Last week I found out about the Open Source Economy Conference 2008 held in Putrajaya, Malaysia on the 19th of November 2008. Its co-organised by Sun and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). Its also the “launch” of MySQL in Malaysia.
I only mention this because I’m speaking - check the agenda out. Don’t hesitate to register now.
I think Giuseppe (the man with too many blogs!) was a little too optimistic in his last post… the MySQL Conference Call for Participation has received an amazing amount of proposals, but not enough by our standards.
I personally believe there should be a 1:3 accepted-rejected ratio. Currently, its not there yet. Why do I like such high ratios? It means that there are actually so many good talks, and we (the voting committee) pick the best of the best, to give attendees the most mileage for their time and money. Or am I too harsh?
Anyway, the word on the street is that we will extend the Call for Participation, mostly because it is the right thing to do, and lots of people expect it. Expect an official announcement to go out soon about this. But remember, you’d be loved more if you submitted before midnight (PDT) on October 22.
Going to LCA? We have two days of glory for what is known as The Open Source Databases MiniConf. We have a webpage on the wiki, the announcement went out a few days ago, and the call for participation is open!
Tasmania is a fabulous place to be in January. 19-20 January 2009 is when the OSDB-MiniConf happens… topics on MySQL, PostgreSQL, Derby/JavaDB, Drizzle, CouchDB and many more are to be accepted.
What are you waiting for, submit a talk already!
What started as some chat about having a one-day event, after MyGOSSCon, on the 26th of September 2008, about open source, has turned into a full-blown conference, to be pulled off in about a month, affectionately known as foss.my. Its being held at APIIT from November 8-9 2008, and is touted to be the most technical conference of its kind in South East Asia.
We want people to participate as speakers, delegates, sponsors, or volunteers. This is a grassroots event, and its purely non-commercial - no vendor talks, or marketing gimmicks are permitted. Largely the motto is very foss.in/linux.conf.au-ish - both community events I truly enjoy going to, and wouldn’t miss for the world.
The Call for Participation is open till midnight October 10 2008, so if I were you, I’d rush and submit some topics. If you’re nearby - Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the rest of South East Asia, it would be silly not to show up, with all the budget carriers there are today (maybe next time, we’ll get an official airline ;)).
Conferences must have themes, and foss.my is no exception. We believe the world is just awesome, and there’s so much FOSS goodness that can be shared with others. So if you’re involved in something free and open source related, its only sensible that you submit a talk topic. Share the knowledge, foster more open source development growth and contributions.
There are expected to be talks on topics such as: hacking on phpMyAdmin (a Google Summer of Code Project, run under the MySQL project), MyMeeting (a Malaysian government open source project), Asterisk, Django, CSS, source control, OSS Development on OS X, PHP, open source databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.), and the list goes on. There will be four great keynotes, and lightning talk sessions (so everyone can share).
Just show us your awesomeness. Read more from Aizat, Khairil, and Izhar.
It is no secret that I am the Program Chair for the MySQL Conference & Expo 2009, and am truly excited about it (big shoes to fill in from Jay). I expect it to be a great conference, with over 2,000 attendees and lots and lots of great talks. The paper submissions have been coming through, the excellent voters have been voting, and the progress is impressive. Its a great learning experience.
Now, I’m excited to tell you that I’m also going to organise the Open Source Databases MiniConf at linux.conf.au 2009. Its going to be in Hobart, Tasmania, in January 2009, and again, I’m excited. Read the press release for more.
Why is this exciting? Because we’ll have a two-day mini-conference, as opposed to the usual one day. There might even be time for tutorials. And now, we’re combining all the great databases out there, not just focusing on MySQL or PostgreSQL (as we have in the past). Come discuss on anything from CouchDB, Drizzle, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Derby/JavaDB and many more. Next up is setting the wiki, and an appropriate e-mail address (we already have mysql-miniconf[at]mysql[dot]com, but maybe I’ll ask for osdb or something soon) to accept papers.
Lots of conference organising fun, coming right up!
In what I think must be MySQL’s first time in the Philippines, there will be a presence there next week. Well, its not the first time, but in terms of a community/developer event, I think it might be. The Sun Tech Days is happening from 17-19 June 2008, in the Shangri-La Makati.
Besides MySQL, expect great talks on NetBeans, GlassFish, OpenSolaris, and so much more. I’ll be the guy walking around in the MySQL shirt, so feel free to stop me and ask questions. Its exciting for me, as we’ve not really paid much attention to the Philippines, in terms of community growth (and the Philippines is in the APAC region!).
This isn’t a free event (its 1,000 PHP = ~USD23), and registration should still be available. If you’d like to meet up, and talk MySQL, shoot me an email at colinATmysqlDOTcom or reach me via mobile at +6-012-204-3201. If you’d like to help organise a MySQL Meetup in Manila, do ping me too.
In what I call a great advertising scheme, Leora Zellman, a blogger, photographer, brand evangelist, etc. is offering her sexy body as ad space.
Her body will cost you on an hourly basis, she’s mostly logo focused, but will also wear schwag, like t-shirts and caps. Buy her back, butt, or chest, they all have varying prices. If athletes do it, why not us regular Joe’s, right?
Well, its not like we all don’t do this. I wear t-shirts with penguins, dolphins, and various other bits all the time. In fact, I haven’t bought a t-shirt in over nine years.
Will this work? Maybe. At a geek conference, every other geek is probably wearing stuff with logos on them. Might be useful for new products? I’ve never actually looked at a t-shirt and thought to myself, “Hmm, I need to check that URL/product out”. Maybe other’s have?
Reminds me of the time Leah Culver sold advertising space on her laptop. Also, on another tangent, Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur spoke about Amanda Congdon using her body to promote her content, Leo basically saying it wasn’t smart. Check out net@night episode 51 for more.
Well Leo, most of the popular blogs in Malaysia, are “photo blogs”, of people “camwhoring”, i.e. showing themselves off in places. Is it sustainable? Maybe not. But will it bring popularity and money in the short term? Probably yes. Some even go on to getting fame ;)
Anyways, enough ranting on this. Best wishes Leora, and to all the other “camwhores” out there.