The video of the talk is available as an ogv movie file, alternatively, the YouTube version is embedded below.

See you in January, Ballarat!

I’m pleased to announce that The Open Programming Miniconf, a fixture for application developers attending Linux.conf.au since 2010 is returning as part of Linux.conf.au 2012, to be held in January at the University of Ballarat. The miniconf has been an opportunity for presenters of all experience levels to share their experiences in in application development using free and open source development tools.

The Open Programming Miniconf for 2012 invites 25-minute presentations on topics relating to the development of excellent Free and Open Source Software applications. In particular, the Miniconf invites presentations that focus on sharing techniques, best practices and values which are applicable to developers of all Open Source programming languages.

In the past, topics have included:

• Recent developments in Open Source programming languages (“State of the language”-type talks)
• Tools which support application development
• Coding applications with cool new libraries, languages and frameworks
• Demonstrating the use of novel programming techniques

Past programmes can be found at http://lca2011.linux.org.au/programme/schedule/monday and http://www.lca2010.org.nz/wiki/Miniconfs/Open_Programming_Languages

To submit a proposal, visit http://tinyurl.com/opm2012-proposal and fill out the form as required. The CFP will remain open indefinitely, but the first round of acceptances will not be sent until Friday 7 October 2011.

OPM2012 is part of Linux.conf.au 2012, being held at the University of Ballarat on Monday, 16 January 2012. Further enquiries can be directed to Christopher Neugebauer via e-mail ( chris+opm2012@neugebauer.id.au ) or via twitter (@chrisjrn).

Linux.conf.au 2011 starts tomorrow, which means that today is the fun day of hanging around at the conference accommodation and watching the comings and goings of LCA people, and registering for the conference. Registration opens from 16:00 at the QUT Kelvin Grove Campus*, I personally intend to get to the venue sometime around 17:00.

As I understand, Rusty Russell’s usual newbies’ session is being held today, and that’s on at 18:30, also at QUT Kelvin Grove. If you’ve not been to LCA, this session comes highly recommended — I should know, I’ve been to all of them! (wait, what?) The session helps explain what LCA is all about to people who haven’t been, contains important advice about what sessions to show up to, and how to read the schedule.

Well, that’s it for me. Maybe another update later today?

–Chris

*Kelvin Grove being the QUT campus where the conference was originally scheduled NOT to be at. The conference organisers have done an awesome job at making sure that the event is going ahead at a new venue, especially given the conditions in Brisbane of late. Kudos etc!

• Open Programming Miniconf
• FOSS in Research & Student Innovation Miniconf

Unfortunately, you’ll also notice that both Miniconfs lack a complete schedule at this point in time. If you have a talk that would be of interest to either miniconf, we’d love it if you could submit a proposal as soon as possible so that we can publish our completed schedules! The CFPs for each miniconf are available from:

• Open Programming Miniconf
• FOSS in Research & Student Innovation Miniconf

I look forward to seeing you at either of these miniconfs, presenting or otherwise!

LCA is a great conference because it gives people in the broader FOSS-using community in Australia (people like me) the opportunity to meet the people who put together the software that we used on a day-to-day basis. It turns out that they’re an entirely friendly bunch of people, who are all too willing to share their experience: in 2008, Andrew Tridgell spent 20 minutes one-on-one with me explaining how a particularly awesome piece of code he’d written worked.

In 2010 I ran one of the short single-day conference streams (known as “miniconfs”), on the topic of Open Programming Languages. This was a fantastic opportunity to give back to the LCA community, and help bring more of the topics that I was interested in to LCA — we had a fantastic lineup of presenters, and the day went awesomely. I’m glad to have the opportunity to do this again: I’m running the Open Programming miniconf at LCA2011 in Brisbane, and along with my friend Peter Lyle, will be running the Research and Student Innovation Miniconf. Both of them are shaping up to be excellent miniconfs.

So yes, LCA is in Brisbane this January, and I thoroughly recommend you get along if you can!

For my part, I’m still looking for more presentations for the Open Programming and Research & Student Innovation miniconfs. The descriptions are as follows:

Open Programming Miniconf

The LCA2011 Open Programming Miniconf helps bridge the gap between the low-level developer and the end-user by bringing the topic of tools and techniques for application development to Linux.conf.au.

We invite 25-minute talks on a wide range of topics, tools and languages with the aim of bringing together open source developers with presentations that share techniques, best practices and values amongst users of all open source programming languages.

If you know something about a topic of interest to the LCA Developer community, please read our call for presentations and submit a proposal!

To submit a proposal for the Open Programming Miniconf, you can find the CFP at http://blogs.tucs.org.au/opm/cfp

Research & Student Innovation

The FOSS in Research and Student Innovation Miniconf brings together researchers and students with an active interest in Free and Open Source Software with the broader Linux.conf.au community to highlight exciting work taking place within the often esoteric world of academia and educational institutions.

We invite 25-minute presentations on topics in two streams: “FOSS in Research”, which provides an informal outlet for those pursuing topics of interest to FOSS communities in their studies; and “Student Innovation”, which brings the perspective of the student delegation to the forefront, by allowing them to share their experiences of FOSS with the broader LCA community.

To submit a proposal, visit the CFP at http://blogs.tucs.org.au/frsi/cfp

It’s called the FOSS in Research and Student Innovation Miniconf, and I’m running it with my fellow ex-UTAS Honours Student, Peter Lyle. Here’s how we describe it in the CFP:

The FOSS in Research and Student Innovation Miniconf brings together researchers and students with an active interest in Free and Open Source Software with the broader Linux.conf.au community to highlight exciting work taking place within the often esoteric world of academia and educational institutions.

The Miniconf is part of Linux.conf.au 2011, being held at the QUT Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane, Queensland in January. It’s being organised by Peter Lyle of the Urban Informatics Research Lab at the Queensland University of Technology and Christopher Neugebauer from TUCS, the University of Tasmania Computing Society. You can e-mail them at frsi2011@googlegroups.com

The CFP is now open at the Miniconf web site, so if you’ve got something to say, please do submit a proposal!

From the proposal:

The Linux.conf.au Open Programming Miniconf is a single-day mini-conference about application development with Open Source tools.

Featuring talks on a wide range of topics and programming languages, this miniconf aims to bring together open source developers with presentations that share techniques, best practices and values amongst programmers of all open programming languages. OPM2011 will be held at Linux.conf.au 2011, at the QUT Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane in January.

Whilst the miniconf is yet to be officially announced, the proposal submission system is online at the miniconf website.  I look forward to seeing some awesome presentation proposals coming through in the coming weeks!