CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
The Indian Linux Users Group, Chennai[1] Chapter, in association with
NRC-FOSS[2], Chennai take great pleasure in inviting you to
participate in the FOSS Conference to be held at MIT, Chromepet,
Chennai from noon on Friday Feb 1st 2008 to noon on Sunday Feb 3rd
2008.
THE ORGANISERS
ILUGC is one of the oldest lugs in the country and has been
continuously active since it was founded. It keeps a low profile and
specialises in grass roots work all around Tamilnadu (and in the
neighbouring states too). Under it's guidance, many lugs are active in
colleges and towns all around Tamilnadu. At the same time, ILUGC
members are in the forefront of the FOSS movement both at the national
and international level.
NRC-FOSS, a Central Government Project, funded by the DIT and jointly
run by CDAC and AU-KBC, Chennai, for the past two and half years has
been actively promoting FOSS in the academic domain. It's main focus
has been getting FOSS introduced into the curriculum of Engineering
Colleges in the country. Also apart from encouraging student projects
in FOSS, it has been active in encouraging academia to release it's
work under FOSS/Creative Commons licenses. AU-KBC Research Centre,
MIT, Chennai has strengths in NLP, Bio-informatics, Wireless,
Cryptography and Embedded computing, much of which uses FOSS tools
and has released some of this research as FOSS.
SCOPE
The conference will focus on new users/contributors to FOSS.
As Audience: First timers or newcomers.
As Speakers: First time speakers.
As contributors: Students who are doing their projects, academic
personal who have worked with FOSS tools but are yet to release their
work, and, of course, the huge surge of new users in the government
domain. At the same time, provide a forum for interaction for more
experienced developers who will be coming to the conference.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
We invite participation in the following areas - in order of importance.
1. Delegates to the conference. There is no fun in having a conference
if there is no audience. Our primary focus is on audience. Please
register as a delegate and encourage your friends to do so. We cannot
guarantee transport and accommodation, but if you have a group of
people who want to come and let us know early enough, we will try to
get your travel and accommodation sponsored.
2. Volunteers. Volunteers are the lifeblood of a conference and will
be treated as privileged persons. Volunteers are needed at the
conference venue for myriad tasks. But, more important, are volunteers
from outside Chennai who are needed to contact students, teachers,
government employees and get them to come for the conference. We
envisage holding training camps for teachers and government employees
- and will do so if we are able to convince enough of them to come. We
can send people to address meetings to motivate people to come - if
you organise the meetings.
3. Sprints. A FOSS conference that does not contribute documentation/
code is worthless. A sprint is where a group of people sit together
and finish a task. We have had sprints before, once in Loyola college
to do translation, and again, last year at MIT to do translation. A
sprint can be for translating applications, mass fixing of bugs, doing
long pending documentation, writing code etc,. Sprints need to be
carefully planned, tasks laid down before hand, participants fixed,
facilities arranged. If you are interested in organising a sprint,
please register and attend the meeting in January for finalising
proposed sprints. Since this is an entry-level conference, please be
aware that you may need a day to train volunteers for the sprint
before actually starting it. Some ideas: making a comprehensive list to
be uploaded to the ILUGD Hall of Shame websites, completing a list of
all lugs in India, making a directory of FOSS contributors in India,
contribute to the OpenMoko project ...
4. Student projects in FOSS. We will give special place to student
projects in FOSS - past, present and future. Now is the time for your
project - register and exhibit it at the conference. Prizes will be
given for the best projects.
5. Formal academic projects using FOSS tools. There are a huge number
of these lying unsung in university and government archives. We invite
academics to present their work here.
6. Talks. On any aspect of FOSS except installation issues. Talks will
be of 30 minutes duration with 15 minutes for discussion. note:
installation demos will be arranged anyway
7. Mini talks - one hall will be reserved for this. 10 minute talk
followed by 5 questions.
8. Cultural contests - drawings, paintings, skits, dances ... with
FOSS as the theme. Prizes will be given for the best performances
9. Sub-conferences and BOFs - these will largely be left to be
organised by those who propose them. Facilities will be provided as
needed.
10. Workshops for teachers and government employees will be organised
by the conference organisers depending on demand.
11. The registration website will be up in a day or two. Kindly
forward this CFP to all LUG, GLUG and FSUG mailing lists.
[1] ILUGC : http://www.chennailug.org/
[2] NRC-FOSS: http://nrcfosshelpline.in/
Thanks,
--
Bharathi S