pre-release: Flourish meeting announcement

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Subject: 
ANN: Flourish at Illinois A Fri March 30, 1p


Flourish
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When: 1 PM Friday March 30, 2012
Where: Illinois A

None

Topics
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1. Data Liberation: The Future of Your Data on the Web
Brian Fitzpatrick

As users, we're moving more and more of our data into web-based services and we need to think more carefully about how we can get that data out of these services, how much control we have over our data, and where our data is going to be in ten or twenty years. As technologists, we need to think more carefully about how we're treating the data of our users as we're making arbitrary technical decisions that are deeply affecting the future of collaboration and sharing on the web. In this talk we'll review what my team at Google is doing about this, and what we're thinking about the control of our data in the future.
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2. Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement
Phil Gomes

Wikipedia is a well-revered, volunteer-maintained destination for millions of Web users worldwide. Search for almost any topic and a Wikipedia entry is among the first three results. Obviously, a company has a very keen interest in terms of what is said there and, often, are tempted to surreptitiously edit an entry--an indisputably wrong thing to do. However, since some factual data often stays inaccurate for long periods, one might ask what the harm is in a corporate representative correcting, say, the founding date or the annual financials for a company. But even this example oversimplifies the complex relationship between companies (which structured by design) and open platforms like Wikipedia (spontaneously structured). After several false starts, companies and Wikipedians are starting to explore the best ways to work together. This talk will outline the history and efforts to-date.
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3. Through the Glass Ceiling: a roundtable
Flourish Conference Staff

Flourish has particularly segmented this to allow computing enthusiasts from all areas, who are underrepresented in various tech communities (as females and/or ethnic minorities), to take a breather and figure out where they have ended up and what that means for open source and technology at large.
We invite anyone to participate. This event will feature UIC's local WiCS and WISE groups, as well as our prominent guests: Meg Ford, from the GNOME foundation, Beth Lynn Eicher, Director of Information Technology at Wellspring Worldwide and a founder of the Ohio LinuxFest, and Anne Petersen, former president of Pumping Station: One and Director of Digital Marketing at UIC.
This discussion will be moderated by Jillian Aurisano, a graduate student in Computer Science at UIC, working in its Electronic Visualization Lab.
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4. Why You Should Care About Hardware
Joe Born

 
Whether you believe we are entering the "post PC era" or not, it should be clear that major changes are afoot in computing devices. Those changes will continue to disrupt numerous long standing computing patterns, and change or remove many of the technical boundaries that have existed.  Open Source professionals should have some understanding of the forces at work so that they can understand those changes in order to seize the opportunities and understand the threats these changes will bring.  At the same time, hardware has always been the eyes, ears, and feet of computing devices, and now customizing those devices is easier than it has ever been. The speaker will talk about the importance of openness in hardware, and why dramatic changes in both technology (arduino, 3D printers) and global supply chains (China, alibaba.com, kickstarter) create brand new never-before-seen entrepreneurial opportunities for hardware hackers. And why such opportunities are not confined just to prototyping, but to bringing products all the way to the market.
 
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5. GNU MediaGoblin and a decentralized media future
Christopher Webber

MediaGoblin is a free software media publishing platform aiming at decentralization, extensibility, beautiful design, and open standards.  Extensible to all sorts of media, supports images, (html5-compatible) video, and even ascii art, with plenty more on the way.  It's also a proud member of the GNU project.  Learn from the project founder the state of t he project, the underlying architecture, and why decentralized media hosting matters more than ever.
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6. Software Patents: Why They're Breaking the System
Julie Samuels

Software patents pose problems for inventors, start-ups, and especially the open source community. Why? What went wrong? Aren't patents supposed to promote innovation? Julie Samuels will discuss some of the most pressing problems in the patent system, including overbroad and vague patents, patent trolls, and the rise in patent litigation and what is being done to help
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7. Social Networking Event: Bowling!
Flourish Conference Staff

After a long day of hands on workshops and educational talks, come to the bowling alley to wind down and network with fellow Flourish Conference attendees. Eat some food and have some fun bowling and playing pool.
The venue, which is just downstairs from the conference, features sixteen bowling lanes and several billiard tables.
Advance registration is required. All Flourish attendees are invited to attend and there is no fee to attend.
Please review these following safety rules for Children:

