[Linux-aus] Grant Application - CompCon 2013

[Andrew Donnellan]

DATE: 2013-08-20

PROJECT NAME: CompCon 2013

AIM OF PROJECT: CompCon 2013 will be the inaugural national conference
for students of Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information
Technology and related technology disciplines. CompCon aims to build
links between computing students nationwide and give them educational
experiences that fall outside the standard curriculum.

It is not specifically focussed on Free Software/Open Source, but it
will feature a number of presentations on open source.

CompCon 2013 is being held at the Australian National University from
28-30 September 2013. More information is available at
http://compcon.net.au.


PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR REQUEST: Andrew Donnellan, sponsorship at compcon.net.au

REQUEST:

* Travel Expenses - Elena Williams - $800

BIOGRAPHY: "Elena Williams is a python/django web developer now working
in Perth. She graduated from Master ITS program from CECS ANU in 2012.
She's taught Django/Python, been involved with the Django, Python and
Linux communities around Australia and organised the Python user group
in Canberra whilst studying at ANU. She presented about open source
participation at PyConAU 2012. She is also enthusiastic about teaching
programming to non-programmers, kitesurfing, snowboarding, endurance
navigation sports; is an active hacker/maker and was only called a
Douglas Adams “tragic” by the Canberra Times once." (Elena was also
involved with the organisation of LCA2013.)

Elena will be presenting on "Hitchhikers Guide to Participating in Free
and Open Source Software Development".

"There is only one serious course about Free and Open Source Software
Development delivered in Australia annually, the postgraduate level
COMP8440 at ANU. Moreover the course is delivered by Andrew "Tridge"
Tridgell who authored the seminal open source projects samba and the
rsync algorithm. During this course he discusses his wealth of
experience and trains then assesses students on contributing to the open
source community.

This talk will be conveying as much of this week-long course as is
possible in the time available, as seen through the eyes of a graduating
student who was always keen about open source yet who hadn't made their
first pull-requests until during this course. Now, more than a year
later, the presenter is actively involved in several open source
projects and will be talking about some of the characteristics of the
open source community today and describing in specific detail about how
to become involved. The presenter will discuss the highs, the lows, the
awkwardness and unique sense of connection and achievement that can only
be fulfilled by contributing to open source."

We believe Elena provides a unique perspective on contributing to open
source that is relevant to our target audience of university students -
she understands some of the specific challenges faced by new
contributors who have no idea what they're doing! Our hope is that this
talk will encourage more students to get involved in the Australian open
source community.

Elena requires funds to cover her travel expenses from Perth to
Canberra, which is estimated at $800 - covering flights only without
accommodation. CompCon Inc is unable to cover the entire cost, although
it may be able to cover part of the cost.