A year of preparation & planning, fighting & execution, but hopefully, it will be all worth it.

First, have a look at the new and revised schedule

Gaze in awe at the now-revealed keynotes, and make sure you are at the inauguration ceremony to hear the story behind them.

And if you think that these talks are awesome – remember that FOSS.IN isnt’ just about these talks – the action is in the hackcenter where the workouts happen. And also after hours, when the hacker/tech talks happen. And in the corridors, the rooftops, the staircases, the FOSS Expo, and so much more.

Five days of a community getting together and making magic.

Ladies & Gentlemen: this is FOSS.IN/2009

Yesterday, we published the first cut of the FOSS.IN/2009 talks schedules at http://foss.in/2009/schedules. Have a look, and do get back to us if you see any problems. The final schedule will be out late on Saturday.

A word of caution: while we can understand you being anxious to know when your talk is, please remember that FOSS.IN is NOT about the talks alone, but about your interaction over the 5 day event with other delegates. It is therefore important for us to know if you are planning to be here only for your talk – if so, please let us know so that we can cancel your talk.

And if you plan to disappear after your talk, note that we will completely purge your talk from the schedule, with a note saying “Speaker thought s/he was a rockstar, left after talk, has been purged”, without your name, so that you will never be able to claim to have spoken at FOSS.IN/2009.

As you can see, we are very serious about the audience and event experience.

Update: Yes, there is a screwup in the schedule – workouts are not supposed to be listed there, but in a separate list, since they are no longer time bound, or schedule, they happen over all five days. Being fixed as we speak.

Alright – so the jinx continues. Just when we have everything in place, we are forced to call off the online payment process for logistical reasons. We aren’t going to go into any detail here – just that this time the problem is us, not the vendor (who bent over backwards getting things in place). The primary issue is that as a non-commercial, volunteer run event, we do not enjoy the kind of financial and legal protection in the case of credit card fraud or similar issues that commercial events have. Rather than take the risk of getting into trouble, we would rather not take a chance with it this year.

Right, with that behind us, here’s how you go about making your delegate fee payment

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One of the more exciting aspects of FOSS.IN is the WorkOuts, unfortunately, most participants are confused about the exact nature and purpose of the works, this post should demystify the WorkOuts:

WorkOuts are NOT:

- WorkOuts are NOT talks
- WorkOuts are NOT workshops
- WorkOuts are NOT tutorials
- WorkOuts are NOT BoFs
- WorkOuts do NOT happen on stage

What are WorkOuts?

WorkOuts are actual hands-on sessions by people who are familiar with the project and its code. Participants identify a set of issues or features that need addressing (the WorkOut Goals), and then get down to meeting those goals during (and after) FOSS.IN. continue

For people interested in taking stalls in the FOSS.IN Commercial Expo – booking has started, and stalls are going fast on a first come-first served basis. Click here to book you stall now.

Funds raised through the expo stalls are used to pay for event expenses – spreading things this way allows us to keep sponsor-slot costs lower than in previous years. (Reminder: only one sponsor slot is still open – grab it if you are a known FOSS-supporting organization who wants to be seen supporting India’s most important FOSS event).

Note: Non-commercial FOSS project groups  wishing to exhibit at FOSS.IN are eligible for free expo space.

Almost 800 people have registered as delegates for FOSS.IN/2009 at the time of writing, and we are still 2 weeks away from the event. Have you registered yet?

Later this week, we will begin announcing the sponsors of FOSS.IN/2009, since all but one sponsor slots have been filled (FYI – the Gold Sponsor slot is still open, though we are in discussion with a number of organizations for this slot). If your organization is FOSS-supportive, and would like to be seen sponsoring India’s most important technical event of its kind, do read and reply! A detailed Sponsorship Brochure is available for download as well.

For the first time, we are beginning to see some real media attention for our event – hardly surprising, given the fact that Free & Open Source Software is now dominating the technology fields, especially in the next generation mobile devices, every single one of which is *nix (i.e.UNIX – Linux, BSD, etc.) based. And India has become one of the largest contributors to FOSS projects world-wide, based on the the HUGE number of technically qualified people who work here – and many of who will make their way to Bangalore (if they aren’t already there) December 1-5 to be at FOSS.IN. The media has taken notice, and hopefully we are going to see some real coverage of what happens at FOSS.IN. Remember – FOSS.IN is not just about technology – there is a real human story to tell here as well. Talk to us!

FOSS Project Expo registrations will start this week as well – if you wish to demonstrate your FOSS project that you are actively involved in developing, be aware of the fact that we are providing free expo space to people like you. Just remember – no commercial projects – for that we have the Commercial Expo stalls that you can rent to exhibit your product.

We are working on the Talks Schedules, and they will be published in the week before the event – in the meanwhile, you can have a look at the shortlist of talks selected.

People are telling us on Twitter that they are excited about the event and look forward to be there. If you want to stay tuned to stuff happening, follow @fossdotin on Twitter.

All in all, this is an exciting time – the tensions inside Team FOSS.IN are at an all-time high, as they work round the clock to ensure that this year’s event does what has now become standard deliverable: beat last year’s event in terms of quality, content, facilities, productivity, size, comfort and fun.

Stay tuned for more updates!

FOSS.IN/2009 is barely two weeks away, and this week, all the big announcements will start going out.

So before things get totally buried in the excitement, we’d like to put out this post detailing some of the things that have changed since we last met, and what you can expect at the event. The next few posts will each address a specific aspect of FOSS.IN/2009.

Let’s start with the talks and event timings.

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