Open Source Bridge

The strength of your community is the best predictor of your project's long-term viability. What happens when your community is gradually infiltrated by assholes, who infect everyone else with their constant negativity and personal attacks? This talk will teach you about the dramatic impact assholes are having on your organization today and will show you how you can begin to repair it.

Django is a powerful web development framework that is incredibly well-documented. Many tutorials exist for doing simple things quickly in Django... but what do you do after that?

Unlike war, Drupal is good for many things. On the other hand, Drupal is far from a one-size-fits-all solution, and some projects are a much better fit for it than others.

Code sprints are events where developers quickly complete coding tasks in a collaborative environment. A panel of skilled developers will share their experiences for organizing effective code sprints so you can better participate and organize your own. The panel members have organized and participated in over a hundred sprints (ranging from Django to JRuby) and used sprints as the primary way to develop community-oriented projects (e.g., Calagator). While most of the discussion will be about volunteer-run open source code sprints, many of the ideas will be readily applicable to improving development at your workplace. The panel will offer practical, actionable advice that you can use and answer your questions.

As a long-time user of open source software, I've often considered myself an advocate but not necessarily a participant. Over the last year and a half, my own search for technical inspiration has led me full-circle to the realization that I'm an active member of a vibrant community of technical women.

Welcome to the unconference day.

Idealist.org's mission is to help change the world by providing proactive people, communities, and organizations with a forum to connect and communicate.

The idea for Code-n-Splode grew out of the Women in Open Source BOF at OSCON 2007. I'll talk about my original reasons for starting a women-friendly tech group, how the group is evolving, and what I've learned.

The closed, proprietary, integrated library systems (ILS) of the last decade have left libraries with no control over features, enhancements, hardware platforms, or support options resulting in an attitude of “learned helplessness” when it comes to their ILS. Open Source Library Systems (OSLS) offer opportunities to empower libraries and library staff to create new kinds of collaborative support and development environments. This session uses activities that will help participants understand (from the inside) the cultural shift that needs to happen so they can take advantage of their participation in this Open Source project and not just remain passive bystanders.

Most farmers don't use Open Source Software. Why not? Are there cultural issues? Are needed applications missing? Could Open Source Software be packaged better for farmers? Are there marketing and advocacy issues?

You have a really cool open source project and everyone should see it, try it, and use it. But ... they don't seem to know about it. How can you make sure your project gets the press coverage it deserves?

Panel: Organization, coordination, and implementation of a volunteer community open source project: http://rosecityresource.org (by PDX Drupal UG)

Featuring Mayor Sam Adams and Ward Cunningham

If you have ever wanted to know what you can do to make a difference in our electoral process, then this talk is for you.

Featuring Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist, and Kurt von Finck of Monty Program AB.

Government consumes lots of technology and, with the stimulus dollars poised to invest heavily in information technology, spending will increase sharply over the next several years. The potential benefits to using open source software in the public sector may seem intuitively obvious. But what if you own a small business or are an independent developer/contractor? Can the little guy do business with a big bureaucracy? And what IS the government doing to pursue open source today?