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

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.

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

Delegate Fee Payment

First, make sure you have registered online, and have received your delegate code.

Registration at the venue starts at 9:00am.

Come to the venue, and as you enter the main gate, you will see see a large sign saying “Registration”. Head there, and you should find several counters there – one for Individual and Student Delegates who have pre-registered online, one for Corporate Delegates, one for Invitees, Press and Speakers, and one for unregistered delegates.

Here’s what each of you have to do:

Regular Delegates (Rs.750)

You need two things: your 8-character delegate code (which you got when you registered), and Rs.750 in cash (exact change, Indian Rupees only, please – no USD/Euros/Yen/etc.). Sorry, no cheques or any other forms of payment.

Come to the counter, and present your delegate code and your Rs.750. The volunteer behind the counter will do a quick lookup on the code (not on name, email address, etc – if you don’t have your delegate code, join the unregistered queue), and instantly print out your delegate pass (which will mention the amount paid – there is no separate receipt!), and hand it to you with a plastic card pouch and lanyard. You are done.

Student Delegates (Rs.500)

The procedure for Student delegates is identical to Regular Delegates, EXCEPT that you need a third item – your original (no photo copies!), valid Student Photo ID identifying you as a bonafide student of an institution affiliated to a bonafide university. And of course your delegate code and Rs.500. The volunteer will check both your delegate code and your Student ID. If the ID isn’t valid, have another Rs.250 ready, pay that as well to become a Regular Delegate. Once that is done, you will receive your delegate pass, puch and lanyard. You are done.

Corporate Delegates (Rs.3,000)

Corporate Delegates are special to us, and have a separate counter. The extra money they pay (Rs.3,000 instead of Rs.750) goes towards subsidising student registrations, as well as supporting the event financially. We will recognise this gesture on the site by listing companies who have sent corporate delegates.

Corporate delegates have the option of paying in cash, or by company cheque (registered companies only – i.e. Ltd. or Pvt.Ltd.). Company Cheques or Demand Drafts must be made payable to “FOSS.IN, Bangalore”. If you wish, you can optionally reduce the amount by 10% if there are more than 5 delegates being paid for with a single payment, 20% if more than 20 corporate delegates are being paid for with a single payment.

The procedure is the same, except that you can give a list of delegate codes (yes people still need to register online first!) along with the payment. You will receive the delegate passes, and you are done. You will also receive a separate receipt for your payment for reimbursement purposes (this does not apply to Regular and Student Delegates!)

Additionally, if you have sent in your payment earlier (contact us for electronic transfer details), we will keep your delegate passes ready – just walk up with your company name and delegate codes, and pick them up.

Unregistered Delegates

So you didn’t register online by midnight of November 30th. Tough, and thanks for the extra cash – you get to pay Rs.1,000 instead of Rs.750 to become a Regular delegate

Please collect the registration form from the counter, fill it in, then join the queue for unregistered delegates, hand in the form and Rs.1,000 in cash, and wait while your details are entered for you (that’s what you pay Rs.250 extra for – personalised secretarial services and a delegate code is generated. After that, you are a Regular Delegate.

Invitees, Press and Speakers

Invitees, Press and Speakers follow the same procedure, but do not have to pay the delegate fee. You have to be pre-registered as Press (mail press [at] foss dot in) and will have to present your press Photo ID to receive your pass, invitees will have their printed invitation cards, and speakers will need to show some form of Photo ID to identify themselves.

A note about the Delegate Pass

This year, there are no coupons for the delegate kits, the give-aways, the lunch, coffee/tea, etc. Instead, you have your delegate pass, which you wear round your neck at all times. The delegate pass qualifies you for access to all areas, and the bar code (or your delegate code) tells us whether you have received your kit, had your lunch, etc. To avail of any of these things, simply make sure that the volunteer servicing your request can see your delegate pass, delegate code/barcode.

So take GREAT CARE of your delegate pass, and don’t leave it at home when you come to the venue!

Losing your delegate pass requires you to buy another one, so please take care of it for all days of the event, and always wear it around your neck. Anyone found on the premises without a valid delegate pass will be asked to leave the premises, and either purchase a new delegate pass, or bring their original. The pass is required to be shown for entry, delegate kit, lunch and tea/coffee, etc. You cannot enter any hall or area without your pass clearly worn around your neck.

The pont we are trying to make here is simple: DON’T LOSE/FORGET YOUR DELEGATE PASS! No pass, no you. Period. No exceptions, even if you are clearly Linus Torvalds.

Sorry, but we are trying to make life simple for everyone in these troubled times.

Once you have your Delegate Pass

Slip the card into the pouch, clip on the lanyard, sling it round your neck at chest (not tummy!) level, and you are done.

Walk through the main entrance, and welcome to FOSS.IN/2009!

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.

WorkOut Registration – On-the-Spot

Unlike previous years, where you needed to get your WorkOut approved before the event, and had limited time to do so, this year you can come to FOSS.IN, register a WorkOut on-the-spot, settle down and get to work for all five days of the event.

WorkOut Lead

The WorkOut Lead defines the initial goals, and  is also responsible for reporting on the activities of the WorkOut at the end of the day. All WorkOut reports will happen just before the daily keynote in the main hall. The WorkOut Lead is also the person to whom any equipment (typically a small network switch, a power distribution box, whiteboard markers/erasers, etc.) are issued (which need to be returned at the end of the day).

WorkOut Participants

WorkOut participants are one or more FOSS.IN participants who work with the WorkOut lead to achieve the goals of the WorkOut. These can initially be decided before the event, but typically grow in numbers as others at the event join in.

WorkOut Area

WorkOuts happen in the dedicated WorkOut hackcentre on the first floor of the venue, but participation is not limited to that area – we have seen people participate from anywhere in the venue over WiFi, or from anywhere on the Internet, using IRC, wikis and other communication tools used by the FOSS community.

WorkOut Resources

A common WorkOut git/svn repository will be available at the venue for checking-in code during the event, as will be the WorkOut wiki at http://workouts.foss.in.

WorkOut participants will use their own equipment (typically notebooks) – we provide network, power, chairs and tables for you to use. If you need to have a group discussion, you can use one of several discussion rooms for upto an hour (they are shared resources), where you will also have access to whiteboards. We shall not be providing any Desktops/Laptops. Please bring your own Notebooks. Avoid Desktops.

Each WorkOut area (the set of tables where people work) will have a large number displayed which will be associated with the WorkOut listing that will be continuously updated on large displays at the venue. This will allow other participants to quickly find and join a WorkOut if they are interested.

It is important that everyone understands what a WorkOut is. It is not a talk (and no, WorkOut leads cannot convert a WorkOut into a talk session), nor is it a tutorial. The objective of a WorkOut is to fix problems, add features, refactorize code or just improve the overall quality of the code of a project. It is result-oriented, and WorkOut leads are expected to report on their progress at the end of the WorkOut.

Instructions to WorkOut Attendees

The algorithm to remember for joining a WorkOut is:

If you can contribute, and are familiar with the code of that project, join the WorkOut. If you cannot, or are not, then head for a talk, or join any of the conversations and discussions happening all around the event.

Instructions to WorkOut Leads

To help make your workout succeed we need to have a fairly well defined set of pre-requisites. If you haven’t filled them out yet please do so at http://workouts.foss.in.

We cannot ensure that people joining the workout have some skills which will help the WorkOut succeed. It is entirely possible that some people might start asking questions and meander which tend to be counter productive. In this case you can bring this to one of the organizers notice and we will make sure that the problem is solved.

Typically we assume you spend some time discussing the problem statement – ideally even before you come to the event. Once that is defined (keep it sane – “rewrite the Linux kernel from scratch” sounds ambitious but is impractical for a 5 day event, while “optimize and speed up the Linux boot process” sounds far more doable, as does “streamline the process of installing Nehru Cap Linux on a SevKitab notebook”

To ensure that everyone who is interested knows what the goals and progress of the WorkOuts are, each workout will be provided with a wiki page, which will be world readable. One person from the WorkOut will make entries onto the wiki which will help people who walk in at various times (or watch from the net) get up to speed quickly without asking questions. The quality of this documentation of goals and progress is obviously important – so much so that we are actually planning to hand out a prize for the best maintained and complete WorkOut wiki!

Note that each day will have a 30 minute workout wrap-up where all workout leads will be expected to present a five-minute progress report about the workout.  This will help us iterate and make things better. It would also help others to understand more about what you are doing and possibly join the effort.

Come WorkOut at FOSS.IN/2009.

Enjoy!

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.

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!

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.

Overview

First of all, you must remember that FOSS.IN has a lot of great talks happening, but at the same time, FOSS.IN is NOT about the talks – it is about what you do there. The core of the event is contribution and activity based – that means the FOSS WorkOuts, the discussions between existing and potential FOSS contributors, the interaction between people, etc.

This is why we don’t have a a huge deluge of talks over the 5 days of the event, and as we saw last year, some people will not attend a single talk because they are way too busy having fun in the WorkOuts.

The Role of the Talks

That does not mean that the talks are of any less value, but FOSS.IN is an event that is trying to change mindsets. Especially here in India, audiences tend to be very passive – they like to sit back in auditoriums and listen to speakers, learn something and go home. That’s NOT what we want to see! At FOSS.IN, talks have specific a purpose: they are meant to trigger you into action, so that when you leave the auditorium, you head for the hack-centers on the first floor of the venue, find/form groups and start working on stuff that you were just exposed to.

Keynotes

For this reason, we have also changed the position of keynotes in the schedule: instead of having a keynote at the start of the day, each keynote will be in the evening. And as usual, it will be by a speaker who isn’t some big-wig chief of some company, but by a FOSS contributor who will be talking about his or her actual work. Interesting and exciting stuff only.

Timings

There’s another reason why we are holding keynotes in the evening:

We understand that many of you will be at the event at varying times of the day. Unlike in the past, we have much more room and time this year at the new venue, and because of this we are able to move the “event window” from the usual 9am to 7pm to 11am to 10pm – more “hacker friendly” hours. This allows some people to attend office or college, and still make it to the event and participate gainfully.

And yes, that includes the entertainment.

The venue itself will be open from 9am as usual, to allow people to register, collect kits, gets acquinted, set up their expo stalls, get some work done in the workouts, etc.

Dinner

Because of the late hour, some people will probably want to have dinner at the venue. We recognise that this doesn’t apply to everyone, and therefore have made the dinner optional – if you wish to have dinner at the venue (after the keynote and entertainment), you can register and pay for that by 2pm every day, or simply pay up front for dinner for all 5 days. The charge will be minimal (we will let you know next week), but we don’t want to charge you when you know that you wont be around for dinner, hence this decision.

Right that’s it for this post. Stay tuned, more tomorrow.

http://foss.in/register/delegate-registration

You can now register yourself as a FOSS.IN Delegate, receive your delegate code, and make your plans to be at the event. Make sure you read the instructions.

UPDATE: Want to know the demographics of people registering? Check out the Live Registration Stats (updated hourly).

An international event such as FOSS.IN has many expenses associated with it, and we cover these through sponsorship.

FOSS.IN attracts a very specific kind of audience – highly technical, extremely talented, very enthusiastic. You can have a look at last year’s demographics to see what kind of people registered.

If you would like to be seen supporting the event by being part of it as a sponsor, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page, and we’ll get right back to you with details.

Thanks in advance for your support!