It’s clear that Mel has done some incredible work, getting a good number of people to Raleigh this weekend.  I’m looking forward to giving my input and listenting to others as we come up with better ways to handle such things as the EventBox, recording and streaming different presentations, encouraging users to join Fedora and the overall professionalism we portray at each of our events.  There are so many things to get done this weekend, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out the other side.

As for what I will be doing most of the time.  While I plan to help with the initial brainstorming on FUDCon, external events, etc., I really plan to spend most of my time focusing on improving the way that we record and stream our events.  These events can be as simple as a Local User Group (LUG) meeting to something bigger, like the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE), the Ohio Linux Fest or Pycon, and of course, somewhere in there, is the Fedora FAD and FUDCon.

Now mind you, I can see hundreds of other uses for this concept of recording and streaming.  Including live video podcasts, recording for redistribution, ad-hoc collaboration sessions, troubleshooting a problem with code and many, many more use cases.  However, I think I’m going to try to limit my use cases to those specifically around our events.  Things where we can easily set up our recording equipment and share it with those interested, whether in real-time, or making it available later on to the general public.

The software we plan on using to get the recording and streaming off the ground, is called freeseer.  It’s been put together by some folks who help organize and run FOSSLC.  Andrew and Thanh have been hacking hard lately, altering their code to move from the patent encumbered ffmpeg, to the more open and free gstreamer library.  They’ve also been busy moving from a gui with a command line behind it, to using the python gstreamer bindings.  Much cleaner, much easier to manage and alter in real time.  I’m very excited to see how we can improve freeseer over this weekend.  I actually think we’ll be able to do quite a bit with freeseer to improve external participation in Fedora.

Well, the pilot just announced that we’ll be landing in Raleigh in about 20-30 minutes, and that I need to pack up my electronics.  I’m looking forward to seeing all of my Fedora friends and making an amazing events solution.  I’ll try to keep you updated, with pictures and text, over the next few days.

Cheers,

Herlo

I am very sad to report, there will not be any pressed F12 media at FUDCon this time.

However, I expect the financial details to be sorted out sometime between now and Monday.  If this happens, it’s quite possible we can deliver media starting next week.  Still pretty fast, considering.

I guess every FUDCon can’t be perfect, but we’re still going to make this a great event!

If you are in the area, or wish to participate from afar, we’ve got ways for you to get involved.  FUDCon is always free and I’ve got two remote microphones and two mixers that I plan on using to record and stream the audio from two rooms.  I’m also working on a way to stream/record the desktop of the presenter at the same time so we can have audio and video from the desktops in real time (we’ll see if this part happens).  I might even suggest a hackfest on Monday to make it more solid if I can’t get it working tonight/tomorrow.

I’m excited to see all my friends at FUDCon.

Cheers,

Clint

This project was dreamed up by Mr. Ian Weller and he graciously let me tag along to get the thing going.  At the Utah Open Source Conference tomorrow, we’re going to be digging into a workflow and concept around the items needed to make FES work.  We’ll be hanging out from 12:30-5pm in room 209 while we work on the project, feel free to drop by and ask questions as well.

So if you are interested in FES, come join us at UTOSC or remotely in #fedora-fad on irc.freenode.net

Cheers,

Herlo

Thank you UTOS Core Team

In addition, it’s been great to have a Conference Manager this year.  Will Smith (aka undertakingyou) has taken these reigns with fire and he’s really picked up the leadership role.  Thank you Will for doing an amazing job.  I know his role will continue to grow as we start our transition into a 501c3 this year, I am excited to have him leading the Core Team charge!

I would also like to recognize the hard work of Barry McCormick.  He’s been a bulldog at getting our program together this year.  His hard work, dedication and shear will has made this years conference program the best I’ve seen.  50+ presentations, several events, scheduling requests, etc.  Even through the flu last week, he was finalizing details.

We have an awesome art and marketing team.  Victor Villa heads up this department, with contributions from Velda Christensen (and former Core Team member Emily Shaw).  I want to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication to detail and spreading the open source love around the Mountain West.

Jason Hall is heading up our volunteer efforts this year.  As the emcee again, we’re excited to have a volunteer manager that will assign and maneuver 50+ volunteers.  The call for volunteers has officially closed, but there’s always 2010.  Come and see the volunteers at work, Jayce^ has them all lined up and ready to go!

While we’ve had some bumps and bruises with our sponsorship position, Justin Carmony has really stepped in to make that role work.  We’ve been able to secure some really good sponsorships this year due to his hard work.  I’m excited to see what the future hold with our sponsorships and Justin at the helm.

