[nycbug-talk] NYCBSDCon 2008 update

[George Rosamond]

We are posed to have the schedule/speakers posted in the next week, plus 
have registration open.

The site now has two color fliers for download. . . they print fine in 
b/w also.  We strongly encourage everyone to download a flier and make 
some copies to get around. . . and if possible, if anyone with access to 
a photocopier could bring copies to the meeting Wednesday for others who 
do not have photocopier access.

Pricing is the same as years past, $95, which considering inflation, is 
a pretty nice deal.  And of course the conference includes breakfast and 
lunch on both Saturday and Sunday.  The only change to the pricing is 
that we are opening up a discounted registration fee for *all* students 
at $50, which is the fee for Columbia students/faculty/staff.  A number 
of people at various campuses are speaking offlist about this. . . and 
anyone on a campus should contact me offlist if interested in getting 
the word out on campuses.

We are very excited for a number of reasons this year, but most 
importantly since the track record of the conference speaks for itself. 
. . NYCBSDCon has built up a lot of credibility over the past few years. 
  It meant an overwhelming number of speaker proposals.

That credibility also translated into a particularly impressive list of 
sponsors this year. . . thanks to all who helped out on this end.  You 
know who you are, even if we don't. :)

Additionally, the schedule is very strong this year.  The meetings 
reflect a lot of the vital work happening in all the BSD projects right 
now, particularly on file systems (hint).  And of course, Maryland's own 
Jason Dixon will once again keep us entertained on the theme of 
licensing, as he did so successfully last time with his "BSD is Dying" 
presentation.  Or rather performance.  For those who missed him in 2006 
http://www.nycbsdcon.org/2006/speakers.html#Dixon.

Other quick things to note:

* Both FreeBSD and NetBSD are having developer summits of one sort of 
another.  The contacts are each project are gnn@ for FreeBSD and 
JSchauma@ for NetBSD

* BSDTalk's Will Blackmon will be live at the conference and 
broadcasting to his podcast

* BSD Certification exam sessions are taking place, maybe both on 
Saturday and Sunday.  We will also be having some loose overviews of 
Unix concepts to assist those in preparing in the BoF room.  SK: do we 
need more volunteers on that?

Final note: this coming Wednesday's meeting will be focused on reviewing 
and building the conference. . . so if you want to be a part of that 
discussion, we strongly suggest you show up.

George