India's Premier FOSS Event

FOSS.IN is India's largest Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) event, bringing together thousands of participants from across India, Asia and the rest of the world.

As the successor to the enormously successful Linux Bangalore conferences, FOSS.IN/2005 goes beyond the scope of technical Linux related topics, FOSS.IN now focusses on all FOSS topics. Have a look at the talks schedule to the vast scope of topics being covered at this conference.

Speakers FOSS luminaries such as Alan Cox (Linux kernel), Jonathan Corbet (LWN.NET, Linux Device Drivers), Harald Welte (Netfilter/IPtables), Volker Grassmuck (Wizards of OS), Danese Cooper (Open Source Initiative), Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP), Andrew Cowie (java-gnome), Sirtaj Singh Kang (KDE), Till Adams (KDE), Zaheda Bhorat (Google), Jayakumar (Linux Kernel) as well as a galaxy of industry and FOSS community speakers from India and abroad.

Latest Event News

More on slides	[Thu, 5th January 2006]
We are still facing some issues with slides, and are resolving them. In the meanwhile, a raw dump of all the slides can be found here. Integration into the schedules page will happen as soon as issues have been resolved.

About the slides	[Thu, 8th December 2005]
We are working on consolidating slides used by speakers, and they will be linked from the schedules page against each talk. Target is this weekend, but that depends on how much time volunteers can put in. Speakers with updated slides are requested to mail them to slides2005 (yat) foss (dawt) in.

LWN.net reports	[Thu, 8th December 2005]
LWN.net, whose editor Jonathan Corbet was one of the speakers at the event, reports on FOSS.IN/2005, adding insights that are rarely found in other publications.

And in the end...

[Mon, 5th December 2005]

The event is over, it was a glorious success. 2733 delegates, 140+ speakers, 180+ talks, workshops, tutorials and bofs. It was fantastic A detailed event report is being put together, and we solicit feedback from everyone - delegates, speakers, volunteers. Use the Contact Form, or mail us (info (yat) foss dawt in). We are going to try and set up a formal system for this as well. If you have photos online, please send us the URL - some of them are already in the Photos Section of this site. Don't send us the actual photos please - upload them somewhere and send us the URL. Watch the Planet for comments that linked people make in their blogs and journals. If you have a descriptive journal entry about the event, please send us the URL. And if you want to exchange experiences, discuss what happened, and want to help plan next year's event - get onto the mailing list, and start discussing!

Check out the planet!	[Fri, 2nd December 2005]
If you are looking for news about FOSS.IN/2005, reviews, reports, photos, etc. - check out Planet FOSS.IN! All the goodness, all in one place. p.s. The event is going great. Wish you were here :)

Day 1, and we are up and away!

[Tue, 29th November 2005]

A quick update from the venue: It's day one, and though we started late, we are now up and running. Five representatives of FOSS groups from across India - Arjun Asthana from Delhi, Kushal Das from Durgapur, Swati Sani from Nagpur, Arvind Yadav from Goa and Surjo Das from Bangalore - inaugurated the event by lighting the lamp. Alan Cox is on the stage now, speaking about how to get involved in FOSS, and Danese Cooper is getting ready for her talk. Wifi is up in the 750 seater, and people are connecting all over the place - making this the first time in 5 years that our event has proper Internet connectivity. Not something to be proud of, but hey - it works for us! :) The place is crawling with people - several thousand already on the premises. More news as they happen.

Online Registration now closed

[Mon, 28th November 2005]

Online registration is now closed. Please bring your delegate code to the venue and register for Rs.500. If you do not have a delegate code, you pay Rs.1000. Registration opens at 8:00am at the venue. To get to the venue, come to the Vasanthnagar entrance of the Bangalore Palace (near the underpass, near Mount Carmel College). Follow the signs to reach the registration counters, have your delegate code (written on a piece of paper, or a printout) and Rs.500 ready. Hand over both, have the code verified, collect your delegate card and coupons, and enter the premises. You can collect your delegate kit at any time during the 4 days by presenting the coupon at the kit counter. The first session begin at 9:00am in the Intel Hall (750 seater) with a short inauguration, followed by the first keynote address by Alan Cox. Talks in other halls begin immediately after that. You can register on any day at the counter, bringing your delegate code and Rs.500, or Rs.1,000 if you didnt register online. The pass is for all 4 days.

Check out Glancer.foss.in!	[Sun, 27th November 2005]
Looking for a way to build your own personal talk schedule, or want to find people with similar interests, or just looking for a way to keep track of the wealth of activities happening at FOSS.IN/2005? Then check out (Note, Macromedia Flash 7 required) You need your delegate code though, so register first!

