Every year, Pune plays host to a major open source conference, GNUnify, organized by the Pune Linux Users Group and SICSR (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research). To quote the website
GNUnify symbolizes the philosophy behind Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). It makes an effort to unify and strengthen the FOSS movement. Initiated in the year 2003, GNUnify has soared to become an international convergence of open minds. It brings together some of the world’s leading speakers to share their knowledge and experience, with students and developers.
It has 1-hour presentations on tech topics, 2-3 hour workshops, installfests, and “birds of a feather” discussion groups.
The CFP (i.e., call for papers, i.e., the call for presentation proposals) is currently open, and if you’ve done any work in any open source technology, you should consider submitting a presentation proposal. It helps the community – because more presentation proposals means that the organizers get a larger pool to select from, and can thus put on a higher quality conference. You could choose to do a presentation that is basic, targeted towards beginners and students, to initiate them into the world of open source, or if you have expertise in a specific field or FOSS software package, you can target your presentation to other professionals in the field who would like to learn from your experiences.
Submit a proposal. It takes very little effort right now. All you need to do is submit a one-paragraph abstract of what you’re going to talk about. The conference is on 19th and 20th Feb, in Pune, giving you enough time to prepare.
Why bother?
This PuneTech’s standard exhortation as to why PuneTech readers should submit proposals for such CFPs. We first used it for the CFP of the IndicThreads conference on Software Quality, and are repeating it here with minor changes:
- GNUnify is a good conference.
- If you’re accepted as a speaker, you get travel costs (upto Rs 5000, based on actuals) and accomodation. (All those reading PuneTech from outside Pune, grab this chance to visit the most happening tech community in India.)
- Become famous: being a speaker at a national conference is good for visibility, and all engineers should strive for visibility. It’s very important. Almost as important as being a good programmer. (Maybe more?)
- Help out a good Pune initiative. More submissions will improve the quality of the conference, and having a high quality conference in Pune improves the overall stature of Pune as an emerging IT powerhouse.
How
- First you have to register with the website at http://gnunify.in/user/register
- After you’ve registered and logged in, then go to the CFP at http://gnunify.in/node/add/cfp
- Fill out form and you’re done.
Didn’t I say it was easy?
What are you waiting for. Click