OSCON Call For Proposals Now Open

Hi All. Attached is the announcement for this year's Oreilly Open
Source Convention call for participation.

This year's RubyConf (http://www.rubyconf.org) was alight with a new
level of buzz. As I said at the closing of the conference, it felt
somehow different and bigger than ever before.

I'd love to see us take that same feeling to OSCON this year, where
many of the leaders in the open source software world will be present.
We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

Hope to see you there,

Chad Fowler
http://chadfowler.com
http://rubycentral.org
http://rubygarden.org
http://rubygems.rubyforge.org (over 50,000 gems served!)

···

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: OSCON Call For Proposals Now Open
From: "O'Reilly Conferences" <elists-admin@oreillynet.com>
Date: Thu, January 20, 2005 2:21 pm
To: chadfowler@chadfowler.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Call for Proposals has just opened for the
7th Annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/

OSCON is headed back to friendly, economical Portland, Oregon during the
week of August 1-5, 2005. If you've ever wanted to join the OSCON speaker
firmament, now's your chance to submit a proposal (or two) by February 13,
2005.

Complete details are available on the OSCON web site, but we're
particularly interested in exploring how software development is moving to
another level, and how developers and businesses are adjusting to new
business models and architectures. We're looking for sessions, tutorials,
and workshops proposals that appeal to developers, systems and network
administrators, and their managers in the following areas:

- All aspects of building applications, services, and systems that use the
new capabilities of the open source platform
- Burning issues for Java, Mozilla, web apps, and beyond
- The commoditization of software: who and/or what can show us the money?
- Network-enabled collaboration
- Software customizability, including software as a service
- Law, licensing, politics, and how best to navigate other troubled waters

Specific topics and tracks at OSCON 2005 include: Linux and other open
source operating systems, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Databases (including
MySQL and PostgreSQL), Apache, XML, Applications, Ruby, and Security.

Attendees have a wide range of experience, so be sure to target a
particular level of experience: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Talks
and tutorials should be technical; strictly no marketing presentations.
Session presentations are 45 or 90 minutes long, and tutorials are either
a half-day (3 hours) or a full day (6 hours).

Feel free to spread the word about the Call for Proposals to your friends,
family, colleagues, and compatriots. We want everyone to submit, from
American women hacking artificial life into the Linux kernel to Belgian
men building a better mousetrap from PHP and recycled military hardware.
We mean everyone!

Even if you don't want to participate as a speaker, send us your
suggestions--topics you'd like to see covered, groups we should bring into
the OSCON fold, extra-curricular activities we should organize--to
oscon-idea@oreilly.com .

This year, we're moving to the wide open spaces of the Oregon Convention
Center. We've arranged for the nearby Doubletree Hotel to be our
headquarters hotel--it's a short, free Max light rail ride (or a lovely
walk) from the Convention Center.

Registration opens in April 2005; hotel information will be available
shortly.

Deadline to submit a proposal is Midnight (PST), February 13.

For all the conference details, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/

Press coverage, blogs, photos, and news from the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source
Convention can be found at: http://www.oreillynet.com/oscon2004/

Would your company like to make a big impression on the open source
community? If so, consider exhibiting or becoming a sponsor. Contact
Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or andrewc@oreilly.com for more info.

See you Portland next summer,

The O'Reilly OSCON Team

*******************************************************
To change your newsletter subscription options, please visit
https://epoch.oreilly.com/account/default.orm and click the
"Manage My Newsletters" link. For assistance, email
help@oreillynet.com

O'Reilly Media, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472
*******************************************************

We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

I just submitted my proposal for a 3-hour tutorial with Ruby on Rails. I'll do my very best to hype the living daylights out of it as we get closer :slight_smile:

Speaking of hype, 37signals just launched Ta-da List. 579 lines of Ruby on Rails powering free shareable todo lists. Close to 4,000 people have signed up in the first 36 hours and more than 25,000 items are already being tracked.

