September 21, 2014
Act (A Conference Toolkit) is the conference management tool that has been used to organize more than 175 Perl conferences in the last ten years. Rewritten in 2004, based on the software used to run the YAPC::Europe conference in Paris in 2003, it was open sourced in 2007. Since then, 6 different Act instances have been setup around the world, hosting a grand total of 183 conferences so far.
In the last few years, the software has started to show its age: very few new features have been added, and the users and conferences organizers have had to learn to work their way around its limitations. As it is the de facto standard for organizing Perl conferences, there have been several attempts to rejuvenate it (the YAPC NA 2012 team forked it to use PSGI, Torsten Raudssus started the YACT project under a TPF Grant, etc.)
The latest attempt by Theo van Hoesel, also under a TPF Grant, has managed to round up a lot of goodwill around it, including that of some of the original authors.
The French Perl Mongers, who authored Act and are running the biggest Act instance (155 conferences so far), would very much like to push Act in the modern age. In support for the current effort led by Theo van Hoesel (and other future efforts) to improve Act, the French Perl Mongers are setting up an "Act fund" to cover the expenses of Act hackers participating to the improvement of Act.
This fund is not meant to pay salaries, or offer grants, but to cover travel and accommodation of hackers involved in the current and future efforts to improve Act. The Act fund will be fully disclosed to the public, on the Act website, with all income and expenses listed. (See below.)
The goal of the fund is to help the people working to improve Act, so that the Perl community can finally have an improved Act to use. Some of it is by getting the keepers of the main database (the French Perl Mongers) more involved with what's happening. Another big part of it is to facilitate communication between the people the more involved in the project. Hackathons have proved their worth, mostly because of the value of face-to-face communication.
The two Act-related events following the creation of the fund are the upcoming hackathons in Lyon and Oslo, which both will be, in part or full, focused on Act improvements.
| Date | Description | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-09-22 | Don Vito Perleone | 137.00 | |
| 2014-09-29 | YAPC Europe Foundation | 1000.00 | |
| 2014-09-30 | Roma.pm (€50 via PayPal) | 48.05 | |
| 2014-09-30 | Ricardo Signes (€75 via PayPal) | 71.82 | |
| 2014-09-30 | zak zebrowski (€5 via PayPal) | 4.55 | |
| 2014-10-01 | Lukáš Rampa (€15 via PayPal) | 14.24 | |
| 2014-10-02 | Oslo.pm (€1000, minus travel for two to the Lyon hackathon) | 268.47 | |
| 2014-10-03 | Andrew Rodland (€50 via PayPal) | 47.80 | |
| 2014-10-06 | Les Mongueurs de Perl (remainder of the €600 patch -p2 budget) | 91.90 | |
| 2014-10-12 | Stichting Perl Promotie Nederland | 500.00 | |
| 2014-11-20 | SOFTALYS (100€ via PayPal) | 96.35 | |
| 2014-11-25 | WenZPerl | 1000.00 | |
| 2014-11-26 | Travel to Lyon for Theo van Hoesel | -175.00 | |
| 2014-11-30 | Accommodation in Lyon for Theo van Hoesel + Peter Rabbitson (1 night) | -447.00 | |
| 2014-11-30 | Accommodation in Lyon for Salve J. Nilsen + Joakim Tørmoen | -380.00 | |
| 2014-11-30 | Accommodation in Lyon for Sébastien Aperghis-Tramoni + Aristotle Pagaltzis | -446.00 | |
| 2014-11-30 | Accommodation in Lyon for Peter Rabbitson + Sawyer X | -403.00 | |
| 2014-11-30 | Misc expenses on accomodations above (like taxes...) | -90.60 | |
| Total | -1941.60 | 3280.18 | |
| Balance | 1338.58 | ||
If like us, you think Act is important for the Perl community, please consider participating to the Act fund.
To do so, either use the Paypal button on this page, or do a direct
transfer using the information below (please state "ACT FUND" on
your transfer, and contact the treasurer of Les Mongueurs de Perl at
tresorier@mongueurs.net, to let use know about your donation
and how you want it to appear on this page).
| PayPal | Direct transfer | |
|---|---|---|
| Name | LES MONGUEURS DE PERL | |
| Bank | CIC - Paris Villiers | |
| IBAN | FR76 3006 6108 7600 0102 7540 188 | |
| BIC | CMCIFRPP | |