I've had a hankering to do a bush walk for an while, and so I spent some time yesterday walking up Tuggeranong Hill. This was a really nice walk -- the access road for the ACTEW substation provides parking with shade from trees, and its very very close to my house. The entrance to the fire access road for the broadcast repeater at the top the hill isn't well marked, so I ended up going the long way. I think this made the walk more fun to be honest. [kml: 20141226]
I imagine that most people saw this at the conference closing. However, for completeness and because I feel that if we're going to put videos of other speakers online then I should suffer the same fate, here is the LCA 2013 announcement from Ballarat:
Canberra was announced as the host for LCA 2013 at the close of LCA 2012. As part of that closing, we handed out postcards and laptop stickers to delegates. However, we deliberately had extra printed on the theory that groups like LUGs, university computer societies and so forth would be interested in having promotional materials for their groups. For those of you not lucky enough to attend the excellent LCA2012, the stickers looked like this: And the postcards look like this: All credit for the excellent art should go to the very capable Jenny Cox. So, if you're interested in having some stuff to hand out at your next LUG or computer society meeting, please drop us a line at contact@lca2013.linux.org.au. Don't forget to include the name of the group and a mailing address.
I am incredibly pleased to announce that linux.conf.au 2013 will be hosted by Canberra, Australia between 28 January 2013 to 2 February 2013. As the director for 2013 I have been blessed with a simply incredible team who has done fantastic work during the bid process, and I am confident that we will pull off a fantastic event. 2013 is Canberra's centenary year, so I think its appropriate to have a conference with a bit of a party atmosphere. We're working hard already on making 2013 a conference to remember. For those who were unable to see the announcement at the conference, you might find the following interesting: Call for papers: June 2012 Early bird registrations open: October 2012 Conference: 28 January 2013 to 2 February 2013 linux.conf.au is one of the foremost open source conferences in the world, and is considered the most prestigious in the southern hemisphere. Many of the team that brought you linux.conf.au 2005 are coming back to help with the 2013 effort, and we're cognizant of the extremely high standard left by previous conferences, especially the astounding job that Josh's 2012 team did. The web site for the conference http://lca2013.linux.org.au is already live, and we'll…
I'm really proud of the hard work that all of the Canberra 2013 team has done in preparing our bid for LCA 2013. I just sent off the emails making our bid formal. Here's what I said on the linux-aus mailing list: Hello. I am pleased to present Canberra's bid for linux.conf.au 2013. It is traditional to produce a PDF document for distribution to the linux-aus mailing list. Instead, we have produced a small web site covering the same information that would normally be in such a document. It is our hope that this will be a more dynamic and accessible document than a static PDF. This website will form the basis for our conference site if Canberra is selected. The website is located at http://lca2013.clug.org.au. Sincerely, Michael Still Canberra 2013 bid lead
For those playing along at home, you will have noticed that there is a pretty keen group of people in Canberra who intend to bid for LCA 2013. Linux Australia has now called for formal expressions of interest, and I just sent ours in. I wont repost it here, but instead will suggest you checkout the thread in the mailman archive. [btags:]
As I sit here reading the notes from the Future LCAs birds of a feather at LCA2011, I've come to the realization that most of the conversation was about the mechanics of what is required for an LCA bid. It can be daunting to know what needs to be done in order to have a successful bid for an event as complicated as LCA, especially if you've never been an organizer before. Its not clear that Canberra will have a successful bid for 2013 yet, but I think its a good idea to share what we've done so far if it helps others develop high quality bids. The first thing to think about is your team. At the BoF, it was strongly suggested that you need around five to six people for a good bid. I've seen conferences run with fewer people than that, but it is risky. LCA is a large and complicated event these days, and with a planning horizon of around two years, you need to be prepared for there to be a fair bit of churn in your core organizing team. Some people will move away, or change jobs. Others might have a new child and…
Hi. I just wanted to quickly let people know that if they're interested in being kept informed about the bid for LCA 2013 to be in Canberra, you should subscribe to our mailing list at http://lists.clug.org.au/listinfo/canberra2013. We'll send regular updates to that list as we hit important deadlines during the bid process. [btags:]
For the last several months, a small group of people in Canberra including myself have been preparing a bid for LCA 2013. This is not just to give us more time to make the conference the most awesome, froody LCA you've ever been to. No - 2013 is also the centenary of the founding of Canberra as the nation's capital. It's a very significant year for us and we'd all be thrilled if we could show the attendees of LCA our great city and Canberrans the great work the FOSS community does to improve everyone's lives. So we're really stoked that the bidding process is going to be opened early, and I think it'll lead to a really interesting competition that will result, whoever wins, in the best LCA ever! If you're interested in getting involved, drop me a line! [btags:]
Lefty tighty, righty loosey When Frank used to drive in the US when we were on business trips, he'd mutter "Righty tighty, lefty loosey" as he turned corners to make sure he ended up on the correct side of the road. Now that I am back in Australia, I guess I need to mutter the opposite when I drive around. I was a little nervous when I drove for the first time since returning today, but it was actually really easy. It's good to know that I haven't broken my brain permanently. Or at least not on that front. Today was lunch with my mother and brother, a wander around the National Botanic gardens, and then a quick trip into the city. It's interesting that all of Civic seems to be taken over by the Canberra Center (a shopping mall), which now consumes something like three more city blocks than it used to. Met Steve Walsh for beer, and then off to my mother-in-law's for dinner. Now I am at dad's house, finishing up my talk for LUV tomorrow night. Wish me luck. [btags:]