if i sent this to kulua too i would get yelled at for crossposting.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Reid Beels reid@opensourcebridge.org Date: Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 9:19 PM Subject: Kansas City Perl Mongers + Open Source Bridge To: davidnicol@gmail.com

Hi david,

I'm one of the organizers of Open Source Bridge, a new open source developers’ conference being held June 17–19, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. We’re aiming to connect people across projects, languages and experience and would love to have members of the Kansas City Perl community involved as speakers and participants. Details about the conference are included below.

Bridge isn’t a typical conference. It’s entirely volunteer-run, by developers, for developers. Session tracks are technology agnostic, based instead around shared community experiences and focused on similarities between projects, not differences. Plus, we’ll be running a 24-hour hacker lounge for code sprints, bug bashes, bouncing ideas, starting new projects or just mingling.

We’d be delighted it if you could mention Open Source Bridge at your user group meetings, post this email to your mailing list, and get us in touch with others in your community interested in participating.

We just extended our call for proposals through April 10th, which is fast approaching, so please pass this information on as soon as possible.

We don’t expect something for nothing, so we’re giving all of your user group members a discounted registration rate of $150. That’s $25 off the Early Bird rate, and $100 off our regular registration. User groups are very important to the chairs of our conference — that’s how they both got started in the open source community.

We’re also offering a free conference pass to give away to a member of your group. If you’re interested in more ways to promote the conference, let us know!

Thank You! Reid Beels Open Source Bridge

reid@opensourcebridge.org http://opensourcebridge.org/

CONFERENCE PASS RAFFLE INFORMATION:

You get one free conference pass to raffle off to a member of your group!

We’ve found the most successful raffles tend to follow these conditions:

1) Let all of your members know about the conference, dates, and URL: http://opensourcebridge.org/ 2) Allow anyone in the group to sign up for the raffle. 3) Draw the winner at random, preferably at a public meeting.

When you have selected a winner, email usergroups@opensourcebridge.org, CC the winner, and we’ll register them for you.

DETAILS TO SHARE WITH YOUR GROUP’S MEMBERS:

Open Source Bridge http://opensourcebridge.org

Open Source Bridge is a new conference for developers working with open source technologies. It will take place June 17-19 in Portland, OR, with five tracks connecting people across projects, languages and experience to explore how we do our work and why we participate in open source. The conference structure is designed to provide developers with an opportunity to learn from people they might not connect with at other events.

Open Source Bridge is run entirely by volunteers who believe in the need for an open source conference that focuses on the culture of being an open source citizen, regardless of where in the stack you choose to code. All proceeds from conference registration and sponsorship go directly to the costs of the conference.

Our sessions and events will share in-depth knowledge about using, creating and contributing to open source as citizens of a greater community. You’ll find relevant information whether you write web apps for the cloud, tinker with operating system internals, create hardware, run a startup, or blog about technology.

We're still seeking proposals — and just extended the deadline to April 10th — so submit yours before time runs out.

Some examples of our proposals so far: Brian Aker on Drizzle, a reboot of MySQL designed “for the cloud”; Linux Kernel hacker Greg K-H about how Linux manages development; Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, about what’s next in collaboration; Amber Case, an anthropologist living in both the physical and virtual worlds, about Cyborg Citizenship. (You can view all current proposals at http://opensourcebridge.org/proposals/)

In addition to regular conference sessions, we will hold an unconference day for free-form sessions, and host a 24-hour dedicated “hacker lounge” at the top of the Portland Hilton. In addition to hosting the hacker lounge, the Hilton has offered Open Source Bridge attendees steeply discounted room rates, starting at $139/night.

The city of Portland is a great place to visit. It has a thriving technical community, a love of all things open source and offers many attractions for visiting geeks, including Powell’s technical books, dozens of local brewpubs, and large greenspaces like Forest Park—all accessible by mass transit.

Visit http://opensourcebridge.org/ to learn more about the conference, see our session proposals, and register to attend.

Thanks!

PS: Interested in taking advantage of the user group discount code that will allow user group members to register for $150? Enter “osb4228” when you register to receive the discount.