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> From: Bharathi Subramanian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 5 November 2007 4:52:15 PM GMT+05:30 > To: Indian Linux Users Group - Chennai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Ilugc] CFP - FOSS Conference '08 > Reply-To: ILUG-C <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > "unsubscribe <password> <address>" > in the subject or body of the message. > http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc -- regards kg http://lawgon.livejournal.com http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/
