[Announce] Linux Australia October Update

Thu Oct 11 18:32:06 AEDT 2018

Hi everyone,

It's been another jam-packed few weeks on the Linux Australia front, and
we're delighted to provide you with an update on all our activities.

      Upcoming events

        WordCamp Brisbane, October 27th-28th, QUT Gardens Point

https://2018.brisbane.wordcamp.org/

Preparations are in full swing for WordCamp Brisbane later this month -
follow along at #wcbne. Massive congrats to Dion Hulse and the team for
what's shaping up to be another excellent event.

        DrupalSouth, December 3rd-5th, Hotel Realm, Canberra

https://drupalsouth.org/

The DrupalSouth website is now live, and looking splendid! Follow along
@DrupalSouth. Big ups to Chris Skene, Owen Lansbury and the team for all
their efforts.

        linux.conf.au 2019, January 21-25th 2019, University of
        Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

https://linux.conf.au

Registrations are now open, and Miniconfs are live! Follow along
@linuxconfau and #lca2019. Hugops to Steven Sykes and Lisa Sands and the
team as it hits the final stretch.

      Recently held events

        PyCon AU 2018 Sydney

PyCon AU 2018 Sydney was a huge success, and our biggest PyCon AU to
date. All credit to Katie McLaughlin, Katie Bell, Lilly Ryan, Russell
Keith-Magee and Jack Skinner for a well-executed event. Dates and venue
are already locked in for PyCon AU 2019, in Sydney and you can stay up
to date at https://2019.pycon-au.org/

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/geoscience-australia-hunts-for-water-thieves-from-space-511546

^^ bit of a write up on one of the outstanding presentations

        HealthHack 2018 Brisbane

HealthHack Brisbane in September saw researches, students and healthcare
professionals come together to create opensource-licensed solutions for
public health benefits. Congratulations to team 'Auslan party' who
created a visual recognition machine learning application for
recognising sign language. Amazing work Gareth Moores and team!

https://rcc.uq.edu.au/article/2018/09/health-hack-winners-create-australia%E2%80%99s-first-data-set-recognising-auslan

      Call for bids, linux.conf.au 2021

The call for bids for linux.conf.au 2021 is in full swing and you can
get more info at:

http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/announce/2018-August/000286.html

Meanwhile, preparations for linux.conf.au 2020 Antarctica are in full
swing, although some plans are currently on ice while we wait for the
NBN to be connected (too harsh??). Joking, the s3kr17 2020 team are
doing an outstanding job in their early planning.

      Linux Australia website and membership database renewal

The Council - and Admin Team - have been attending training on CiviCRM
recently as our website and membership database renewal project starts
to take shape. Big thanks to Justin Freeman at Agileware for delivering
training on a Saturday so more of us could attend. Those who run events
or have other content on the existing website can expect an email to
proofread the draft content before it goes live.

The Voting module that has been developed as part of this work for
CiviCRM will be open sourced, and is likely to be of benefit to several
nonprofit groups.

      Other Council updates

We've recently clarified our obligations to PyCon Software Foundation
with the PSF Board, and now have clarity on what these area. We'll be
working through these with the PyCon AU 2019 in due course.

We were part of a coalition of digital rights groups that collectively
criticized the proposed Exposure Draft of the Telecommunications and
Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 (the
Assistance and Access Bill). In summary the draft legislation comes
without appropriate safeguards, and taken as a whole, is a retrograde
step for technology policy in Australia, while eroding long-established
civil liberties while providing no evidence of additional security benefit.
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/consultations/Documents/new-america%27s-open-technology-institute.pdf

Work has been initiated to review whether the existing $AUD 11 per
attendee "LA tax" imposed on events auspiced by Linux Australia to yield
recurring revenue is sufficient to cover costs associated with merchant
fees, banking fees, accounting fees and insurances. This work is also
assessing whether there are more equitable models available, such as a
percentage of revenue, which factor in the different scale of events run
under a Linux Australia auspice.

At the auDA AGM on 27th September, Linux Australia voted by proxy via Mr
Peter Tonoli (many thanks Peter) to adopt the constitutional changes
proposed. While we still hold some concerns about the equity of the
reforms - which essentially mean the abolition of the previous Member
and Demand Classes, and a single Membership tier, with a "Nomination
Committee" determining Board appointments, we feel that it is a step in
the right direction for stronger governance of auDA, and the restoration
of its reputation as our national domain name administrator. If anyone
in the Linux Australia committee would like more information on on the
call for nominations for the Nomination Committee, please let me know.
The next tranche of discussions pertaining to auDA will be around the
proposed implementation of direct registration in the .au namespace.

Our Treasurer, Russell Stuart, has been very busy with end of financial
year work - our financial year ended September 30th. My personal thanks
to Russell for his tireless efforts to ensure our books are balanced,
and that Subcommittees follow processes which reduce risk, make clear
expectations and allow us to discharge our financial responsibilities as
an incorporated association. Russell and I will be meeting face to face
later in the month to draft a 2018-2019 budget, which will then be
reviewed by Council and put to the membership for feedback and commentary.

      Council Elections 2019

Nominations and voting on Council elections will open in late November.
If you've ever considered nominating to be on Linux Australia Council,
or would like to again, now is the time to start considering your
nomination. We have position descriptions available with more
information on the expectations and commitment of each role at;
https://github.com/linuxaustralia/position-descriptions

Being a Linux Australia Council Member provides you with additional
professional development, the ability to influence decisions and
Australia's open source community, and provides exposure to governance,
accounting and decision making practices. It's a challenging yet
professionally rewarding experience - and we're always open to chatting
with people who may be considering nomination.

      Next actions

Our next actions will be focused on getting the new website and voting
system live, so that we can hold Council elections in late November /
early December.

We also have a lot of accounting work to do to produce our end of year
financial reports, and production of our Annual Report which will be
tabled at our AGM in Christchurch in January.

So, plenty to keep us all out of mischief!!

As always, your comments and questions are warmly welcomed.

Kind regards,
Kathy, Cam, Sae Ra, Russell, Cherie, James and Hugh

-- 
Kathy Reid
President
Linux Australia

0418 130 636

president at linux.org.au
http://linux.org.au

Linux Australia Inc
GPO Box 4788
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia

ABN 56 987 117 479 

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