Contents
Presenter Information
When does CFP/Call for Mini-confs close?
CFP/Call for Mini-confs closes on 2008-08-08 23:59 AEST
When will I be notified if I am successful?
Late September
How long are presentations?
Presentations are 50 minutes long (including any question time that a presenter may wish to schedule). Tutorials are 100 mins.
What sort of papers is LCA09 after?
We're actually after a wide range of papers spanning everything from programming and software to desktop and userspace to community, arts and the law but there is one essential:
The core of your talk must relate to open source in some way, ie. if its a talk about software then the software has to be licensed under an Open Source license.
Before submitting it is helpful to read through these resources and then follow Rusty's flowchart.
- Getting a Talk into Linux.conf.au by Mary Gardiner
- How to get a conference abstract accepted by Martin Pool
Flowchart for "should I submit an abstract to LCA?"
Rusty Russell has some fine perls (or should that be pythons?) of wisdom* for would-be submitters.
- Have you done something related to F/OSS you're excited about? If so, goto (3).
- Is there a great demand for information on some subject on which you are a leading, recognised expert? If yes, please submit an abstract1. If no, please do not.
- When you describe/show this to collegues, are they interested? If no, please do not submit.
- Is what you've done expected to be widely used? If yes, please submit2.
- Is what you've done original and useful for other F/OSS projects? If yes, please submit3.
- Is what you've done so insanely cool that it makes people say things worth quoting? If yes, please submit4.
- If you reach here, don't invent something to speak about. It'll suck, because like me, you're not inherently interesting.
Finally, be aware that preparing a talk is a significant amount of work. You need to prepare and weed the material, cast it into a coherent presentation, and practice several times (on real people if you're not an experienced conference presenter). This takes a good couple of days' time. And never do a tutorial: it takes much longer to prepare and needs far more practice, since you need to time and test the user interaction as well.
Bad speakers happen, but in the past we have had some speakers who didn't prepare. This is unforgivable, and I always oppose accepting proposals from those speakers again: our attendees deserve (and demand) better. The miniconfs or BOFs are the place for ad-hoc presentations.
1 This covers "expert" talks like licencing talks, etc.
2 "X.org development" vs "libmeanwhile development"
3 "A new typechecking tool" vs "Haskall type experiments"
4 "Build your own satellite" vs "My First Gnome Applet"
*This extract is taken from Rusty Russell's Blog under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.1 Licence
Presenter's Information
Linux.conf.au can provide some limited assistance for speakers such as flights and/or accommodation where associated costs may prohibit the speaker's attendance. Please indicate when you submit if you require either or both types of assistance.
LCA will provide transport to and from the airport for speakers.
Speakers will also be invited to attend a special dinner to be held on Tuesday 18th January 2009 to show LCA's appreciation. A cruise down the picturesque river Derwent to a secret location will showcase some of Tasmania's fine food and wine and promises to be one of the more special events held at the conference!
Want to be a speaker at LCA09? Please register for the site and send your submission via our Presenter submission page.
Mini-confs
The mini-conferences are dedicated conference streams for specific communities of interest. The linux.conf.au organisers provide the space, and leave the rest up to the organiser of each mini-conf. Mini-conf speakers and delegates need to register for the main conference to participate. If you wish to organise a mini-conf it will be up to you to organise speakers for your mini-conf. The speakers cruise will not be extended to mini-conf speakers, however in recognition of the hard work that mini-conf organisers put in to the conference, organisers will be invited to the speaker's dinner.
Want to submit a miniconf for LCA09? Please register for the site and send your submission via our Miniconf submission page.
Please also not that mini-confs are not permitted to seek sponsorship for their mini-confs - please direct any sponsorship enquiries to our Sponsor Contact
