What kind of proposals, you ask? Open Source Bridge strives to be a different kind of open source conference: one that welcomes all open source languages, platforms, and pursuits while embracing responsible and engaged open source citizenship.

The conference’s tracks are:
Business: How do you build a successful open source business?
Chemistry: What makes this work? Take the technology apart and teach us about its components.
Cooking: How do you write the script, configure the utility, debug the code, make it work? What are your best recipes?
Culture: What makes open source work? What else does the open source ethic lead us to do?
Hacks: How did you pull that off?

For a little additional inspiration, we encourage you to look through previous years’ archives of sessions presented at Open Source Bridge, but don’t let that limit you, either! We know that certain topic areas have been underrepresented in previous years, and we would very much love a diverse and broad set of proposals for this year’s bridge. We would very much love to see more talks about hardware, security, user experience design and just about everything else related to open source. No idea is too out there. We’d love to see it all.

If you speak at Open Source Bridge, we’ll happily waive the fee for your attendance. Not sure if you should register now, or hold off to see if your talk is accepted? If you wait and your talk is not accepted, we’ll give you a special discount code that will get you a ticket at $200 (that’s $25 off the early-bird rate).

So what are you waiting for? We’d love to hear what you have to say. Begin creating your proposal today.

Attend the conference

Register to attend Open Source Bridge 2012. We offer the following kinds of tickets:
Early bird tickets at $225 until April 30th.
Full price tickets at $300, great for corporate attendees.
As always, we offer a student rate of $99, available anytime.

Please register soon so you can help give the event some early support.

Interested in volunteering?

We encourage those of you interested in being more involved with Open Source Bridge to sign up for our volunteer list.

Interested in sponsoring?

Let us know by contacting sponsorship@opensourcebridge.org and we’ll send you a prospectus.

We hope that you are as excited as we are about Open Source Bridge 2012. Don’t hesitate to contact us at info@opensourcebridge.org if you have any questions. We thank you very much for your support and hope to see you in Portland in June!

–The Open Source Bridge Team

Who is the 2012 Core Planning Team?

The conference core planning team remains largely intact from last year’s event, and we’re adding a few more awesome people to this year’s team to make things even better. We’ll be updating the About Us page on the website soon and if you’re curious as to who we all are, you can check things out there.

Volunteer Outreach

We may not say it often enough, but we love our volunteers. Open Source Bridge could not happen without all of you. We’re planning a volunteer appreciation event at the moment, and will have a separate announcement out about that soon. We’re also looking at more ways to involve volunteers in pre-event planning and organization. And we’re looking at new volunteer management tools to make everything go even smoother this year.

Conference Content

We will be opening up our Call For Proposals in January. Many things will be the same as they’ve been in previous years, but we’re looking at additional topics that we’d like to encourage with this year’s CFP. If there are specific things you’d like to see at Open Source Bridge, please let us know.

Fundraising

We will have a sponsorship prospectus out soon, and are always looking for contributors to help finance Open Source Bridge. Stumptown Syndicate, the Oregon nonprofit behind the event, is also working toward 501(c)3 status and it may change how we handle sponsorship slightly.

Registration

You likely saw our latest reminder about tickets for Open Source Bridge. The $195 ticket price is only available through December 31st. After that, prices go up to $225 (full ticket price being $300).

Thanks for being a part of the Open Source Bridge community. We hope you’re looking forward to the 2012 event as much as we are!

As a special bonus, we’ll send Open Source Bridge scarves to the first 10 people who register starting today, December 14th, through the end of the year.

Now in its 4th year, the conference will be in Portland, OR from June 26-29, 2012. The $195 early registration fee is available through December 31st.

The conference includes 3 full days of sessions across multiple tracks, an unconference day, a Hacker Lounge, after parties, code sprints, work parties, and renowned keynote speakers. Also, get ready to submit your talk ideas! Open Source Bridge’s Call for Proposals opens Monday, January 17th.

More information about Open Source Bridge, past conferences, or the track schedule format, is available on this site.

Act now to save over $100 off regular admission!

