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Call for Papers
The organisers of linux.conf.au 2006 would like to thank everyone that submitted a paper for presentation at the conference. Submissions are closed but this page is left here for reference.
Most presentations will be of a technical nature, but those covering legal, educational, organisational, community or similar aspects of open source software will also be welcome. Promotional presentations, commercial advertisements, sales pitches and their like are not appropriate for this conference.
Papers on the following topics are encouraged:
- The Linux kernel, filesystems and networking
- Databases and storage
- Programming languages and tools
- Linux on the desktop: productivity, groupware and GUIs
- Multimedia, audio, video, music and games
- Security
- Linux deployments, practical experience and
war stories
- Linux on unusual platforms: embedded systems, virtual systems, handhelds and very large systems
- Distributions, management and standardization
- Other open source projects
We are open to a broader range of topics as well, even non-Linux based projects. So, submit it to us anyway! Please note however, that all presentations must be based on 'open source' software and projects.
We have two (very different) main presentation formats: 120+ minute interactive tutorials and 50 minute seminars. You may also wish to participate in a miniconf, lightning talk, BOF session, or present a poster.
Tutorials
Tutorials are interactive learning sessions for the audience. Tutorials should not be long monologues. Preferably the audience will work through examples on laptops or in computer labs.
Written materials for a tutorial should comprise a tutorial sheet, workbook, or reference for the software. The LCA organisers will print and distribute this material before the tutorial.
Seminars
Seminars run for 50 minutes, including time for questions. Seminars should be accompanied by a paper describing the topic, of approximately 3-10 pages.
Key Dates
(Subject to change; check back.)
- 12th July 2005: CFP opens.
- 5th September 2005: Due date for abstracts/proposals.
- 3rd October 2005: Notification to speakers begins.
- 6th October 2005: Programme and Speakers announced.
- 1st December 2005: Due date for full papers or tutorial materials.
- 23rd January 2006: Conference begins.
Legal
Papers may be published by the conference on our web site, printed proceedings or on CD-ROM. Authors retain copyright in their paper but must grant a non-exclusive licence to LCA to publish and redistribute the paper, recording or video. LCA may make audio or video recordings of presentations and redistribute them.
We prefer papers that have not been previously published or presented.
Papers covered by nondisclosure agreements cannot be considered.
We may withdraw invitations if deadlines are not met.
Papers are accepted at the absolute discretion of the LCA organisers.
Submitting an abstract indicates understanding of and consent to these conditions.
One person may submit any reasonable number of proposals.
Paper judging is independent of LCA sponsorship.
Technical Facilities
Presentations will be in lecture theatres with 1024×768 XGA data projectors. Audio and Video input to these projectors may be from speakers' personal laptops, or Mac/PC systems provided. Please contact us if you have further requirements.
Written Papers
Written papers, tutorial handouts and posters should be submitted before the conference. All should be in an appropriate open format, such as 7-bit ASCII text, HTML, DocBook or LaTeX.
Finance
Speakers will receive complimentary professional registration for the entire conference. Their partners are welcome to attend the Partners' Programme at no charge.
Some travel assistance may be available for worthy speakers not otherwise able to attend. If you require travel assistance you must indicate so on your submission. In general we do not provide full funding for international travel.
Academic Papers
Following on from LCA 2005, we are again considering an elective peer-review process for papers. This is intended primarily for presenters working or studying at universities, who can gain funding credit by writing peer-reviewed papers that meet certain government criteria. In Australia these are the DEST Higher-Education criteria.
Presenters who wish to pass these criteria should submit the full text of their paper as soon as possible in the CFP, indicating their intention. The entire paper will be critically reviewed before being accepted or declined. Papers submitted for this process must not have been published before. These papers will be published on the LCA web site after the conference.
This will be more work for the presenter, because the entire paper must be prepared to a high standard by an earlier date. For this reason we will only apply this process to presenters who specifically request it.
If you think you would be interested in having your paper reviewed in this way or you have comments on the process please contact us as soon as possible.
Papers Committee
- Martin Pool (chair)
- Michael Davies
- Jeremy Kerr
- Alex King
- Corrin Lakeland
- Nick Phillips
- Michael Still
Criteria
Proposals are assessed on the following criteria:
- Is the topic of interest to the LCA audience of Linux developers and users? We have a mix of users and developers; novices and experts; hobby, business and education users. We want people to go away feeling excited and enthused about using your project, and about free software in general.
- Technical coolness/novelty. Do we say "wow, I'd never thought of that" when we read it?
- Does the paper fit well with others? We try to get a good spread so there will be something interesting for everyone.
- Balance across technical and para-technical topics. (We don't want only kernel talks, or only Perl talks, ...)
- Is the person knowledgeable about the topic? Best of all are core developers for the project. We like to see a history of involvement. This also applies for para-technical topics, e.g. for legal issues we would prefer to hear from lawyers.
- Whether we expect the paper will be presented well. We try to work this out by reports of whether the speaker presented well at LCA or elsewhere, has experience in public speaking, and submitted a good proposal. We prefer not to get simple repeats of previous presentations. Best of all is to hear "This is a development of my Best of Show paper at FooCon 2002. Since that time I have quadrupled the frobnicator flux."
Submit!
Click here to register as an Author, and submit a paper for consideration by the LCA 2006 Organising Committee
Questions?
We are happy to answer questions on requirements or process - email lca-cfp@lists.linux.org.au. Please note that submissions should NOT be sent to this address.
You can also look at this year's or last year's programme for guidance.