Our Network is going to be stellar again this year.  I don’t know of any free software community conference that can boast 100mb/s lines, free wifi and drops to every booth in the convention center.  Trevor Sharpe (Heartsbane) and Nick Brooks (peno) have done an amazing job with this as well.

Securing our parties, getting printable schedules, providing the topics with which our emcee will hand out SWAG, talk about different organizations, introduce presenters and talk about our sponsors is C.R. Oldham.  C.R. joined the core team as an effort to bolster another group, HopeKids, which he will do during the conference.  He’s been a great asset to our core team and we look forward to seeing him for years to come.

And finally, because well, he’d want it that way.  Without our Code Guru, Adam Barrett, the website would look a little bare (or bear, since that’s his nickname).  The site would probably be still in a state of disarray and those schedules, layouts with all the pretty boxes and such would not be there.  He’s working on some more amazing things each week as we meet for our HackNights (which anyone is welcome to attend).  I suspect you’ll see some really cool features at the conference that are part of Adam’s evil plan.

This is the Utah Open Source Core Team.  If you see them at the Utah Open Source Conference, please take a moment to thank them for their hard work.  I know that I will!!

Please register today, we have a few days left before the prices go up.  Promo codes are available for up to 50% off registration at any time.  Contact a LUG or Sponsor if you would like a promo code for discounted registration.

Cheers,

Herlo

I have been looking at airfare, hotel and other travel accommodations to FUDCon, but I seem to have more options than I can count.  Maybe some of you can make recommendations?  So here’s the details of my dilemma:

Option 1: Fly direct to Toronto

Now, of course, this is the easiest of the three options; in and out of Toronto International Airport (YYZ) is a great way to go.  What’s that you say?  Oh, right.  The cost prohibitive trip of a ticket that is well over $600.  WOW! That is all I can say…

Option 2: Fly to Boston and ride the FUDBus

To me, this option is the most appealing.  While I know that I can most likely crash with someone in Boston and then ride the FUDBus up, it’s going to be a bit more painful, but it might be worth the organizational headache to make what could become an epic hackfest (8+ hours) happen for me.

In this case, I would have to fly in Thursday evening, since the FUDBus leaves at around 9am from Alewife station in Boston.  And upon return, Tuesday morning could turn into Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday evening.  A bit scarier here for scheduling return flights.  The other part of this is the actual FUDCon event is only Saturday through Monday (Dec 5-7) so I would have to miss 5+ days of work, not just 1 or possibly 2 with the other options.

The price of this flight is a mere $409 round trip, a savings of over $180, so it could be worth the extra time as long as I don’t have to get an extra hotel room.

Option 3: Fly to New York City and ride a bus to get to the FUDBus

I have a good friend in Jon Stanley, who offered to put me up at his place on Thursday night, which is essentially the same as flying into Boston.  But there are a few benefits as well.  One is that the bus from NYC to Boston has an additional 4ish hours we’d get to hack and chat.  Since I’m really wanting to join the Fedora Infrastructure team, it would be a good opportunity to get my wings.  The other is that the cost from SLC to JFK is another $50 – $75 cheaper than Boston.

The drawbacks of having to leave earlier and travel longer seem to be a mitigating circumstance and really might be something I want to do.  I’m just not sure I’m willing to awake at 4am Eastern (2am Mountain) to take the bus to take the FUDBus.

Option 4: Fly to Buffalo and ride the bus to Toronto

This option seems the most economical and has the least amount of hassles save actually flying into Toronto.  Essentially, I would fly into Buffalo on Friday afternoon, catch a bus that would drive across the border and into Toronto.  The return trip is about as simple, just hop on the bus on Tuesday morning, and fly home that afternoon from Buffalo.  The cost is great too!  At a measly $200 round trip from Salt Lake, now that’s a deal!

I think the thing I am fighting with Buffalo, is that I’ll be doing this all by myself.  While it seems economical, I really, really would like to get on that FUDBus for the hackfest I am sure will happen.  Collaborating for an additional 8 hours is really really tempting.  Going to Buffalo would pretty much eliminate that option.  While I am a bit concerned about crossing the border and such, I don’ think it’s going to be the decision maker or cause me any real heartache.

Decisions, Decisions!

So what would you do?  How would you go to Toronto?  I have the funds right now and want to get everything booked in advance so I don’t have to worry about the details later.  I think my biggest debate point has to be whether to ride the FUDBus.  Money is probably the secondary issue, but comparing that seems to put Buffalo first without question.

