0x07 days until ApacheCon: Download the program guide!

Yes, ApacheCon has improved itself this year, and is now offering the compete program guide to ApacheCon EU 2009 as a downloadable PDF file. Get your copy now – they’re free! – and see what you’ll be missing if you can’t visit us in Amsterdam.

Remember that if you can’t make it, you’ll still be able to watch some of our content, which is being offered as a live (or recorded) video stream of ApacheCon by Linux Pro Magazine.

Astute readers will realize that I’ve finally admitted I missed a few days of updates earlier on. This was because your host – Shane – has both been working overtime at $dayjob, as well as arranging a small family birthday this past week.

That is a prime example of why some people believe in Community Over Code. One-person projects will falter when the person either moves on, gets too busy, or simply has finished the features that they needed from the projects. Projects with a handful of developers from a single company will always fall by the wayside if their company moves in a different direction, or has a major crunch period of internal work. The best way to ensure the longevity and greater success of a project is to build a community of equals around it.

0x0F days until ApacheCon: [ANN] Keynotes & MeetUps; Room Discounts expire 13-March

If you were on one of our announce@ lists, you would have gotten this email tonight!

ApacheCon Europe 2009 announces our Keynote Speakers; welcomes you to our Special Events; reminds you our Special Package Discount expires at the end of today; and issues last call for ApacheCon US 2009 CFPs!

ApacheCon Europe 2009 Keynote Speakers

  • Wednesday: Raghu Ramakrishnan, “Data Management in the Cloud”
  • Thursday: James Governor of Red Monk
  • Friday: Apache Pioneer’s Panel – 10 years of The Apache Software Foundation – featuring luminaries from early days of the ASF

Special Events: MeetUps, BarCampApache, and more

  • Join the Wicket, Jackrabbit, Portals, Lucene, and Maven communities in
    their free MeetUps on Monday and Tuesday night. MeetUps are for hacking
    with the committers, and bringing your user question to the community. See the MeetUp schedule and sign up to participate
  • Sign up to attend BarCampApache (also free) on Monday, where everyone
    can be a speaker. Be sure to sign up your name on the wiki soon! Add your name to the BarCamp wiki to participate.

Special Discount Package of EUR 150 off *ends* after 13 March!

The Special Discount Package provides a saving of EUR 150 off of the Full Conference price, only for guests staying at the Mövenpick Hotel for 2 or more nights. To qualify for this discount you will need to register at the Mövenpick using our link for your reservation, and then register for the conference as an attendee, and select the “Special Discount Package” registration checkbox.

Book your hotel room, and Register for the conference.

CFP for ApacheCon US 2009 closes!

You may still submit a CFP for ApacheCon US 2009, held 2-6 November in
Oakland CA until the submissions closing deadline of 14 March 2009 at
12:00 GMT.

Interested in sponsoring ApacheCon or related events?

Contact Delia
Frees at delia@apachecon.com for further information. Or, see the current sponsors of ApacheCon Europe 2009.

—
ApacheCon Europe 2009 Team
planners-2009-eu@apachecon.com
http://www.eu.apachecon.com

0x10 days until ApacheCon: Check the time!

Just a quick reminder: double-check what time it is! Remember that the US has already “sprung forward” and changed to daylight savings time; however Europe and much of the rest of the world will not be changing daylight savings for another few weeks, on Sunday, 29-March following ApacheCon.

This is a key thing to remember for anyone scheduling international conference calls, or when planning to catch your flight.

An excellent resource about times, timezones, and dates around the world is Time And Date.

0x11 days until ApacheCon: Dear Speakers

James Duncan Davidson – a longtime ASF member and past speaker, now photographer – has some excellent tips in his post “Dear Speakers“. There’s also a lot of great commentary there about improving public speaking, especially in a geeky or tech-y crowd.

Be sure to read the comments, there’s some great discussion going on there. And note these are great tips both for regular session speakers, as well as for any public speaking. And there are plenty of opportunities for you to speak at ApacheCon in our other special events.

(This is one of a series of catch-up posts; it’s really less than 2 weeks until ApacheCon!)

0x12 days until ApacheCon: Meet the MeetUps

Along with the usual array of Special Events at ApacheCon, we’ve had tremendous interest so far in the MeetUps scheduled on Monday and Tuesday evenings between 18:00 and 23:00

MeetUps are free for attendees, and are focused on individual project communities. In fact, the community is the primary driver to having a MeetUp – they’re doing the organizing, and the conference is happy to be able to provide space in our hotel this year. The only registration for the MeetUps is to sign up on the wiki page. If you have something to present, great; put it on the wiki, if not, just come with your questions about the project. Laptops are expected.

The ApacheMeetupsEu09 wiki page really has all the key details. If you go, tell them that Shane sent you.

  • Wicket Meetup (day TBD depending on signups), has their own flickr tags.
  • Jackrabbit Meetup (day TBD depending on signups), or anything about JCR; had a great meetup in 2008 too.
  • Portals Meetup (day TBD depending on signups), including Portals Pluto, Jetspeed, Bridges and WSRP4J and other related projects.
  • Lucene Meetup, will be Tuesday evening; ask about Lucene, Mahout, Solr, Droids, more.
  • Maven Meetup (will be held if there are enough signups).

Many, many thanks to Arjé Cahn for his patience with everyone! His tireless drive to ensure the MeetUps got organized and could share our space this year, a win for everyone, both MeetUp’ers and ApacheCon attendees as well – plus thanks to all the MeetUp organizers and project committers who are planning on presenting or being there to answer questions. We hope to get a number of Amsterdam area locals coming just for the MeetUps who will get to see a little bit of what ApacheCon is about.

