Open Technology Solutions has been working hard this year to provide the first ever tertiary exam conducted on students own computers^[1] within Australia.

• Read our news update: http://www.opentechnologysolutions.com.au/news/eexams-computers-update
• A website has been put together by the University of Tasmania for the project: http://www.eexaminations.org/
• The Australian has a write up: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/laptops-pass-the-big-ex...
• The University of Tasmania's Newsletter also mentions the achievement: http://www.utas.edu.au/events/Unitas/2009/November%20Unitas_335.pdf
• Dr. Andrew Fluck has published a case study on conducting exams on computers: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/fluck.pdf

1.

Corrected from "exam on computers"

Following on from my last post I have now registered for LCA2010 after registrations opened on Saturday.

If you haven't already, Register Now!

Well, after running the incredibly awesome linux.conf.au in 2009 ^[1] I have just booked in my flights and accommodation for linux.conf.au 2010.

Unfortunately their registrations aren't open yet^[2] so I can't say I've got everything in order, but it's not far off now!

I am still getting over not answering the hundreds of emails per a week and organising a thousand things, so on one hand I'm still suffering from the withdrawal and want to add a bunch of features to zookeepr but on the other I am certainly looking forward to doing nothing and floating around the conference in a very ghost like fashion^[3].

The Wellington team have been doing a great job with all of their work so far and from what I can see it looks like they are going to be putting on an amazing conference. I was on the papers committee again this year which was a very enjoyable experience and a great chance to get a sneak peak at their now released schedule. I haven't yet chosen which are my favourite (and thus likely to attend) talks for this year, but I will do that closer to the date and post them here as I have done previously.

Anyway... I'm going, Are you?

1.

am I allowed to say that :)

2.

http://www.lca2010.org.nz/register/prices "mid-to-late September 2009"

3.

Past conference organisers are referred to as ghosts

It's just under 18 days until linux.conf.au, so now is the time to register!

Incredibly cool stuff:

linux.conf.au is always great, and 2009 is no exception. So with the start of new year, here are some really good reasons to come to LCA09.

• Jonathan Oxer and Jared Herbohn will be bringing down their open source outfitted cars (a Mazda RX-8 and a Nissan 300ZX) to show off in their talk and at open day.
• There will be numerous open source robot related things floating around including the The Linux-powered Robot Clarinet, HyKim: The cuddly rescue bear, Spring - A robotics and automation toolkit for research and industry and, of course, Bdale's Rockets
• The networking team has gone above and beyond the call of duty yet again, providing fast network speeds and full wireless coverage of the entire conference area and the University Residential Colleges. A link is also being set up to provide Internet access to delegates staying at Wrest Point with wireless access in limited areas and network access in each delegates room. This year will be one of the most connected yet!
• The morning and afternoon tea's have an impressive range of home made cakes. The coolest thing though is that our Caterer, Barista Sista, is setting up an espresso bar for attendees to buy drinks right in the foyer of the conference! We also hope to continue selling coffees even at the Open Day.
• All of the social evenings (Speakers Dinner, Penguin Dinner, Professional Networking Session, Google Party) have incredibly impressive menus. Mix in some socialising and you have some great nights! (see below)
• Proceeds from the auction will be going to Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal to help the endangered species.
• Thanks to the collection of GnuPG/PGP key ID's we will be able to hand out 10x figure prints for each delegate with their badges to do adhoc keysigning. We also hope to have a document projector at the official keysigning event (yet to be scheduled).
• The partners programme is shaping up to be really worth while. The full programme hasn't been released yet but I hear rumors of the Bonorong Wildlife Park and Hastings Caves just to give you a teaser.

Social Events

Of course the conference is more than just a great selection of talks, there is also a great social atmosphere.

• The Speakers Dinner is particularly impressive this year and while I can't disclose many details, I will say it'll be quite cruisin'. The menu is also quite mouth watering with a selection of sea foods and other enticements consisting mostly of local produce.
• The entire conference is also invited to join at the Penguin Dinner at Wrest Point. The dinner will be in a more formal style and will include presentations, awards and the traditional auction with proceeds being donated to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal. The menu is outstanding with a huge three course banquet with a large selection of meats from the carvery.
• On Thursday night, all of the Professional Delegates are invited to join us at the Cascade Gardens for Dinner (a very tasty BBQ), Drinks and - of course - Networking.
• The Friday night is the traditional Google party held at the University Bar. With a fancy BBQ and plenty of finger food there is fun to be had by all!

Of course the events don't end with the official list. There are also plenty of opportunities to have lunches with new friends, go out for drinks at the local distillery and enjoy the natural landscape of Tasmania.