   Ta-da List:
     http://www.tadalist.com

   Behind the tech:
     http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/archives/2005/01/19/make-your-ta-da-list-today/

So "Re: Best ways to accelerate Ruby's popularity", it's been my experience that doing cool applications that people like to use is the best way of doing that. People always want to know what something is made of when they like it.

Between now and August, that's certainly the prime strategy I intend to employ to draw attention to the Ruby track at OSCON. Companies and individuals launching enterprise and hobby projects using Ruby on Rails left and right.

There's quite a long list of announcements in the pipeline on this front. But I'm sure it won't go off quiet when they're ready to roll.

···

--
David Heinemeier Hansson,
http://www.basecamphq.com/ -- Web-based Project Management
http://www.rubyonrails.org/ -- Web-application framework for Ruby
http://macromates.com/ -- TextMate: Code and markup editor (OS X)
http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain

The rubyx gnu-linux distro uses a concise ruby script to build and maintain
the complete 'from source' distro. It also has a ruby based init system.
Would a talk/demo about the use of ruby in rubyx be suitable fodder for the
ruby track? Or are these conferences usually full of 'rapid web development'
types only?

I had thought of submitting a proposal, but don't really know if the topic is
suitable. As ruby enthusiasts, is it the sort of thing you'd be interested in
attending?

Andrew Walrond

···

On Thursday 20 January 2005 20:03, Chad Fowler wrote:

Hi All. Attached is the announcement for this year's Oreilly Open
Source Convention call for participation.

This year's RubyConf (http://www.rubyconf.org) was alight with a new
level of buzz. As I said at the closing of the conference, it felt
somehow different and bigger than ever before.

I'd love to see us take that same feeling to OSCON this year, where
many of the leaders in the open source software world will be present.
We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

The clock is ticking, everyone. You have until SUNDAY to get your proposals in!

Without going into details prematurely, I can tell you that the lineup
for the Ruby track so far is looking _very_ exciting. For those of
you on the fence (or procrastinating!) about submitting a proposal,
this is your year! Don't fail to throw your name in the proposal
list. You'll kick yourself when you read the post-conference reviews.
:slight_smile:

Chad

···

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 15:03:27 -0500, Chad Fowler <chadfowler@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All. Attached is the announcement for this year's Oreilly Open
Source Convention call for participation.

This year's RubyConf (http://www.rubyconf.org) was alight with a new
level of buzz. As I said at the closing of the conference, it felt
somehow different and bigger than ever before.

I'd love to see us take that same feeling to OSCON this year, where
many of the leaders in the open source software world will be present.
We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

Hope to see you there,

Chad Fowler
http://chadfowler.com
http://rubycentral.org
http://rubygarden.org
http://rubygems.rubyforge.org (over 50,000 gems served!)

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: OSCON Call For Proposals Now Open
From: "O'Reilly Conferences" <elists-admin@oreillynet.com>
Date: Thu, January 20, 2005 2:21 pm
To: chadfowler@chadfowler.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Call for Proposals has just opened for the
7th Annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention
Conferences - O'Reilly Media

OSCON is headed back to friendly, economical Portland, Oregon during the
week of August 1-5, 2005. If you've ever wanted to join the OSCON speaker
firmament, now's your chance to submit a proposal (or two) by February 13,
2005.

Complete details are available on the OSCON web site, but we're
particularly interested in exploring how software development is moving to
another level, and how developers and businesses are adjusting to new
business models and architectures. We're looking for sessions, tutorials,
and workshops proposals that appeal to developers, systems and network
administrators, and their managers in the following areas:

- All aspects of building applications, services, and systems that use the
new capabilities of the open source platform
- Burning issues for Java, Mozilla, web apps, and beyond
- The commoditization of software: who and/or what can show us the money?
- Network-enabled collaboration
- Software customizability, including software as a service
- Law, licensing, politics, and how best to navigate other troubled waters

Specific topics and tracks at OSCON 2005 include: Linux and other open
source operating systems, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Databases (including
MySQL and PostgreSQL), Apache, XML, Applications, Ruby, and Security.