Lance Albertson: Ganeti Web Manager: Cluster Management Made Simple and **Hands-on Virtualization with Ganeti

Matt Blair: **Cultivating Open Geo-Data in the Real-World: A Guided Tour of Three Portland-based Projects

Roger Bodamer: Building Web Applications with MongoDB and **Not Only SQL: Exploring Alternative Data Stores

Eric Day: **Introduction to OpenStack

Selena Deckelmann: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: PostgreSQL 9.1 and Mistakes Were Made

Audrey Eschright: Event Planning for Geeks

Paul Fenwick: **All Your Brains Suck – Known Bugs And Exploits In Wetware

Dawn Foster: **Crunching the numbers: Open Source Community Metrics

Eric Holscher: **A Completely Open Source Django Website

Christie Koehler, co-chair of Open Source Bridge: Event Planning for Geeks and Tools for Spelunking a New-to-You Codebase

Peter Krenesky: Ganeti Web Manager: Cluster Management Made Simple and **Hands-on Virtualization with Ganeti

Shyam Mani: **DNSSEC @ Mozilla

Jeremie Miller: **Your Personal Data Locker

Sherri Montgomery: Event Planning for Geeks

Sarah Novotny, program chair of OSCON: OSCON Town Hall

Noirin Plunkett: How to Win Friends and Write Documentation

Jacinta Richardson: Perl Programming Best Practices 2011 and Teach Your Class to Fish, and They’ll Have Food for a Lifetime

Garrett Serack: **CoApp—An Open Source Package Manager For Windows

Sarah Sharp: **Growing Food with Open Source

Chris Smith: **Transit Appliances: Open Data, Open Hardware and Open Source Software

James Turnbull: **Introduction to OpenStack and Vagrant & Puppet: Deploying Development Environments … Fast

Matt Youell: Wheeler

If you enjoyed these talks, be sure to register for Open Source Bridge 2012 to see more of these great speakers and topics.

[All talks with ** by them are a variation of a presentation given at Open Source Bridge this year.]

Record Attendance

This year, 479 people attended, traveling from as far away as Taiwan, Australia, and Belgium. Over half of you were new to the conference this year; new or returning, we hope we’ll see you again in 2012.

Open Source Citizenship Awards

We’re happy to recognize three people as part of our first-ever Open Source Citizenship awards: Sumana Harihareswara, Asheesh Laroia, and Igal Koshevoy. These citizens were nominated by you, their fellow attendees, as people who made an extra effort to help others and share their knowledge at the conference.

We want your feedback!

Give us your feedback by completing the attendee survey. One lucky survey-taker will win a free ticket for Open Source Bridge 2012.

Registration for 2012 is Open Now

Next year’s conference will be happening June 26th-29th. You have just two more days to register at an ultra-low discount rate of $150 (half off the full price). After June 30th, tickets go up to $175.

Thank You Volunteers!

Open Source Bridge is an all volunteer-run conference, and would not happen without the many hours contributed by the organizers and on-site volunteers.

The 2011 core team was: Christie Koehler and Reid Beels (co-chairs), Audrey Eschright, Amy Farrell, Faddah Wolf, Igal Koshevoy, Jim Eastman, John Labovitz, Kirsten Comandich, Melissa Chavez, Shepherd Griffin, and Sherri Montgomery.

This year’s on-site volunteer team was: Cameron Mulder, Casey Beach, Cat Poole, Chris (Fool) McCraw, Chris (Wraithan), Clifton B, Dan Revel, Daniel Hedlund, Drew Kalina, Ian Dees, Eric Drechsel, Jenka, Jerry Hilts, Joel McGrady, Jonathan Thurman, Julie Baumler, Julie Noble, Keith Grant, Kyle Jones, Larissa Shapiro, Lucas Charles, Marcela Musgrove, Mary Anne Thygesen, Meitar Moscovitz, Merilee Schillinger, Merilyn Gottlieb, Michael Schwern, Paige Huggins, Peter Hutkins, Richard Fobes, Ruth Fuller, Scott Garman, Shelley Gonzales, Stephanie El-Hajj, Teresa Boze, Troy Howard, and Will Lucas.

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors!

Open Source Bridge is made possible by the following sponsors: Intel, Mozilla, Google, Gilt Groupe, OpenStack, Discogs, Emma, Yammer, and more!

Looking for 2011 Content?

There’s a wiki page for notes linked from each session’s page (see schedule for complete list of sessions). Check them out and add your own!

If you missed a keynote, or want to share your favorite moments with someone else, they’re posted on blip.tv, along with interviews with several speakers.

We also recorded audio for each session and we’ll be posting that online over the summer.

