Update - 27-Oct-2002

Atul Chitnis

All:

OK, things are progressing well. We have a dozen or so talks already submitted, more expected.

A question that had been raised was about the tracks. We then realised that the talk form was showing *last year's* tracks, which is of course incorrect. The official tracks are:

Development

Topics such as kernel development, drivers, application development, web development, etc.

SysAdmin

Topics such as Installation, System administration, user management, networking, etc.

User

Topics such as Office suites, Desktops, Applications, etc.

Business

Management related topics such as RoI, TCO, licenses, etc.

Community

Topics related to the Linux and OpenSource community, such as LUG meetings, social impact, community interaction, etc.

Emerging

Topics related to emerging technologies, such as IPv6, Grid Computing, Clusters, etc.

Additions

An important addition to the website is the Guides section (http://linux-bangalore/2002/guides/). Please have a look - it urgently needs inputs and contributions from you guys.

Posters

Last year, we had people designing posters. I'd love to see that happening this year as well. Keep in mind that the event is focussed on *professionals* as well as non-professionals, so try and create stuff that can be hung on a corporate bulletin board as well.

Talks

Several people have asked what talks have been volunteered so far. I'll be honest with you - we have no intention of letting you know until we are ready to schedule. Our reasoning is that knowing that someone else has already offered a talk on a subject will very likely cause others considering the same topic to shy away.

Because of this, we face two issues - duplicates, which could result in some people not being able to talk on the subject, and lack of numbers - in order to fill 72 slots, we will need about a hundred talks offered!

One way to get around this is to look at the list of talks from last year (/2001/schedules/index.html) and *not* consider speaking on these subjects. Think of new technology or community related topics instead!

Some good topics to consider:

Embedded Linux
Linux in telecom (carrier grade Linux)
Linux in the entertainment industry
New directions in Kernel development
Real-world deployment issues
Desktop-Linux
The Real TCO of using OpenSource software
KDE 3.1 and beyond
Gnome 2
Programming under Linux
Game Development under Linux
Linux games
Linux Localisation
Programming the Simputer

etc.

Some topics you should totally avoid are distribution-specific talks. We can do without those, for obvious reasons.

Another "hot" topic appears to be "Introducing Linux" and stuff for absolute newbies. Guys, please, give me a break - unless someone has been living under a rock for the past 4 years, s/he knows what Linux is, and "Intro to Linux" talks are sooooo 1999'ish.

Remember, we had LB/2001 last year, which covered a lot of this stuff. This year, concentrate on new stuff - stuff that has happened since LB/2001 that is worth talking about.

We *will* have a tutorial track for raw newbies, but from experience, I can tell you that the kind of crowd we expect this year is going to avoid being seen in those newbie halls to avoid being tagged as "nontech" by their employers! ;-)

Focus on technologies useful to professionals. Even if you are a student, your knowledge of a technology can be *extremely* useful to a professional, so don't let the potential audience profile scare you away.

LUG support

Start drumming up support from your LUGs. We don't want to see only Bangalore faces at the event - we see enough of them during our BLUG meets. ;-) We want people to come in from other cities, representing their LUGs.

Sponsorship

A question that has been raised is about travel/stay costs. Let me brutal about this - while we can *consider* sponsoring the travel costs of some of the out-station speakers, we definitely cannot sponsor *delegates*.

Even sponsoring speakers is completely dependent on sponsorship money received. This year, we expect a lot more outstation speakers, so costs are going to shoot up.

If you are a speaker, please consider asking your employer/LUG to sponsor your travel. Like last year, we will try and put up outstation speakers at our homes or affordable accommodation, but please do not expect us to cough up for 5 star hotels and stuff like that.

And don't wait to hear about an announcement about event sponsorship. At that point, it may be too late to include you in the list of people who could have their travel sponsored. Enter your talk *now* (at http://linux-bangalore.org/2002/participate/talks).

If you are a potential delegate, please make your own travel/stay arrangements. This is only fair - this is an event we are arranging for *you*, and you have a lot to gain from it.

Important - if you are an outstation speaker, please have your local LUG coordinator send us a note that s/he knows about you. This will go a long way towards building our confidence when selecting talks and putting them up before sponsors.

MOST IMPORTANT: BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! It is 36 days to event start - and almost certainly you are going to face problems getting tickets in the last moment.

If you are a speaker and are eligible for travel sponsorship, you would still have to pay for your own tickets now, and if sponsorship is available you will be *reimbursed*. The BLUG will *not* book tickets for anyone!

Commercial Talks

A word about commercial talks: some people are approaching us asking if they could talk about their products. The answer is - if your product is a 100% opensource product, we will consider it. If it is a commercial product, we will consider it only if a large number of people will benefit from it (e.g. a tutorial on Kylix, presented by Borland). But if you basically want to make a sales pitch, we will consider it only if a) there are slots free and b) you are willing to pay for it. Contact the management team if you want to persue this.

That's it for today. Hopefully, I have provided enough fodder for you people to start discussing things. I look forward to hearing from everyone with suggestions, nitpicks, queries, clarifications, etc.

Cheerio!

Atul

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