Early Registration Deadline and Micro-Conference topics

Reminder: The early registration deadline is Tuesday August 31st. Register before the deadline for the discounted $275 registration fee. After the deadline the fee goes up to the standard rate of $325, and then after October 11 up to $400 for late registration.

Linux Plumbers is now just over two months away, and the micro-conference track leads are evaluating the submitted proposals to make an initial selection of topics for each track.

However, there is still time to submit your topic proposals for the micro-conferences. While there is no hard deadline, proposals submitted in the next week are far more likely to be selected by a track lead. If there is a topic or issue you think needs to be discussed at Plumbers this year, then submit a proposal for it now!

Call for Papers Deadline Extension to July 26th

The Linux Plumbers conference planning committee is announcing an extension to the call for papers deadline by one week to July 26th, 2010. We’re also taking this opportunity to clarify the difference between presentation and micro-conference proposals. There has been some confusion, and we want to make sure that everyone is happy with their submissions.

There are two major parts to the Linux Plumbers Conference. Primarily Linux Plumbers hosts 12 micro-conferences of 2.5 hours each. The micro-conferences give developers from many projects the chance to sit down in the same room to discuss issues, make plans, and solve problems. A track leader is assigned to each micro-conference who is responsible for setting the agenda, directing discussion, and identifying key people who need to be in attendance. Typically, micro-conferences have time to discuss 3 or 4 topics, and each topic may have a short (~5-10 min) lead-in talk to introduce issues and/or propose solutions with the rest of the time devoted to discussion.

Linux Plumbers also hosts a presentation track running all three days in parallel with the micro-conferences. The presentation track is your typical conference fare of a 30-35 minute slide presentation followed by 5-10 minutes of questions.

Micro-conferences and presentations complement each other when they address the same topic. A presentation can provide background information on a topic that is also discussed in a micro-conference. We are actively be looking for presentation topics that complement the micro-conferences, and participants are encouraged to submit proposals for both tracks.

If there are any questions about the conference format, or the submission process, please do not hesitate to contact the planning committee by emailing the Linux Plumbers mailing list: lpc-contact@linuxplumbersconf.org.

Reminder: Presentation Proposals due July 19

The deadline for presentation proposals is rapidly approaching. If you would like to make a presentation at this year’s plumbers, then please get your proposal in before the end of the day Monday via:

http://www.linuxplumbersconf.org/2010/ocw/events/LPC2010/proposals

More information can be found in the Call for Papers.

Submissions for micro-conference topics and BoFs also remain open.

The 2010 LPC Committee

Linux Plumber’s Conference: Call For Working Sessions Submissions

The Planning Committee for the Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) is happy to announce that submissions to the “micro-conferences” portion of the conference is now open.  The micro-conferences are working session focused on specific infrastructural “plumbing” in the Linux system – kernel subsystems, core libraries, windowing system, etc. — which are half-day in length.

The potential topics for the working sessions can be found at Topics Page on the LPC Wiki and include (but are not limited to):

  • Power Management
  • Virtualization
  • Mono
  • Desktop
  • Tracing
  • Real-time response for full FOSS/Linux stack
  • User-visible Problems in Networking
  • Media Infrastructure
  • Audio
  • HA Clustering
  • Legal Hygiene
  • Embedded Topics
  • Boot/init

The topics that will actually have working sessions scheduled at the LPC will depend on the submissions to the microconference and on the ability of its respective community to organize a successful working session; see the “Responsibilities of a working session leader” page on the LPC wiki for more details.

Microconference submissions do not have to reflect finished work.  In fact, proposals or proof-of-concepts of potential solutions to important problems are encouraged, so they can be discussed and debated during the microconference.

Proposals for presentations at a microconference may be submitted on this web site.  In addition to the micro conference, the Linux Plumbers Conference has open calls for papers and BoFs.

For further announcements about LPC, please watch our blog or subscribe to our LPC announcements mailing list.

Linux Plumbers Conference: Call For Papers

The Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) is a developer conference for the open source community.  The LPC brings together the top developers working on the “plumbing” of Linux – kernel subsystems, core libraries, windowing system, etc. – and gives them three days to work together on core design problems. The conference is divided into several working sessions focusing on different “plumbing” topics, as well as a general paper track.

Unlike the talks in the working sessions, which discuss work still in the design or implementation phase, submissions to the paper track may (but are not required to) discuss work that is completed or has reached a logical stopping point.  Submissions to the paper track may address any technical topic related to the Linux software ecosystem.  Preference will be given to proposals presenting a reasonable solution to a well-known or little-recognized problem, rather than just a problem description on the one hand or a presentation of work already completed on the other.

Submission format

LPC invites paper proposals in the form of extended abstracts.  All proposals will be reviewed by the LPC Technical Program Committee.  The extended abstract may be up to 500 words and should include your qualifications to speak about the topic, an overview of the topic, and why the topic will appeal to a technical audience.

