LinuxFest Northwest 2008

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LinuxFest Northwest 2008 : http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/

Pacific Northwest, Bellingham, Washington (state) (Between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC, Canada)

LFNW08 - latest information

• Sponsors
• Vendors
• Speakers and presentors

LFNW regional partner LUGs (Linux User Group)

• BLUG - Bellingham, WA
• KPLUG - Kitsap Peninsula
• PLUG - Portland, OR
• PSNUG - Puget Sound, WA
• TAPCUG - Tacoma, WA
• TACLUG - Tacoma, WA

Volunteers

• Sign up now, (likely) [free t-shirt for helping out with the conference !]

OLPC / XO Laptop participation

Details about XO Laptop / OLPC presence at conference

Confirmed! Reserved - and no charge.

• Presentation room (in fact, reserved for whole conference, as "OLPC Track" !)
• Vendor table (in Non-profit Org area) for putting out literature, and demo of XO Laptop !

OLPC / XO Laptop volunteers

• (Also see /Attendees )

Presentation/Discussion ideas

Schedule (based on [Last year's 2007 Conference] )

Saturday April 26th (10 am - 4 pm)
Room	10:00	11:00	12:30	1:30	3:00
Tech-?	(Session 1) (60 min)	(Session 2) (90 min)	LUNCH	(Session 3) (90 min)	(Session 4) (60 min)
Sunday, April 27th (10 am - 4 pm)
Room	10:00	11:00	12:30	1:30	3:00
Tech-?	(Session 4) (60 min)	(Session 5) (90 min)	LUNCH	(Session 6) (90 min)	(Session 8) (60 min)

Possibilities

• Jam (usually 1 or 2 days) (either before or after conference, or evening)
• Health jam, presentation of health jam results (one week before)

Prizes / Giveaways / for sale

• OLPC /T-shirts - (idea/concept under discussion)

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Discussions on talk page and associated sub-pages.

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Full Announcement about OLPC at LFNW'08

Carrying forward from last year's Jessie's excellent (and very well attended) Red Hat / OLPC presentation [1] , momentum and awareness of OLPC has increased exponentially. With the initial public release in November of the XO Laptop to mass production. Limited fund raising event of the Give 1 Get 1 [2] program from November to December, created over 80,000 orders in 6 weeks. Which in turn started sending 'gift' XO Laptop first round installations into countries (and children's hands) such as Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Afghanistan.

Online resources for OLPC / XO Laptop is also growing quickly, with great overviews on http://laptop.org , and 5000+ pages of information on http://wiki.laptop.org including specific pages for support related questions via http://support.laptop.org .

Huge growing XO Laptop presence in Seattle [3] and other Pacific Northwest areas, volunteer community based support and repair shops popping up in several locations throughout Washington and Oregon, and the rest of the nation.

Exciting stuff to be sure, especially in the realm of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), XO Laptop focus is 100% open source [4] ! ! !

In respect to the Linuxfest Northwest 2008 conference, several things. . . .

So far there has been enough presenters and volunteers stepping forward,

that the LFNW event organizers have given a green light and background support for...

• A specific OLPC / XO Laptop presentation track !
• A dedicated vendors table for OLPC information and XO Laptop demonstration
• A specific dedicated room for presentations, discussions, and learning lab environment.
• Special coordination with Robotics and Solar/alternative energy presentation tracks with locations nearby !

Several special and very active OLPC community supporters have confirmed attendance too. . .

• Mel Chua (mchua) - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Mchua

OLPC Jam organizer [5], Summer of Content organizer for 2007, XO Laptop repair shop coordinator, Wiki editor, IRC support, etc . (A tip-of-the-hat to Candela Technologies Inc http://www.candelatech.com , for covering the costs to fly her in from the east coast area)

• Seth Woodworth (isforinsects) - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Sethwoodworth

OLPC organizer of public documents/media, learning materials, images, and other resources, also developer, support volunteer. Weekly Zine editor

• Iain Davidson (ixo) - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Ixo

OLPC Grassroots, support volunteer, wiki editor, Weekly Zine founder, IRC support, Activity developer, and volunteer XO repair shop.

BTW,

the interest by LFNW08 for OLPC/XO Laptop has also helped to create another OLPC Health Jam [6] event as part of the Health conference in Seattle !

(And hope to see the results of this event, presented at LFNW too ! )

We still have many opportunities still available for LFNW volunteers, and hoping to increase presence and awareness even further.

• Presentations about OLPC / XO Laptop experiences
  • Implementation
  • Development
  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Personal experiences with developing countries and what can be done to help.
  • Alternative methods for powering equipment (solar, wind, generator, etc...)
• A conference vendor to run a XS Server or centralized 'OLPC jabberd' server for special conference networking, mesh, or sharing demonstrations.
• Help assist with learning lab environment, and presentations
• Offering other items for the auction, or encourage vendors to exhibit !

Please visit the LinuxFest Northwest 2008, website for further information, or check out the starting OLPC wiki page for the latest.... ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LinuxFest_Northwest_2008 )

Especially, please bring OLPC / XO Laptops to the conference, to help demonstrate the power of mesh networking and sharing activities ! (Many free WiFi hotspots throughout Bellingham, and (likely) during the conference.... even several T-Mobile locations :)

I am very excited to see this come to fruition, . . . . hope to see you and many XO Laptops there !

-Iain Davidson

(aka ixo , on OLPC support-gang, irc #olpc-help , #olpc and email lists: grassroots, support-gang, developer, help etc.)

p.s. Sorry, I was unable to swing a deal for a special group-purchase of XO Laptop equipment in time for the conference. Support your local school system, in doing a community group "Give Many Get Many" for your local area.

NOTES:

[1] Jessie's OLPC Presentation link: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2007.html

[2] G1G1 Program: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Give1Get1

[3] Seattle XO user group: http://www.seaxo.com/

[4] Runs a "lite version" of Red Hat Fedora Core 7 , python is primary programming language !

[5] OLPC Jams: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Jams

[6] Health Jam Seattle: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health_Jam