[Ksummit-2007-discuss] OLS 07/08

[C. Craig Ross]

Hi,

I don't want to redirect the 2008 thread but after reading through the 
archives I thought I would take a moment to address some of your 
concerns about OLS as well as briefly share our agenda for 07/08.  I'll 
apologize in advance if I missed anything, as I just joined this list an 
hour ago and am still going through the archives.

Firstly, we want to thank you for sharing your comments, whether 
positive or negative, about OLS.  While we will be including a survey in 
our event program this year, it is beneficial to get some early feedback 
from KS attendees.

Hopefully it is alright if we address some of the concerns you mentioned 
in relative point form.  Also, please don't consider any of the 
following as "official", we just wanted to let you know what we 
tentatively have planned for the immediate and long-term future.  Any 
official announcements will be made at OLS next month.

Why Ottawa
----------------
Outside of the obvious fact that Andrew and I reside here, Ottawa is a 
relatively great place to hold a conference.  There are plenty of 
restaurants, pubs, cafes, and a plethora of tourist attractions that 
make it an enjoyable place to visit.  It is also one of the more cost 
effective locations as far as Canadian cities are concerned. 

It isn't to say that Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax wouldn't be 
possible options, but hopefully you can appreciate the risk of picking 
up and relocating the event and *hoping* that people will continue to 
attend.  We've had a steady increase in attendance and sponsor support 
since our inception, so we certainly are a little concerned that if we 
moved the event that our costs would increase to the point that it 
wasn't viable.  Or that we would have to increase our registration fees, 
etc. 

It is something that we will be asking people to offer input on in the 
upcoming event survey though.

Another venue
-------------------
We share your thoughts on the lack of cosmetic appeal of the Congress 
Centre. :)  We were advised a year ago that they would be expanding the 
OCC and renovating completely which is why we thought we would wait and 
see what happened before we considered any other venue (from the limited 
options available for an 800 person event).  The latest from the venue 
is that if they are unable to proceed with the renovations then they 
will be upgrading the facility completely in the next year.  A final 
decision is expected in July.  The decision for us will come following 
OLS after we have the chance to review the attendee and sponsor surveys.

In the immediate future, we have modified the layout of the venue to 
offer additional BOFS space and multiple tutorial rooms as well as a 
quiet computing area for attendees.  It will also be made available for 
meetings, interviews and other similar uses.

Will wireless work?
-------------------------
Thanks to Cisco we will have an entirely new, managed wireless network 
infrastructure this year (and in the future) that will dramatically 
improve the speed and reliability of the conference network.  It will 
support 802.11A in addition to 802.11B and G.  It will be supported by a 
30Mbit/7.2Mbit network link using public Ipv4 addressing space with 
reverse DNS service.  So your VPN connections should just work, along 
with everything else.

Any new content?
-----------------------
As Gerrit mentioned, the content for OLS is determined by submissions.  
We've concluded that this clearly isn't the best option going forward 
and will be announcing a number of changes for '08 (official 
announcement will be at OLS, so consider the following tentative).  
These include: two days of tutorials, a technology showcase, and the 
introduction of "tracks".  There will still be two tracks for the 
Kernel, which will most likely always be one of the most popular subject 
at OLS, but we will also have a Userspace track and one for high end 
System Administration topics. 

We will also be taking a proactive approach to find cool new projects 
and technologies and encourage the individuals working on them to 
contribute to the event.  This will hopefully include finding ways to 
get them to Canada.

2008
------
With 2008 marking the 10th anniversary of the event, we sincerely hope 
that the above mentioned improvements as well as a number of others will 
make the event as appealing and education as possible.  It is our hope 
that Linux and Open Source developers and the companies supporting such 
development continue to consider OLS as one of the more informative and 
enjoyable conferences that they attend each year.

As always we do welcome your feedback.  If you have any comments or 
suggestions please let us know.  We are very open to suggestions and 
want you to know that your feedback is critical to the direction of the 
event.

Thanks and my apologies for the length of this message. :)

Cheers,

C.