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View a complete list of OSCON 2008 Contacts
OSCON 2008 Schedule
Below are the confirmed and scheduled talks at OSCON (schedule subject to change).
Topics
Portland 251
Portland 252
Portland 255
Portland 256
D135
D133
D136
D137
D138
D139/140
E141
1:45pm
TBC
E142
E143/144
E145
E146
F150
F151
5:20pm
TBC
Room: Portland Ballroom
Welcome Allison Randal (O'Reilly Media, Inc.), Edd Dumbill (Expectnation)
Room: Portland Ballroom
Moblin, Linux for Next Generation Mobile Internet Dirk Hohndel (Intel Corporation)
7:30am
Breakfast
Room: Expo Hall
Room: Expo Hall
10:15am
AM Break
Room: Expo Hall
Room: Expo Hall
12:20pm
Lunch
Room: Expo Hall
Room: Expo Hall
3:20pm
PM Break
Room: Expo Hall
TBC
Room: Expo Hall
TBC
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
PHP
The Internet is an Ogre: Finding Art in the Software Architecture
Terry Chay
(Tagged, Inc.)
Priorities and pitfalls when building a large consumer-facing social network.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
PHP
PHP Taint Tool: It Ain't a Parser
Luke Welling
(OmniTI)
By looking at the opcodes that a PHP script gets compiled into you can get a really detailed view of what your code is going to do—if you can read them, or have a tool to help. This can help with benchmarking questions, and allow you to look for tainted variables that might have security implications without having to audit every line of source code.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
PHP
Write Beautiful Code (in PHP)
Laura Thomson
(Mozilla Corporation)
In this talk, Laura Thomson will present guidelines for writing, not just maintainable, but beautiful code. Code that is simple, robust and error resistant, secure, scalable and performant, and easy to produce in a reasonable time frame.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
PHP
Caching and Performance: Lessons from Facebook
Lucas Nealan
(Facebook)
Learn to effectively use caching to improve the performance of your PHP site.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Emerging Topics
The Google Open Source Update
Chris DiBona
(Google, Inc.) et al
In this talk, DiBona and Hawthorn will review last year's open source activities from Google. This will feature an in-depth look at this year's Summer of Code, with over 1000 students taking part, and their high school program.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
PHP
Give Your Site a Boost with memcached
Ben Ramsey
(Schematic)
Today's high-traffic web sites must implement measures to reduce load and increase speed of delivery. One such method is the use of a cache and memcached provides one of the fastest and easiest-to-use caching servers. This talk will cover memcached from setting up a memcached server to using it to provide a variety of caching solutions.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Emerging Topics
Changing Education... Open Content, Open Hardware, Open Curricula
Cliff Schmidt
(Literacy Bridge) et al
In the wake of the "Cape Town Declaration," more and more open source people are thinking about applying open source principles to Education. This panel discussion will introduce exciting concepts and some of the thought leaders in the Open Educational Content movement. There will be opportunities to learn about getting involved. Come get inspired!!
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Ruby
Metaprogramming in Ruby
Brian Sam-Bodden
(Integrallis Software, LLC.)
In this session we will explore some of the metaprogramming techniques that make Ruby the ideal language for framework development. Learn how frameworks like Ruby on Rails and others exploit metaprogramming to infuse that special magic that only open dynamic languages can produce.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Programming
Code Reviews for Fun and Profit
Alex Martelli
(Google)
Code reviews are a well-known best practice in all SW development, and particularly crucial for open source SW. Systematic and optimally conducted reviews enhance your code quality and offer great ROI, but you need to pay attention to both the human/community and technical aspects of such pratice. Get some key "do"s and "don't"s about performing code reviews!
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Web Applications
A Critical View of OpenID
Jason Levitt
(Amalgamated Shoulderpads) et al
OpenID (openid.net) is a single sign-on solution that has gained a lot of traction in 2008. Putting a critical eye to openid's many deployments, this panel will consider questions such as "how has openid succeeded/failed?," "how have end-users responded to openid?," "is openid safer/more-dangerous than other approaches?" "what are some openid success stories?," and "how could openid be improved?"
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
People
Open Source Community Antipatterns
Ted Leung
(Sun Microsystems)
Interested in starting or participating in an open source project? Here are some ways to make sure that your project will fail or have an unhealthy community.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
People
An Open Source Project Called "Failure:" Community Antipatterns to Know and Avoid
Josh Berkus
(PostgreSQL Project) et al
This panel of career open source geeks has ample experience in open source community disasters and failed projects, and how they happen. Join them for examples, stories, and Q&A around why projects fail and how you can identify bad trends before your project crashes.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Emerging Topics
Hydra: A Wireless Multihop Networking Testbed
Hyrum Wright
(University of Texas at Austin) et al
Hydra is a wireless multithop networking testbed, created completely from open source components. Designed to be modular and easily expandable, Hydra allows networking researchers and enthusiasts to implement by physical layer and MAC protocols quickly, and cheaply, and test them over real wireless channels.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Linux
Open Virtual Machine Tools
Adar Dembo
(VMware Inc.)
