Brett Glass
2000-Feb-18 05:39 UTC
Call for BSD Participation: O'Reilly Open Source Conference
Calling all BSD enthusiasts: Good news! O'Reilly's Open Source Convention (http://conferences.ora.com/oscon2000/call.html), which will be held July 17-20, 2000 in Monterey, California, will have a BSD track for the first time this year. (Last year, the tracks included Linux, Perl, Apache, Python, Sendmail, Tcl, and "Business" -- a catch-all for general open source-related topics.) Interest in the BSD-related sessions will determine whether the BSD track becomes a permanent part of the conference, so we need to make a good showing if we want to be part of this event in future years. I've been asked to book speakers for this year's program. The Convention Format The convention consists of two parts: Two days of intensive "tutorials" (each lasting 3 or 6 hours) and a two-day "conference" (consisting of shorter talks of 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes each). There will also be "birds of a feather," or BOF, sessions in the evening. Here's how each part works. The Tutorials The first two days of the convention will be filled by classes, taught by experts, which last 3 or 6 hours and cover topics in great depth. We'll have two 3-hour slots this year (we MIGHT be able to negotiate more if we get lots of killer proposals). I'd like to fill with classes on topics which reflect the BSDs' strengths -- e.g. the TCP/IP stack, file systems, security, kernel architecture, etc. Now, I realize that three hours is a long time for some of us to talk (unless, of course, you're Kirk McKusick, who can easily fill several days -- and who, I hope, will be one of our speakers). So, I'd like to encourage experts from the BSD development teams to do sessions as "tag team" efforts involving two or even three people. Presenters of the tutorials will receive a $1500 honorarium from O'Reilly per 3-hour session. They'll also be reimbursed for travel, and get free admission to the "conference" portion of the event. (If there are two or more presenters, they will split the honorarium and travel funds. However, since the honorarium is generous, everyone's expenses should be covered.) Notes for the tutorials will have to be submitted to O'Reilly in advance for duplication. Please submit proposals to oscon00proposals@oreilly.com and copy me at oscon@brettglass.com. Proposal guidelines are at http://conferences.ora.com/oscon2000/call.html. See the section of this message marked "Deadlines Approaching" about deadlines. The Conference The final two days of the convention will be a conference with 30, 45, 60, and 90-minute sessions. There will be a "plenary" session each morning, after which the conference will split into tracks. Because this is the first year that there will be a BSD track, we'll only get one quarter as much time as Linux: 270 minutes, total, to slice up as we'd like. Let's fill this time with so much good and useful information that we get a full track next year! Presenters during these two days won't get an honorarium; however, there's a travel fund which may be able to provide assistance to those traveling from afar. However, presenters WILL get into the conference for free -- a perk worth nearly $800. Again, please submit proposals to oscon00proposals@oreilly.com and copy me at oscon@brettglass.com. Proposal guidelines are at http://conferences.ora.com/oscon2000/call.html. See the section of this message marked "Deadlines Approaching" about deadlines. The BOFs In addition to the tutorials and conference sessions, we'll have a chance to do one or more BSD-related "birds of a feather," or BOF, sessions. If the BSD BOF at LinuxWorld (which completely overflowed the space reserved for it) was any indication, we can do some killer BOFs which both promote the BSDs and help to create closer ties among those within the BSD community. The contact for information about BOFs is Vee McMillen at O'Reilly; her e-mail is vee@oreilly.com. The Expo O'Reilly's Open Source Convention isn't a "trade show." The current venue, in Monterey, CA, doesn't really have space for a big show floor like the one you'd find at, say, LinuxWorld or COMDEX. However, there will be a small exhibit area for vendor booths, and non-profit organizations such as user groups and open source development teams will be offered space there for free. (Groups such as BAFUG take note!) The BSDs should be well represented in this space. The contact for exhibit hall reservations is Sadonna Cody at O'Reilly; her e-mail is sadonna@oreilly.com. Vendor Participation Vendors of commercial products -- for example, BSDI and Applix -- are welcome and in fact encouraged to help with presentations at the convention. However, since the attendees of this convention tend to have a low tolerance for vendor-specific material and sales pitches, a presentation should NOT relate exclusively to single commercial product or describe only one implementation of a particular feature or function. Deadlines Approaching O'Reilly wants to get at least a preliminary schedule for the convention together by March 1st so that they can print programs. The original deadline for submission of proposals was February 18th, but since I only got approval to do the track about a week ago I'm sure we can stretch this a little. If you're interested in speaking, contact me IMMEDIATELY at the e-mail address oscon@brettglass.com (and copy oscon00proposals@oreilly.com) even if you don't have a formal proposal fleshed out yet. That way, we'll know a proposal is coming. I'll work with O'Reilly on reasonable deadlines for the submission of outlines and notes. Please Participate! This is a fantastic opportunity to advocate and promote the fantastic technology that's part and parcel of all of the BSDs; let's not lose our chance! If you'd like to contribute, please contact me ASAP at the address oscon@brettglass.com. Hope to see you at the convention! --Brett Glass, BSD Advocate and All-Around Rabble Rouser ;-) This is the moderated mailing list freebsd-announce. The list contains announcements of new FreeBSD capabilities, important events and project milestones. See also the FreeBSD Web pages at http://www.freebsd.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-announce" in the body of the message