So, that’s console-presenter and showoff, so far. I also know some very bold presenters use LaTeX with Beamer for theirs.

What do you use? And why?

(And while you’re here – Don’t forget to mark your favorite conference sessions to help us with scheduling! It’s easy – get logged in, and then just click on the stars next to sessions you like.)

Thanks to the 30+ people who showed up to our inaugural town hall! We saw familiar and new faces and got down to the business of organizing the conference. Ed graciously recorded a video, which we’ll publish as soon as its ready.

I forgot to mention a few important things for the new comers – like we’re having the same format as last year! Five talk types, over three days, and a full day of unconferencing on Friday. The presentation lists the many, many areas we’re looking for volunteers to assist with.

If you’d like to help out, have a look at the presentation, and sign up on our volunteer page.

Finally, we are going to be opening up the request for proposals Very Soon. Within days (we like to call this “February 1st-ish”). We’ll announce here, so stay tuned!!

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our mailing list as well. All important communication will be happening there.

To recap, if you booked your stay at the Hilton, we would send you a code to use to register for the conference at the Early Bird rate of $175.

The promotion ran from May 28 to June 5.

Today, I discovered that I cannot, for privacy reasons, get your email addresses, only your names.

So, if you booked your room and want to get that code, please send an email to us at info at opensourcebridge dot org to get the code.

Then you can do your happy dance.

Sorry for the fail.

Here’s why you should attend my Open Source Bridge talk, “Unit Test Your Database!”:

• To see test-driven development in action
• To watch me ship well-tested code with a serious bug
• To witness on-stage beer consumption
• To laugh at testing misconceptions
• To get religion for testing databases
• Hallelujah!

There are other great talks at OSB to check out. Personally, I want to see:

• “Introduction to Parrot.” This sucker is stable and ready to rock your code!
• “Project Management Should be Boring!” Because I hate project management.
• “Building a SQL Database That Works.” We app developers need to better understand how RDBMSs really work.
• “Advanced Git tutorial: Not your average VCS.” Because for such a simple system, there is *so* much to learn!
• “Open Source Microblogging with Laconica.” Because I don’t really get it.

Such great stuff!

(Image courtesy Jeff Kubina. Used under Creative Commons.)

We know good things happen when users control their data and have access to the application source code. The web gave us an incredible simple model for application development, but the downside was code locked up on servers, with users feeling out-of-control of their data.

Maybe we trust Flickr, but if my network connection drops unexpectedly when I’m in the middle of showing baby photos to Grandma, the fact that Flickr holds my data remotely can’t be denied.

Standalone CouchDB applications give users control over their data in a way that we’ve never seen on the web or the desktop before. CouchDB serves Ajax applications directly to the browser, and can manage vast
databases using map reduce views.

The combination of simple web applications with powerful queries is exciting on its own, but what really sets CouchDB apart from the past is it’s peer based replication. Using replication your data can be anywhere: your laptop, the cloud, your phone. Grandma will be happy about CouchDB’s transparent offline mode, but the bigger win is that users have their data and the applications together on their own machines, giving them the opportunity to view and modify the source code.

I sincerely believe that an ecosystem of CouchDB web apps will do more to further the open source cause than anything else we’ve seen in the web era. In my OSBridge talk I’ll give an introduction to CouchDB, explain the way it makes data portability and open source the default, and show a few example applications to inspire you to build your own.

It’s very rewarding to see the near culmination of the brainchild Selena and Audrey birthed back in October. We didn’t really get off the ground until mid-January, so OSB has come together in less than six months.

We’re very proud of our community of volunteers and advocates who have helped make this conference happen. Thank you.

Back in the early planning stages, we thought we could attract 300-400 people from out of town. After all, the conference spans technologies and languages, focusing instead on the shared experience of being an open source citizen, something shared by tens of thousands of people within an easy plane flight of Portland.

Plus, other technical conferences held here in Portland have no trouble drawing people from beyond the Rose City.

Unfortunately for us (and many others), personal and corporate budgets aren’t what they were back in the salad days of 2008. Now, our numbers seem woefully optimistic.

We know many of you are waiting until the last minute to register and book your travel. How do we know?

Every time we put a deadline on something (e.g. session submissions, Early Bird pricing), we get a rush of takers up to the final minute before the expiration. Literally.

