Press releases

Call for Participation Open for OSCON 2008

Press release: January 15, 2008

For Immediate Release
For more information contact:
Suzanne Axtell
confpr@oreilly.com

"Open Minds" to Gather at the Tenth Anniversary of the O'Reilly Open Source Convention; Call for Participation Now Open

Sebastopol, CA, January 15, 2008--OSCON, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, is at the crossroads of all things open source, bringing together some of the most interesting people to explore what's new and to champion the cause of open principles and open source adoption across the computing industry. The event, which has become the premier gathering for open source enthusiasts from around the world, will take place July 21-25, 2008 in Portland, Oregon. Expected to attend the five day conference will be nearly 3,000 developers, programmers, system administrators, hackers, IT managers, CxOs, entrepreneurs, and activists. The Call for Participation has opened; deadline for submission of speaking proposals is February 4, 2008.

As the pace of technological innovation accelerates, OSCON provides a central place to gain exposure to and evaluate the new projects, tools, services, platforms, languages, software, and standards sweeping through the open source community. OSCON focuses on substance and skill-building, filtering the information that most merits attention and preparing participants for curves and challenges in the coming year and beyond.

Program co-chairs Edd Dumbill and Allison Randal are keen to focus on what the next ten years of open source development will bring to the industry. "On the tenth anniversary of OSCON," noted Randal, "we're looking ahead to the next ten years. We want to hear about the disruptive technologies and revolutionary solutions that are changing the game of open source. If the first ten years of OSCON were about opening the minds of big business to the philosophy of open source, is the next ten years about opening the minds of the open source community to the possibilities of its future?"

The conference committee is seeking proposals addressing issues around administration, databases, desktop, emerging topics, Java, Linux, mobile, people, Perl, PHP, programming, Python, Ruby, security, and web applications, particularly in the following areas:

  • Parallelization, grid, and multicore technologies
  • The strengths that will carry open source beyond the "gold rush"
  • Open source in smart phones and mobile networked devices
  • Open hardware and licensing
  • Tools for the administration and deployment of large server farms
  • Ajax, Javascript, standards-based design, and other client-side web issues
  • AI, machine learning, and other ways of making software smarter than the people using it
  • The spread of open source into law, culture, data, and services and the accompanying issues and lessons
  • Open source in democracy, politics, government, and education
  • Best practices for building a business model around open source
  • Virtualization, appliances, and their creation and deployment

In addition to sessions, tutorials, informal events, lively hallway conversations, and gatherings around Portland throughout the week, one of the best reasons to attend OSCON is the vibrant Expo Hall, which features leading open source companies and projects. OSCON 2008 sponsors currently include: Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Atlassian, Disney.com, OpSource, and Silicon Mechanics.

OSCON is co-located with Ubuntu Live. Co-hosted by Canonical, Ubuntu Live is the official event for the worldwide Ubuntu community. OSCON attendees will be offered a registration discount. More information at: Ubuntu Live.

Early registration for both media and attendees will open in April 2008.

Read more on OSCON.

Submit a proposal for OSCON.

If you have ideas about areas you'd like to see included at the conference, send a note to: oscon-idea@oreilly.com

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For information about exhibiting or sponsoring OSCON contact Sharon Cordesse at (707) 827-7065 or scordesse@oreilly.com

If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact Avila Reese at (707) 827-7116 or mediapartners@oreilly.com

Watch keynote presentations from OSCON 2007.

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