Only one child is allowed at a time per lane
If not bowling, children must be sitting on the benches
Children must wait for ball to emerge from ball return before picking it up to bowl
Children must pick up ball with both hands

Register Link for Flourish Bowling Event: http://flourishbowling.eventbrite.com/
 recording release: yes license:   

8. Extreme Mobile Testing... with Robots!
Jason Huggins

Can your robot play Angry Birds? On an iPhone? Mine can. It's called "BitbeamBot." It started as an art project, but it has a much more serious practical application: mobile web testing. To trust that your mobile app truly works, you need an end-to-end test on the actual device. BitbeamBot is an Arduino-powered open source hardware robot that can test any application on any mobile device.
An end-to-end test on an actual mobile device means the full combination of device manufacturer, operating system, data network, and application. And since mobile devices were meant to be handled with the human hand, you'll also want something like a real hand to do real end-to-end testing. After lots of repetitive manual testing, the inevitable question is asked "Can we automate the testing of the old features, so I can focus the manual testing effort on the new features?"
This talk will cover the history of BitbeamBot, how to use it to test apps, how it's built, how you can build one yourself.
 recording release: yes license:   

9. OpenShift: letting web developers develop
Troy Dawson

OpenShift is a way for web developers that use Free and Open Source languages, to develop, test and deploy their web apps. They don't have to worry about the hosting, the compiling or all the other headaches that come with building an app on the web. Red Hat and the OpenShift team takes care of the messy part, then the developer can concentrate on developing.
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10. Introducing DroneD
Justin Venus

Increasingly, many organizations have a need to release software early and often in order to remain competitive in the market place.  This talk will cover what mechanisms DroneD provides to meet the aforementioned needs of an organization.  Topics will include An Overview of DroneD, DroneD for System Administrators, DroneD for Developers, and DroneD in Action.  While this won't be a tutorial session, it will be fairly technical in nature, and will be useful for those looking to  solve complex automation problems.
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11. An Overview of Projects and Outreach Efforts in the GNOME Community
Meg Ford

GNOME is the most popular desktop environment for GNU/Linux and UNIX-type operating systems. The GNOME community makes free, high-quality software that is usable by all people, including people with disabilities. GNOME gives its users and developers the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve its software. Whole communities can benefit from changes made to GNOME: Contributors from diverse backgrounds can use it to, for example, create programs that improve literacy or offer access for users with disabilities. The collaborative nature allows for producing a variety of software for recreational and work use. I will share my own experience in becoming involved with GNOME, discussing how that fits into the broader construct of GNOME's outreach programs and getting started in free software generally. I will present the current desktop environment, highlighting ways for newcomers to make meaningful contributions to GNOME 3.
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12. Arduino Workshop
Pumping Station: One

The Introduction to the Arduino class is for beginners with no experience in electronics or microcontrollers. This is an information-based introduction to the Arduino, with just enough examples to verify the presentation.
Outline:What's a microcontroller?What's Arduino? (open source software/hardware, a defacto standard, avr-gcc, libraries, bootloader) Point out the various components on the Arduino boardWhat does a minimal Arduino consist ofTour of the board connectors        5.0 volts       3.3 volts       ground       analog in       analog out        digital in/out       bits/bytesInstalling the Arduino environmentA brief word on the Arduino environment 0.xx to 1.xx transition Launching and running       pick your board       find your serial port       find/set your sketches folder        how projects/files are named       save-as from the examples folder       encourage saving often w/ different filenames       code beautifier Location of the examples and referenceWhy is blinking an LED important?Basic structure of the language       if        while       for       functionsHow to use a breadboardWhat's a resistor? Why is blinking an LED important?Using the serial monitorRunning examples with i/o       ditgital output                blink       digital input               fake pushbutton (pullup w/ a  with wires)       analog input                voltage divider / pot (a ratio w/ one unknown value)               voltage divider / photocells       analog output (PWM)                Regular LED               RGB LED       data (intelligent) i/o               serial monitor, sparkfun catalog examples libraries for specific types of devicesHardware is hard. What is a shield?
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13. Programming 101
Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon    