We know a lot of you haven’t registered, but mean to do so eventually. Hold off for a few minutes because . . .

Here comes another offer with a deadline.

If you book your stay at the Hilton Portland, where the all-hours hacker lounge will be, between now and June 5, we’ll send you a code to get the Early Bird pricing ($175) when you do register.

In summary:

1. Book the Hilton from our site, or just call our friends at Travel Command.
2. Wait nervously, refreshing your email.
3. Receive the secret code from us by email.
4. Register for the conference.
5. Save $75 on the full price.
6. Do your victory dance, you know the one.

Enough about you, let’s talk about us. We want you to come, and we know you want to come. Why not take care of all this now and save us all the stress of waiting until the last minute?

More seriously, we have a contract with the Hilton, which is unfortunately based on the numbers we estimated back in October. We won’t be able to fill that contract, but we’re damned sure going to try our best to make good on it.

Why did we sign a contract? We wanted to work with a local hotel to help the local economy. After all, we <3 Portland, just like we <3 open source. Heck, we even have the Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, giving the Thursday keynote.

It’s all connected.

So, go forth and book, then register.

We don’t want to punish those of you who have registered. So, if you paid the full price to register, are coming from out of town and haven’t booked the Hilton yet, drop us a note either at info at opensourcebridge dot org or in comments, and we’ll make sure you get the code too.

See you in a few weeks.

Image by beej from Flick used under Creative Commons. Note, we don’t hate birds.

I talked about some of the things we’ve been working on, and what we need next. We’re looking to fill several logistics roles, like internet/wifi coordinator, so if you’ve been thinking about trying to get more involved as we get closer to the conference, this would be a good time to fill out our volunteer info form.

We also talked about how to get more out-of-town attendees. Having the awesome 24-hour hacker lounge at the Hilton is tied to getting enough people to register in our room block, and we only have another month to meet that goal. So after my presentation, we split into two groups: one to talk about outreach and marketing, and another to talk about how we’d like to use the hacker lounge space.

We’re still looking for sponsors. As a first-year conference, we don’t have the padding of money from a previous year’s event, and as an all-volunteer grassroots organization, we’re not attached to a larger organization we can fall back on. This means that we have to raise all of the money we need to run the event, before the event, whether that’s through sponsorships, individual contributions, or advance registrations and hotel sales. We’re part of the way there, but we still need more.

I don’t know about you, but I am really excited that we’re just two months out from the conference. We have a great selection of talks we’re getting ready to announce, and many parts are falling into place. We just need you, and the rest of the open source community, to help us and join us at the Oregon Convention Center in June.

Why hello there!

The Open Source Bridge team has been hard at work: cranking out code, contacting user groups and reviewing all the amazing proposals we’ve received since we opened our call on January 26.

It’s paid off with more registrations, our first Gold Star member, and even more great proposals.

You’ve been good to us.

Because you’ve been so nice, we’d like to share with you a few proposals we are very excited about. We’re so excited, that we jumped the gun a little, and asked these folks if they wouldn’t mind committing to present at our conference, like, now.

We’ve got lots of work to do tomorrow. While we take a little break and enjoy some pie, please take a peek into our first scheduled talks:

