Utah Open Source Blog

So the challenge begins, UTOS-ConMan is in good shape from last year’s HackNights, but it does need a bit of a clean up and some new features as noted in a previous post.

The problem is that the Utah Open Source Conference 2009 needs a registration system.  Recently released from the guys over at the Southern California Linux Expo is some good code in the ScaleReg system.  We’re going to update and improve it over the next few months.  Hopefully, by mid-July, we’ll have it up and running with Django 1.0, and have it ready to roll for folks to start registration.

Now the real question is why are we blogging about all this stuff recently.  Well, the reason is, we need your help.  We’re looking for folks who are interested in learning or improving their Python/Django skills, helping with css and graphic design, testing and any other intangibles we haven’t thought about yet.  We’re looking for you and we’re looking to start this coming Tuesday.  So come on over and join the HackNight!

You might ask yourself, why would I help out?  And that’s a really good question, so let’s provide some good answers.  If you participate and provide some good feedback, code or contribute in some other way, you’ll get free admission the to UTOSC 2009 (a $70 value).  In addition, you’ll learn a valuable skill or improve upon your skill set as this project introduces some interesting and fun challenges.  There’s also pride.  This project will be used by many of the community tech conferences around the nation and world and your name will be among the contributors.  I’m sure there will be some conferences we haven’t even considered who will be using your code or design.  We’re also working on getting a couple good mentors who are expert Python and Django developers.  They’ll be on hand to help you with troubleshooting, common issues, etc.

I think we may have your attention now, so let’s talk about the details.  We know you want to come an help, so here’s how:

When: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 from 6:30pm - 11pm.  We encourage you to come for as many hours of this as you can and you can come anytime during these hours.

Where:  Clint Savage’s home; 5225 Gravenstein Park, Murray, Utah 84123

This information is available on the Utah Tech Events Calendar as well — http://sn.im/ute-calendar (iCal: http://sn.im/ute-calendar-ics)

If you are unable to join us physically, we’re going to be working in #utos-dev on irc.freenode.net so please feel free to join us there as well.  We’ll have some folks hanging out there as well to include you in the development project.  They’ll try to describe the goals and get you started as well.

We’re planning on making this an every other week HackNight for a while, so come on by on the first and third Tuesdays from 6:30-11pm.  We hope to see you all at the first UTOS-Conman/Scalereg HackNight of 2009 on June 2.

Cheers,

Clint

Hey everybody!

Guess what!  The Utah Open Source Foundation’s very own Jason Hall (Jayce^ [the face]) will be discussing the Utah Open Source Conference with Robert Merrill et al, on CouchCast.

CouchCast is a local show with topics around technology and business.  Its a call-in show, so be sure to get on the line in advance and ask questions.  Feel free to dial in around noon, 347-324-3797 and ask pretty much anything you like.

Discussions will include keynote announcements, presentations, family day, the Utah Open Source Awards, the troubleshooting challenge (last years big hit) and many other aspects of the conference at the end of August.

Jayce will also be discussing the Utah Open Source Foundation, its purpose, goals and plans for 2009.  Things like live streaming of Local User Group meetings, podcasts and other events to make it easier to spread the word about open source in Utah.

Feel free to check it out, here’s how:

When: July 7, 2008 12pm MDT
Where: http://couchcast.org (yes, its flash, sorry) –> hosted by blogtalkradio.

Enjoy the show!

Hi all,

Its been a few days since we blogged about the Utah Open Source Conference 2008 (in fact, more like 2+ weeks).  But I’m back now and ready to let you guys know that while there might be a few more bumps in our migration path, most of the Utah Open Source servers are up and working well.

We have been busy lately, preparing for an exciting and fun Utah Open Source Conference 2008.  New features continue to crop up on our main site.  Check them out and start watching for speakers as we’ll be approving presentations over the next few weeks.  The selection committee, made up of many professional geeks, LUG leaders and others, has been madly voting for their favorites so it looks to be a good list of presentations.

As of right now, UTOSC 2008 will begin in approximately 63 days.  And due to this, I’ve taken the time to create a little javascript that can be included in your site, with a neat countdown.  Have a look at the right hand side of our site.

We’d like to invite everyone to put this link on their website to help us get more people interested in the countdown.  Basically, this is a very similar countdown script to the ones released by each of the big Linuxes (Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE).

Just stick this code anywhere on your site:

<script id=“utosc-banner”
type=“text/javascript”
src=“http://dl.utosc.com/08/scripts/release-counter-ext.js”>
</script>

You should get something similar to this:

See you all at the Utah Open Source Conference 2008!

Cheers,

Clint

Tomorrow night, 7pm, in Murray at my house, we’ll be eating pizza and hacking on ConMan again.