The Open Virtual Machine Tools project provides a variety of tools and utilities that improve the performance and user experience of guest operating systems without requiring modifications to the kernel. This talk will describe the ways that the open-vm-tools project provides these improvements. The talk will be of particular interest to those working in the virtual appliance space.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Programming
Subversion Worst Practices
Ben Collins-Sussman
(Google Inc.) et al
In past years we've talked about Subversion "best practices." In this talk we'll discuss the worst blunders to avoid when using Subversion in your open source project: bad layouts, ridiculous hook scripts, file locking, too much access control, confused merges, versioning derived objects, mixing locales, and other painful mistakes.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Linux
Measuring and Trends in Linux Kernel Quality
Arjan van de Ven
(Intel)
There has been much fuss about the supposedly decreasing quality of the Linux kernel. This presentation talks about some efforts to counter that, and shows measurements of what is really going on.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Administration
Open Source Virtualization for People Who Feel Guilty About Using VMware So Much
andy michelle
(EDA Software)
VMware has a place at the top of the virtualization industry, but is not open source, gets expensive, and can feel claustrophobic as VMware "makes a tool for every job." This talk will go over open source equivalents to the most prominent VMware products, existing high-profile uses, and how existing VMware deployments can co-exist with open source virtualization.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Programming
Shell Scripting Craftsmanship
Ray Smith
(Portland General Electric)
Shell scripts automate routine and repetitive tasks in Linux/Unix. Adding craftsmanship and style to your scripts will improve their usefulness and reliability.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Perl
Strawberry Perl: Achieving Win32 Platform Equality
Adam Kennedy
(Corporate Express Australia)
Perl 5.10.0 marks the first production release of Strawberry Perl, a 100% open source and CPAN-compatible Perl distribution for Windows that works "exactly the same as Perl everywhere else."
Discover the history, present and future of the community-driven Perl distribution, and learn how to use the Perl::Dist toolkit to "roll your own" Perl.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Perl, Programming
Perl 5.10 for People Who Are Not (Totally) Insane
Ricardo Signes
((code (simply)))
Perl 5.10 is the first major release of Perl in five years, and brings dozens of new features and significant improvements. This talk provides a guided tour of features that can benefit everyday users of Perl, not just the frightening C programmers who make Perl itself go.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Perl
Perl 6 Update
Damian Conway
(Thoughtstream) et al
Larry Wall and Damian Conway will present the latest features of Perl 6, and discuss the transition from design phase to full implementation of the new Perl.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Perl
Rakudo: Perl 6 on Parrot
Patrick Michaud
(pmichaud.com) et al
This talk will report on the overall status and implementation of the Rakudo Perl compiler targetting the Parrot virtual machine. The talk will also cover the design of the compiler itself, focusing on the overall architecture, the structure of the Perl 6 test suite, and provide details that will enable others to become involved and to directly contribute to the remaining work of building Rakudo.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Perl
Moose: A Postmodern Object System for Perl 5
Stevan Little
(Infinity Interactive)
Moose is a new postmodern object system for Perl 5 that is gaining traction within the community, it is based on Perl 6 and borrows from such diverse sources as CLOS (LISP), Smalltalk, Ruby, BETA, O'Caml, and more. This talk will provide a conceptual overview of the major parts of Moose, including roles, type constraints, metaclasses, and more.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Perl
Barely Legal XXX Perl
Jos Boumans
(RIPE NCC)
"Barely Legal XXX Perl" shows several features of Perl you might not have known that existed, that are being (ab)used to run a program that was designed never to be able to run in the first place... It's a high paced, humourous, and entertaining look at Perl's slightly less obvious features.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Administration, Ubuntu
LTS Tutorials: Using Ubuntu in the Enterprise
Christer Edwards
(Guru Labs, LC)
LTS Tutorials demonstrates how to use Ubuntu in an Enterprise setting in a number of ways. From how to setup LAMP, mass hands-off network deployment, File Servers (NFS, SMB, FTP, SFTP), repository mirroring, and internal secure IM with Jabber.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Administration, Ubuntu
How to Achieve Secure Integration of Ubuntu and MS Active Directory Without Breaking the Bank
Jerry Carter
(Likewise Software)
Here's an industrial-strength way to address the issue of connecting to a directory in a mixed environment. Instead of grappling with homegrown directory solutions, now there's an open source way to leverage your company's investment in Active Directory.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Linux, Ubuntu
Ubuntu Server Technologies
Nick Barcet
(Canonical UK Ltd) et al
Peek under the hood of the Ubuntu Server.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Administration, Ubuntu
Ubuntu Deployment for Your Enterprise
Fredrik Jonsson
(ASCI Sweden AB)
A presentation about how Ubuntu Deployment mechanisms can be used for multiple, zero touch installations in your enterprise network as well as how custom-made network install CDs can provide remote disaster recovery of a machine for a user that is even off site (only internet connection required).