Attendees have a wide range of experience, so be sure to target a
particular level of experience: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Talks
and tutorials should be technical; strictly no marketing presentations.
Session presentations are 45 or 90 minutes long, and tutorials are either
a half-day (3 hours) or a full day (6 hours).

Feel free to spread the word about the Call for Proposals to your friends,
family, colleagues, and compatriots. We want everyone to submit, from
American women hacking artificial life into the Linux kernel to Belgian
men building a better mousetrap from PHP and recycled military hardware.
We mean everyone!

Even if you don't want to participate as a speaker, send us your
suggestions--topics you'd like to see covered, groups we should bring into
the OSCON fold, extra-curricular activities we should organize--to
oscon-idea@oreilly.com .

This year, we're moving to the wide open spaces of the Oregon Convention
Center. We've arranged for the nearby Doubletree Hotel to be our
headquarters hotel--it's a short, free Max light rail ride (or a lovely
walk) from the Convention Center.

Registration opens in April 2005; hotel information will be available
shortly.

Deadline to submit a proposal is Midnight (PST), February 13.

For all the conference details, go to:
Conferences - O'Reilly Media

Press coverage, blogs, photos, and news from the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source
Convention can be found at: O'Reilly Media - Technology and Business Training

Would your company like to make a big impression on the open source
community? If so, consider exhibiting or becoming a sponsor. Contact
Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or andrewc@oreilly.com for more info.

See you Portland next summer,

The O'Reilly OSCON Team

*******************************************************
To change your newsletter subscription options, please visit
https://epoch.oreilly.com/account/default.orm and click the
"Manage My Newsletters" link. For assistance, email
help@oreillynet.com

O'Reilly Media, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472
*******************************************************

Much like I did, I suspect many Ruby loving folks signed up just to test, but there is no obvious way to close one's account.

I guess I'll keep it up to show it to other people.

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 7:38 PM, David Heinemeier Hansson wrote:

Speaking of hype, 37signals just launched Ta-da List. 579 lines of Ruby on Rails powering free shareable todo lists. Close to 4,000 people have signed up in the first 36 hours and more than 25,000 items are already being tracked.

--
  Jordi

In article <200501211127.50234.andrew@walrond.org>,

···

Andrew Walrond <andrew@walrond.org> wrote:

On Thursday 20 January 2005 20:03, Chad Fowler wrote:

Hi All. Attached is the announcement for this year's Oreilly Open
Source Convention call for participation.

This year's RubyConf (http://www.rubyconf.org) was alight with a new
level of buzz. As I said at the closing of the conference, it felt
somehow different and bigger than ever before.

I'd love to see us take that same feeling to OSCON this year, where
many of the leaders in the open source software world will be present.
We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

The rubyx gnu-linux distro uses a concise ruby script to build and maintain
the complete 'from source' distro. It also has a ruby based init system.
Would a talk/demo about the use of ruby in rubyx be suitable fodder for the
ruby track? Or are these conferences usually full of 'rapid web development'
types only?

I had thought of submitting a proposal, but don't really know if the topic is
suitable. As ruby enthusiasts, is it the sort of thing you'd be interested in
attending?

I'd certainly be interested in attending, but here's a thought:
Perhaps you should submit a Rubyx presentation for the Linux track. I
think Rubyx would be of interest there as well and you would expose some
folks outside of the Ruby camp to Ruby.

Phil

I think it would be completely appropriate and interesting. Phil had
a good point that it wouldn't necessarily have to be totally
Ruby-focused. OSCON attendees are _definitely_ interested in Linux
(and not just web application dev.).

Chad Fowler
http://chadfowler.com

http://rubygems.rubyforge.org (over 50,000 gems served!)

