[Linux-aus] Choosing the LCA '07 host city

[Glen Turner]

Andrew Cowie wrote:

> If you're not one of the three cities listed above and you are serious
> about hosting LCA in 2007, then you need to get in contact with me
> *immediately*. Care of committee at linux.org.au please.



linux.conf.au 2007 -- Heard Island


Much has been made of the need to retain the collegiate and intimate
feel of linux.conf.au as the conference grows with Linux's popularity.

Other bids have made all sorts of suggestions to grow the conference
whilst retaining its traditions.  Of course, those bids are just
speaking tosh.

The real way to keep linux.conf.au feeling small is to keep it small.
Real small.  So small you can smell Linus's socks or Dave Miller's
sandles if you sit up in the bunk too suddenly

Our bid proposes that linux.conf.au 2007 be held in a hut on Heard
Island, a sub-antartic Australian possession.

(Since the captain of the MV Icebird has refused to rename his ship
the MV GNU/Icebird people need not fear an encounter with Richard
Stallman's sandles).

Other high-tech events have been successfully held on the island,
usually by the Heard Island DX Club.  If a group of ham radio
pensioners can lug massive radios and antennas onto the island then
the logistical issues are obviously well within the scope of
linux.conf.au.

The advantages of this bid are:

  - strongly committeed attendees.

  - great technical outcomes. Linux's power management will improve
    literally overnight in an environment where all batteries and fuel
    must be shipped to the island, landed, and then hauled up to the
    hut site by conference attendees.  Linux's support for small
    devices will bound ahead when attendees realise that even small
    laptops are surprising heavy to carry up volcanic slopes.

  - peace and quiet. January is one of the quieter months on Heard
    Island (the howling winds are so reduced that you can hear people
    speaking on the other side of the hut).  Enjoy the cruise to the
    island (days of massive storm-caused waves excluded).

  - public relations. Bound to get massive media coverage. Hopefully
    not: "fifty computer programmers of the Linux operating system were
    today stranded on a frozen island when Microsoft made a higher offer
    for the ship's immediate services.").

  - Another consideration is the lack of news from the outside. A
    week without SCO.  Bound to be attractive to people from IBM.

There are also ancillary activities:

  - the "Shackelton Challenge".  Remain on the island after lca 2007
    and see if our lca 2008 bid is also successful so we can return
    to collect you.

  - partner's program. As with most expeditions, seperate Married
    Quarters will be provided.  People from the Northern hemisphere
    should recall that the long January nights in the North are long
    January days in the South.  So banish those thoughts of 23 hours of
    handy-panky darkness (as if you'd get any anyway: conversation about
    kernel internals is unlikely to do it for your partner(s).)

But the main advantage of our bid is:

  - penguins.  Thousands and thousands.  Everywhere. (Well if Sydney
    can claim a proximity to Bondi Beach as a strength of their bid...)

Downsides:

  - pizza orders take some time to arrive and are often cold (if not
    mouldy).