Add your photos from this year’s conference to the Open Source Bridge Flickr pool and tag your photos with “osb11″ and “osbridge.”

Lost and Found Items

If you are missing anything from the conference, contact info@opensourcebridge.org.

Giving Feedback & Getting Involved

There are many ways to contact us and give your feedback: http://opensourcebridge.org/contact-us/.

You can also reach us on Twitter (@osbridge), or subscribe to our official blog (rss)

And don’t forget to fill out the survey.

Want to help plan next year’s conference? Let us know and join our Google group.

What’s an unconference? It’s a attendee-scheduled event that allows all you to share your interests and learn from each other. The sessions aren’t assigned in advance, so that everyone can participate in suggesting and leading the conversations they’re interested in having.

Today’s unconference is open to the general open source community in Portland, whether you’re attending the conference or not. If you don’t have a conference pass, register for the Community Pass at http://osbridge.eventbrite.com/ and please make a contribution if you can.

Scheduling begins at 9am, so don’t be late if you would like to propose a session. Sessions will begin at 10:15am.

You can share your session ideas or read everyone else’s on the wiki: http://opensourcebridge.org/2011/wiki/Unconference_Session_Ideas

Voodoo Doughnuts will be bringing their doughnut truck to the conference in the morning with a selection of tasty treats. We’ll also have fruit and gluten-free muffins available.

For lunch, we’ll meet up at local food carts. There’s a large cluster at SW 9th and Alder, with many others scattered nearby. If you’re not from Portland, ask a local to recommend something.

No evening events tonight, because we’re done at 4pm! Be sure to come to the closing session at 3:30pm so we can hear your feedback and share what we all learned. We’ll also be raffling off several fabulous O’Reilly books to thank you for your participation this week.

If you’re looking for something to do after that, we suggest checking out Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon in SE Portland, or visiting Calagator for other ideas.

We Love Feedback!
Fill out the attendee survey and you could win a ticket to next year’s conference. It will only take you a couple of minutes. Promise.

Register for Open Source Bridge 2012 Now!
Get your pass for next year at a lovely discount now through the end of the month. Go to http://osb12.eventbrite.com/ or stop by the registration desk.

Fun Things
What did you say? Maybe it was something like this:

• “If you were an ordinary gardener, you’d print out a paper calendar. But I’m a kernel #hacker, so I wrote a tool. In C.” —@SarahSharp #OSB11 [@maymaym]
• “Essentially, you can think of threads as nice, discrete, squiggly lines” #osb11 [@kscaldef]
• OH @maxogden is doing more for the unix beard right now than anyone else in open source #osb11 [@petewearspants]

Questions? Feedback? Talk to @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.

Today we begin with Portland Mayor Sam Adams’ morning keynote on the city’s Civic Apps and open source participation, at 9am in the Sanctuary. The Mayor has presented at Open Source Bridge all three years, and we’re happy to have him back. Following the keynote, there will be an open data hacking session, related to regional farmers market data, scheduled in the Hacker Lounge. Drop by and see what the Portland Farmer’s Market has to play with.

Speaker sessions will begin at 10am.

Today we’re having a breakfast of muffins and scones by Sweetpea Baking Co., plus fresh fruit. Lunch catering is by Thai Garden, and we have cookies and fruit for the afternoon break.

Birds of a Feather sessions (BoFs), which are free and open to the public, begin at 7pm upstairs. Tonight’s BoFs include BIND and ISCDHCP, “Women in Tech (and friends) Go Drinking,” and more.

Mozilla and Emma are co-hosting a happy hour at the Cleaners at Ace Hotel, from 5-7pm.

Hacker Lounge activities include an Apache Lucene.net Hackathon, and a Transit Appliance meetup.

Register Today for Open Source Bridge 2012!
Do you want to be here again next year? We certainly do. Get your pass and put next year’s conference on your schedule now: registration for Open Source Bridge 2012 will be open after today’s keynote, at a special low rate.

Massage
Are you feeling sore from attending sessions all day and coding all night? Licensed massage therapist Domenika Radonich will be providing her services in room A102. Check with the Registration desk for more info.

Nominate Open Source Citizens!
Nominate your fellow citizens for our first open source citizenship award! At current count, we have three nominees. They’re all great people, but wouldn’t you like to submit someone yourself?

