[PLUG] Fosscon in Philadelphia: 9 days away

[Jonathan Simpson <jonathan@jdsnetwork.com>]

FOSSCON
July 23, 2011 - (All day)

Hi everyone,
Next Saturday Basekamp will be hosting FOSSCON (Free and
Open Source Software Conference), focusing on the community
that has grown around Free and Open Source Software (FOSS),
and in parallel to both the Free Culture and Open Source
cultural movements.

This is a community-focused live event designed to build and
strengthen relationships between Free and Open Source
Software (FOSS) developers and users. FOSSCON seeks to raise
awareness of and promote FOSS alternatives to proprietary
software. Facilitating face-to-face interaction, creative
workshops, talks and think tanks, FOSSCON brings developers
and users together in a nurturing and dynamic environment
stimulating the free exchange of ideas and information while
fostering cross-project collaboration and dialogue for
innovation.

FOSSCON is organized by Peer-Directed Projects Center (PDPC)
– the group responsible for projects like Freenode and
fossevents – FOSSCON (along with Geeknics) is part of PDPC’s
desire to bring an already massive online community that has
grown around free and open source ideas, out into the world,
to meet, connect, support and challenge each other, imagine,
plot and co-develop beautiful, possibly useful and
unexpected things.

The people behind FOSSCON are free software enthusiasts,
user group members, coders and users – just like you! Free
software is all about community and this is a very
grassroots event, organized by the community and for the
community. Our common goal is to provide a space for us to
all come together in the northeast. We hope you’ll join us
as an attendee, a volunteer or an exhibitor.
Register
Admission is free and open to the public, but RSVP is
required (we expect to fill to capacity soon, but also
encourage connecting with others in nearby overflow spaces).
If you’re able and want to be a “FOSSCON supporter” you can
get a tote and thanks for $25. Whether free or a supporter,
please register here: http://fosscon.org/attend
Schedule
FOSSCON will last all day. See the regularly updated
schedule of presentations (and proposal guidelines) here:
http://fosscon.org/speakers

Anyone in the FOSS community with interesting and exciting
topics are invited to submit a talk to speak at this event.
 As a general event built for the community at large, the
range of acceptable topics is broad, however FOSSCON
traditionally favors topics with an immediate real world use
in home, work, or education environments and broadly
categorizes talks under one of these headings.

The program committee invites proposals for paper
presentations, demonstrations and poster contributions on
any topic relevant to FOSS awareness, accessibility and
application. We want to offer something for beginning,
intermediate, and advanced learning levels with particular
emphasis on the following topics:

    The Open Culture Movements influence on open source
    Beginning the FOSS conversion
    FOSS on a Windows Desktop
    Fun FOSS projects for your home
    Plugging into Social Media with FOSS
    FOSS in the workplace
    FOSS in education
    FOSS at non-profits
    FOSS Government
    Open Hardware
    Open Mobile Environments
    Your new awesome FOSS project
    Free Network Services

Exhibitors
If your group has an interesting project, or event useful to
the community, show it to the world at FOSSCON!  We invite
you to join us at FOSSCON to show the community what you’ve
done, what you’re doing, or what you offer.

    LUGs
    Hackerspaces
    Local FOSS events the community needs to know about


We still have a limited number of spaces available for
groups so please get in touch with us to reserve your spot.

Sponsors
We have a limited number of tables available for sponsors so
please get in touch with us early to reserve your spot.
We’re very interested as well in any suitable organizations
involvement in other ways, such as talks or other
interesting ideas you may have. Please see this link for
more info (oh, and obligatory but genuine shout out to
FOSSCON sponsors here as well): http://fosscon.org/sponsors

Location
FOSSCON will take place at Basekamp’s Philadelphia space
(the second floor), and also the JOG gallery (on the 4th
floor) of 723 Chestnut Street, located in the middle of
Center City Philadelphia. The building has bus, subway and
NJ transit stops on our block, and only a few minutes walk
from Market East Station and Greyhound bus terminal. See a
map with directions here:
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=basekamp&cid=15576003637506834736

Questions?
You can join us on the IRC network “chat.freenode.net” and
join the channel “#fosscon” to talk with the planning team
and others interested in Fosscon, ask questions, or
volunteer to help us out.  You can easily join the channel
using webchat by clicking here:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=fosscon

See you all then!
___________________________________________________________________________
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