Proposals are due by July 19th, and should be submitting via:

http://www.linuxplumbersconf.org/2010/ocw/events/LPC2010/proposals

Please note that proposals will be subject to an open peer review; that is, the proposals are public, and anyone may make comments to the technical program committee regarding the proposals.

Acceptance notifications will be sent during the week of August 18th.

Final Papers (or Slides) are due on October 22, 2010.

The 2010 LPC Committee

BoF Sign Up Now Open

The Linux Plumbers Conference is now accepting Birds of a Feather (BoF) signups here

We’re not quite sure how many rooms will be available for BoFs or the timings, but if you sign up now, we’ll assign times and locations to them in once the room availability becomes clear.

Registration is now Open

For really early birds, the registration link above is now live.

It’s redirecting to the linux foundation registration site for those of you who just can’t wait to reserve your place.  The Earlybird registration price of $275 will be current until 31 August 2010.

Call for Track Ideas

This year, Linux Plumbers Conference will take place in Cambridge, MA on November 3-5, 2010. Unlike more traditional conferences, the Plumbers conference is not structured around presentations of completed work, or problems and solutions confined to a single subsystem or layer of the Linux ecosystem. Rather the Plumbers Conference encourages BOFs type meetings and brainstorming sessions where technical experts from different areas and leaders in the Linux and Open Source world can get together and discuss how to make progress towards the solution of interdisciplinary multifaceted problems spanning multiple components of the Linux system. In some sense, the Plumbers Conference is really more of a workshop.

The program committee for the Linux Plumbers Conference is looking for proposals for the “tracks” that will be run during the Plumbers Conference. To do that, we are looking for “problem statements”: things that could be improved in Linux that cross multiple interfaces or other project boundaries (if you can solve it yourself inside a single project, please, don’t let us stop you — get hacking!). We are looking for problems that require collaboration and face-to-face communication across multiple teams and open source projects. These problems could apply to anywhere Linux is used: Linux on the Desktop, Linux on Mobile devices, Linux on servers, etc.

For example, if in order to get better performance, we need to get better information about low-level devices from the kernel, and that needs to be utilized by file system utilities, and the user needs to be able to involved by exposing options at the UI level in control panels and distribution installers — the Plumbers conference might be a great place to get everyone in the same room for half a day to solve this particular problem.

Along with your problem statements or track ideas, please list the projects which and/or key individuals who ideally should be present, and who might be a good person or persons to run such a conference track.

If you have any suggestions about possible topics/tracks for the Linux Plumbers Conference, you can either:

Many thanks for helping to make Linux an even better platform!

The 2010 LPC Committee

Note: The Linux Plumbers Conference will be co-located with the Linux Kernel Summit which will be held earlier that week.

What is Linux Plumbing?

Once upon a time, the kernel stood alone and presented services to the system by way of the system call interface. In current systems, instead, users see a view of the system that is created by a whole set of utilities, including the C library, udev, HAL and more. Interactions between these low-level components and the kernel are not always as smooth as they could be, and despite the best efforts of the kernel development community, kernel releases have been known to occasionally break utilities like udev.

Jonathan Corbet

Jonathan Corbet calls this the “kernel ecosystem”. We call it the “plumbing,” a collection of essential interfaces and services provided by the libraries, kernel, and utilities that make up a Linux system. Currently, when a problem exists that involves both kernel and user space, a developer must attend several different conferences to discuss the problems face-to-face with other key developers. As a result, problems crossing multiple subsystem boundaries are more difficult to solve than those within a subsystem.

The Linux Plumbers Conference was created to bring together the key developers involved in Linux plumbing – the “Linux plumbers” – and give them an opportunity to discuss problems face-to-face, both within subsystems and across subsystems. Participants include invited attendees, speakers selected through an open, competitive review process, and students. Registration is open to the general public as well.

Solving Problems

A number of us on the Kernel Summit mail list have been complaining that we need something like this badly. We need a place for the HAL, dbus, audio framework, kernel, X and other assorted developers to get together and hash out some of this in person. This would be a perfect place for it.

Greg Kroah-Hartman

The goal of the Plumbers Conference is to solve problems. The conference is arranged as a series of microconferences, each on a topic that is narrow enough to identify specific problem areas and brainstorm workable solutions. Each microconference is led by an expert in the field and organized to encourage discussion and problem solving. Microconferences will be scheduled so that representatives from related subsystems can attend other microconferences. In addition to the microconferences, there will be a general track for discussing issues that don’t fit into microconferences, or come up during the conference.

The Linux Plumbers Conference is underwritten by The Linux Foundation and organized in partnership with The Linux Foundation and community volunteers. The Linux Plumbers Conference is a revenue neutral event.