Portland, OR US: Open Source Conference

Hello All,
Just wanted to put the word out that Portland is hosting an 100% volunteer
run, non-profit Open Source conference this June: "Open Source Bridge"
(osbridge).
We are reaching out to user groups and providing information and discounts
(including one free pass per group).
I've append the boilerplate letter to groups below to give you all the
pertinent detail.

Also there is still time to submit a proposal; March 31 is the official
deadline (but 'un-officially', watch for an extension to be posted soon)

It's very much appreciated if you can present this to the groups you admin
and fee free to pass to any other UG's you interact with.  Feel free me or
the list if you have any questions.

http://opensourcebridge.org/

cheers,
sam keen
@samkeen



========== boiler plate letter =============

I’m with Open Source Bridge, a new open source developers’ conference
happening in Portland, Oregon this June 17-19. We’d like to get [your group]
involved as speakers and participants.

To that end, we’re offering one free ticket to distribute among your
members. We’re pretty excited about being able to offer this, and we’d like
to keep it fair. You can give this ticket away to members of your user group
with the following conditions:
1) Let all of your members know about the conference and the dates.
2) Have the signup available to everyone in your user group.
3) The winner must be drawn at random from the signup.

When you have the winner selected, email [email protected] and
we’ll register them for you.

We also have a user group discount code that will allow your members to
register for $150, a lower cost than the early bird rate. Enter “osb4228”
when you register to receive the discount.

We’re emphasizing that this conference is *the* place to go for in-depth and
collaborative learning about open source technologies. Whether you’re deep
into hardware, operating system internals or writing web apps in the cloud,
we’ve got people who cut across all the traditional developer boundaries
coming together to talk about how they do their work using open source
technologies.

Some examples of our proposals: Brian Aker about Drizzle (a reboot of MySQL
designed “for the cloud”), Greg K-H about Linux (Linux Kernel hacker,
talking about how Linux manages development), Amber Case about Cyborg
Citizenship (anthropology, living in both the physical and virtual worlds),
Ward Cunningham (inventor of the wiki) about what’s next in collaboration.

Here’s the full details to share with your group:

Open Source Bridge is a new conference for developers working with open
source technologies. It will take place June 17-19 in Portland, OR, with
five tracks connecting people across projects, languages, and backgrounds to
explore how we do our work, and why we participate in open source. The
conference structure is designed to provide developers with an opportunity
to learn from people they might not connect with at other events.

Through this conference, we hope to answer a question: what are the rights
and responsibilities of an open source citizen? As developers, we find
ourselves in many roles; we are users, creators, and leaders. The Open
Source Bridge team believes that our role as open source citizens informs
our work whether we are conscious of it or not. Open Source Bridge is
intended as a call to action to become better citizens, by sharing our
knowledge with each other.

In addition to conference sessions, the conference includes two dedicated
“hacker lounge” spaces for attendees to hang out, schedule code sprints, and
connect with each other. One will be at the Oregon Convention Center, and
one at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower, our official conference hotel.

Outside of the conference, Portland offers many attractions for visiting
geeks: Powell’s technical books, dozens of local brewpubs, and large
greenspaces like Forest Park, all accessible by mass transit.

Registration is open now. Please go to http://opensourcebridge.org/attend to
find out more. We are also seeking proposals for talks, through March 31st.
You can read the full call for proposals at
http://opensourcebridge.org/call-for-proposals.

Open Source Bridge is a 100% volunteer-run, non-profit conference. Find out
how to get involved at http://opensourcebridge.org/volunteer/.