So this is the proverbial it. FOSS.IN/2008 starts today. We took some hard decisions to come upon the current format. We have an amazing lineup of stuff that's happening through every day (don't believe me? See the schedule). All systems are, in fact, go (I feel more redundant with every passing year). I think this poster sums it up the best (shoutout to Hari for the awesome artwork!):



In the unlikely event that you're still wondering what FOSS.IN is all about, and whether you should come, just head on over and check out the little video we've made. It should answer any questions that you have about what the 2008 edition of FOSS.IN is all about.

Time to head to the venue now, see you there!

p.s.: I like this one too :-) ...

FOSS.IN/2008 delegate registration is now open -- what are you waiting for!

Finally, after ages, "soon" is here, and my loyal readers can ascertain that I am, in fact, still alive. A wider, life update will come later (heh), but for now ...

Preparation for FOSS.IN/2008 is well on way, and this year is going to be different. The Call for Participation is out. The newest thing in there is that there aren't going to be nearly as many talks as before. You'll see the term FOSS WorkOuts rather prominently displayed, and this is where the action is going to be. We're going to be seeing a lot more doing than in years gone by. Head on over to the CfP to learn more.

Atul's post on the new format has caused some furore in the community, in addition to some pockets of encouragement (links abound and the topic is hackneyed, so no linky). All I have to add is this -- a lot of people who are working on distros and doing packaging seem to be gravely offended. Well, I'm a packager too (erm, did I mention that I am now a Gentoo developer?), and there is no reason to take offense. What we're trying to say is that we can be achieving more at the event to increase both the number of contributors as well as the depth of contribution, and the latter especially is the focus. I can expound on about this, but there's been enough talk.

The cool folks over at IndLinux have already started plotting, and we've been trying to get some traction on some GNOME performance work. Hope we can get some more folks to run with it. I, for one, am looking eagerly forward to the proposals we get this year.

In a totally unexpected set of circumstances, I am now at Foss.in/2007 as a volunteer! And this time is just awesome.

I missed day 1, unfortunately, what with campus placements going on. I made it here on the evening of the 4th, too late to be of any use. Joined fox2mike yesterday for PD #2, and things were running so smoothly, I was floored. I love the Project Days. With a 5-day conference, you know that the people who show up mean business. The atmosphere is more charged than ever with a lot fewer participants.

At this point, I should probably send out a big hello to Mary Colvig and the Mozilla folks. In addition to the tons of goodies they brought along, they threw an awesome Mozilla party last night at Opus. Thanks guys! (and here‘s proof of my loyalty. :D)

The KDE guys deserve appreciation too. Pradeepto and gang have really put in a lot of effort into the KDE project day, and KDE’s presence at Foss.in/2007 and I think I can safely say this is justified. The amount of interest in the Qt and KDE talks was quite impressive. Good show, guys!

Main Conf day 1 was ... surprising. Every year we have a massive crowd at registration. But not this year. I was a bit disappointed at first. A lot of the rush of volunteering at Foss.in (this is my 4th time) is seeing a huge crowd of people waiting outside, getting inside, watching, moving, interacting. This time, however, I guess we achieved what we set out to ... focus on contribution. Maybe it was just me, but everything this time just seemed more focused, like everyone was out to do something.

I’ve got some photos up here. These should get some additions in the next 2 days. Particularly interesting are the crowds in the FOSS Expo, and the H@ckC3nt3r (did I spell that right, Gopal? :P).

It’s been a tiring 2 days, nonetheless. Last night was long thanks Air Deccan. The up side was that we got to meet vyshnavi and popcorn09. Need to sleep now and get ready for the 2 days to come. Whee!

p.s.: Opening an OLPC laptop is not easy. As Tom Callaway (the guy evilly grinning at our valiant effort) pointed out, it’s designed to be easy for a child and difficult for adults. You have to see it to believe it. Prady opened it in a few seconds, proving the theory. :-)

I wonder if Nick Webb's seen this.

Final touches are being applied to my talk at Foss.in. I submitted the talk proposal without a clue about ebuilds. Have learnt a lot, but merely scratched the iceberg. Digging through portage internals has been fun (though slightly nerve wracking). Seemant (Gentoo overlord) will be bugged to death tomorrow. Still need to get a pindown on sandboxing.

Logjam is neat. Retrieved my draft just fine after crashing. :-)