• RubySpec: What does my Ruby do?, Brian Ford
  Brian Ford is leading an effort to create a complete, executable specification for Ruby. We think this is a great project, and can’t wait to hear from the source how it’s going. Brian is a local, and we hear he’s part of our local Ruby Brigade.
• Drizzle, Rethinking MySQL for the Web, Brian Aker
  There’s been a lot of discussion about MySQL’s future. Come see it as Brian Aker envisions it: trimmer, modular and optimized for the cloud. Brian hails from Seattle, WA and would really like a bullet train between there and Portland.
• Advanced Git tutorial: Not your average VCS., Sarah Sharp
  Sarah Sharp gave a great presentation about git at a local user group where an audience member called the knowedge she shared “dangerous”. You can be dangerous too! Sarah is a Linux kernel hacker in the Portland area, and a rocket enthusiast. And she rides bikes.
• Remember Tcl/ Tk? Grandpa might be old, but he can still kick your ass!, Webb Sprague
  Come see the talk Nat Torkington made fun of. Webb Sprague teaches an introductory bash class at our local Free Geek chapter once a week, works mostly from Eugene on his PhD research, knows a ton about PostGIS, and loves the idea of Cyborg Anthropology. We had no idea that he liked Tcl/Tk.
• Open Source Library Software: Empowering Libraries – Creating Opportunities, Lori Ayre
  Are you a Librarian? Interested in Open source software for libraries? Come hear Lori talk about the culture shift that needs to happen in our libraries to get FOSS in there. Those people who are interested in “switcher” talks, will want to attend this talk to learn another way of making the pitch to shift from proprietary to open source in your business or among your peers.
• The Linux Kernel Development model, Greg Kroah-Hartman
  Greg K-H gave the opening keynote address at the Linux Plumbers Conference last year. My hope is that people new to free and open source software development, as well as people currently involved in open source projects can come learn how the most visible and successful FOSS project actually works. Greg K-H is a Linux kernel hacker living in the Portland area. He has a twitter account that used to track his command-line history.
• Configuration Management Panel, Moderated by James Turnbull
  Configuration management is the future of system administration. James Turnbull has gotten together the biggest names in configuration management – the original authors and developers themselves – in ONE MONSTER PANEL. That’s: cfengine, Puppet, Opscode, AutomateIT and bcfg2. Check it out! Be amazed. James is from Australia and claims to not like long walks on the beach.
• My Grand Experiment: A Portland Women-focused Tech Group., Gabrielle Roth
  Gabrielle Roth started Code-N-Splode after OSCON 2007. What started as a conversation between 3 people, grew into a large, free-wheeling programmers haunt for women. Come hear about how she did it, what she learned, and where she wants to go next with the group. User groups are very important to the co-chairs of the conference, as that’s how both of them got involved with open source community. This talk will be a great case study for anyone wanting to start a user group.
• Is the Web Down: a Practical Tutorial on How the Web Works, Michael Schwern, Joshua Keroes
  We first met Michael Schwern (known to most people as ‘Schwern’), and Joshua Keroes (known to most people as ‘ua’, pronounced “ooo-uh”) at the Portland Perlmongers. Schwern is known for his ability to explain complicated topics in easy to understand ways, and Joshua knows his Perl and his networking. United, these two will be an unstoppable “how it works” force. Schwern and Joshua live in the Portland area. Both seem to enjoy fine, mixed cocktails, and Perl.
• HOWTO earn an open source living without taking on investors or selling your soul, Brian Jamison

Brian Jamison is CEO of Open Sourcery, an open source-focused consulting company in the Portland area. We love that they want to share their strategy for success with you, and, at least from the description, their model seems like the type of sustainable business typical of the Portland area. We are not as focused on venture capital and investment, and perhaps more interested in quality of life, the long term plan, and keeping our souls safe.

• A Tour of CodePlex, Sara Ford
  Sara Ford’s submission grabbed us — Microsoft hosts open source projects? We’re curious about the features CodePlex offers, what the community is like and how it is growing. Our hunch is that peering into CodePlex will give you ideas, and hopefully, we can embrace and extend them.
• Drop ACID and think about data, Bob Ippolito
  We heard great things about Bob Ippolito from our friends that just went to PyCon 2009. As much as the ‘Drop ACID’ title pained one of our co-chairs (for relational database reasons), Bob’s presentation promises to be a fabulous tour of the “database” engines popping up for the web (also for the “cloud”).
• Organizing a Volunteer-Driven Open Source Community Project, Sarah Beecroft, molly vogt, Joaquin Lippincott, Melissa Anderson
  Last but not least, this talk promises to be amazing. Sarah Beecroft is an Americorps volunteer who led a team that created http://www.rosecityresource.org/, the online version of a comprehensive print guide for public services and assistance programs in the greater Portland area. We’ll let you visit the site and see it for yourself. But, briefly:

  The development of this website was an entirely volunteer-driven community effort; it didn’t cost a physical dollar and was built with the intention of providing an existing organization with a sustainable tool to better do what they already work very hard to do well.

  Wow. Anyway. Street Roots now maintains this resource. They are a small community and activist newspaper success story in a time where many newspapers are going away. We can’t wait for this panel, both to be inspired, and to find out how they did it — so that our own projects can be better in the future.

We hope to see you all in June!

P.S. Don’t see your favorite topic? Make sure to comment on your favorite Open Source Bridge proposals to ensure that your favorite gets picked!

Lots of people took notes and hopefully will publish blog entries. I’ll link them here as they come in. Feel free to pingback as well.