linux.conf.au is open for registration!

The sun is shining, the day is bright and now for your enjoyment the Seven crew have announced the registrations are open for linux.conf.au 2007. Check out:

1) The programme is up for you to check out what is happening, who is speaking and start planning your lca experience

2) Registrations are OPEN so register today! Check out the Miniconfs, Partners Programme, Sponsors and more 🙂

Remember, the earlybird prices are only available for a couple of weeks!

Rock on linux.conf.au 2007!

SLUG @ Moodle

Over this weekend is the inaugral Sydney Moodle conference. I gave a talk yesterday about “Open Source, Opening doors to education” and Lindsay Holmwood (President of SLUG) organised a booth for the weekend/ We’ve already spoken to a lot of people and have been heavily pimping both Open Day as a great holiday event for students and families, and the Education Miniconf which typically includes loads of teachers and school admins.

Sridhar and Andreas have been helping out and it is great to have FOSS represented at events like this because each of those teachers has a long-lasting impact on thousands of students and parents. I think we definitely need to focus more on education.

I spoke about the benefits of FOSS to education, the big picture when it comes to technology and why software freedom is important, first steps in playing with FOSS, and obviously about FOSS and the community. I’ve put the slides online for anyone interested.

Rock on FOSS in education!

Go to linux.conf.au and send your boss to Linuxworld!

linux.conf.au this year was a lot of fun in Dunedin New Zealand. The NZ team put on an awesome conference that is up there with the best of them. I certainly had an absolute ball. I met loads of new people, got into inspiring and thought-provoking discussions, and generally set about changing the world 🙂 Also, to top it off, to my absolute delight and shock Rusty awarded the Rusty Wrench, an award for service to the community to me at the Penguin Dinner. We also did an auction for the John Lions Chair which raised a substantial sum of cash which was great. I was coordinating a lot of media people for the conference and so missed a lot of talks, but with daily local coverage, international coverage _and_ NZ prime time TV coverage, it was great practice for next year. I’m hoping to get linux.conf.au on Aussie TV January next year! 🙂 For anyone who doesn’t already know, linux.conf.au will be in Sydney next year. Hooray!

So the conference was great, but the thing we are missing is how to educate our bosses about FOSS so we can spend more of our working days on it. Enter Linuxworld Conference and Expo. Every lca attendee should have a Linuxworld brochure in their bag. If you scan the programme you’ll see words like enterprise, TCO, strategy, certification and emerging technology. All lovely buzzwords your boss needs to hear about 🙂 Linuxworld coming to Australia presents our community with a first opportunity to take the message to the Australian business and government community in a way relevant to them, and I believe it will be a bit of a milestone in the takeup of Open Source in Australia.

So go on, send your boss to Linuxworld, for their sake and yours, and we’ll see YOU in Sydney next year!