If you are interested in joining the fun, please feel free to stop by and learn some kick-a** django skillz.

The last two HackNights were all-nighters and were very successful.  Tomorrow’s HackNight is to refactor the views a little and build out the blog portion of the app as well.  Feel free to come by and stay as long or as little as you like.

See you all there.

Cheers,

Clint

A special thanks to Guru Labs, Kevin Kubasik, John Weis, James Hancock, Will Smith and Trevor Sharpe for sticking it out much of Saturday night and into the wee hours of Sunday night.

The chinese food arrived at around 9pm, and we sat around talking design and ideas for the next 30 minutes, and about 11pm we really started digging into the project.

After about 12-13 hours of good coding, and time troubleshooting, learning, drinking loads of caffeine and a bunch of other good stuff, I’m proud to announce the first real progress on the ConMan project from UTOSF.

The general idea is to improve upon otherwise incomplete or sucky open source conferencing systems. ConMan (Conference Manager) is seeming to become quite good, with some good coding from Kevin Kubasik, good web design by John and some good perserverence as well by yours truly. Most of the group crashed out somewhere between 2am and 8am, Kevin and I however, continued to hack until we had something semi-solid at around 11:30am.

It was a great time had by all and a good framework has been built. Django seems like the perfect solution for this and we will even have CAPTCHA and email confirmation early in the 0.0.2 release.

For now though, if you are interested in seeing the Call for Papers, Call for Volunteers and Contact applications, please feel free to download it at http://code.google.com/p/utos-conman. We look forward to bug reports (which you can also make at the google code site, you just need a google account) and fixes in the future. Also any recommendations that are made will be taken into consideration.

In addition, keep an eye out for the “Call for Papers” to appear at http://2008.utosc.com very soon.

Cheers,

Clint Savage

Today, the Home Runs in IT Conference is taking place. Its an all day event so come on down.

Right now is the Utah Technology Council Breakfast where they are discussing what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

One thing I heard from Will West of Control 4 was that “its just a job” which surprised me. I’ve never thought about it this way, usually I anticipate starting an organization such as the Utah Open Source Foundation would be more than a job.

Another was to make sure not to get to in a hurry to “Shoot of an email!”. I’ve experienced this feeling before too and tend to write an email in a fit of passion and excitement only to erase it in the end.

Come on down, its going to be a blast! Registration is free with the discount code “hrinitutos”. See you all there

Cheers,

Clint Savage

As of 10 am this morning, on-line registration will be closed.  If you are interested in “last minute” registration, we will be accepting registrations on site only starting at 10am at the Open Source Technology Center.

Here’s a map for your convenience:  OSTC Map

Thank you for your registrations and we’re looking forward to seeing you all Today through Saturday!

Cheers,

Clint Savage

Utah Open Source

Register today.

Register today to get the discounted rate of $55 if you contact your SIG Leadership today!

https://register.utosc.org/

For more information visit:

http://www.utosc.org

SCHEDULE

Come check out the schedule. Its being updated daily, many presentations are are available, more to come.

The schedule is available at http://www.utosc.org/schedule.

https://register.utosc.org/

For more information visit:

http://www.utosc.org

SCHEDULE

Come check out the schedule. Its being updated daily, many presentations are are available, more to come.

The schedule is available at http://www.utosc.org/schedule.

Many of you have registered for the keynote only part of the Utah Open Source Conference. I’d like to offer to those of you interested in the rest of the conference to take the time this week and convert your registration.

Converting your registration is easy. Login to https://register.utosc.org/?Step=7 with the email address and confirmation code you were given. Update your information if you like and choose the option “Attend Full Conference”.

An email was recently sent informing you of this option and if you can find that email, you’ll also be able to determine how to get into the full conference for a measly $40 total. The price does jump to $55 at the end of this week, so register soon!

With over 30 presentations, opportunities for glorious swag and networking opportunities with others right here in Utah, why not sign up today. In fact, all proceeds from the conference go toward promoting open source in Utah and overall growth of the Utah Open Source communities at large.

If you haven’t already, sign up today: https://register.utosc.org. Get your discount codes from SIG leadership and get in for only $55. More information is available at our website, http://www.utosc.org.

See you all there.

Cheers,

Clint Savage
Founder, Utah Open Source Conference

Utah Open Source Conference 2007 nears. Only two weeks left and we’re getting really excited!

Discounted registration is available through Saturday, August 25, 2007.

Register today to get the discounted rate of $199 (or $40 if you contact your SIG Leadership today!)

https://register.utosc.org/

For more information visit:

http://www.utosc.org

SCHEDULE

Come check out the schedule. Its being updated daily, many presentations are are available, more to come.

The schedule is available at http://www.utosc.org/schedule.