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If it’s Thursday, this must be Portland

June 23, 2011 – 8:00 am

Good morning citizens!

Today we begin with Portland Mayor Sam Adams’ morning keynote on the city’s Civic Apps and open source participation, at 9am in the Sanctuary. The Mayor has presented at Open Source Bridge all three years, and we’re happy to have him back. Following the keynote, there will be an open data hacking session, related to regional farmers market data, scheduled in the Hacker Lounge. Drop by and see what the Portland Farmer’s Market has to play with.

Speaker sessions will begin at 10am.

Today we’re having a breakfast of muffins and scones by Sweetpea Baking Co., plus fresh fruit. Lunch catering is by Thai Garden, and we have cookies and fruit for the afternoon break.

Birds of a Feather sessions (BoFs), which are free and open to the public, begin at 7pm upstairs. Tonight’s BoFs include BIND and ISCDHCP, “Women in Tech (and friends) Go Drinking,” and more.

Mozilla and Emma are co-hosting a happy hour at the Cleaners at Ace Hotel, from 5-7pm.

Hacker Lounge activities include an Apache Lucene.net Hackathon, and a Transit Appliance meetup.

Register Today for Open Source Bridge 2012!
Do you want to be here again next year? We certainly do. Get your pass and put next year’s conference on your schedule now: registration for Open Source Bridge 2012 will be open after today’s keynote, at a special low rate.

Massage
Are you feeling sore from attending sessions all day and coding all night? Licensed massage therapist Domenika Radonich will be providing her services in room A102. Check with the Registration desk for more info.

Nominate Open Source Citizens!
Nominate your fellow citizens for our first open source citizenship award! At current count, we have three nominees. They’re all great people, but wouldn’t you like to submit someone yourself?

Volunteer
If all this civic pride is making you feel warm and fuzzy inside, sign up for a volunteer shift! Stop by the registration desk to find out how you can get involved.

Be Interviewed
Speakers who still might like to be interviewed but haven’t gotten around to it yet: email media@opensourcebridge.org and let us know when you’re available.

Silliness
We still like reading the session OHs, so don’t forget to tag everything with #osb11. Here’s a few more items we scraped out of the search feed:

“The more fish in the pond, the more will float to the top when you toss the dynamite in.” #trollu #osb11 [@suehle]

“If someone says their code doesn’t have bugs, then they don’t have much of a user base” #osb11 [@jthurman42]

“Free as in speech, not as in puppies” #osb11 [@demew]

OH: “It’s like a soup kitchen for nerds! Awesome!” [@reidab]

Questions? Feedback? Talk to @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.

By audrey | Posted in announcement, conference | Comments (0)

Things You Might Like to Know About Wednesday

June 22, 2011 – 8:00 am

Good morning!

It is Wednesday, June 22nd and it’s expected be partly cloudy with a high of 71°.

Sessions begin at 9am today.

We will be serving a Continental Breakfast in the morning, lunch will be catered by Taqueria Los Gorditos, and an afternoon snack of cookies and fruit.

There will be a farmer’s market nearby in the South Park Blocks if you want to check out local produce and artisan goods during any of the breaks throughout the day.

Want to keep the conference running smoothly? Sign up for a volunteer shift! Stop by Registration to find out how you can help.

We’re having lightning talks again today at 1:30pm in room B201. Stop by the sign-up sheet in the Hacker Lounge to add yours to the list.

Speakers: if you want to do an interview with our wonderful media partners and you haven’t told us yet, please email media@opensourcebridge.org

Tonight’s evening activities:

Birds of a Feather (BoFs), which are free and open to the public, begin at 7pm in the session rooms. Wednesday BoFs include Google Summer of Code, Portland Javascript Admirers, and others (check the website for details).

The Hacker Lounge will be open all night again. There are some sessions scheduled — including a GIS/Location Smackdown — and lots of room for more. Check out the wiki to find out what’s planned. Snacks will be provided throughout the night.

Conference Tips:

Keep tagging your tweets and other content with #osb11.
We found these entertaining:

A dozen databases in 45 minutes. That’s, um, 3.75 minutes per database. #osb11 — @johnderosa

The couchdb talk has reached the point of interpretive dance to explain mvcc. Dancing about architecture. #osb11 — @laprice

Hovering helicopter – FBI saw the keynote? #osb11 — @donpdonp

We’re still looking for nominees for open source citizens seen making a strong contribution at the conference. Stop by Registration to fill out a nomination slip.

Questions? Feedback? Ask @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.

By audrey | Posted in announcement, conference | Comments (1)

Your Guide to Tuesday

June 21, 2011 – 8:46 am

Hello all,
Open Source Bridge starts today!

Registration opens at 8am each day of the conference, and a Continental Breakfast will be provided for attendees.

We’re kicking off Open Source Bridge today at 9am with the morning keynote “Hacking for Freedom” by Peter Fein.

Speaker sessions begin at 10am.

Lunch will be catered by Nicholas Restaurant at noon.

The day’s sessions continue past the scheduled speakers, with Birds of a Feather (BoFs) talks, which are free and open to the public, and begin at 7pm. Check them out or schedule your own this week.

If you plan on attending the BoFs or join in on hacking sessions in the on-site 24-Hour Hacker Lounge, be sure to register for a Community Pass, which is a free option to attend evening events.

Events

A free and open-to-the-public Opening Reception in the Hacker Lounge (Buchan Hall) begins at 6pm.

Off-site evening activities? Sauce Labs and Yammer are co-sponsoring a late-night party at Someday Lounge from 8pm-late with plenty of free booze, food, and geekery. The Yammer and Sauce crews will be mingling about and would love to share a beer with you!

Citizenship Award

We are recognizing exemplary open source citizens who participate at this conference. If you spot someone who is really making a difference for fellow attendees, we will be collecting nominations at the Registration desk for an award to be presented at the end of the conference.

Hashtag & Flickr Group

The hashtag for this year’s conference is #osb11. We also have a Flickr group and encourge you to take photos and upload them there.

Please review the conference’s Code of Conduct.

Find a volunteer in an Open Source Bridge t-shirt if you have a question. Tweet at @osbridge if you have a less-immediate concern or feedback.

Volunteers, be sure to check your schedule in the Volunteer Lounge. If you’re not volunteering yet, but want to help out, we still have shifts available. It’s a minimum 2-hour commitment, but an essential part of making this conference happen. Stop by the Registration/Info desk to sign up.

By audrey | Posted in announcement, conference | Comments (0)

Open Source Bridge starts in less than one week!

June 15, 2011 – 8:34 am

The 2011 Open Source Bridge conference is just one week away! Now is the time to register if you haven’t already. Read on to find out about the fantastic content we have lined up for next week’s conference.

Keynotes

We’ll kick off the conference with Pete Fein’s keynote about Hacking for Freedom. On Thursday, Portland Mayor Sam Adams will deliver our closing keynote.

Many Awesome Sessions

We have all sorts of great sessions in this year’s schedule, including…

That’s just a small sampling of the many great sessions at this year’s Open Source Bridge. Check out the full schedule for the full line up.

22-Hour Hacker Lounge

This year we have an on-site hacker lounge, sponsored by Intel, and it will be open nearly 24 hours a day starting Tuesday at 9am. There’ll be plenty of wifi, power strips, beverages, and snacks in a comfortable and friendly space.

We’re making a special effort to bring active open source projects into the Hacker Lounge. If you are a project developer or contributor, consider scheduling a time when people can collaborate, discuss, and brainstorm. To participate, email hackerlounge@opensourcebridge.org. The schedule will be posted on Hacker Lounge page on our wiki.

Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions (BoFs)

A BoF is an informal evening session to share your interest in a particular technology or area of open source. There have already been BoFs scheduled on a number of exciting topics. Check them out and add your own.

Unconference!

The last day of Open Source Bridge will be an unconference, so bring your ideas and consider giving an impromptu session! If you’ve never been to an unconference, never fear; we’ll give instructions during the Friday morning kick-off before scheduling begins.

Want to brainstorm sessions before then? Add them to our wiki.

Parties!

On Tuesday night, Yammer and Sauce Labs are hosting a party and on Thursday night, Mozilla and Emma will be hosting a party. Details to be announced during the conference.

Short on Cash? Volunteer!

We love our volunteers and will give a free conference pass to anyone who commits to eight or more hours of volunteering. Spots are filling up, so get yours soon! Details: http://opensourcebridge.org/2011/wiki/How_to_Sign-Up

Short on Cash AND Time? We Have Free Events!

We want to make Open Source Bridge as accessible as we can for all. If you can’t afford a regular ticket or a day pass to the conference, and don’t have time to volunteer, we still have a bunch of stuff you can check out for free. The evening BoFs are free, as well as evening Hacker Lounge access. The unconference day will be sliding scale (pay what you can). We still ask that everyone register (choose Community Pass).

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors!

Open Source Bridge is made possible by our sponsors:

Register Now

What are you waiting for? Go register!

By christie | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Volunteer Schedule Open for Sign-Ups: Get Your Shift Now!

June 3, 2011 – 10:30 am

Open Source Bridge is a 100% volunteer-run event and we need your help to make it awesome! One of the most direct ways you can help is to volunteer on-site during the conference. We have many volunteer positions available — from simple errand-running, to the more complicated registration, speaker lounge, and assistant volunteer coordinator positions. We have something for everyone, and you don’t have to be an über coder to be a stellar volunteer.

Because we <3 our volunteers, we will provide a complimentary ticket to those who commit at least 8 hours of their time. (Note: we can’t provide refunds to those who have already purchaed their ticket.)

And, for the first time, all volunteers will recieve a special Open Source Bridge volunteer t-shirt. Volunteers will also get their own lounge complete with yummy snacks.

Now is your chance! The volunteer schedule is now open for sign-ups. Visit the How to Sign-Up page on our wiki for full instructions on how to sign-up as a volunteer.

UPCOMING MEET-AND-GREETS

To learn more about volunteering on-site, please come to one of the following meet-and-greets:

ORIENTATION SESSIONS

We will also have an on-site volunteer orientation the day before the conference. While not mandatory, it’d be great if you could attend:

If you can’t come to any of the meet-and-greets or orientations, or just have questions, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Shepherd Griffin, at volunteer@opensourcebridge.org.

Volunteering is the essence of Open Source Bridge and we are excited to work with you!

By christie | Posted in Volunteering | Comments (0)