Plans for ApacheCon Europe 2006?

[Theo Van Dinter <fe...@apache.org>]

Hey folks,

So for past ApacheCons, we've tended to have a small turnout, both for
committers in attendance (I think we've had a max of 4 at any one time),
and for attendees (the tutorial at last years AC US had something like
3 people attending...)

I'd like to see what we can do to increase both numbers if possible.
A main way to do this is to have more presentations about SpamAssassin.
Are others putting in papers/presentations for AC EU?  Are there people
interested in giving a presentation but don't know what to present?
Who is planning to go whether or not they present?

I'm thinking about doing a few presentations, though I haven't gotten anything
fleshed out yet.  A year or so ago I was discussing with people the idea of
doing a series of presentations under the "So you want to be a SpamAssassin
developer" theme.  I initially thought that this should be a tutorial, mostly
because it's a ton of information and 3h is better than 1h, however I don't
think people are going to pay for this information so splitting into multiple
1h presentations is the way to go imo.  I also like this theme because it's
the type of thing we could post on the web and try to get new people involved
with the project.

Something like (in no general order nor fully complete):

- Overview of the project, who people are, the roles we play, layout of SVN,
  cla, asl voting, ctr vs rtc, infrastructure (issues/zones/etc)

  I don't know if anyone would be interested in attending a presentation about
  this stuff.  Maybe this is best left to the wiki?

- Engine/code development, overview of how mails run through SA, spamassassin,
  sa-learn, spamc/spamd, overview of modules and major functions there-in, 
  plugins

- Rule development, rule-qa, masses/, nightly and weekly mass-check runs,
  rulesrc, sa-update

I can't quite decide about these last two -- they could easily take more than
an hour each, but splitting them up too much is bad.


I don't think we'll have 3.2 out by AC EU, but we could do a "Upcoming
in SA 3.2".


Thoughts, etc?

Here's a copy of the CFP, btw:

----- Forwarded message -----

Call for Papers Opens for ApacheCon Europe 2006

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is proud to announce that ApacheCon
Europe 2006 will be held at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland,
June 26-30, 2006.

ApacheCon Europe is the official conference of the Apache Software
Foundation in Europe. This annual event creates a unique platform for the
Open Source community in Europe to come together to gain deep insight into
techniques and methodologies critical to the advancement of Open Source
software, and gain skills to optimize the power and versatility of Apache
software.

The conference brings together ASF members, developers and contributors,
business people, and power users, working with Apache and related software,
to participate in a leading-edge forum to exchange ideas and network with
peers.
The conference begins with two days of intensive half-day and full-day  
tutorials, which will offer actionable techniques and methodologies pivotal
to the increasing demand for Open Source software.
The three main conference days offer a wide range of beginner, intermediate 
and advanced sessions. ApacheCon Europe attendees will have more than 70
sessions to choose from, to gain real-world insight and to learn first-hand
the latest developments of key Open Source projects including the Apache
HTTP Server - the world's most popular web server software.
Come share your knowledge, hit upon new ideas, find solutions and connect
with your peers at this educational, fun-filled gathering of users,
developers, and vendors of Apache software.   

The ASF and the conference producer for the ApacheCon Europe conference
series - Software & Support Verlag from Frankfurt, Germany - invite the Open
Source community to send in session and tutorial proposals for ApacheCon
Europe 2006.

Apache Software Foundation members are designing the technical program for
ApacheCon Europe 2006, which will feature multiple tracks and dozens of
technical sessions. The program committee is particularly interested in
session and tutorial proposals on the following topics:

* Apache HTTP server topics (installation, configuration, migration, ...)
* All ASF projects such as, Jakarta, mod_perl, XML, and SpamAssassin
* Scripting languages and dynamic content
  (such as Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, XML, XSL, and PHP)
* Security and e-commerce
* Performance tuning, load balancing and high availability
* Technical and non-technical case studies
* New technologies (e.g., Web, Java, XML, and anti-spam)

Regular sessions will be 60 minutes and tutorials will be either
3 or 6 hours.

To submit a proposal, visit http://www.apachecon.com/2006/EU/cfp.
The deadline for submitting is March 27, 2006

Speaker benefits include:
* travel costs will be covered
* accommodation depending on the number of sessions will be covered
* tutorials speakers will be paid an extra fee for their efforts
* conference registration fees will be waived

ApacheCon Europe Team
http://www.apachecon.com/2006/EU/

----- End forwarded message -----