Linux.conf.au
Having swiftly recovered from the dreaded Linux virus and having got most of my work back under control, I figure it's about time that I finished my thoughts on linux.conf.au (LCA) 2006.

Mini-confs
I've never been to an LCA before, and as such I'm unfamiliar with the idea of a mini-conf. The general idea is that time and facilities are set aside for a small, independent conferences to be held on particular topics. And I mean independent; the mini-confs have their own organisers, paper committees, webpages, timetables, and discussion topics.

The mini-conf idea is a good one to allow more content to be packed into the conference time, but without much extra work for the main organisers. Less work for the main organisers is a Very Good Thing.

The downside is that as the mini-confs are independent, they're not necessarily co-ordinated in any way. This is fine if you pick a mini-conf and stick to it, but it's more problematic if you wish to move between mini-confs. Talks may be scheduled into different timeslots, or run over- or under-time, making clean transitions difficult.

There was more than one occasion where I had to break conference etiquette by leaving a talk that was running over-time to try and reach another I was interested in. One of the more frustrating experiences was trying to figure out timetables; one has to check half a dozen different timetables on different sites to know what's being presented.

Despite my trying time at mini-confs, I think that organising a Perl mini-conf for LCA 2007 would indeed be a great idea. This year there were a few mumblings but a Perl mini-conf per se didn't happen (although we did have a Damian mini-conf).

Main Conference
I'm pleased to say that the conference got better as time went on. To my relief the main conference was much better co-ordinated than the mini-confs. However there are some faults that I kept spotting, although these are common to many conferences, not just LCA. My advice for anyone involved in a conference would be this:

Speakers: Control your audience. Don't let them interrupt you. Don't allow them to start long discussions on tangential topics. Everyone else in the audience is present to hear your talk, not the opinions of the person in the second row. Ask for questions to be left until the end.

Room monitors: Control your speaker. They will ramble on the end for as long as you allow them. Talks that go overtime are unfair to the next speaker, and are unfair to any audience members who wish to change streams.

The other thing which amazed me is that LCA doesn't have conference proceedings! I kept finding myself wanting to check the proceedings for references and details of a talk that I had just attended, or examine the proceedings to plan which talks I'd like to attend the next day. Proceedings are a wonderful thing; not only do they satisfy delegates' cravings, but they also help improve the quality of the speakers by making sure materials are prepared well in advance.

NZ Perl Mongers
The best part of the entire conference was being able to catch up with a great many New Zealand Perl Mongers. Apparently Wellington.PM is quite alive and active, and it seems that New Zealand is using Perl for all sorts of interesting things, including running their DNS and electoral roll.

Conference Dinner
The conference dinner was incredible. The food and venue weren't anything to write home about, but the auction was breathtaking. $10,000 AUD was raised towards the establishment of the John Lions Chair in Computer Science. This was matched by a further $10,000 from Linux Australia, and the whole bundle with be matched by another $20,000 from USENIX. $40,000 AUD is an impressive sum to raise at a single dinner.

Linux.conf.au
Having swiftly recovered from the dreaded Linux virus and having got most of my work back under control, I figure it's about time that I finished my thoughts on linux.conf.au (LCA) 2006.

Mini-confs
I've never been to an LCA before, and as such I'm unfamiliar with the idea of a mini-conf. The general idea is that time and facilities are set aside for a small, independent conferences to be held on particular topics. And I mean independent; the mini-confs have their own organisers, paper committees, webpages, timetables, and discussion topics.

The mini-conf idea is a good one to allow more content to be packed into the conference time, but without much extra work for the main organisers. Less work for the main organisers is a Very Good Thing.

The downside is that as the mini-confs are independent, they're not necessarily co-ordinated in any way. This is fine if you pick a mini-conf and stick to it, but it's more problematic if you wish to move between mini-confs. Talks may be scheduled into different timeslots, or run over- or under-time, making clean transitions difficult.

There was more than one occasion where I had to break conference etiquette by leaving a talk that was running over-time to try and reach another I was interested in. One of the more frustrating experiences was trying to figure out timetables; one has to check half a dozen different timetables on different sites to know what's being presented.

Despite my trying time at mini-confs, I think that organising a Perl mini-conf for LCA 2007 would indeed be a great idea. This year there were a few mumblings but a Perl mini-conf per se didn't happen (although we did have a Damian mini-conf).