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Administration, Ubuntu
Landscape: Managing Ubuntu Deployments
Steve George
(Canonical UK Ltd)
Landscape is a system management service that allows you to manage multiple Ubuntu machines as easily as one. Learn how you can manage many machines in a complex environment through a single web-based interface.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
People, Ubuntu
The Ubuntu Community
Jono Bacon
(Canonical UK Ltd)
The Ubuntu community is where the spirit of Ubuntu comes to life. Learn how it all works, and how you can get involved.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Databases
How to be Normal: A Guide for Developers
Mike Hillyer
(Message Systems)
At some point in every software project involving a database it becomes necessary for the developers who created (or inherited) the project to step back and take a look at their database. Many projects have a database schema that has evolved over time, with columns added here and tables added there, increasing complexity and often adding redundancy.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Databases
Lock Up Your Data
Josh Berkus
(PostgreSQL Project)
Data = money. Yet most web applications do little or nothing to secure their data against thieves. Learn some easy methods to lock up yours.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
People
The Australian Open Source Industry & Community Census Report
Jeff Waugh
(Waugh Partners) et al
What have they put in the water Down Under? Australia punches far above its weight in the open source community, producing some of its most prolific and innovative developers from one of the largest pools of contributors per-capita... Find out why Aussies rock open source from the world's first nation-wide industry and community survey.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Databases
Hypertable: An Open Source, High Performance, Scalable Database
Doug Judd
(Zvents, Inc.)
Hypertable is an open source, high performance, distributed database modeled after Google's Bigtable. The current scalable database solutions are somewhat ad hoc and leave much to be desired, until now. Hypertable brings scalable storage technology to the masses.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Databases
Introduction to LucidDB
John Sichi
(LucidEra)
LucidDB is a new open source RDBMS purpose-built entirely for data warehousing and business intelligence. This talk will cover the project's architectural features and how they can be applied to achieve superior performance and ease of administration in this specialized domain.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Databases
Muldis D: Portable Databases at Full Power
Darren Duncan
(Muldis Data Systems)
How would you like to have a full-featured object-relational DBMS integrated right into your development environment? One that understands OOP, implements all of the relational operators, and greatly shortens development time? That gets you away from the tyranny of SQL so you can focus on what you really know? Introducing Muldis D, an industrial-strength language with fully integrated ORDBMS.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Linux
Rebuilding Linux for the Desktop
Keith Packard
(Intel)
Over the last several years, architectural changes within the Linux environment have promised new features and functionality for the desktop user, including transparent applications and multiuser displays. These have become demonstrable in limited environments for some time and work continues to bring them into wider use. This presentation will present the status and plans of these projects.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Linux
What Makes a Modern Linux Desktop, and Why Do You Care?
Matthew Garrett
(Red Hat)
The Linux desktop has moved far beyond the point where it consisted of a kernel, an X server, and the xclock command. A bewildering array of layers exist to move information around, abstract unnecessary complexities, and perform various practical functions. This presentation seeks to remove some of the mystery of the modern desktop.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Linux
Flying Linux
Daniel V. Klein
(Self-employed)
I flew across the Atlantic on an Airbus -- that was fly by wire. No cables in the control system, just a computer controlling everything. Would you fly if Windows was the controlling software? How about Linux? Think again!
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Linux
Linux on the Corporate Desktop: We Did It, and You Can Too
John Goerzen
(Hustler Turf Equipment)
A mid-sized manufacturing company has successfully switched the majority of its employees to Linux on the desktop. This talk will cover why this was done, how it was accomplished, and the lessons learned during the deployment. It will cover both technical and business/political aspects of making such a switch, and give you pointers on making a similar switch in your organization.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Linux
Moblin.org: The Community for Linux on Mobile Internet Devices (MID), netbooks, nettops and More…
Dirk Hohndel
(Intel Corporation)
A new class of devices is emerging that enables full Internet access while on the go. These internet-centric devices known as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, nettops combine the software compatibility of the PC with an easy to use, consumer friendly user interface.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Administration
Open Source Virtualization Hacks
Niel Bornstein
(Novell, Inc.)
