Linux Australia acknowledges some quiet achievers – the Community Recognition Awards
February 1, 2009
I guess it’s fitting that quiet achievers be quietly rewarded, but I suspect Linux Australia’s Community Recognition Awards flew completely under the radar at LCA. The awards went to:
- Janet Hawtin: For designing the Linux Australia and Open Source Industry Australia logos and commitment to community development.
- Alison Russell: For acting as speaker liaison for the conference over many years & compiling the LCA-HowTo for future bid teams.
- Hugh Blemings: For helping build and maintain the Linux Australia and IBM relationship in support of linux.conf.au over the past 10 years.
Congratulations, winners. 
In case you’re wondering, these awards were given out in lieu of the Rusty Wrench awards this year. Really good to see that LA stepped up and acknowleged the very vital role that behind the scenes volunteers play.
Linux.conf.au 2009 roundup
January 28, 2009
Linux.conf.au is done and dusted for another year, and its been revealed that we’ll be heading to gorgeous NZ in 2010 - yay! I didn’t have even a spare second to blog from the conference (running a miniconf and giving two papers will kind of do that to you!) but I did write a couple of news stories for ZDNet.
- LCA ‘09: Wikipedia’s new mobile platform - a writeup of Angela Beesley’s keynote. The news hook was the new mobile platform, but I was much more interested in the fact that WikiMedia has set a goal to remove tech roadblocks and get more editors involved in Wikipedia this year, but they hadn’t identified the need to get rid of some of the social barriers which might put people off.After her keynote, Angela told me she’d raise that as a suggestion – I hope she does. Wikipedia is such an incredible resource, it would be a shame if things like the ‘deletion wars’ and other actions by a minority of the community continue to dissuade people from participating.
- Sysadmins after the cloud - my writeup of Tom Limoncelli’s keynote. As I noted on Twitter, he used his employer (Google) as an example of taking an abundance approach to tech support via it’s famous Tech Stop, but unfortunately they recently laid off a bunch of contractors, including making cuts to Tech Stop headcount. So tech support’s not as abundant at Google as it used to be. (Tom responded here, but unfortunately we didn’t get to discuss it further than clarifying that it was contractors rather than inhouse Tech Stoppers who’d been laid off).
- NZ location for Linux.conf.au 2010 - LCA weathered the economic crisis despite 8 speakers pulling out, plus LCA raised $38,000 for the Tasmanian Devil.And finally, many thanks to Donna Benjamin for helping out with photos of Linus Torvalds shaving Bdale Garbee’s beard to raise money to help Tasmanian Devils. I’d prefer to have seen Linus in the dunking pool circa 2004, but maybe I’m just a cruel person.
Australia denies visas over concerns about open source? WTF? UPDATED
January 12, 2009
I’ve just been alerted via a Linux.conf.au mailing list to a ridiculous situation – apparently the Australian government has overzealously been patrolling its borders against the scourge of… open source technology.
According to Finnish MySQL developer Kaj Arnö, this policy will prevent several MySQL people from attending LCA this year:
“Several Sun Microsystems Inc employees, especially related to the Database Group, have been denied short stay business visas to Australia, over the last few months, as they have been seen to be competing with local Australian businesses unfairly.
I regret to share that this will adversely affect MySQL presence at linux.conf.au in Hobart, Tasmania 19-24.1.2009.”
You can read the full post here – and note that he says he’s observed or experienced open source people having trouble getting Schengen (European Union) and US visas in the past as well.
How crazy. On so many levels. One -this sounds remarkably like the government discriminating against people due to their choice of technology. Do they really have big business in their ear that much? And it ignores the fact that open source technology and business generates an estimated $500 million for Australian businesses each year – you could argue this policy is restraint of trade, rather than protective of it. And it’s just offensive that our government is actively preventing people from gathering together for the purpose of freely sharing information.
I’m not sure what we can do to help fix this – LCA starts in 6 days.
Update: 9.48am, 14 January 2009
Kaj Arnö has updated his original blog post to admit that the link between the visa being denied and open source was conjecture on his part:
“The rejection letter merely says “SHORT TERM BUSINESS ETA APPLICATION WAS NOT APPROVED NO AUTHORITY TO TRAVEL TO AUSTRALIA HELD BY PASSENGER”. However, the person who now got rejected has been frequently in Australia and, to the best of my knowledge, lacks any record which would imply a visa rejection (such as, but not limited to, unpaid traffic fines).”
Read his updated post and the long discussion in comments for further info. Thanks Jacinta for alerting me to the update.
Upcoming event: Panel on Geek Parenting at LCA
January 12, 2009
Attention, free and open source software lovers – Linux.conf.au is just a week away! I’m co-convening the LinuxChix miniconf which is happening next Monday – check out the full lineup of talks. We even have a talk on Senator Stephen Conroy’s infamous Great Firewall of Australia: The Swiss Cheese Project.