Volunteer
If all this civic pride is making you feel warm and fuzzy inside, sign up for a volunteer shift! Stop by the registration desk to find out how you can get involved.

Be Interviewed
Speakers who still might like to be interviewed but haven’t gotten around to it yet: email media@opensourcebridge.org and let us know when you’re available.

Silliness
We still like reading the session OHs, so don’t forget to tag everything with #osb11. Here’s a few more items we scraped out of the search feed:

“The more fish in the pond, the more will float to the top when you toss the dynamite in.” #trollu #osb11 [@suehle]

“If someone says their code doesn’t have bugs, then they don’t have much of a user base” #osb11 [@jthurman42]

“Free as in speech, not as in puppies” #osb11 [@demew]

OH: “It’s like a soup kitchen for nerds! Awesome!” [@reidab]

Questions? Feedback? Talk to @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.

It is Wednesday, June 22nd and it’s expected be partly cloudy with a high of 71°.

Sessions begin at 9am today.

We will be serving a Continental Breakfast in the morning, lunch will be catered by Taqueria Los Gorditos, and an afternoon snack of cookies and fruit.

There will be a farmer’s market nearby in the South Park Blocks if you want to check out local produce and artisan goods during any of the breaks throughout the day.

Want to keep the conference running smoothly? Sign up for a volunteer shift! Stop by Registration to find out how you can help.

We’re having lightning talks again today at 1:30pm in room B201. Stop by the sign-up sheet in the Hacker Lounge to add yours to the list.

Speakers: if you want to do an interview with our wonderful media partners and you haven’t told us yet, please email media@opensourcebridge.org

Tonight’s evening activities:

Birds of a Feather (BoFs), which are free and open to the public, begin at 7pm in the session rooms. Wednesday BoFs include Google Summer of Code, Portland Javascript Admirers, and others (check the website for details).

The Hacker Lounge will be open all night again. There are some sessions scheduled — including a GIS/Location Smackdown — and lots of room for more. Check out the wiki to find out what’s planned. Snacks will be provided throughout the night.

Conference Tips:

Keep tagging your tweets and other content with #osb11.
We found these entertaining:

A dozen databases in 45 minutes. That’s, um, 3.75 minutes per database. #osb11 — @johnderosa

The couchdb talk has reached the point of interpretive dance to explain mvcc. Dancing about architecture. #osb11 — @laprice

Hovering helicopter – FBI saw the keynote? #osb11 — @donpdonp

We’re still looking for nominees for open source citizens seen making a strong contribution at the conference. Stop by Registration to fill out a nomination slip.

Questions? Feedback? Ask @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.

Registration opens at 8am each day of the conference, and a Continental Breakfast will be provided for attendees.

We’re kicking off Open Source Bridge today at 9am with the morning keynote “Hacking for Freedom” by Peter Fein.

Speaker sessions begin at 10am.

Lunch will be catered by Nicholas Restaurant at noon.

The day’s sessions continue past the scheduled speakers, with Birds of a Feather (BoFs) talks, which are free and open to the public, and begin at 7pm. Check them out or schedule your own this week.

If you plan on attending the BoFs or join in on hacking sessions in the on-site 24-Hour Hacker Lounge, be sure to register for a Community Pass, which is a free option to attend evening events.

Events

A free and open-to-the-public Opening Reception in the Hacker Lounge (Buchan Hall) begins at 6pm.

Off-site evening activities? Sauce Labs and Yammer are co-sponsoring a late-night party at Someday Lounge from 8pm-late with plenty of free booze, food, and geekery. The Yammer and Sauce crews will be mingling about and would love to share a beer with you!

Citizenship Award

We are recognizing exemplary open source citizens who participate at this conference. If you spot someone who is really making a difference for fellow attendees, we will be collecting nominations at the Registration desk for an award to be presented at the end of the conference.

Hashtag & Flickr Group

The hashtag for this year’s conference is #osb11. We also have a Flickr group and encourge you to take photos and upload them there.

Please review the conference’s Code of Conduct.

Find a volunteer in an Open Source Bridge t-shirt if you have a question. Tweet at @osbridge if you have a less-immediate concern or feedback.

Volunteers, be sure to check your schedule in the Volunteer Lounge. If you’re not volunteering yet, but want to help out, we still have shifts available. It’s a minimum 2-hour commitment, but an essential part of making this conference happen. Stop by the Registration/Info desk to sign up.