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Today, we released the first shortlist of FOSS.IN/2006 talks, selected from more than 200 submissions. You can see the list here.
Pay close attention to the text before the list - it explains why this list is not yet complete, and why some talks are still missing. Also, note that this is a list of talks, not workshops and tutorials, or BoFs.
And this is probably a good time for me to rant about a number of things that are really chewing my brain:
Talks First of all, going through the list of talks proposals, it quickly became apparent that many people had just not read the Call for Participation. They just dumped in talks as they thought fit, and a huge proportion of them were completely unrelated to the conference or our objectives.
Many of the talks were plain old Computer Science talks, vaguely using Linux or BSD as an example. Those went out first. This is a FOSS conference about India - not a substitute for an engineering college classroom.
Next, many of the talks were raw advocacy talks. We had made it clear that we did not want such talks - there are enough events happening around the country all year long that can handle this aspect, and the "Introduction to FOSS" aspect.
And while we are not against a good rant about something that is getting between us and world domination, most of the people who submitted such talks were totally unqualified, inexperienced and their arguments tended to be nonsensical at times, offering no value at all to the audience.
Contributors A depressingly low number of people submitted contributor talks. I have no clue why. We have people from a well-known software company submitting patches to the Linux kernel, and they get accepted - but the developer won't stand up and talk about his achievements. We have contributors to OpenEmbedded, OpenOffice.org, PHP and a number of other FOSS projects living right here in Bangalore - all sitting quietly and refusing to let the world see that we Indians aren't just consumers, but also contributors.
But all is not bad. For every person who couldnt be bothered about our country's image in the FOSS world, we do have people who not only contribute, but make their country proud by standing up and being counted. Check out the list of speakers and their talks, and see if you can spot them. If you cannot, come to FOSS.IN - I intend to make sure that the world knows who our heroes are.
Sponsors I also have something to say about sponsors in general.
I know that I shouldn't be saying anything at all - given that many sponsors are still sitting on the fence and are yet to commit.
But people - listen up: I have something to say.
FOSS.IN is not a trade show.
I repeat - FOSS.IN is not a trade show.
The people who come to the event are not mindless window shoppers, but well informed, technically qualified people, most of them developers.
Do you really think that asking us to give you a keynote is going to raise your image among this crowd?
Take it from someone who has been playing this game for the past 6 years - the way to success is not by going around talking about your being the greatest. The way to success in this game is by *showing* it. And one part of this is by showing some respect for the people who attend this event.
We have four keynote slots - 24th evening, 25th morning, 25th evening and 26th morning. We have one Inaugural address slot on the 24th morning, and we have a closing keynote on the 26th.
Each of these will be delivered by a well known, credible, and qualified member of the FOSS community, or someone whose views can make a huge difference to the audiences. And it does not matter which organisation they come from - if they are qualified, we will invite them to speak. If a sponsor organisation has such a superhero in its ranks, then by all means let us know, but allow us to verify his or her status with a few Google searches. If a simple "project+speaker_name" seach throws up anything relevant, then s/he is in. If not, please don't waste our time.
Last year, we actually had a fantastic time. Our sponsors were extremely sensitive to the audiences, and in fact none of them tried to "sell boxes". They made sure that the event happened smoothly, pitched in where they could, and the end effect of this was that all participants were all praise about the sponsors. The efforts were not forgotten, and won't be for a long time.
*This* is the way to make your "investment" pay for yourselves - by capturing not eyeballs, but hearts.
We need money to make the event work. We don't have any room for negotiation, we don't buffer up our estimates. This is a community event, not a commercial event. No one makes money off it. So don't come to us and make us feel that your n-billion US dollar company would feel the difference between $25,000 and $12,000. The money really means nothing to you, but it means the world to the FOSS community that will have better facilities, more big name speakers and a more productive and fulfilling event.
And that investment will pay for itself, by way of smarter and better informed people, who may one day be working for you (or already are).
A few of you have made sponsorship conditional to us giving you the contact details of our participants. If that is your condition, then don't act so surprised when we refuse your money. if people give you their contact details on their own, that's different. But *we* will not give you any - our privacy policy is holy to us.
And if that means you won't sponsor - well, so be it.
On the other hand, if you have foresight, and can think long term, and understand that today's youngsters are the people whom you may want in your company tomorrow, then work with us. No sponsor of ours has ever complained about lack of exposure, and the proof of this lies in the fact that almost all of our past sponsors are talking to us now, and a few have even committed.
And it is the sponsors who intrude the least, and facilitate the most, who will be fondly remembered by our thousands of participants.
Don't you want to be a part of that fond memory?
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