0x13 Days until ApacheCon: On your favorite social network

ApacheCon’s social network is CrowdVine, where you can create your personal schedule of sessions, export as iCal, comment on sessions, and friend/fan other attendees. But as the ASF is vendor-neutral, we’re also social network-neutral. Sign up to show you’re attending or add your content on any of these:

0x14 days until ApacheCon: It’s cheaper this year!

Did you know that for most travellers, ApacheCon Europe 2009 will be cheaper than the 2008 conference? VAT taxes will not be charged this year, so travellers will find corresponding fees less than last year.

If you’re interested in staying at the Mövenpick Hotel (which is very nice!), they’ve extended their room block discount through 13-March. So you can still register for a discounted hotel room, and if you’re staying at least 2 nights in the Mövenpick, you can register for the Special Discount Package 3 Day Conference Pass, which saves you another 150 Euro off the full conference admission price.

Past conference attendees and members of a variety of other local user and open source groups may be eligible for discount codes as well – check your past emails from the ApacheCon Planning team or from info /dot\ stonecircle /at\ gmail /dot\ com for any discount codes (which you enter later in the registration process) you may be eligible for. All ASF Committers, as usual, register with a special discount code as well.

(Yes, I know I’m a little late with this posting – that’s the trouble when you fall asleep before you remember to post!)

0×15 days until ApacheCon: Are you listening?

We’ve all got iTunes (OK, maybe not everyone), but have you subscribed to FeatherCast yet?

FeatherCast is a semi-regular podcast run by a pair of ASF Members, Rich Bowen and David Reid. They interview committers, members, and speakers involved with ApacheCon and various Apache projects. Listening to the podcasts is sometimes a really nice way to get a different perspective on some of our projects and upcoming speakers than just reading everyone’s blog.

If you’re thinking of attending any of the trainings at ApacheCon Europe 2009, then be sure to catch several of their FeatherCasts with some of the trainers going into the details of their trainings.

Stay tuned for posts about our live video streaming, and some other 10th anniversary tidbits of the ASF.

0×16 days until ApacheCon: What sessions are when?

Can only make ApacheCon for one day? Coming all week but want to plan out what you’ll be doing? Can’t make it at all, but want to see the live video streaming we’ll have available?

We’ve done an even better job than before in focusing our tracks each day, so you can pick and choose, and know you’ll be getting a strong selection of talks on specific topics.

Wednesday

Morning Keynote: Data Management In The Cloud

OSGi and Geronimo
If we did any more on OSGi – all the way from quickstart, to real-life tales, to Geronimo management – we’d have to call ourselves Eclipse.
Data Mining and Search Technologies
Come hear about one of our most wildly popular projects – Lucene – and it’s many related search and data processing subprojects.
Business and Community
You don’t need to wear a suit – in fact, most people won’t. It’s an excellent resource for how our technology – and communities – fit into the larger ecosystems we live in.
Geeks for Geeks (Focus: Hadoop) (Live video stream)
You know you want to be here. Grid your Hadoop on the cloud in the cluster with a Pig in this highly technical track. (Yes, a Pig!)

Wednesday evening features the delicious opening reception with a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the ASF, as well as BOFs afterwards.

Thursday

Afternoon keynote: Open sourcing the analyst business – turning proprietary knowledge inside out

Tomcat for Developers and Administrators (Live video stream)
This grandkitty of Servlet containers and JSP’s is as popular as ever – learn the details here.
Service-Oriented Architecture
Use your Synapses to figure out the right ServiceMix for your enterprise.
Business and Community
This day of biz/community talks is for everyone, and shows how to get community done right.
Geeks for Geeks
Thursday’s afternoon of G4G gets into some cutting edge tools. (Note: pony not included.)

Thursday features our ever-popular Lightning Talks, my personal favorite event of anything ApacheCon.

Friday

HTTP Server Administration (Live video stream)
Just what it says: hardcore httpd learning from people who helped write it; security & advanced topics.
Builds and Clouds
As the ASF and it’s projects grow, so do it’s build management tools.
Java Development
Get your java weenie hat here. Yes, that’s a good thing. Along with all the overviews, I want to see the Shindig.
Geeks for Geeks
Can you handle a third day of G4G?

Stay for the end of Friday, where we have a Closing Plenary and Raffle – with a number of prizes you definitely will want to win.

Have a better description of one of our tracks? Let us know here!

0x17 days until ApacheCon: signup on CrowdVine

As with almost any conference, the chance to network with the people actually working on key technologies is a key part of the experience. ApacheCon has teamed up once again with CrowdVine to offer our own private social networking system.

All attendees – heck, even if you’re not attending, but know some of our projects or committers – are welcome to create a profile on the ApacheCon EU 2009 CrowdVine site. Just Create an Account or Login there.

Note that if you have an existing profile on a CrowdVine site and use the same email address to login, it will pull in your existing bio, url, and personal profile.

On the CrowdVine site for ApacheCon, you can sign up for a personalized schedule of the conference, picking which sessions you’d like to attend, and get your own personal iCal. The great thing about clicking the green plus for sessions there is that you’ll be able to see who else at the conference is planning to attend each particular talk.

CrowdVine also offers several different ways to network and communicate, including making friend/fan/want to meet connections with other attendees as well as having an overall and per-session discussion boards for asking speakers questions or giving feedback. It also provides a nice way to see what other projects or communities other people are interested in.