Open Source Bridge

Estimating the time a project will take is pretty much the hardest thing in software, and I don't think that's any different for any other crafting deliverable. Of course, sometimes we have done something so often that we KNOW it takes 50 minutes to make a batch of raspberry jam, but that's not the same as estimation. So if we can't rely on our own estimation, or that of others, what can we do? We can timebox from the other direction. Instead of trying to figure out how long something will take, we can decide how long we have to spend on it. After all, you are the boss of your creative experiences. If you don't deliver on time, it's disappointing, but probably not the end of your career.

Git is cool. Configuration is code. The simplicity of a monitoring check or metrics collector enables junior system administrators to learn in small, contained parts. Jr. admins can go from not knowing what monitoring is to having a check in production in a manner of hours.

For some of us staying connected to the internet is an imperative, and while traveling to foreign lands it can sometimes be difficult to remain connected. Let me share with you some of the techniques that I've discovered for remaining connected while abroad.

Most GIS were not specifically designed to manage dynamic spatiotemporal data. Spatiotemporal mapping is the representation of changes in geographical phenomena. By identifying the characteristics of the spatial, temporal and attributional dimensions, we evaluate OSGIS techniques for data storage, retrieval, pattern analysis and visualization.

How a local meetup with 13 participants spread across their known World in a few years, with little budget and gigantic enemies. Beyond miracles and beliefs: let’s look at the tactics and procedures that made the first Christians successful. A historical view of Acts of the Apostles for free software promoters and community managers.

Everywhere we look our world is speeding up. We have "fast food" and "speed dating". In technology we talk of "sprints", and "continuous deployment". But the search for speed is not a new one and has been going on for centuries. Spanning 300 years we'll discuss 5 people who have spent their lives making things faster and learn how we can apply these concepts to the work we're doing today.

Gitolite is next generation git server software. In this talk you'll learn about basic setup and advanced configuration. Awesome things such as branch-specific access controls, ldap/puppet integration, git hook madness and integration with redmine.

In the age of Agile, it's important for teams to get quick feedback on designs to keep sprints moving, but Omnigraffle wireframes are no match for the rich interactions of the modern web. This represents an opportunity for smart developers to create prototypes with working functionality that can be rapidly tested and changed based on incoming data from teammates and users.

In the decade the Xen Project has been in existence, it has seen great success. It also almost collapsed because of certain community and business decisions. We will deliver lessons learned so that other projects can avoid these pitfalls.

Over the past ten years the OSU Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) has provided an amazing program for undergraduate students. Many of our students have moved on and created their own successful startups and have changed the landscape of open source themselves. This session will cover how we mentor our students and create rock stars in the industry.

What is an equivalence class? Imagine that you have a function that takes an integer parameter between 1 and 12. The integers from 2 to 11 are in the same class; you probably don't need to test more than one of them. 1 and 12 are boundary values, but they're at opposite ends so you should probably test both. 0 and 13 and negative integers all belong to the same class, "out of range". What other classes might be relevant when testing this function?

"Maintainers shouldn't be passive, otherwise the project can lack vision, and being aggressive risks alienating new contributors. An assertive maintainer can make the project fun for contributors while retaining a sense of purpose and direction."

Contributing to an open source project goes beyond coding. A programmer has to adapt the processes, tools and culture of the project. This adaption can prove to be a challenge and makes a number of people shy off from contributing. Having someone to hold your hand makes the adaption very smooth!

In this talk I'll showcase insights we can garner from left wing anti-establishment movements such as community radio stations, unions and cooperatives and how you can use those techniques to grow, scale and manage open source communities, while still dismantling the authority.

With so many tools to insulate us, its difficult to see that luxury can come with hidden costs. Those hidden costs may include security, performance, scalability and maintainability. Startups may let developers lay down the infrastructure which can create some major headaches down the road if done incorrectly.

The Scribunto ("They shall write") extension for MediaWiki allows wiki users to write Lua code to process and display text and data in articles. Learn why Wikimedia chose Lua, how it is integrated into our PHP-based web app, and what results have been seen since the deployment in March.

How do you build a better engineer? What tools and approaches are out there today? Where might we be going in the future? Presentation then discussion.

In this session you will learn how the Computer Action Team teaches the next generation of system administrators.

Many large systems are composed of smaller, API-driven services. In these service oriented architectures (SOA), developers work in small subteams consuming and producing abstractions. While APIs enhance development efficiency in the normal work-flow, failure cases are often non-standardized, with little to no information provided for operational and development issues such as downtime or developer on-boarding. Implementing internal devops.json endpoints, combined with the Gutsy DevOps Dashboard, significantly improves the cost and quality of outcomes to operational and development problems by enabling information discovery of people and infrastructure.