···

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 20:28:12 +0900, Andrew Walrond <andrew@walrond.org> wrote:

On Thursday 20 January 2005 20:03, Chad Fowler wrote:
> Hi All. Attached is the announcement for this year's Oreilly Open
> Source Convention call for participation.
>
> This year's RubyConf (http://www.rubyconf.org) was alight with a new
> level of buzz. As I said at the closing of the conference, it felt
> somehow different and bigger than ever before.
>
> I'd love to see us take that same feeling to OSCON this year, where
> many of the leaders in the open source software world will be present.
> We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:
>

The rubyx gnu-linux distro uses a concise ruby script to build and maintain
the complete 'from source' distro. It also has a ruby based init system.
Would a talk/demo about the use of ruby in rubyx be suitable fodder for the
ruby track? Or are these conferences usually full of 'rapid web development'
types only?

I had thought of submitting a proposal, but don't really know if the topic is
suitable. As ruby enthusiasts, is it the sort of thing you'd be interested in
attending?

Cool.

How many lines of Javascript code?

Cheers,
Nick

···

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 09:38:09 +0900, David Heinemeier Hansson <david@loudthinking.com> wrote:

> We want _everyone_ to be talking about the Ruby track this year. :slight_smile:

I just submitted my proposal for a 3-hour tutorial with Ruby on Rails.
I'll do my very best to hype the living daylights out of it as we get
closer :slight_smile:

Speaking of hype, 37signals just launched Ta-da List. 579 lines of Ruby
on Rails powering free shareable todo lists. Close to 4,000 people have
signed up in the first 36 hours and more than 25,000 items are already
being tracked.

   Ta-da List:
     http://www.tadalist.com

   Behind the tech:

http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/archives/2005/01/19/make-your-ta-da-list-
today/

So "Re: Best ways to accelerate Ruby's popularity", it's been my
experience that doing cool applications that people like to use is the
best way of doing that. People always want to know what something is
made of when they like it.

Between now and August, that's certainly the prime strategy I intend to
employ to draw attention to the Ruby track at OSCON. Companies and
individuals launching enterprise and hobby projects using Ruby on Rails
left and right.

There's quite a long list of announcements in the pipeline on this
front. But I'm sure it won't go off quiet when they're ready to roll.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson,
http://www.basecamphq.com/ -- Web-based Project Management
http://www.rubyonrails.org/ -- Web-application framework for Ruby
http://macromates.com/ -- TextMate: Code and markup editor (OS X)
http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain

--
Nicholas Van Weerdenburg

I'm one of those folks. I have to say that I was quite impressed by how the site uses Javascript; it makes it quite nice if you're in a modern browser. (I was using Safari.)

Then, curious about accessibility and graceful degradation, I tried accessing my Ta-da page via Lynx, and got a handful of wonky behaviors out of it. So I guess kinks are still being worked out. But then, I personally never know how much to worry about people using textual browsers anyway--and the site that I program for my day job doesn't degrade gracefully either--so perhaps the point is fairly academic.

Francis Hwang

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:28 PM, Jordi Bunster wrote:

Much like I did, I suspect many Ruby loving folks signed up just to test, but there is no obvious way to close one's account.

Nice, 7 people for each line of code :slight_smile:

Douglas

···

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:28:47 +0900, Jordi Bunster <jordi@bunster.org> wrote:

On Jan 20, 2005, at 7:38 PM, David Heinemeier Hansson wrote:

> Speaking of hype, 37signals just launched Ta-da List. 579 lines of
> Ruby on Rails powering free shareable todo lists. Close to 4,000
> people have signed up in the first 36 hours and more than 25,000 items
> are already being tracked.

You're right, it is fairly academic, maybe except for the fact that if it works OK in a text browser, you're halfway through on the job of making it usable to the blind or near blind folks.

I realize that they are not part of everyone's target audience. What you'd be surprised is how many people think that their target audience doesn't cover the blind, when it fact by not caring about them they lose a fair chunk of business.

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:39 PM, Francis Hwang wrote:

I personally never know how much to worry about people using textual browsers anyway--and the site that I program for my day job doesn't degrade gracefully either--so perhaps the point is fairly academic.

