[Linux-aus] Linux Australia News, June 2011

[Mary Gardiner]

(Yes, that's right, our newsletter has the same title for the second month
running!)

Hi,

Welcome to Linux Australia News for June 2011. If you have any general news or
update on a project you are working on that would be of general interest to the
greater Linux Australia community then please send a quick email to
council at linux.org.au and we will endeavour to include it in a future update.

News this month: Volunteering for Linux Australia, LCA2012, PyCon AU 2011,
DDU2012, BarCamp Geelong, linux.conf.au Domain, Website Work, Policy Work,
Special General Meetings, Donations and Grants, Community News

# Volunteering for Linux Australia

The media subcommittee is still looking for help. The goal of the media
subcommittee is to provide a central resource for the council and all the
conferences and subcommittees to communicate with the media and vice-versa.
Contact council at linux.org.au 

# LCA2012

The call for mini-confs opened on Monday 20th of June.
http://lca2012.linux.org.au/media/news/21 We have already received a number of
submissions and have had great interest from other parties intending to submit
shortly. The proposal window will remain open until Monday the 18th of July.

The call for papers will open this week! Anyone thinking of submitting a talk
should start getting their ideas together if they haven't already and listen
out for our announcement for the opening. Submissions will be open for 4 weeks.
—Josh Stewart

# PyCon AU 2011
Third Keynote Speaker has been announced! Audrey Roy is a designer, developer
and sysadmin. As an artist she describes herself as the world's #1 orange and
rainbow specialist; as a developer she works on Django and Pinax and runs
regular meet-up events for female Python programmers.    She joins our line up
of Mary Gardiner and Raymond Hettinger.

Are you a woman doing cool stuff with Python? Why not apply for the PyCon AU
gender diversity grant? More information at http://pycon-au.org/2011/grants/

PyCon AU is happy to announce that our program has been selected and can be
found at http://pycon-au.org/2011/conference/ . This year includes a new
classroom track!

Sprints will be held after the conference this year, on the 22nd and 23rd of
August. They will be at the same venue, the Sydney Masonic Center.

There are still a number of sponsorship spots left including the newly
introduced Video Sponsor and Sprint Sponsor packages. If you’re interested in
becoming a sponsor and helping support the event, please feel free to contact
Tim Ansell and/or checkout are sponsorship page -
http://pycon-au.org/2011/sponsor-info/
—Tim Ansell

# DDU2012

Drupal Downunder 2012 is excited to announce that Drupal creator and project
leader Dries Buytaert has been confirmed as a keynote speaker. The team are
working on the conference website and are hoping to open the call for papers
shortly.
—Peter Lieverdink

# BarCamp Geelong

Deakin University's Geelong Waterfront Campus will host BarCampGeelong on
Saturday 9th July from 9am to 5pm. BarCamps are "unconferences" - participatory
rather than passive events and attendees are expected to present, to share and
to contribute to the event.

Although it's the first BarCamp to be held in Geelong, it promises to bring
together a wide range of people with an interest in information and
communications technology. We're expecting attendees from Deakin University's
School of Information Systems, School of Information Technology, Information
Technology Services Division and IT students from The Gordon. It's a great way
for people to gain experience in presenting on technical topics they're
passionate about in a relaxed, informal, friendly environment.

BarCampGeelong costs $10 and more information can be found at
http://barcampgeelong.org/
—Kathy Reid

# linux.conf.au Domain

As announced earlier this month
http://www.linux.org.au/news/linux-australia/linuxconfau-domain , from this
point onwards, the linux.conf.au domain will be available year round, rather
than the somewhat traditional 6 monthly on/off cycle that many conference
regulars have become familiar with. Earlier this year auDA permanently
transferred ownership of this domain to Linux Australia, giving the conference
a consistent presence.

# Website work

Our website http://www.linux.org.au/ got a new look at the end of May thanks to
Peter Lieverdink. There’s also several new sections:

 - Get involved, listing different ways to get involved in Linux Australia and
   in the Australian FOSS community: http://www.linux.org.au/get-involved
 - Events, listing Linux Australia’s upcoming events:
   http://www.linux.org.au/events
 - Projects, listing Linux Australia’s projects:
   http://www.linux.org.au/our-projects

Josh Hesketh is working on support for sub-committee reporting for the website.

# Policy Work

Remaining policies to be discussed with the community over coming months are:

    Donations, Grants, Financials
    Diversity
    Anti-harassment
    Lists / planet

# Special General Meetings

The Council is aiming to hold a single SGM in July to present the Treasurer’s
report and changes to the constitution. A final discussion of the
constitutional changes will be held on linux-aus shortly.

# Donations and Grants

 - BarCampGeelong grant for $500 was approved and it is being held on the 9th
   July, details of the request are at
   http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-May/018872.html
 - PHPConfAU is currently on hold, so no decision was made on their grant request.

Previously awarded grants can be found at http://www.linux.org.au/grants

# Community News

OLPC Australia http://www.laptop.org.au/ was awarded a Bronze Lion at this
year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
http://www.canneslions.com/work/media/entry.cfm?entryid=1762&award=4 See
Sridhar Dhanapalan’s blog for more information.
http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/06/25/cannes-lions-award-for-olpc-australia/
Congratulations OLPC Australia.

Tickets are on sale for DevOps Down Under (Melbourne, July): http://devopsdownunder.org/
http://devopsdownunder2011.eventbrite.com/

Ruxcon’s Call for Papers is open until 30th July (conf in Melbourne, November):
http://www.ruxcon.org.au/call-for-papers/

The Open Source Developers Conference (OSDC) call for papers is open until 15th
August (conf in Canberra, November): http://osdc.com.au/participate/

# Next Edition

To submit news, including community news or volunteer positions within Linux
Australia, to the next Linux Australia News please email council at linux.org.au

# Previous Editions

See http://www.linux.org.au/news for previous editions of Linux Australia News,
and other news.

Linux Australia Council