Just say no to aimless, time wasting support forum browsing; the 1990s are over! Make your own awesome customized support flow.

A summary of when to use what style of testing, and the guidelines, tools and attitude(s) that make your tests more effective.

In this talk, I'll introduce the concepts of data and computational journalism, and I'll talk about the open source tools I've collected. For those wishing to go further, I'll provide tools and hands-on training in a BOF session or during the unconference.

Whether you’re just rolling out a new project, or you’re maintaining ten years and three major versions of legacy code, good documentation is vital for your users. But writing good docs doesn't need to be a long, painful process. This talk will get you started - and finished! - in no time.

In lots of lectures, students work on imaginary projects just for the sake of learning something. Or they can choose what they work on – mostly That Popular Proprietary Software™ which does not care about their contributions. We need to change that.

The collaborative learning and changemaking open source culture and tools has proven that the collective is now stronger than any of its parts. But what are the most effective strategies for growing an community in the Millions? In this talk I'll showcase insights we can garner from intentional communities such as community radio stations and the cooperatives and how you can use those techniques to grow, scale and manage open source communities.

The trials and tribulations of taking a large project (MediaWiki), and migrating it from Subversion to Git.

Many open source projects run into the question: how do we get more people involved? How do we grow our contributors? How do we make our community more diverse?

Lessons learned from using CouchDB on real-world projects in a government setting.

In this talk, Leslie and Amye will explore 7 essential skills for getting things done in the open source world. Hint: it looks a lot like the skills you need for your day job.

How I used free, available and Open Source technology for 1 year and 3 months to teach myself a conversational level of German. It can be applied to learning any foreign language, and anyone can do it!

Why do most computer interfaces flop? Why do so few succeed? Is it magic, or is there a method to the madness? Learn about some of the mathematical underpinnings of human-computer interaction, starting with Fitts' law in one-dimension and ending with the Accot-Zhai steering law in two.

Writing code is one thing; however this session covers everything BUT the code, opening a box full of tools to use with your LAMP (but with a definite PHP flavour) stack. Expect a showcase of which tools are currently around, and when you'll want to use them. We'll see what they can do and how we can apply them in a practical way.

While FLOSS projects aim to acquire contributors, Open Education projects look to acquire users. This talk will look at the current state of Open Education, FLOSS projects are successful in both open and functional contexts, and what FLOSS can do for open education.

In this talk I'll explore stategies for getting testing going inside your project, drawing upon experiences of making legacy code more testable.

From the early PC to today's laptop we have a million times the memory, a million times the disk storage, and similar increases in processing capabilities. What problems/opportunities does another million fold increase in raw computing bring?

At the Apache Software Foundation, we believe in being open. But we also recognize that "open" isn't enough to draw people in and get them involved. This talk will draw on the lessons learned in the incubation and mentoring projects at Apache to help you understand what's needed to tap the huge pool of potential contributors who already care about your work!

When you're in production, with real users and revenue on the line, you can't let a regression bug slip in and ruin your and your users' day. So you have to test. Everything. When you combine dozens of tests in several browser configurations, it takes forever. This session will provide an overview of the open source Selenium project and best practices for keeping up with your tests.

Since its launch in 2009, Forge.mil, the Department of Defense’s groundbreaking collaborative software development platform, has quickly garnered over 8000 members and over 400 projects. Its utilization of open-source principles has improved the ability of the military to rapidly deliver dependable software. Its efficient use of scarce resources provides a model of collaborative cooperation that can benefit all communities in and out of the government.

Diaspora started out on MongoDB, but after nine months of full-time development we switched to MySQL. Why? How? And what now?

Want to learn how to *successfully* reach out to new contributors? Learn from other projects' successes

GNOME 3 was released in April 2011. A presentation on the thought process in innovating a different user experience on the desktop.

You're one-third of the way through Google Summer of Code. What's working, what's not, and what to do?

Much of the difficulty for open source developers who try to work on civic or government apps is getting past the RFP process and convincing analysts and procurement officers that their projects have long term value and support. We hope to supply details on how to find and respond to the RFP process as well hints on how to work outside the process.

Mozilla's Webdev team is small, but helps out with over 100+ web properties. We're experimenting organizationally to scale ourselves. Learn about the new Webdev Steward role.