Everyone's using virtualization, from proprietary systems like VMware to open source ones like Xen and KVM. The smart money has the virtualization itself becoming a commodity, so the fun begins when you try to manage your VMs using open source tools.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Emerging Topics
Laika: Testing Electronic Health Record Interoperability
Andy Gregorowicz
(MITRE)
Laika is an open source testing framework that is changing the certification process for electronic health records (EHR) in the U.S. Hear about EHR data standards, the testing process, how to test an EHR, how to get involved, and the impact of FOSS on Health IT.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
People
Heroes: Women in FOSS
Pia Waugh
(Waugh Partners)
All over the world women are discovering that they have special abilities, and that they are not alone. Come on a journey to hear about some of the amazing women in FOSS, their achievements, how you can get involved, and how to get more women involved both in FOSS and ICT. Waugh also draws from her experience talking to thousands of school girls about ICT careers.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Emerging Topics
Creating & Supporting Free Software in Africa: the African Virtual Open Initiatives & Resources (AVOIR) experience
Derek Keats
(The University of the Western Cape)
Free and Open Source software is often seen as a largely Western and predominantly male phenomenon. This talk explores experiences of FOSS development in an Africa-led project to build capacity, and extends our understanding of FOSS to other cultures and societies, and shows how collaboration around FOSS can foster innovation and contribute to development in Africa.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Emerging Topics
How Open Source Software & Wireless Networks are Transforming Two Cultures: An Investigation in Urban North America & Rural Africa
Thomas McGonagle
(Bentley College/CSC Inc. )
In one year we have seen the release of the XO laptop, Asus's EEE PC, and Nokia's third generation Internet tablet. Open source software and wireless technology provide a tremendous opportunity for low cost Internet access infrastructure and end user access in Urban North America and Rural Africa. Research on this topic will be presented.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Programming
Eat My Data: How Everybody Gets File IO Wrong
Stewart Smith
(Sun Microsystems)
Odds are you get an F in using the POSIX file IO APIs. Even better, you probably don't know it. Oh, and operating systems can hate you. As a user, you'll leave crying. As a developer, you'll leave knowing you have bugs to fix.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Web Applications
Mashing Up Voice and the Web Through Open Source and XML
Dan York
(Voxeo Corporation)
As "mashups" become a key way to access information on the Internet, the question is: how can you add voice into the picture? Given the ubiquity of the phone, how can you make it easy for people to call and interact with your applications? Join this session to learn about how you can use the power of XML, open source, and open standards to add voice to your web applications.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Fundamentals
Going Open Source: The 20 Most Important Things To Do
Martin Aschoff
(AGNITAS AG)
When going open source with your software there are 20 important things you definitely have to do to be successful. Join this session and hear tips and examples from someone who had to learn some of this stuff the hard way.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Fundamentals
Setting Up a Decent Developer Box for OSS and Linux Community Development
Mark Gross
(Intel)
Mark Gross will discuss taking a new Ubuntu derivative installation on a laptop and making it a decent developer box for OSS community work. The tools and methods covered will include IRC, procmail, mutt, ctags, build tools, python, pylynt, quilt, git, svn, Email and gmail use for busy mailing lists, checkpatch, debugfs, VIM, and others.
1:45pm–2:30pm
(45m)
Fundamentals
How I Learned to Love Revision Control
David Gray
(OmniTI)
"Revision control? What's that?" Knowing what I know now, it's scary to look back and ask what might have happened if one hard drive had failed at the wrong time. After reviewing some revision control concepts, we will look at several projects to see how they could have leveraged revision control and what the benefits would have been.
2:35pm–3:20pm
(45m)
Fundamentals
Running a Successful User Group
Selena Deckelmann
(PostgreSQL Project) et al
If you're interested in starting, currently lead, or are interested in helping with an existing local users group, this talk is for you! Selena Deckelmann and Gabrielle Roth have started two successful user groups in the Portland area and will share their tips with you.
4:30pm–5:15pm
(45m)
Fundamentals
Open Source Software Economics, Standards, and IP in One Lesson
Stephen Walli
(Independent)
Free and open source software use has grown tremendously both in IT and in software businesses. There is still confusion around what this means for software intellectual property, or how it relates to industry standards. The talk provides context and history to show how the subjects relate to support better business decisions.
5:20pm–6:05pm
(45m)
Fundamentals
Trac: Project and Process Management for Developers and Sys Admins
Steven Ellis
(OpenMedia Limited)
Real world use of Trac, moving beyond software development and into process and work flow management.
10:45am–11:30am
(45m)
Programming
Building Compilers with the Parrot Compiler Toolkit
Patrick Michaud
(pmichaud.com)
Parrot is the virtual machine intended to run Perl 6 and other dynamic languages efficiently and effectively. Parrot tools used to build "Rakudo" (Perl 6 on Parrot) are powerful and general enough to host other languages. This talk explains how they work and demonstrates how to start running your own language on Parrot--and to use other code targeting Parrot without writing it yourself.
11:35am–12:20pm
(45m)
Programming
Beautiful Concurrency with Erlang
Kevin Scaldeferri
(Yahoo!)
An introduction to the concurrency features of Erlang,
showing how to bui