SPUG:It's Feb 1, do you know where your OSCON proposal is?

[Michael R. Wolf]

What:   OSCON Proposal Fest
When:   Friday evening, February 7
Where:  TBD

OSCON will be held July 7-11 at the Downtown Marriott in Portland, OR.

OSCON proposals are due February 15.  That's *14* days from now!!
That's before the next SPUG meeting.

I'm holding a "proposal fest" to support us all to make World Class
proposals that show off our World Class status as a Perl Monger group.

For more information, take a look at the OSCON home page
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2003/ and the proposal submission
guidelines http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/create/e_sess.

Then prepare a proposal and bring it to the "proposal fest" for review
by a group of highly motivated folks -- your competition and
co-presenters.

This is a work session.  Come prepared to work.

Here's what to bring:

 - Finished proposals, ready for review.
 - Started proposals, ready to get finished.
 - Ideas, stuck and in need of prodding.
 - Lightning talks in need of fleshing into proposals.

In short, bring the best work that you have.  We'll help each other
make them all better.  But do as much work as you can *before* you
show up, so that we can build it from there.

I'd like to get a mix of folks that have submitted proposals, folks
that have gotten proposals accepted, and folks that have never even
submitted a proposal.

Remember, the ultimate prize is the ability to share your ideas with
the OSCON community, garnering the praise and admiration of your
peers, and bragging rights in all your future marketing material.  Oh
yeah -- and O'Reilly waives your conference fee!!  Ca-ching$$!!

I talked to Nat Torkington earlier this week.  He said that as
conference chair, he looks for about 95% technical content in the
program mix.  Especially in these hard economic times, he has to
guarantee that attendees get a great value for their conference dollar
by stretching themselves really hard.  As you construct your ideas,
think about how big an attendee's mind is (OSCON folks are pretty
smart) and how you can stretch it.

In order to get you in the frame of mind, here's a quote from the
OSCON 2003 home page:

    OSCON is designed for programmers, developers, strategists, and
    technical staff involved in open source technology and its
    applications. This event is the central gathering place for the
    open source community to exchange ideas, share techniques, push
    the technical boundaries, and maximize the benefits of open source
    software. The theme this year is "Embracing and Extending
    Proprietary Software."

And remember, that OSCON is more than just Perl, it's 3 conferences

    Perl Conference 7 
    The Python 11 Conference 
    PHP Conference 3

and 5 other tracks

    Apache 
    XML 
    Applications 
    MySQL and PostgreSQL 
    Ruby

And given that there's also a focus on Proprietary systems, the world
of possible topics is huge.

Please RSVP to the list so others can see who's coming, and I can get
a nose count.  And also RSVP if you'd like to attend but are otherwise
committed; perhaps there will be enough other folks to create a second
group.

See you in a week!

Michael Wolf

P.S.  After I get a head count, I'll choose and announce a location.

P.P.S.  In the spirit of Open Source, this proposal fest is in support
of all thing OSCON.  Please pass this invitation on to other groups
that may interested.

-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        MichaelRunningWolf at att.net