The openSUSE Conference Program and Keynote Speakers

With our conference, osc11, fast approaching (Have you registered yet? If not, what are you waiting for?!), the excitement is building all over the project.

Its quite some work to get to create a reasonable schedule for a conference. For osc we want to have a program with talks that interest all our visitors. And as visitors have a wide rage of skill levels we also want to balance the depth of the talks. Another thing we wanted to create are “gravitation centers” for our key topics within the program. Oh and we also seek out for new contributors with our conference. And all that needs to be sorted between rooms with different sizes, within the tracks you think are useful, with breaks, time to change rooms and so on and son on. Quite some parameters to take into account. That said, we are very happy that we can announce the schedule for the openSUSE Conference 2011 today!

//conference.opensuse.org/timetable

We have scheduled more than 100 contributions in the four days of the conference. More than 50% of those are interactive like birds of a feather sessions (BoFs) and workshops, that is along with our motto RWX³ which basically means that people should not only just listen, but also do things.

So as the schedule is done, speakers are working on their presentations and evening events are being planned in full swing. And to top it all off, each day we have an awesome keynote speaker to get us psyched up for the rest of the conference. Let’s introduce you to some of our speakers.

Jos Poortvliet Topic: Opening Session Date: Sunday, 11-September-2011 – 10:00 a.m. Job: openSUSE Community Manager **Quote: ** You should go to openSUSE Conference because you can make a difference and have fun doing it

Vojtech Pavlik Topic: **Opening Session **Date: Sunday, 11-September-2011 – 10:00 a.m. Job: Director SUSE Labs **Quote: ** You should go to openSUSE Conference because we can meet there.

Jos Poortvliet and Vojtech Pavlik will welcome you with a kick off to the openSUSE Conference Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. This is your chance to get up to speed about all the great things that have happened in the openSUSE Project for the past year and really get ready for the Conference itself. After all, this conference is about you and team building and productivity through our RWX3 theme.

Jos is a Dutch Organization Psychologist, long-time Free Software evangelist and openSUSE community manager for SUSE. He coordinates the marketing around the project, is visiting and organizing conferences, and maintaining contacts with the press.

Vojtech studied biophysics and informatics, developed autonomous robots, wrote most of the Linux kernel input device handling, and bits of a bunch of other code in there, now, after 12 years with SUSE, serves as the Director of SUSE Labs.

Greg Kroah-Hartman Topic: The Current State of openSUSE Tumbleweed Time: Monday 12-September-2011 – 11:45 a.m. Job: Linux Kernel Developer Quote: You should go to the openSUSE Conference because it’s the largest gathering of openSUSE users and developers in the world, why would you ever want to miss that?

Join us as Greg introduces us to what Tumbleweed is, it’s goals and ambitions. It’s one of our most exciting and popular initiatives within the openSUSE Project. With an overview of how well it is currently working, what types of packages are being added, and how to use it, you’ll be sure to want to get in on the Tumbleweed Bandwagon. Greg will then wrap up with future plans for Tumbleweed and how developers and users can get involved in moving Tumbleweed forward.

Greg Kroah-Hartman is a fellow at SUSE and a Linux kernel developer. He is responsible for the Linux kernel stable releases, and is the maintainer of the USB, driver core, tty, and staging portions of the kernel. In openSUSE, Greg is driving the Tumbleweed rolling-release which aims to provide a rolling updates version of the distribution containing the latest stable versions instead of relying on rigid periodic release cycles. Greg’s keynote will evolve around Linux 3.0 and other, more serious, adventures in his life.

Michael Miller Topic: SUSE and openSUSE Time: Tuesday, 13-September-2011 – 11:45 a.m. Job: Vice President Quote: You should go to the openSUSE Conference because you’ll meet up with friends, have lots of fun and also learn about and contribute to your favorite parts of the openSUSE project.** **

It’s been nearly a year since the announcement of the acquisition of our main sponsor by Attachmate. Since that time, we’ve seen organizational changes to our sponsor’s various business units. Join us as we hear Michael’s vision for a stronger relationship between SUSE and the openSUSE Project and what this means for us.

As Vice President of Global Alliances & Marketing for SUSE, Michael Miller is responsible for growing the SUSE Linux business globally through key alliances and innovative technology initiatives. Michael will deliver a keynote on the future of the symbiosis of the new SUSE company and the openSUSE Project.

The openSUSE Project Title: Wrapup Session Time: **Wednesday 14-September-2011 – 4:15 p.m **Quote:Have a lot of fun…

Join us for the closing session as we all gather together to reflect on the conference and the state of the openSUSE Project. This meeting will be led by the openSUSE Board and provides an open dialogue opportunity with the board as well as proposing new initiatives you may have on a variety of topics.** **This is your opportunity to help further shape the direction of our community for the coming year.

We hope you will enjoy the program and the keynotes at osc11. See you in September!