Reasons to Register

Besides the great list of talks and the awesome social events there are heaps of reason to register (too many to list here!). My favorite part of the conference is just being about to meet up with like-minded people, go out for a meal, have great discussions and have a great time! The conference is seriously technical, seriously fun and seriously informal. The people are great, the talks are great, the food is great. What more could you want?!

I highly recommend registering soon to ensure your shirt. Shirts have been ordered so sizes are limited. Get in now before they run out!

Professional delegates should also register before the 3^rd of January to get their name into the conference booklet.

Note: You are not counted as coming, and thus have no items reserved, until you have paid. So make sure all of your unpaid invoices are paid as soon as possible.

My Schedule:

There are lots of really cool things lined up to happen with some really exciting talks. Unfortunately I'll probably be too busy to see many speakers, but I've made a list of my choices for each slot:

Monday:

• System Administrations miniconf: Providing Active Directory services from Linux, using Samba4 by Andrew Bartlett
• The Business of Open Source: Open Source Business models and engaging corporate and Govenment sectors in Australia by Jeff and Pia Waugh
• Mobile Devices Miniconf: Funambol and SyncML by Mathew McBride
• Mobile Devices Miniconf: Ubuntu Mobile by David Mandala
• MythTV: MythTV development from '04 to now by Nigel Pearson
• MythTV: Presence Awareness by Jonathan Oxer
• Linux Kernel: Ask a Kernel Hacker Panel

Tuesday:

• System Administrations miniconf: 747s on Treadmills: Experiences scaling uptime and management by Matt Moor
• Virtualization and Management: Creating a High Availability Environment for Xen Virtual Machines by Sander van Vugt
• Open Source Databases Mini-conf: DRBD - Database agnostic synchronous replication for everyone! by Monty Taylor
• Virtualization and Management: Cloud Computing with openQRM by Matt Rechenburg
• Multimedia: PiTiVi by Edward Hervey
• Virtualization and Management: Linux and Virtualization Manageemnt tools at HP by Aland Adams
• Multimedia: Canola2 by Artur de Souza

Wednesday:

• Keynote 1 - Tom Limoncelli
• Introducing the Re-Built Linux Desktop by Keith Packard
• Puppet for Configuration Management by James Turnbull
• Using Asterisk for Fun and Profit by Avi Miller
• Joining the mob: the kernel development process by Jonathan Corbet
• Cross-distro collaboration: packaging with modern version control systems by Martin Krafft

Thursday:

• Keynote 2 - Angela Beesley
• The Sugar learning platform by Walter Bender
• Displacing Active Directory - the first Samba4 deployments. by Andrew Bartlett
• Designing for usability, usefulness, and unit-testing ... the linux.conf.au GTK & GNOME tutorial, part 2 by Andrew Cowie
• Liberating content by Benjamin Otte
• The Linux-powered Robot Clarinet by Mark Sheahan and Peter Chubb

Friday:

• Keynote 3 - Simon Phipps
• autocluster - a system for automated testing of clustered systems by Andrew Tridgell and Martin Schwenke
• Untangling device drivers by Peter Chubb
• OLPC in Australia and the Pacific by Pia Waugh
• Geek My Ride by Jonathan Oxer and Jared Herbohn
• Open Source for Model Rocket Design by Bdale Garbee

Unfortunately there are just so many great talks that even if I wasn't running the conference I couldn't see because they would clash with other great talks. Here are a few honorable mentions that I would consider seeing:

• Mobile Devices Miniconf: A Linux multimedia platform for mobile processors by Conrad Parker
• Introduction to Django by Jacob Kaplan-Moss
• Web Site and Web Application Accessibility with Orca and Firefox by Jason White
• Arduino: Open Software, Open Hardware by Jonathan Oxer
• lguest: hacking the little Linux hypervisor by Rusty Russell
• Where the future lies: OpenOffice.org and the ODF in the world by Louis Suarez-Potts
• Spring - A robotics and automation toolkit for research and industry by Clinton Roy
• Collaborative Video for Wikipedia by Michael Dale

Useful Resources

• Be sure to check out the ever growing LCA Google Map of Hobart to see near by shops, pubs, accommodation, airports and other useful places for linux.conf.au.
• Simon Lyall has a very useful guide for newcomers that I recommend you check out. It has useful information about what to expect at linux.conf.au, events to look out for and other useful information.

Last week the busy organisers for the linux.conf.au 2009 conference launched a new website and put out the call for speakers and miniconf organisers.

We are looking forward to lots of great proposals, and while we can't accept them all, we expect LCA09 to have a very full and interesting schedule.  Read More »