Wishing you could contribute to an open source project but you have no programming experience? Let's get you started. Participants will get a crash course in programming with a LOGO-like language, and will be building art through code by the end of the hour. Concepts learned here will apply to any programming language, and will provide a good foundation for learning more. Please bring a laptop running Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows and show up a few minutes early so we can get you set up.
 recording release: yes license:   

14. Building a large-scale real-world system on open-source technologies.
Andy Cirillo

Dotomi's ad server handles billions of bid requests every day and serves hundreds of millions of ads all without using a single line of licensed code. Somewhat counter-intuitively, cost was not a major factor in Dotomi's decision to build its infrastructure on open source technology. Performance, reliability and flexibility were much more important considerations which have led us to choose open source options again and again.  This talk will present a case study on building a large-scale production system on open-source technologies. Some of the topics covered will include scaling horizontally using NoSQL technologies such as Hadoop, HBase and Cassandra, network libraries, Messaging with JMS and tools for data-center management and monitoring.
 recording release: yes license:   

15. Arduino Workshop
Pumping Station: One

Register Link for Flourish Arduino Event: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3176197091/eorgf
 The Introduction to the Arduino class is for beginners with no experience in electronics or microcontrollers. This is an information-based introduction to the Arduino, with just enough examples to verify the presentation.
Outline:What's a microcontroller?What's Arduino? (open source software/hardware, a defacto standard, avr-gcc, libraries, bootloader) Point out the various components on the Arduino boardWhat does a minimal Arduino consist ofTour of the board connectors        5.0 volts       3.3 volts       ground       analog in       analog out        digital in/out       bits/bytesInstalling the Arduino environmentA brief word on the Arduino environment 0.xx to 1.xx transition Launching and running       pick your board       find your serial port       find/set your sketches folder        how projects/files are named       save-as from the examples folder       encourage saving often w/ different filenames       code beautifier Location of the examples and referenceWhy is blinking an LED important?Basic structure of the language       if        while       for       functionsHow to use a breadboardWhat's a resistor? Why is blinking an LED important?Using the serial monitorRunning examples with i/o       ditgital output                blink       digital input               fake pushbutton (pullup w/ a  with wires)       analog input                voltage divider / pot (a ratio w/ one unknown value)               voltage divider / photocells       analog output (PWM)                Regular LED               RGB LED       data (intelligent) i/o               serial monitor, sparkfun catalog examples libraries for specific types of devicesHardware is hard. What is a shield?
 
 recording release: yes license:   

16. Tomcat Large Scale deployments
Indika Kotakadeniya

Topic will include a discussion on how to deploy multiple deployments of tomcat. Focus will be on impact when you have 20+ instances as opposed to 2-3.  sub topics:  CATALINA_HOME vs CATALINA_BASE Doing large scale deployments the hack way Working with a shared layout (This is how it's done!) JDK Migration Tomcat Migration
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17. Open Source Tools for Game Development
Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon    

Increasingly, the best tools for building games for any platform don't cost a dime. This talk will offer an overview of several of the best open source technologies available to game developers today. Topics will include audio, graphics, filesystems, and scripting. While this won't be a tutorial session, it will be fairly technical in nature, and will be useful for those looking to hack out their first game, or build the next Call of Duty sequel.
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18. openSUSE--It's not just a distro!
Bryen M. Yunashko

When people see the name "openSUSE" they think of a great distro known for its stability and innovation. But the openSUSE Project is more than just a distro, its a community and a philosophy that drives a number of open source software projects and partnerships. Join us as we introduce you to the Project and why you benefit from openSUSE even if you don't use the distro.
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19. Mozilla's Open Badges project
Chris McAvoy

An overview of the Mozilla Open Badges, a project to enable and encourage open peer to peer education systems. Some history, some technical details, and maybe a sing-a-long.
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20. Lightning Talks and Panel
Flourish Conference Staff

Panel Theme: Proliferation!
Featured Speakers: Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon, Borja Sotomayor, David Eads, and Elizabeth Martin.
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Location
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Illinois A


About the group
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