cascade do |t| # ... t.string "first_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "last_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "gender", limit: 255 # ... end Our schema has a similar table, but with "prefix" instead of "gender", where on the front end a list pops down with Mr., Ms., etc. We just use the prefix to form the full name. I wonder where the need to track gender comes from in such an app. We manage events and conferences too, but gender hasn't come up beyond the salutation. Since they do care about gender maybe they will soon also want pronoun and possessive_pronoun columns.
- dbrgn 7y ago
  The gender _might_ be used to ensure diverse speaker selection.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- nisuni 7y ago
  Some conferences are in locations with restricted accommodation facilities, and if you don’t specify a roommate, you are paired with someone of your gender. So that’s why the gender might be needed. As far as the preferred pronouns are concerned, I see them as something with heavy political connotations. No one who is not hard left believes in the necessity of the xir pronoun, and of course there are trans people also among the right! So, to me it’s completely acceptable that something so controversial is not included.
  - blahblahthrow 7y ago
    Automatically pairing people by gender is pretty weird IMO. As a trans woman I have to find my own roommate or find an organizer to intervene and explain my life story to them.
    - rebuilder 7y ago
agumonkey 7y ago
doo people have open source recording gig ? to ensure nice sound and synced slides ?
- markvdb 7y ago
  Have a look at what we use at https://fosdem.org https://fosdem.org [0][1]. In terms of software, a crucial component is voctomix [2], using it as a headless video mixer. Another invaluable component is nginx-rtmp [3] for streaming. We made a heavy push to get all of this packaged in Debian. It's a surprisingly powerful combination. [0] https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible/playbooks/roles https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible... [1] https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/blob/master/instructions/FOSDEM_AV_manual.pdf https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/blob/master/instructions/FOS... [2] https://github.com/voc/voctomix https://github.com/voc/voctomix [3] https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/ https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/
sdan 7y ago
Not sure if it's just me: Anytime you show a product at least include some screenshots of how it looks like somewhere. In my brief search, I couldn't find anything.
- ziari 7y ago
  I found some in the GitHub wiki (last edited in 2013, though). https://github.com/frab/frab/wiki/Screenshots https://github.com/frab/frab/wiki/Screenshots
  - tylermenezes 7y ago
    Look mostly accurate from my last experience with frab in 2018!
- weinzierl 7y ago
  I agree about the screenshots and a demo in addition is even better. Or even better yet: real world use cases. To see frab live and in action google for "ccc fahrplan" For example, last year's congress "fahrplan" is: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/timeline.html https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/timeli... "fahrplan" is running frab since 2013.
xvilka 7y ago
There is also Pretalx[1][2]. [1] https://pretalx.org https://pretalx.org [2] https://github.com/pretalx https://github.com/pretalx
davidroetzel 7y ago
It is so nice to see this on here. I started frab way back for FrOSCon, a german free and open source software conference (which you should totally attend if you can make it!). I stopped contributing when I stopped organizing FrOSCon, but thankfully Mario, the current maintainer, has picked it up and he does a tremendous job ever since. Also a big thank you to all contributors.

193 points by weinzierl 7y ago

jph 7y ago

Thank you for writing and sharing - I especially like the feature for a call for papers. I'm adding Frab to a list of Meetup alternatives and related meeting software: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/social_network_plan/blob/master/docs/ideas/alternatives/meetup.md https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/social_network_plan/b...

Quanttek 7y ago
Pretalx was also mentioned in the comments

dbrgn 7y ago

This system is regularly used by the German CCC to organize their conferences.

ggm 7y ago

Anyone reviewed how it compares to indico or eventbirght?

fnord123 7y ago
Or easy chair: https://www.easychair.org/ https://www.easychair.org/
- faster 7y ago
  Or OpenConferenceWare: http://openconferenceware.org/ http://openconferenceware.org/

jedimastert 7y ago

Is this more geared towards educational/business conferences (where the primary motivation is speakers disseminating information to large groups of people) can it do more entertainment conferences or fan cons with booths and a show floor and the like? Edit: I just realized that I meant to say "conventions" for the second part, and also that there's a lot more crossover than I would have originally thought.

artemist 7y ago
I believe it is more focused on educational conferences. the CCC uses this for all its conferences, including Congress and Camp.

hirundo 7y ago

From Frab's schema.rb: create_table "people", force: :cascade do |t| # ... t.string "first_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "last_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "gender", limit: 255 # ... end Our schema has a similar table, but with "prefix" instead of "gender", where on the front end a list pops down with Mr., Ms., etc. We just use the prefix to form the full name. I wonder where the need to track gender comes from in such an app. We manage events and conferences too, but gender hasn't come up beyond the salutation. Since they do care about gender maybe they will soon also want pronoun and possessive_pronoun columns.

dbrgn 7y ago
The gender _might_ be used to ensure diverse speaker selection.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
nisuni 7y ago
Some conferences are in locations with restricted accommodation facilities, and if you don’t specify a roommate, you are paired with someone of your gender. So that’s why the gender might be needed. As far as the preferred pronouns are concerned, I see them as something with heavy political connotations. No one who is not hard left believes in the necessity of the xir pronoun, and of course there are trans people also among the right! So, to me it’s completely acceptable that something so controversial is not included.
- blahblahthrow 7y ago
  Automatically pairing people by gender is pretty weird IMO. As a trans woman I have to find my own roommate or find an organizer to intervene and explain my life story to them.
  - rebuilder 7y ago

agumonkey 7y ago

doo people have open source recording gig ? to ensure nice sound and synced slides ?

markvdb 7y ago
Have a look at what we use at https://fosdem.org https://fosdem.org [0][1]. In terms of software, a crucial component is voctomix [2], using it as a headless video mixer. Another invaluable component is nginx-rtmp [3] for streaming. We made a heavy push to get all of this packaged in Debian. It's a surprisingly powerful combination. [0] https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible/playbooks/roles https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible... [1] https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/blob/master/instructions/FOSDEM_AV_manual.pdf https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/blob/master/instructions/FOS... [2] https://github.com/voc/voctomix https://github.com/voc/voctomix [3] https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/ https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/

sdan 7y ago

Not sure if it's just me: Anytime you show a product at least include some screenshots of how it looks like somewhere. In my brief search, I couldn't find anything.

ziari 7y ago
I found some in the GitHub wiki (last edited in 2013, though). https://github.com/frab/frab/wiki/Screenshots https://github.com/frab/frab/wiki/Screenshots
- tylermenezes 7y ago
  Look mostly accurate from my last experience with frab in 2018!
weinzierl 7y ago
I agree about the screenshots and a demo in addition is even better. Or even better yet: real world use cases. To see frab live and in action google for "ccc fahrplan" For example, last year's congress "fahrplan" is: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/timeline.html https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/timeli... "fahrplan" is running frab since 2013.

xvilka 7y ago

There is also Pretalx[1][2]. [1] https://pretalx.org https://pretalx.org [2] https://github.com/pretalx https://github.com/pretalx

davidroetzel 7y ago

It is so nice to see this on here. I started frab way back for FrOSCon, a german free and open source software conference (which you should totally attend if you can make it!). I stopped contributing when I stopped organizing FrOSCon, but thankfully Mario, the current maintainer, has picked it up and he does a tremendous job ever since. Also a big thank you to all contributors.