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January 20, 2005
OSCON coming back to Portland Oregon.
The Northwest is increasing becoming the venue of choice for conferences. Especially Open Source Conferences. O'Reilly has decided to hold OS Con in Portland this August. Here is the announement and call for papers, speakers. Should be a good event.
The Call for Proposals has just opened for the 7th Annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/
OSCON is headed back to friendly, economical Portland, Oregon during the week of August 1-5, 2005. If you've ever wanted to join the OSCON speaker firmament, now's your chance to submit a proposal (or two) by February 13, 2005.
Complete details are available on the OSCON web site, but we're particularly interested in exploring how software development is moving to another level, and how developers and businesses are adjusting to new business models and architectures. We're looking for sessions, tutorials, and workshops proposals that appeal to developers, systems and network administrators, and their managers in the following areas:
- All aspects of building applications, services, and systems that use the new capabilities of the open source platform
- Burning issues for Java, Mozilla, web apps, and beyond
- The commoditization of software: who and/or what can show us the money?
- Network-enabled collaboration
- Software customizability, including software as a service
- Law, licensing, politics, and how best to navigate other troubled waters
Specific topics and tracks at OSCON 2005 include: Linux and other open source operating systems, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Databases (including MySQL and PostgreSQL), Apache, XML, Applications, Ruby, and Security.
Attendees have a wide range of experience, so be sure to target a particular level of experience: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Talks and tutorials should be technical; strictly no marketing presentations.
Session presentations are 45 or 90 minutes long, and tutorials are either a half-day (3 hours) or a full day (6 hours).
Feel free to spread the word about the Call for Proposals to your friends, family, colleagues, and compatriots. We want everyone to submit, from American women hacking artificial life into the Linux kernel to Belgian men building a better mousetrap from PHP and recycled military hardware.
We mean everyone!
Even if you don't want to participate as a speaker, send us your suggestions--topics you'd like to see covered, groups we should bring into the OSCON fold, extra-curricular activities we should organize--to oscon-idea@oreilly.com .
This year, we're moving to the wide open spaces of the Oregon Convention Center. We've arranged for the nearby Doubletree Hotel to be our headquarters hotel--it's a short, free Max light rail ride (or a lovely
walk) from the Convention Center.
Registration opens in April 2005; hotel information will be available shortly.
Deadline to submit a proposal is Midnight (PST), February 13.
For all the conference details, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/
Press coverage, blogs, photos, and news from the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Convention can be found at: http://www.oreillynet.com/oscon2004/
Would your company like to make a big impression on the open source community? If so, consider exhibiting or becoming a sponsor. Contact Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or andrewc@oreilly.com for more info.
See you Portland next summer,
The O'Reilly OSCON Team
Posted by Martin at 01:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
Entrepreneurs are from Mars, VCs are from Venus
Good rant from Joel Spolsky on why you think you need money from a VC but you really don't. Hmmm... Actually, does have some good thoughts about how you should think of your start up and what you should watch for from investors.
Via Paul Kedrosky and Fergus Burns.
Posted by Johnza at 06:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Disappointment at CES
Guess I wasn't the only one disappointed with what I saw at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
* David Hornik was there and was happy to use it as a chance to meet people and look some really big TVs but did not really see any major annoucements or innovations. "The truth is, the only real excitement around technology announcements these days comes out of MacWorld, not CES. Which is why Steve Jobs doesn't participate in CES, despite running the most innovative consumer electronics company of today. He is able to drive people to his very own show and get all the buzz for himself, for Apple and for those companies supporting Apple."
* Mark Williamson was also a bit underwealmed, "This year the show seemed to be all about incremental innovation. While I did spot numerous small companies with innovative products, I didn't find the 'next big thing.'"
* Ed Sim, like us mourned the lack of simplicity and ability of the gear to work together. "If there is an industry begging to be open sourced, standardized and commoditized, this is it. While it is in all the vendors' interest to bring the economics down to reach a wider market, I just don't expect to see enough cooperation from them to drop their proprietary standards to make this happen soon enough."
Not exactly sure how yet, but where there is confusion and frustration, there should be an investment opportunity.
Posted by Johnza at 05:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More VC Pitch Tips
Seth Levine shares his thoughts on how to put together a good presentation. Good things to remember, such as
* remember to tell them what you/your company/your product actual do
* plan the presentation for the amount of time you have, and leave extra
* dont' assume your audience understands the problem you solve or the basic outline of your industry
* don't claim that your plan is conservative and yet promise to return zillions in a few years
Good advice. Via Scott Loftesness
See also Brad Feld's thoughts on the subject for a good outline of the topics a VC pitch should cover.
And this blog's previous entry on the subject focused on 5 rules of thumb for a good presentation.
Posted by Johnza at 05:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2005
More on 2004 and 2005
Here's another retrospective, nice view of the life of an entreprenuer and prospective VC. Here's a summary of other retrospections and resolutions from 2004/2005.
Posted by Johnza at 08:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
John Connors joins Ignition
This was in the news today. Ignition News and Press Releases. It is a little self interested to comment on the addition here, so I won't other than to say that this is good for the North West venture community. High quality people with great backgrounds choosing to stay in the Northwest and help the Venture community is good for everyone. Welcome John.
Posted by Martin at 05:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack