[Scale-planning] Open Source in Education Track (was Re: About the Open Data Track)

Tue Aug 2 04:40:51 UTC 2016

Hi Ilan,
Why don't you let Kenneth Wyrick and I see if we can get this going? You have given us a list of things to work on below and we can get started right away with such things as whether Friday or Saturday would work best and how to get more educators to attend.* As I see it, an OSSIE track shouldn't be just for educators. With so many parents getting involved in the technology side of their children's education, things like the Khan Academy videos, Hour of Code and Scratch/ScratchJr are things that will have a wider audience than just professional educators.
Caryl
* Maybe we could get  a unit of college credit for folks who attend the entire OSSIE day and pay a small fee. Teachers can use this type of credit for professional development and, often, it can count toward increases in salary.

From: ilan at socallinuxexpo.org
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2016 14:45:05 -0700
To: scale-planning at lists.linuxfests.org; bala at socallinuxexpo.org
Subject: [Scale-planning] Open Source in Education Track (was Re: About the Open Data Track)

We haven't yet made a decision around OSSIE for this year, but as a track it has seen reduced attendance and submissions over the past few years. If we can come up with some concrete plans around what we'd want it to look like and discuss how we can get teachers to attend I'm sure we'd be happy to arrange space again. 
Another thing to keep in mind is we've gotten mixed feedback from teachers on what day to hold OSSIE on if we continue to do so. On the one hand we hear from many teachers they can't attend during the weekend as they have trouble getting the school district to give them a day off for the conference.  On the other hand, we also hear from them that they prefer to keep their weekends to themselves rather than for training.   

-Ilan

On Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi Folks, 
I've been watching silently from afar (summer in Montana). It looks like everything is coming along well, except for one thing that seems to be entirely missing: OSSIE (Open Source Software In Education.)
A few years back there was still a dedicated OSSIE track. Have you given up entirely on having one? If not, I'll be happy to volunteer to help organize, publicize, coordinate, and do what ever else needs to be done to make it happen.
Just let me know!Caryl

Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 1, 2016, at 1:46 PM, Ilan Rabinovitch <ilan at socallinuxexpo.org> wrote:

Hello Juan,
The local big data community has been running a data tools/big data track the last few years of SCALE. It's possible that what you're looking for might be covered there?   OpenData in general has been a topic we've had requests for over the years, so we decided to add a one day track around it.
That being said I think your email highlights an important point.  We find a lot of confusion from both attendees and speakers about what is relevant for a given track each year.  E.g. Is intro to kernel development a talk that belongs in the introductory/beginner track, a kernel track, or a developer track? 
With that in mind we have been looking to recruit experts around each track to help serve as "track leads".  The role involves writing a one paragraph abstract describing what type of content we are seeking for that track, helping to do targeted recruitment for invited speakers on those tracks, and finally participating in the voting/review process of sessions submitted via the CFP.
Here is an example of what QCon has done for these track descriptions
===
Track:  Containers -  From Dev to ProdAbstract: Containers came to prominence a couple of years ago with thepromise of portability, flexibility and rapid deployments. They remain a hot topic in the industry and there are several success stories of companiesderiving business value from the use of containers; especially in the area of developer experience. At the same time, container technology and thesurrounding ecosystem are evolving very rapidly, which makes it difficult to assess its readiness for production use.
In this track, we will hear from practitioners who are leveraging containers as part of their software delivery processes for a better developerexperience, simplified operations, efficient resource utilization, or all of the above. Speakers will share their experiences in tackling the complex challenges around CI/CD, scheduling and orchestration, service discovery, monitoring etc. andwhat it takes to truly reap the benefits of container technology.Track Lead(s): Sangeeta Narayanan, Netflix

===
This makes it very clear what the goal of the track is and what type of content they're seeking. 
If you see a track on the CFP that you think you'd be a good fit to lead, reach out to myself and Shyam (kapadia at socallinuxexpo.org). We'd love to have your help.  We're seeing at least 1 person per track, with 2 leads per track max.  
Thanks,Ilan

Ilan Rabinovitch Conference ChairSouthern California Linux Expo877-831-2569 x110 Voice 818-442-1865 Mobileilan at linuxfests.org Email
---Ask me about sponsorship and speaking opportunities at LinuxFests.org's upcoming events:DevOps Days SV -  June 24-25, 2016 - Mountain View, CA
Texas Linux Fest - July 8-9, 2016, Austin TXSCALE 15x - March 2-5, 2017 - Pasadena, CA

On Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 10:56 AM, Juan J. Natera <naterajj at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

I was taking a look at the CFP page

(http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/15x/cfp), when I read the

description of the Open Data track, which I quote here:

"Open Data - This newly introduced track will focus on topics related

to Open Data in Science, Government, and other sources. This will

strive to answer questions such as: Why does Open Data Matter? What

are benefits of Open Data? What are the goals of the Open Data

movement? What is its current status?"

As an Open Source enthusiast, I wholeheartedly agree with the

importance of Open Data, and realize there is a long road ahead of

those working to address this issue. However I believe that this

track, as described, would be more at home as a keynote in Data

focused conference. I am not saying it goes against SCALE's mission to

have this kind of content, far from it. but speaking also as an

attendee, I think SCALE users would be more interested in Open Source

tools for working with data (big or small), since it's already obvious

for most scale attendees that Open Data is just as good as Open Source

software.

I also realize that Big Data is mentioned in the Cloud Track, but

isn't there enough interest in this topic to deserve its own track?

Some food for thought,

Thanks,

Juan

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