Sqlite provided a very cool offline storage system for web applications, but there is a new standards-based DB in town, IndexedDb. See how web applications can keep their user's data 100% private. Gawk at how sophisticated web applications can use offline local storage. Recoil in horror at the boring name... IndexedDb

The OpenStack project was launched last summer during OSCON by Rackspace, NASA, and a number of other cloud technology leaders in an effort to build a fully-open cloud computing platform. It is a collection of scalable, secure, standards-based projects consisting of compute, storage, images, and more. This session will introduce the projects, the principles behind it, and how to get started.

Many value-creating strategies, products, and processes rely on information systems. Yet enabling access to these vital information resources through the procurement, implementation, and use of proprietary software is often complicated and costly. Proponents of open source software (OSS) claim that robust and yet affordable solutions are available because software engineers and programs around the world are able to contribute to source code that is open for anyone to modify and maintain overtime. This production model has shifted the notion of software as the intellectual property of a vendor, to a resource for all. However, questions remain about the viability of OSS for businesses and non-profits. For example, organizations seeking software-based solutions require the security of knowing that the software will not compromise their larger information infrastructure and hurt their business. Some software vendors now provide stable versions of open source software, which they call “vendor driven open source” that combine the strengths of open source with the security of having a direct contract with a company to provide technical/user support and software documentation. Through an exploratory field study of OSS use within city and state government, the researcher seeks insight into its viability for work operations.

How to go from unmanaged to managed with Puppet, with devops practices and existing tools where possible and with open source hackery and spackle everywhere else.

An animated musical mini-movie in which our heroine uses open-source software to overthrow the stranglehold of the evil head of IT, and finds true love in the process.

Project management for open source communities is often taxing and difficult. Many community initiatives struggle because of the difficult environment of volunteerism and a lack of dedicated PM resources. This session will be a set of two case studies from PMs within the Drupal community.

How do you go about building an open source project in a community known for waiting on the Mothership to bless them with new code?

Ever wanted to get a bit more out of Memcached? Wondering how to set it up for redundancy or load check your server? This talk will go over all of the latest features to libmemcached including new SSL and configuration data.

Master Foss said: “A man who mistakes secrets for knowledge is like a man who, seeking light, hugs a candle so closely that he smothers it and burns his hand.” This talk will cover koans for small, open source business enlightenment.

Last year the cloud computing industry was changed dramatically with the introduction of OpenStack. The project is two releases deep - with one on the way – and it is currently the fastest growing cloud project in terms of code contributions and participating developers.

You're working on a great project, but how do you know if you're on track compared to your goals? Your bosses (your customers, your user community) are asking for status every day and you don't know what tell them - or nothing you tell them seems to satisfy. Knowing what to count and how to communicate it can help you and your team track progress, identify problems, and communicate to those around you.

Join us for a case study on using open source tools to build a platform for enterprise web applications with symfony. The focus of this session will be on how Yahoo! has built web applications that scale with open source tools.

Ship or fix? This choice presents itself to open source projects every day, and the consequences can be considerable. Learn how to control this "technical debt" in open source projects.

Have you ever just wanted to unsubscribe from one of those tedious threads on your favorite mailing-list? List administrators wouldn't it be nice to allow end-users to unsubscribe from conversations rather then just silently leaving the list? Now you can using Dyanmic Sublists for GNU Mailman.

We aim to inform you about the archive formats you use every day. We will include an in-depth look at the tar, ar, cpio, gzip, bzip2, and deb formats, as well as the internals of the Git object store. Armed with this information, we will show you a practical application: removing the redundancy between files in version control and distributions of source and binaries.

Since free software "is a matter of liberty, not price", developers and distributions are allowed to ask users to pay for free software (though most users can easily choose not to). Musicians like Radiohead have experimented with asking, but not requiring, users to pay for music (by choosing their own price, which could be $0). What would happen if we did this for free software?

RDMS showed us the one true way to organize data, yet the NoSQL movement shows us how it fails. The faithful are confused and concerned. The heretics rally boldly in the streets with torches and pitchforks, yelling something about "doesn't scale," while the defenders of orthodoxy scream about the features and safeties these strange new gods lack, and do the apostates even realize it? As the philosophical storm brews, DB admins and developers must make fateful decisions that will affect the rest of the code's life. Here they will glean the first glimpses of the knowledge they will need to make informed choices and be spared the wrath of the database gods.

Let's discuss the development of a beginning Ruby programming curriculum for the general public.

Usability testing can be fast, cheap and effective. Learn simple, unintimidating ways to do usability testing to identify things that are going horribly wrong.