--
  Jordi

Francis Hwang wrote:

Much like I did, I suspect many Ruby loving folks signed up just to test, but there is no obvious way to close one's account.

I'm one of those folks. I have to say that I was quite impressed by how the site uses Javascript; it makes it quite nice if you're in a modern browser. (I was using Safari.)

Then, curious about accessibility and graceful degradation, I tried accessing my Ta-da page via Lynx, and got a handful of wonky behaviors out of it. So I guess kinks are still being worked out. But then, I personally never know how much to worry about people using textual browsers anyway--and the site that I program for my day job doesn't degrade gracefully either--so perhaps the point is fairly academic.

Maybe this is new, but on the front page is this:

"What web browsers are compatible with Ta-da List?

Ta-da requires Internet Explorer 6.x, Safari, or Firefox. Ta-da doesn't work with Internet Explorer 5.x. Other browsers may or may not work, but only the three listed are guaranteed compatible. Ta-da uses some advanced Javascript to reduce the number of page reloads required, and only certain modern browsers can support this."

James

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:28 PM, Jordi Bunster wrote:

Yeah, it's a tough call, especially as we see more web apps that use this stuff really heavily -- another example is GMail, which I've heard criticized for not being accessible. Sometimes I think that real accessibility will happen only when we get past being HTML-centric in designing our sites. I think we're creeping in that direction, though it may take another decade to be more than just some research project.

Another thing that affects the calculation is who exactly Ta-Da list is for. (I mean, other than a smart way to snare unsuspecting customers into paying for Basecamp.) But I'm the sort of guy who can't use Ta-Da, anyway, since I'm too hooked on my PDA. Even though most of the other coders I know are quite proud of their notecard systems. Man, I should've been a lawyer.

Francis Hwang

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:52 PM, Jordi Bunster wrote:

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:39 PM, Francis Hwang wrote:

I personally never know how much to worry about people using textual browsers anyway--and the site that I program for my day job doesn't degrade gracefully either--so perhaps the point is fairly academic.

You're right, it is fairly academic, maybe except for the fact that if it works OK in a text browser, you're halfway through on the job of making it usable to the blind or near blind folks.

I realize that they are not part of everyone's target audience. What you'd be surprised is how many people think that their target audience doesn't cover the blind, when it fact by not caring about them they lose a fair chunk of business.

I've told that it's also a requirement for certain large customers-
e.g. the government. So if they fall in your customer base, you have
to think about it.

···

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:52:59 +0900, Jordi Bunster <jordi@bunster.org> wrote:

On Jan 20, 2005, at 8:39 PM, Francis Hwang wrote:

> I personally never know how much to worry about people using textual
> browsers anyway--and the site that I program for my day job doesn't
> degrade gracefully either--so perhaps the point is fairly academic.

You're right, it is fairly academic, maybe except for the fact that if
it works OK in a text browser, you're halfway through on the job of
making it usable to the blind or near blind folks.

I realize that they are not part of everyone's target audience. What
you'd be surprised is how many people think that their target audience
doesn't cover the blind, when it fact by not caring about them they
lose a fair chunk of business.

--
        Jordi

--
Nicholas Van Weerdenburg

Note that it isn't a case of "can't do", but more of "takes time to
do". If you want to have a "normal" text interface, and a JS "rich"
one, it means you have to code everything twice. You need to have JS
which can manipulate HTML on the client side, plus Ruby on the server
side to generate exactly the same HTML!

Douglas

···

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:08:36 +0900, Francis Hwang <sera@fhwang.net> wrote:

Yeah, it's a tough call,

I've told that it's also a requirement for certain large customers-
e.g. the government. So if they fall in your customer base, you have
to think about it.

