FUDCon update.

FUDCon F11 is rolling mightily along, with a whole mess o’ new names up on the wiki this week. I also notice that many people are signing up for hackfests and BarCamp sessions, which is wonderful. This is always my favorite time in the preparation stages — when people really start to take stock of what they can discuss and hammer on at FUDCon, figure out what kinds of bold new plans we can make as a project and as a distribution, and start spreading the discussions out into the community for vigorous action.

Every FUDCon, we in the Fedora Project try to extend invitations to people who we see making a difference in the community regularly, bringing them to where they can get face-to-face with their peers, friends, mentors, and pupils for the ultimate in high-bandwidth exchange. The Fedora budget pays for these folks to come in so that they can help drive innovation at FUDCon and throughout this development cycle toward Fedora 11, set to be released at the end of May 2009. What we ask in return is that they use that opportunity to take charge of a hackfest, and/or run a BarCamp session, to spread knowledge and skills out into the community where they can take root and grow. Also, these folks are asked to post updates to their weblogs and other information channels to help keep the part of our community not in attendance informed about what’s going on at FUDCon.

In Fedora, as in the tradition of other great centers of hackerdom like NASA, we tend to go for low-cost, high-impact methods for effective community and communication. Thanks to the work of Chris Tyler, Clint ‘herlo’ Savage, and other volunteers, we are aiming to have live audio and video feeds and recordings from FUDCon. I have to admit I’m not quite sure how this is all going to come together logistically, but I have a lot of faith in the ingenuity and capabilities of the folks putting the AV together. I’m more of a dabbler, so I’ll likely just stay out of the way so as not to trip over anything fragile. Hats off to you guys for making this happen!

As a final note, my thoughts are with my homeys in the Westford, MA area who have been suffering through power outages, frozen pipes, no heat, no light, and (ZOMG!) no Intartubez since last week’s ice storm. Apparently, additional inclement weather is headed their way at the latter part of this week. Hang in there guys!