Main Conference
I'm pleased to say that the conference got better as time went on. To my relief the main conference was much better co-ordinated than the mini-confs. However there are some faults that I kept spotting, although these are common to many conferences, not just LCA. My advice for anyone involved in a conference would be this:

Speakers: Control your audience. Don't let them interrupt you. Don't allow them to start long discussions on tangential topics. Everyone else in the audience is present to hear your talk, not the opinions of the person in the second row. Ask for questions to be left until the end.

Room monitors: Control your speaker. They will ramble on the end for as long as you allow them. Talks that go overtime are unfair to the next speaker, and are unfair to any audience members who wish to change streams.

The other thing which amazed me is that LCA doesn't have conference proceedings! I kept finding myself wanting to check the proceedings for references and details of a talk that I had just attended, or examine the proceedings to plan which talks I'd like to attend the next day. Proceedings are a wonderful thing; not only do they satisfy delegates' cravings, but they also help improve the quality of the speakers by making sure materials are prepared well in advance.

NZ Perl Mongers
The best part of the entire conference was being able to catch up with a great many New Zealand Perl Mongers. Apparently Wellington.PM is quite alive and active, and it seems that New Zealand is using Perl for all sorts of interesting things, including running their DNS and electoral roll.

Conference Dinner
The conference dinner was incredible. The food and venue weren't anything to write home about, but the auction was breathtaking. $10,000 AUD was raised towards the establishment of the John Lions Chair in Computer Science. This was matched by a further $10,000 from Linux Australia, and the whole bundle with be matched by another $20,000 from USENIX. $40,000 AUD is an impressive sum to raise at a single dinner.

LCA2006 - Norovirus
Linux.conf.au 2006 has ended, and I will be saying a few more words on it shortly. My report is somewhat delayed as myself and many other delegates contracted what is believed to be Norovirus. In my case this manifested itself with violent signs of gastrointestinal upset.

Luckily I seem to have completed my recovery in a mere 36 hours, but at least one delegate was hospitalised (now recovering nicely, thank-goodness). I also know that some unfortunates developed symptoms while on the plane; it's hard to imagine a more uncomfortable experience.

Linux.Conf.au, days -1..2
I'm in New Zealand which is hosting the annual Australian Linux.Conf.au (LCA). It's in a lovely little town called Dunedin which all around seems to be a great little place. This is my first LCA, I'm not presenting, so I'm still discovering what to expect and what not.

The first two days have been filled with "mini-confs", baby conferences organised around particular themes. Unsurprisingly, the highlight so far has been the Conway mini-conf, where I was able to see Damian's Presentation Aikido. I was extremely pleased to see that Damian's talk was quite different to MJD's and my own.

Other nice things about the conference so far have been the accomodation (in-room ethernet), the breakfasts, and the conference bag. In fact, the conference bag is incredibly cool, and is designed around holding a laptop and gadgets.

The big down-points have been the lack of easily accessible timetabling information, the flakey network connectivity, and the quality of the talks themselves. It seems that I've had the misfortune to attend a number of poorly prepared talks, but I'm confident that the main conference will be of a higher quality. There have also been some very good ones; like many conferences the talk quality varies greatly.

My primary goal here is to meet new people, although I've been having mixed results. I think I'm going to have to engineer matters to my favour, which means I'll try to kickstart a Perl BOF. I'm particularly interested in meeting any NZ Perl-mongers (I've already bumped into a few).

PerlNet - The Australian and New Zealand Perl Portal
During my travels I've discovered that the Australian and New Zealand Perl communities are very active, but also very insulated from each other. While lots of activity can be seen in local user-groups, those groups rarely talk to each other to share ideas, code, or activities.

Unfortunately, having such insulated groups makes it more difficult for anyone who wants to have a better idea of the state of Perl in Australia. I'm regularly asked "who uses Perl?", "who supports Perl?", "where can I find a Perl job?", "where can I find a Perl programmer?". While I've often been able to answer this questions accurately and successfully, the knowledge has come from my own personal experience, and not from a freely available source.

In order to better encourage communication between Australian and New Zealand Perl groups, users, businesses, and organisations, we quietly launched PerlNet almost a year ago. It's been running in stealth mode since that time, but now it's finally time to take it out into the open.

There'll be a formal announcement a little later on, but for those who read my journal you're welcome to get involved early. The site is aimed at the community, we want you to get involved.

Chatter can be found on irc.freenode.net #PerlNet, and the main website at perl.net.au. It's a wiki, so be bold in your edits.