FOSS.IN/2005 Sponsors Announced

[Thu, 24th November 2005]

FOSS.IN/2005 is proud to announce the Sponsors of the Event. Our principal sponsor is the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology of the Government of India. Our diamond sponsor is Intel. Our platinum sponsors are Google and Sun Microsystems. Our gold sponsor is HP. Our silver sponsor is C-DAC. Internet sponsorship comes from Airtel. PC Infrastructure sponsorship comes from Connoiseur. Supporting sponsors are GCI. We thank our sponsors for the support of the event and the community.

Final Talks Schedule now in place	[Thu, 24th November 2005]
The final talk schedule is now in place.

Talks Schedule up	[Tue, 22nd November 2005]
The schedule of talks, workshops and tutorials for FOSS.IN/2005 is now available. Please note that this is still subject to a bit of revision, mostly in clarification of some talks (which will be added in the next 24 hours). Clickable talk abstracts and speaker profiles will be made available in the next 24 hours as well.

Online Registration closes 28th Nov noon	[Mon, 21st November 2005]
Please note that online registrations will close on Monday, the 28th of November at noon. People who do not have a valid delegate code (which you receive when you register online) will have to pay the full delegate fee of Rs.1000 at the counter. To save 50% on the the delegate fee, make sure that you register online before 12:00 noon GMT+0530 on November 28th, 2005.

Group Registrations

[Thu, 17th November 2005]

Many companies are sending large groups of employees to FOSS.IN, and have asked us how to do group registration payments. Simple - have each group member register online and give you their delegate codes. Send us the list of the delegate codes (10 or more, please, less than that doesn't work for us), along with a cheque to cover the delegate fees (Rs.500/US$11 x number of people in group). We will send you the delegate coupons and cards so that they do not have to stand in queue at the venue. Groups of 10 or more only, please.

LWN.NET writes about FOSS.IN	[Thu, 17th November 2005]
It's a great feeling when you wake up to find one of the world's most respected FOSS publications writing about your conference. LWN.NET's editor Jonathan Corbet has written a rather nice article about FOSS.IN/2005, which he will be participating in as well.

VTU recognises FOSS.IN/2005

[Mon, 14th November 2005]

You will remember that a while back, we mentioned that we would be doing something for students. If you are a student whose college falls under the VTU, then the following will be of great interest to you: Letter from VTU It basically is a letter from the VTU, requesting your college to allow you to attend the event (i.e. without penalty of attendance). This letter has already been sent to 120 colleges in and around Bangalore, and your principals should be in receipt of this.

FOSS.IN/2005 Event Brochure	[Sun, 13th November 2005]
A number of people, especially from companies, have been asking for a printable event brochure to submit to their managers to get group registrations done. Your wish is our command :) FOSS.IN/2005 Event Brochure (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Tracking locations :)	[Wed, 9th November 2005]
So where is all the interest for FOSS.IN/2005 coming from? To find out, go to the FOSS.IN/2005 website, and click the GEO VISITORS icon in the menu on the left. The results surprised even us!

Delegate Registration now open	[Thu, 3rd November 2005]
The Delegate Registration for FOSS.IN/2005 is now open Click here Please remember - you do not pay now - you register now you pay at the venue if you have registered online and have your delegate code with you you pay Rs.500, else you pay Rs.750. read the instructions you will receive in email read the delegate guidelines This is it, guys. Vroom vroom vroom!

Second List released	[Mon, 31st October 2005]
This is it - the second list of talks, tutorials, workshops and planned BoFs has been released. Apologies for the delay, but this was by far the longest list of talks we have ever had to process. Please pay attention to the revised due dates in CfP. Talks can no longer be modified by speakers - if you need to make changes, please contact us. Happy Diwali and Eid Mubarak to everyone!

Volunteer Registration is now open	[Mon, 31st October 2005]
If you wish to be a volunteer at the event, miss all the talks, scrub floors and wipe door knobs, work early *and* late, give up your social life for a week, get screamed at, and get blamed for everything that goes wrong at the event, then click here.

FOSS.IN/2005 Venue Layout	[Sun, 30th October 2005]
OK, time to show you people what FOSS.IN/2005 is going to look like (at least conceptually) if you were a bird looking down on the place. :) Click image for larger picture

The FOSS.IN/2005 Expo	[Fri, 28th October 2005]
Information about the FOSS.IN/2005 Expo is now available, and stall bookings have already begun.

Some of FOSS.IN/2005's Speakers...	[Mon, 24th October 2005]
I imagine that some of you would be interested in hearing about some of the speakers who will be coming to FOSS.IN/2005, from far away shores. :) So here are a few, and over the next few days, more will be revealed.

Nice writeup about the first shortlist	[Mon, 17th October 2005]
Fred Noronha has written up about the first shortlist of talks, summarizing things nicely,and also adding some perspective. So go ahead, read it!

First Shortlist announced

[Sun, 16th October 2005]

The first shortlist of talks has been announced. You can have a look at it here. Note that this is a very preliminary list, to give you an idea of what a variety of talks have been submitted by the community. There are going to be substantial changes to this list, with a lot of additions, alterations, "acquisitions and mergers" :), etc. The next list will be out later this week. Note that this list does not yet name invited speakers, who will be announced separately later this week. For more information about this list, see this message.

Delay in shortlist	[Wed, 12th October 2005]
Due to various factors, including illness and the fact that many people are busy or out of town because of the Indian Dassera festival, we will take another few days to get the shortlist out. We are targetting Monday, the 16th of October, but please bear with us - going through almost 300 talk, bof, workshop and tutorial proposals is *not* an easy task! We apologise for the delay.

Speaker Registration now closed

[Sun, 9th October 2005]

Speaker Registration and Talk Proposal submission closed at midnight of October 8th-9th. Every record ever set by our conferences over the past half decade has been broken - 170 speakers submitted 255 talk proposals! Once again, the FOSS community of India shows that its strength, by shattering the previous record from 2003 by almost 100%! Over the next few days, we will be creating the first list, and will (hopefully) have it up as per schedule in the evening of October 12th. This will be a relatively short list, and we will progressively add to it as domain experts validate talk proposals. Speakers will be mailed ASAP. Stand by for the next phase - registration of talks for the Business Forum Sessions, as well as the Students Forum Sessions. Information about the FOSS Projects and Business Expos will also become available over the next few days.

Want to promote FOSS.IN/2005?	[Wed, 5th October 2005]
If you were looking for ideas to help you promote FOSS.IN/2005, check out the new Promote page. It has some tips on what you can do to get the word out to people. And of course, if you think we missed some, please let us know.

Speaker Registration Heads-up

[Mon, 3rd October 2005]

Several speakers have registered, but have not submitted any talks. Such registrations will be deleted on Saturday, and will not be able to submit any talks after that. Please note that outstation speakers who require travel assistance are encouraged to submit multiple talks. It is unfortunately not feasible to consider providing travel assistance to a speaker with only one selected talk. The best strategy is to submit several (3-4) talks, giving us a range to choose from.

Reminder: Speaker Registration

[Fri, 30th September 2005]

This is a reminder that Speaker Registration and Talk Proposal Submission for FOSS.IN/2005 is ongoing, and the last day for registration for speakers and technical talks, workshops, tutorials and bofs is October 8th. FYI - we crossed 60 registered speakers yesterday. As hinted at earlier in the Student section, we will be announcing a separate drive for student talks and involvement from colleges that is different from the main technical conference CFP, but as an integral part of the conference. Stay tuned for more information on this.

We have a new logo!	[Tue, 27th September 2005]
The event now has an official new logo! Simple, elegant,and effective, even if we must say so ourselves. :) Many thanks to Hari Krishnan for designing it (check out the others he made here). And thanks to the many people in the #foss.in channel on irc.freenode.net for voting for it!

Planet FOSS.IN lives!

[Sun, 25th September 2005]

Want to know who the people are that build, support and contribute to FOSS.IN/2005? Check out the brand new Planet FOSS.IN! This gathers the latest blogs of all the people who are involved with FOSS.IN/2005 in some way or the other. Once speakers are selected, their blogs will be added as well. If you are a FOSS.IN/2005 contributor and don't find your blog listed, mail Shreyas immediately with the details. Many thanks to Shreyas and Gopal for helping to set this up!

CfP PDF Version	[Fri, 23rd September 2005]
Several people have asked for a PDF version of the CFP, so that they can distribute it inside their organisations. You can download it from here: http://foss.in/2005/cfp/foss.in-cfp.pdf

Speaker Registration now open	[Thu, 22nd September 2005]
Speaker Registration is now open! Before you register as a speaker and submit talk proposals, please spend some time reading the Call for Participation. Note that the closing date for receiving talk proposals is October 8th, or 16 days from today.

Call for Participation	[Tue, 20th September 2005]
The official Call for Participation at FOSS.IN/2005 is now available! Speaker registration will begin on the 21st (assuming that we iron our our database issues). :)

Delhi Event: Freedel - 17/18 September	[Wed, 14th September 2005]
The Delhi LUG is organising an event called Freedel on 17th and 18th of September in New Delhi. They have a number of interesting talks and workshops planned. A few people from Bangalore are participating there as well. If you are in the Delhi area, you should definitely attend this event.

Here we go!	[Mon, 12th September 2005]
Welcome to the FOSS.IN/2005 website! Over the next few days, a lot of information will appear here. If you wish to track this stuff automatically, join the announcement list or subscribe to the RSS feed.