[lca-announce] linux.conf.au 2017 Keynote: Australia's Open Government pioneer, Pia Waugh!

[linux.conf.au Announcements]

How are the principles of Open Source shaping the future of government and
society? linux.conf.au 2017 is proud to welcome one of Australia's great
shapers of open government and open data, Pia Waugh as a keynote presenter.

linux.conf.au 2017 is being held from Monday 16 January until Friday 20
January 2017. Pia is one of four keynotes speakers, joining Open Source
strategist Robert M "@r0ml" Lefkowitz and sustainability researcher Nadia
Eghbal. Tickets are now on sale: for more details, see
https://linux.conf.au/attend

Pia Waugh has been no stranger to linux.conf.au since the beginning of the
conference. Indeed, ten years ago you could find Pia on stage as one of the
co-organisers of linux.conf.au 2007 in Sydney. We're delighted to welcome
her back to main stage at linux.conf.au, where she'll be sharing experience
of how the approaches and culture of open source are shaping government and
society at large.

In her keynote, _Choose Your Own Adventure, Please!_, Pia argues that
whilst society is seeing a shift -- characterised by Open Source and Open
Government -- from central to distributed co-operation, and from closed to
open systems, many of our assumptions, laws and social rules are based on
centricity, scarcity and closed as both the default and desired state.

She continues: "We have come to a fascinating fork in our collective road
where we can choose to either maintain a world that relies upon outdated
models of scarcity that rely upon inequality, or we can explore new models
of surplus and opportunity to see where we go next, together."

Pia has a long history as a one of the early leaders of the Australian Open
Source community: she was a board member of Software Freedom International
and OLPC Australia. She was instrumental in the early years of linux.conf.au's
parent organisation, Linux Australia, as President and then Vice President,
transforming the organisation into a peak body for the Linux and Open
Source community in Australia.

Not long after her stint helping run linux.conf.au, Pia turned her
attention to openness in government: first as an ICT Policy advisor to
Senator Kate Lundy, where she was involved in the Gov 2.0 agenda and the
internationally-recognised Public Sphere initiative for co-developing
government policy with the public. She later joined the public sector,
building the Australian Government's Open Data agenda, including rebooting
data.gov.au, improving public access to government data, and helping
government agencies improve the culture and practices around open data.

Pia's unique position in both government and the Open Source community led
to her founding the non-profit and community-run GovHack initiative: an
annual hackathon that encourages the public to develop Open Source software
projects around government datasets.

Pia was also involved in the early stages of the Australian Digital
Transformation Office, helping to establish a vision and direction for the
office, but returned to the open data agenda before leaving work a year ago
to have her first child.

Whilst studying on maternity leave, Pia developed an interest in the role
of regulators in society. Pia returned to work in September at AUSTRAC, the
Australian financial intelligence agency where she will be working on
international projects, open data and new approaches to regulation,
continuing her interest and vision to establish "government as an API".

Pia blogs semi-regularly at http://pipka.org and is found on Twitter at
@piawaugh (https://twitter.com/piawaugh).

== About linux.conf.au 2017 ==

linux.conf.au is a community-driven conference about the Linux operating
system and the vibrant ecosystem of Free and Open Source Software that has
grown up around it. Run in a different Australian or New Zealand city each
year by local volunteers, LCA invites more than 500 people to learn from
the people who shape the future of Open Source.

In 2017, linux.conf.au is welcoming you to Hobart, Tasmania, on Monday 16
through to Friday 20 January. Ticket are now open -- for more information,
see https://linux.conf.au/attend. We thank our Emperor Penguin Sponsors,
IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for their generous contribution to the
conference. For more information, please visit https://linux.conf.au

-- 
--Christopher Neugebauer
linux.conf.au 2017 -- Hobart, Tasmania -- linux.conf.au/attend
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