Specifically, these things:
http://adaptive-tech.uoregon.edu/508.htm

Douglas

Right, I think that avoiding this trouble is part of why some people are trying to figure out ways to decouple a form's data & behaviors from their specific implementations in HTML, JavaScript, etc ... so in theory a User-Agent could tweak a form on the fly for a specific sort of user (blind, novice, etc.) if things were specified right. XForms is one example of this, though as to when they'll get off the ground is anybody's guess. Just getting everyone behind one syndication standard is tough enough ...

Francis Hwang

···

On Jan 20, 2005, at 9:22 PM, Douglas Livingstone wrote:

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:08:36 +0900, Francis Hwang <sera@fhwang.net> > wrote:

Yeah, it's a tough call,

Note that it isn't a case of "can't do", but more of "takes time to
do". If you want to have a "normal" text interface, and a JS "rich"
one, it means you have to code everything twice. You need to have JS
which can manipulate HTML on the client side, plus Ruby on the server
side to generate exactly the same HTML!

"Douglas Livingstone" <rampant@gmail.com> wrote in message

If you want to have a "normal" text interface, and a JS "rich"
one, it means you have to code everything twice. You need to have JS
which can manipulate HTML on the client side, plus Ruby on the server
side to generate exactly the same HTML!

Or, someone smart could use Ryan's parse tree to write a translator from
some subset of Ruby to Javascript. Write in Ruby, debug in Ruby or generate
Javascript to debug rich-browser behaviors. Deploy to run on client with
generated Javascript, or on server with Ruby.
  def conditional1(arg1)
    if arg1 == 0 then
      return 1
    end
    return 0
  end

becomes in parse-tree:

  [:defn,
    :conditional1,
    [:scope,
     [:block,
      [:args, :arg1],
      [:if,
       [:call, [:lvar, :arg1], :==, [:array, [:lit, 0]]],
       [:return, [:lit, 1]],
       nil],
      [:return, [:lit, 0]]]]]

becomes in Javascript roughly:
    function conditional1 (arg1) {
        if (arg1 == 0) then { return 1; }
        else { return(0); }
    }

Feasible? Who knows ... Florian wrote an awesome library that shows that
Javascript with prototypes and closures can do quite a few things that
Ruby's objects and procs can do, putting a very useful chunk of core Ruby
libraries into Javascript to wit.

A Quiz candidate?

If you do not use too much javascript the site can be diplayed in links,
another text browser. However, I am not sure that the browser is usable
with braille terminals. In fact I haven't seen such thing.

So far I have only seen a system for reading text from standard windows
applications (including Infernal Exploder probably).

There also exists text-to-speech thingy for emacs. It's likely the
most blind-friendly free application as it was the central application
of a sample blind-friendly GNU/Linux cd I got somewhere.
hmm, I doubt the browser included in emacs can do javascript.

Thanks

Michal Suchanek

···

On Fri, Jan 21, 2005 at 11:22:17AM +0900, Douglas Livingstone wrote:

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:08:36 +0900, Francis Hwang <sera@fhwang.net> wrote:
> Yeah, it's a tough call,

Note that it isn't a case of "can't do", but more of "takes time to
do". If you want to have a "normal" text interface, and a JS "rich"
one, it means you have to code everything twice. You need to have JS
which can manipulate HTML on the client side, plus Ruby on the server
side to generate exactly the same HTML!

Feasible? Who knows ... Florian wrote an awesome library
that shows that Javascript with prototypes and closures can
do quite a few things that Ruby's objects and procs can do,
putting a very useful chunk of core Ruby libraries into Javascript
to wit.

A Quiz candidate?

Far too large a project for a quiz, I would think. It is interesting
though. recetnly read an article that code may be represented in a
common XML format in the future and then translated to variaous
languages. But doing so wel enough I think is a stretch. I would like
to have a look at Ryan's parse serialized to XML though (and YAML).

A better course of action (IMHO) is to hack Foxfire to use Ruby in
place of Javascript --I have yet to understand why bowsers aren't
multi-language scriptable like The GIMP. Then you could use Ruby on
both ends. (And would help put some fire under other browsers to do the
same :wink:

T.