[Announce] Call for Papers: Haecksen Miniconf LCA2011

[Lana Brindley]

The Haecksen miniconf is on again! This year, linux.conf.au is going to 
be held in sunny Brisbane, and we want to invite women who develop, 
administer and play with FLOSS to come and join us again at the miniconf.

*Important*: The CFP closes at midnight *24 September 2010*. Selected 
talks will be announced early in October. That's not much time, so get 
cracking!

We're attempting to mix it up a bit this year, so we're looking for 
people willing to give long talks like normal (20 or 40 minutes), but we 
are also after lightning talkers, panel experts, and hands-on demos.

_Long Talks_
A long talk should run for about 40 minutes. You can use slides if you 
want to, run video or audio components, and encourage audience 
participation and discussion to your heart's content. You can discuss 
anything related to open source, and it doesn't have to be specific to 
women.

Some suggested topics are smart crafting, usability, cloud living, 
professional development, loyalty tax, community management, best 
practices, documentation, impostor syndrome, virtualisation, computer 
security, social engineering, fashion technology, hardware hacking, how 
to submit your first patch. Don't see your favourite talking point on 
the list? Don't worry - if you're passionate about it, we want to hear 
about it. If you think forty minutes is going to send you (or maybe your 
audience) batty, do a half-length talk (twenty minutes) instead.

_Lightning Talks_
Have you got a great idea and need some people to help make it a 
reality? Is there something really cool happening in your world but you 
don't have twenty minutes worth of information about it? Have you never 
spoken before, and would like a little practice? A lightning talk is a 
short, more informal talk that only runs for about 5-10 minutes. You can 
use slides if you want to, but many people prefer to just get up and 
share their enthusiasm. You can talk about anything that you find 
interesting. This is a great way to find out if speaking is something 
you want to get into. It's also a really good way to ask for 
contributors to a project that you are working on.

_Panel Discussion_
The panel discussion will be on a topic relevant to women in FLOSS. We 
are going to need three or four people to be our panel 'experts'. 
Previously speakers have incited so much excitement and enthusiasm that 
the conversation bubbles over in the audience. We would like to capture 
that conversation and give it its own spot in the program. Do you have 
some great ideas about getting and keeping women in FLOSS development? 
Perhaps you run a program for teaching and encouraging women in 
technology fields? Perhaps you have been involved with Girl Geek 
Dinners, or other social programs? Come and be a panel 'expert' and get 
the conversation started.

_Show Off Your Stuff_
Doing something pretty awesome, but don't want to stand up and give a 
boring talk about it? Why don't you do a hands-on demonstration, or give 
a short tutorial? This is great if you're doing something fun with 
Makerbots, Arduinos, wearable technology, or any other variety of 
hardware hacking. Let us know what you've got, and how long you need to 
discuss it.


In brief, we are looking for women doing interesting stuff with 
interesting technologies. If something has captured your enthusiasm, 
come and share it with us! If you have never spoken before, the Haecksen 
miniconf is a friendly and relaxed environment to find your 
'stage-legs', so go ahead and submit something!

*Submissions*: To submit a proposal for the Haecksen miniconf, email us 
at unicorn at haecksen.net *before 24 September*. Include your name and 
some information about what you want to do. An organiser will get in 
contact with you about it.

-- 
Lana Brindley
Content Author II
Engineering Content Services
+61 7 3514 8178 - ext (85) 88178
RHEL5 RHCT: 605008757717273

"All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that
the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if
you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all
means, do not use hammer." -- IBM maintenance manual, 1975