I’m really excited either way for FUDCon this year.  I have some really good ideas to share and want to start building out a great Ambassador portal as well.  More on that to come!

Cheers,

Herlo

Now, I’ll be there from around 9am to about 1pm, so it might be good to come and hang out.  I’ll be dropping some Fedora DVDs and CDs by (which I need more Live Media already gah!) so people can pick them up and try out the coolest operating system in the world!

At about 3pm, I’m headed over to a friends house for boardgames.  We’re going to play ‘Arkham Horror’, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, which should be fun as I have never played it before.  Both jennifer and I are attending with some friends I’ve had for a short while now.  Should be a blast.

If it is really good, I’ll suggest playing it at the Boardgame Bash at UTOSC 2009 (you knew I couldn’t resist putting in a plug for the conference, did you?!)

Lastly, I’ll be settling in for the evening probably recovering from the hard week around 10 or 11 catch up on sleep and prep for golfing with my brothers on Sunday.

It’ll be a very nice weekend I think, looking forward to the excitement and relaxation.  I’m very excited to be semi-busy, but doing what I love.  I sure hope it turns out as well as I anticipate.

Cheers,

Herlo

And if you know anyone else who might be interested, that would be useful as well.

If you are, or know of someone, who is interested in helping print and pass out flyers for UTOSC 2009, please send an email to volunteer@utos.org with the subject line ‘UTOSC 2009 Flyers’.  Include the college you attend so we can keep track of the schools we have distributed flyers.  This is a first-come-first-served kind of opportunity, so act fast!!

Cheers,

Clint

21:37 <herlo> did you say you were willing to cook breakfast for us during UTOSC ??
21:37 <herlo> :-P
21:37 <herlo> I couldn’t remember if you agreed, or balked
21:37 <Jennifer> I did. I will make sure I don’t work so I can do it properly.
21:37 <Jennifer> 5 people, right. Plus us, of course.
21:38 <Jennifer> ?
21:38 <herlo> yeah
21:38 <Jennifer> Yep, for 3 days? I can do that. :)
21:38 <herlo> so far, I have Ian, Scott, Larry and Mirano and possibly Scott (from LA)
21:39 <herlo> it does mean that it has to be ready kind of early though…
21:40 <JenniferDean> Yep
21:40 <herlo> kk, grerat!
21:40 <herlo> or just great!
21:40 <JenniferDean> That’s what prep the night before is for
21:40 <herlo> lol, yeah
21:41 <JenniferDean> The only rule is: stay out while I’m cooking. Lol

So as you can see, I just had to comment about it right now!  Jennifer is awesome!

Looks like our guests will be well taken care of during UTOSC 2009!!

See you all there! October 8-10, 2009.  Register today!

Cheers,

Herlo

Now that I am back from the SouthEast LinuxFest at Clemson University, I wanted to report on the fun we had this weekend.  I’m completely wiped out, but it was a very fun and productive weekend.  I wanted to say thanks to the gang at SELF for a job well done.  With only minor issues, they did an amazing job.  They’re first year conference had attendance of 500+, that’s great to hear!  Congratulation on such a great conference fellas!!

As far as my presentation, I was the victim of an apparent overheating of the projector.  After about 20 minutes of fiddling, the staff got it all solved with a portable projector that was waiting in the wings.  This did affect the time on my presentation though, so i wasn’t able to finish everything I wanted.  However, we did a lot of Q&A up front and helped explain some of the four foundations from the Fedora Project and talked a bit about the tools while we were waiting.  I usually show a completed customized liveusb, but ran out of time.  I hope everyone enjoyed it anyway.

The booth area was packed, and every presentation seemed full, it was a great conference.  I went to the after-party, where DualCore rapped for a while, which is always fun.  The rest of the night was drinking, socializing and having an altogether good time.  I recall eating at waffle house around 12:30am and then heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

On Sunday, we spent a good bit of time on the Docs Fedora Activity Day (FAD), quite productive and we made some good goals for F12.  I mostly helped by being an outsider looking in on this process, but did help Lee and Eric to understand packaging as Ian explained how packaging works.  It was great to help the docs guys get the rest of the modules for Zikula into Fedora.  I expect to see some good progress there over the next release period.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend, and if you ever get the chance, Mellow Mushroom pizza is the bomb!  I also took a lot of pictures, they are available up on Flickr.

Cheers,

Herlo

Working on my Fedora Remix presentation now, adding a few minor adjustments that should be fun.  Including letting people pick packages from the audience, should be pretty entertaining.

Slides are available online.

Cheers,

Herlo