I’m also keen to spread the word about the panel I’ll be moderating, on Geek Parenting:
Join our panellists Bdale Garbee, Silvia Pfeiffer, Andrew McMillan and Casey Schaufler as we tangle with some of the issues facing the geek parent – or the parent of a potential geek. How do you deal with having a gifted child who is having trouble socialising at school? How do you make sure that your child doesn’t ’switch off’ from learning during those terrible teen years? Are there any ways to get your kids to think science and tech are cool rather than the daggy stuff mum or dad does at the computer all day? After the panel, join LinuxChix for a family BBQ sponsored by Google – all are welcome!
I hope to see you at LCA.
If you’re attending Linux.conf.au in Hobart later this month, I strongly recommend you look at the lineup of talks which Brianna Laugher has organised for the Free as in Freedom miniconf on Tuesday, 20 January.
I’ll be speaking on journalism in the age of citizen journalism at 1.45pm (“It’s all fun and games until someone wants to sue you”). I’m also really looking forward to the other talks, especially Matthew Landauer from OpenAustralia.org, who was recently voted best speaker at the Open Source Developers Conference in Sydney. Matthew won’t be speaking at the main LCA conference – so this will be your only chance to see him speak – so make sure you come along to Free as in Freedom.
On Geek Parenting – call for panelists
November 25, 2008
I’m co-convening the Linux Chix miniconf at Linux.conf.au (LCA) in Hobart in January. I’ll be able to post the lineup of speakers for the day soon, but in the meantime an overview of the day can be found here. But one of the cool things we’re planning is a panel session on Geek Parenting, which will be open to all LCA attendees.
We are now looking for some experienced geek parents as well as an expert or two (educator, counsellor or other professional who is experienced in matters parental) who would like to share some ideas, tips and discussion on the challenges that being a parent can present.
Read on for details including how to nominate yourself for a spot on the panel.
[crossposted to Linux Chix, Linux Australia, LCA and GGD lists, apologies if you see this a few times.]
How would you like a mentor to help you improve your proposal for a talk at Linux.conf.au?
If you’re a female geek (professional or student) and thinking of submitting a tech talk to LCA, then I’d like to tell you that a couple of experienced speakers have volunteered to make some time to read draft proposals & give feedback to women who are interested in presenting at LCA. The idea is to encourage women (especially ones who haven’t applied or presented before) and hopefully increase their chances of getting selected. (I’m not part of the LCA 2009 organising committee, this is not an “official” thing just something I’m organising with the help of a couple of volunteers.)
I’m trying to get this message out to lists frequented by technical women & students, please forward to any mailing lists or friends/colleagues who you’d like to see presenting at Linux.conf.au in January.
The timetable I’d like to work to is:
1) You contact me asap (sarah.stokelyATgmail.com) to let me know you’re interested in having someone vet your talk. I will provide you with contact details of your “mentor” and you will forward your draft proposal to them by this Friday, 25 July (yes, this Friday!)
2) Your mentor will get a week to look at your proposal, and will be asked to send you some feedback by August 1. (so you’ll then have a week to do any further tweaking before submitting your proposal).
4) Call for papers ends on 8 August, hopefully many excellent proposals will be submitted including a record number by women.
Please note: There are a lot of things you can do yourself to improve your proposal before it even goes to your mentor. Please check out the following.
Information on LCA for people wanting to give a paper: Read the rest of this entry »
Linux.conf.au 2009 – Call for papers
July 7, 2008
Linux.conf.au is heading down south to Tasmania in 2009, so if you fancy a trip down south and you have some technical knowledge you’d like to share – put your name forward as a speaker! Ben Powell from the “March South” organising team emailed me to let me know that the Call for Papers is now on. Check out the details at the LCA page. You can also suggest a “mini-conf” topic.
I tried to get some more tidbits of news out of him, but could only get this: “We have two international speakers confirmed so far and I’m currently chasing the final one who is likely to be local.” So it looks like they’re continuing the tradition of having 2 overseas keynotes and 1 local keynote. That’s good to hear.
The Penguin’s Big Day Out: LCA writeup in Linux Magazine
April 21, 2008
My writeup of Linux.conf.au (LCA) 2008 has appeared in the international Linux Magazine. I googled and found it for your reading pleasure – you’ll need to open it in PDF format, but it’s a fun little read (if I do say so myself). The guys at Linux Mag did promise to send me a copy, but I haven’t received it as yet – the only reason I knew my story was out was through bumping into Paul Fenwick (of Perl Training Australia) at the launch of the Waugh Partner’s Australian Open Source Community and Industry Report the other week. So thanks, Paul!
Penguin’s Big Day Out [Linux Magazine]
Linux, we have a PR problem
February 10, 2008
After the post-Linux.conf.au euphoria had settled down, I decided to write an opinion piece on the barriers which open source is facing in the market. Hint, it’s not technical – it’s plain old PR that’s holding it back.
You can read the full piece at ITNews: