These tips aren’t meant to be exclusive to Open Source Bridge. We hope you will be able to apply some of them when you submit to speak elsewhere.

Have your own tips? Add them in the comments.

Read and understand our Call for Proposals

This falls under the general “know your audience” type of advice. Before you submit your talk, you should understand what type of content we’re soliciting.

Because we are trying to promote cross-pollination as well as provide space for in-depth discussions, our Call for Proposals is rather broad. We’re looking for:

• Useful recipes for software development, systems administration, and working with open source. (Cooking)
• Understanding how our systems work, in order to improve and extend. (Chemistry)
• Building open source businesses that thrive. (Business)
• Exploring how open source extends through technology into our communities. (Culture)
• Tinkering, experimenting and bending the rules to make hardware and software do what we want. (Hacks)

You can read more about our conference tracks here.

Look over previously accepted talks

You can get an idea of what we’re looking for by reviewing the proposals we accepted as sessions for previous years (2009 talks and 2010 talks).

Be specific, but also clear and concise

Let us know the question and give an idea of the answer. Make sure to give clear details about the content of your talk.

Write well and use standard English

Use proper spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation. Use the active voice. Proposals without these things are difficult to read. Our content committee has a lot to read through; please don’t make this process more difficult.

Provide a good title

A title can make or break a talk. It should be concise, yet comprehensible. Clever, but not overly so. Sparking curiousity is good, but make sure people can tell what you’re going to be talking about. If your title accurately reflects both the subject matter and the tone of your talk, your ideal audience will find you.

Explain why you’d give a good talk

You don’t need to be an expert, but if you are, let us know. Don’t assume we’ll know who you are even if you’ve given a bunch of talks all over the world. Also don’t assume that we won’t pick you if you’ve never spoken. Have you given this talk at a user group with overwhelming success? Let us know in your proposal’s Note to organizers field.

Spread the word

Open Source Bridge allows public viewing and coments on all proposed submissions. Advertise that you’ve submitted a talk (we even have badges for this) so that people can comment and let our selection committee know they want to see your talk.

Ask questions

Not sure if your talk would be appropriate for OSBridge? Have other burning questions that are keeping you from submitting? The co-chairs and content commitee are available to answer your questions: content@opensourcebridge.org.

Practice makes perfect

One sure way to test a talk is to give it to a small audience first. These include your local user group, a brown bag session at your company, or even to a group of friends.

Hopefully these tips will help your chances in getting your talk proposal accepted. Don’t forget that the last day to submit proposals is Wednesday, March 16th.

We’re still waiting to hear back from a few speakers, so stay tuned in the next few days as we fill in a few gaps – but the bulk of our speakers have responded to acceptances, and we’re happy to share what we have with you today!

We’d like to thank our Advocate sponsors – Google, Facebook and the Rackspace Cloud. Without them, this conference wouldn’t be happening. We also have many other sponsors listed, and are looking for more! If you’d like to support our grassroots, community-organized conference this year, please get in touch!

Without further ado:

Culture

• Being a Catalyst in Communities – The science behind the open source way by Karsten Wade
• Free Speech, Free Software Across the World by Danny O’Brien
• Geek Choir by Michael Alan Brewer
• Give a Great Tech Talk by Josh Berkus and Ian Dees
• Hacking Space Exploration by Ariel Waldman
• HyperCard 2010: Why Johnny Can’t Code (and What We Can Do About It) by Devin Chalmers
• Making Robots Accessible to Everyone by Brett Nelson and Jim Larson
• Move Your Asana by Sherri Montgomery
• Organizing user groups, a panel discussion by Igal Koshevoy, Jesse Hallett, Eric Wilhelm, Christie Koehler, gabrielle roth, Audrey Eschright, and Sam Keen
• Transparent, Collaborative, Participatory – Grass Roots Implementation of the Open Government Directive by Mark Frischmuth

Cooking

• A day in the life of Facebook Operations by Tom Cook
• Agile User Experience Design by Randall Hansen
• Best Practices for Wiki Adoption by Steven Walling and Mark Dilley
• Building Interactive Displays with Touchscreen 2.0 by Peter Krenesky and Rob McGuire-Dale
• Connecting to Web Services on Android by Sean Sullivan
• Creating Embedded Linux Products with OpenEmbedded by Scott Garman
• Getting Started with FPGAs and HDLs by Phil Tomson
• How To Report A Bug by Michael Schwern
• How to write quality software using the magic of tests by Igal Koshevoy
• Infrastructure as Code by Adam Jacob
• Introduction to MongoDB by Michael Dirolf
• Introduction to PostgreSQL by Josh Berkus and Christophe Pettus
• Making Drupal Go Fast with Varnish and Pressflow by Greg Lund-Chaix and Rudy Grigar
• Node.js and you by Mikeal Rogers
• Open Source Storage Solutions and Next Generation Linux File Systems by Anand Babu (AB) Periasamy
• Relational vs. Non-Relational by Josh Berkus
• Release your hardware hacker potential with gEDA by Eric Thompson
• Sphinx – the ultimate tool for documenting your software project by Nate Aune
• Stacks of Cache by Duncan Beevers
• The Open Geo Stack by Adam DuVander
• The Return of Command-Line Kung Fu by Hal Pomeranz
• The symfony framework behind the scenes at museum installations by David Brewer
• Unlikely tools for pair programming by Jamey Sharp and Josh Triplett
• Using Modern Perl by chromatic x
• Your Internets are Leaking by Reid Beels and Michael Schwern
• libcloud: a unified interface into the cloud by Alex Polvi

Hacks

• Open Source Rockets by Nathan Bergey and Andrew Greenberg
• Building A Mesh Network Wireless Temperature Sensor by Michael Pigg
• Copyright lawyers can Gödel by Markus Roberts
• CouchApp Evently Guided Hack w/ CouchDB by J Chris Anderson
• Drizzle, Scaling MySQL for the Future by Brian Aker
• Fixing SSL security: Supplementing the certificate authority model by Seth Schoen
• Housetruck: Building a Victorian RV by John Labovitz
• JIT-Compiling Domain Specific Languages by Jeremy Voorhis
• Listening to Data – Sonification Using Open Source Tools by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
• Multicore Haskell Now! by Don Stewart
• Non-visual location-based augmented reality using GPS data by Aaron Parecki and Amber Case
• Practical Facebook stalking with Open Source tools by Paul Fenwick
• Speeding up your PHP Application by Rasmus Lerdorf
• The $2 computer: ultraconstrained devices do your bidding by David Hollingsworth
• The Fine Line Between Creepy and Fun by Audrey Eschright
• When Everything Looks Like A Nail by Markus Roberts and Matt Youell
• X Marks the Spot: Applying OpenStreetMap to the High Seas by Liz Henry and Danny O’Brien
• iizip: Hacking together your own Dropbox by Ben Dechrau
• import rdma: Zero-copy networking with RDMA and Python by Andy Grover

Chemistry

• Activity Streams, Socialism, and the Future of Open Source by Chris Messina
• Cassandra: Strategies for Distributed Data Storage by Kelvin Kakugawa
• Considering in-house automated web testing? by Adam Christian
• Creating a low-cost clustered virtualization environment using Ganeti by Lance Albertson
• Developing Replication Plugins for Drizzle by Padraig O’Sullivan
• Efficient Multi-core Application Architectures by Eric Day
• Hair and Yak Again — A Hacker’s Tale by Eric Wilhelm
• HipHop for PHP by Haiping Zhao
• Living Together In An Open Cloud World by Jonathan Bryce
• Making your information online findable by VJ Beauchamp
• Professional JavaScript by Jesse Hallett
• SELECT * FROM Internet Using YQL by Jonathan LeBlanc
• SuperSpeed me: USB 3.0 Open Source Support by Sarah Sharp
• Why the Sysadmin Hates Your Software by Steve VanDevender

Business

• ‘Open Source Business Models’ and other mythical creatures by Andrew Clay Shafer
• Foundations, Non-profits, and Open Source by Carol Smith
• Functional Requirements: Thinking Like A Pirate by Amye Scavarda
• Legal Difficulties Involving Open Source Companies and How to Avoid Them by Martin Medeiros
• Moonlighting in Sunlight – How to work on independent projects and have a day job. by Paula Holm Jensen
• Teach your class to fish, and they’ll have food for a lifetime. by Jacinta Richardson
• The Naive Developer’s Guide to Venture Capital by Joyce Park
• The Second Step: HOWTO encourage open source work at for-profits by Sumana Harihareswara
• The Story of Spaz: How to Give Away Everything, Make No Money, and Still Win by Edward Finkler

We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone, hearing your feedback, and seeing your photos. So is everyone else.

First things first. If you’re not already following OSBridge on Twitter or OSBridge on Identica, please do. We’ll use those accounts to keep you up-to-date on changes, retweet astute observations, and announce cool happenings throughout the event.

Or maybe you’re more into the FriendFeed? You’re in luck. We’ve got a FriendFeed room dedicated to Open Source Bridge discussions.

[UPDATE] And of course, who could forget (except me) the #osbridge IRC channel? Thanks to John DeRosa for reminding us.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s make tracking the Open Source Bridge conversations as easy as possible, shall we? We shall. Here are a few tips for tagging your content.

• When you’re tagging your content on Twitter and Identica, please use the #osb09 hashtag. If you want to use #osbridge that’s fine, too. But it will cost you those precious extra characters.
• We’re hoping a few of you are bringing cameras. Please make sure to tag photos osb09 and osbridge. We’ve also established an OSBridge group on Flickr for your photos, so join and add away
• And of course, we’re likely to see a bunch of blog posts about the conference. Again, using osb09 or osbridge tags and categories would be appreciated.

Thank you for attending and sharing your content. We can’t wait to see what you’re saying—and seeing—at Open Source Bridge.

And with the ease of sharing photos these days, there’s no better way of capturing the event than taking pictures of anything and everything happening at the show.

We’ll have local photographer (and WordPress guru) Aaron Hockley at the conference on Wednesday and Thursday. If you get a chance, try to get in front of his lens. We guarantee he’ll make you look good. And all of his images from the event will be released under Creative Commons for your use.

But many of us will be wandering around with our own rigs, trying to capture the best shots possible. So we thought it would be valuable to offer you some tips.

One of the best “how to”s on conference shots we’ve ever seen is Kris Krug’s photography tips from Gnomedex (not that Gnome), last year. Take a look. No doubt, you’ll gain some valuable insight into improving your shots.

But what about getting your photo taken? What if you’re speaking? No worries. Duncan Davidson has some great tips for how to come out looking your best—and how to leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Obviously, there is so much more that could be said. And much better formats than just a simple list of twits. But, for now, maybe this will help a few speakers better deliver their message. And, most of all you should remember that your audience wants you to succeed. They’re there to listen to you. Help ’em out a bit and everyone will be happier, including you.

Who knows? Maybe Duncan will even show up to snap a few shots of his own.

Finally, if you’re bringing your camera along to Open Source Bridge, please be sure to tag your uploads with “osbridge” or “osb09.” That way, we’ll be able to share all of your good work.

We’re looking forward to seeing you—and the images you capture—next week.

(Image courtesy soycamo. Used under Creative Commons.)

There are lots of reasons to attend Open Source Bridge if you’re an open source citizen including learning from like-minded individuals, meeting other citizens, talking about your own work, discovering new projects, all that.

Oh, and you can work with your new (and old) friends at the 24-hour hacker lounge, code sprinting, bug bashing, kicking around new ideas, starting new projects, you get the gist.

I think we’ve got that angle covered because our leads live and breathe open source every day. They get what it’s about, which is why this conference exists at all.

But what if you’re not yet an open source citizen or a hacker/hobbyist? Say you work in an IT/IS department.

Why should you attend Open Source Bridge?

Glad you asked.

Being in IT, you have a bunch of software provided by vendors. You might belong to a local vendor user group, and maybe you’ve been to one of those big national or international conferences held by the vendor.

Why do you belong to a user group? Why do you go to those big conferences?

To talk to the vendor directly about product direction and chat with the people who design and build the product you use, the product managers and developers, and to talk to other people who use the software. These are opportunities to get and share information and meet liked-minded people. Sounding familiar?

It’s also very likely that your organization supports some variety of open source software: Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, MySQL, Postgres. Even if you don’t officially support an open source product, you probably know about open source. You’ve got a baseline knowledge.

You probably don’t belong to a local user group, and you probably don’t go to big conferences for open source.

If you do, why haven’t you registered for Open Source Bridge yet?

So, why attend?

Because you get the same opportunity to talk directly to the people who build the software and to people who use it everyday. You can tell them in person what you like about the software, or would like to see improved. As a bonus, you’ll get unfiltered passion. This is important.

People in open source development are passionate about it. Just ask Selena about Postgres, or ask Audrey about Rails. You’ll also find a wide variety of opinions at the conference, and nothing makes for a rip-roaring good time like an in-depth why this vs. that discussion between two open source advocates.

And there’s gold in them thar hills.

So, you’ll have a host of open source citizens to ask about their projects, and you can see how open source happens in the hacker lounge. You’ll run into people who shape the future direction of projects, and you’ll get straight answers about the questions that are important to you and your IT department.

It’s your chance to window-shop, put a toe into the open source community pool and see if you like the temperature. We know not everyone needs to be passionate about software to use it. But it sure is nice to see that the people who write the software you use care about it, and want to make it better.

You’ll also rub elbows with other people in IT who have implemented and support open source. They can help answer the nuts and bolts questions that matter to you, the users you support and to your management.

And your management is definitely thinking more critically about open source, now more than ever. They’ll want answers, and those answers can be had from other attendees at Open Source Bridge.

For example:

Your CIO: I’m worried about support costs. What happens if there’s a bug? We don’t have a support agreement or a number we can call.

You: I spoke to the project leader and a number of the major contributors at Open Source Bridge, and they outlined the process for reporting and fixing critical bugs. They can usually fix critical issues within hours.

Your CIO: What about other companies that have implemented this? Have they had any problems?

You: I ran into other IT people who have implemented. They were very positive about the level of support and the overall responsiveness and quality from the project leads. Did you know our competition uses this software?

Your CIO: Egad, no. Let’s go forward with an implementation. You’re getting a raise.

Woo-hoo. All joking aside, if you’re in IT, you should be considering open source, and Open Source Bridge offers a chance for you to do that. You might even like it so much, you join a project.

So, register and check out the proposals. We’ll see you here in Portland in June.

Connect with us at #osbridge on irc.freenode.net. Selena (handle: selenamarie) hangs out there most of the day (Pacific timezone), and a few other hackers will drop in from time to time.

We’d love some help staffing the channel. Also, if you’re a wizard with bots, and have a few minutes to spare, ping selenamarie in IRC.

Feel free to join in!

/end transmission