FOSS.IN 2009 announcement and call for participation

Team FOSS.IN is happy to announce that, with the help of the community, 
we have been able to finalise the dates (and hence the venue) for 
FOSS.IN/2009.

FOSS.IN/2009 will be held on December 1-5, 2009 (Tuesday through 
Saturday) at Bangalore's largest and most modern conference venue - the 
NIMHANS Convention Centre.

The dates and the choice of venue have interesting backgrounds:

The Dates

Unlike in the past, we decided not to second-guess fate, and let the 
community help decide the event
dates, based on other events that would happen around the same time. 
Typically this includes university examinations, other notable events, etc.

To do this, we ran a poll on the FOSS.IN site, from February 6th to 
March 16th, giving the choice of three sets of dates - December 01-05, 
December 08-12 and December 15-19. While voting was slow initially, we 
had almost 500 people voting by the end of poll, and on March 16th, the 
December 01-05 set of days was officially carved in stone. :)

The Venue

Once we had the dates, we began the task of fixing the venue. While we 
have held the event at the Indian Institute of Science for many years, 
the new format of FOSS.IN (introduced last year) made that venue unsuitable.

After several weeks of checking out venues available on the dates 
selected by the community, we finally managed to book the one we had our 
eye on all along - Bangalore's most modern and spacious conference venue 
- the NIMHANS Convention Centre. We applied for the chosen dates, and 
paid the advance, and have now received the confirmation of booking.

What makes this convention centre so special is not just the halls 
(there are three "regular" halls, ranging between 200 and 500 seats), or 
the large number of discussion rooms, or the large indoor dining area, 
but the one thing that we were looking for the most - GIGANTIC wide open 
(but indoor) spaces where we can set up tables, hack centres, expos, and 
much more.

And best of all, the venue is available to us every day from 6am to 
10pm, there are virtually no restrictions (yes, we can has coffee 
vending machines!), and (hold your breath, my friends) WE CAN HAVE 
EVENING ENTERTAINMENT! Which means after a gap of many years, the 
much-loved end-of-day rock and other music shows, movies and other 
entertainment will return to FOSS.IN! (If that doesn't get Rasmus 
Lerdorf back to Bangalore, nothing will! :)

The Event Format

Because of the huge amount of space and the facilities available to us, 
we are able to flex our intellectual muscles more than ever, and are 
able to expand on the concepts introduced last year.

This means that unlike last year, FOSS.IN Workouts will run for the 
duration of the event, not just for a few hours. So projects can ask for 
(and will be allotted) areas where teams can hunker down for upto 5 
days, and work on their projects. We will provide network and 
electricity and tables, you bring your notebooks, special equipment, 
enthusiasm and talent. All we ask is that you work on FOSS projects, and 
keep us informed about progress every evening.

The Talks

While there will still be talks, they will run parallely to the 
WorkOuts. And talks will be only of exceptionally high quality, by 
people who have contributed in a major way to projects. Since we are 
starting very early this year (the CfP should go out in April itself), 
we will ensure that the selected talks are talks that attendees will 
remember for a long time for their quality, content and depth.

As usual, talks will be focused on FOSS projects and contribution to 
them, but we won't turn down te occasional high quality talk by an 
exceptional presenter, even if it isn't quite about FOSS or contribution
(but is at least related to it). For example, a talk about hacker spirit 
and mentality, given by someone known for her knowledge of the subject 
and ability to present, would certainly be accepted.

We will, however, draw a line at advocacy, political or 
introductory/newbie talks. As usual, we do not want to compete with 
other events that happen roound the year, that handle such subjects.

Other Features

This year, we have much more room for the sponsor expo and FOSS expo, 
and FOSS projects will be able to exhibit their work to visitors and 
interact with them. There will be lots of space for discussions, 
socialising, project meetings, brainstorms and much more.

But most of all, we expect to see people building on the foundation 
stones we laid last year, to make FOSS.IN the biggest and most 
productive FOSS conference in the world. Our mottos ("Technology for a 
Free World" and "Talk is Cheap, Show me the Code") are very much the 
core focus of the event - let's show the world what India, and the FOSS 
community, is capable of delivering.

Call for Participation

A detailed Call for Participation (and Call for Sponsorship and Call for 
Volunteers) will go out soon, but in the meanwhile, pull out your 
calendars, your PDAs, your markers and your tattoo machines, and carve 
these dates on your wall:

FOSS.IN/2009
December 1-5, 2009
NIMHANS Convention Centre
Bangalore, India

More information will appear soon on the FOSS.IN website 
(http://foss.in), but for now, head to the FOSS.IN mailing list 
(http://foss.in/list) and discuss!

May the Source be with you, people - and get ready to rock! :)

Team FOSS.IN
We do FOSS Events like no one else can