Utah Open Source Conference (UTOS)

[Kendall]

Greetings everyone.

I was contacted a while ago by Clint Savage of the Utah Open Source Conference (or UTOS for short). He's currently trying to contact everyone that might be interested in contributing time and effort to promote UTOS.

I'll just give you all the full text of the email he sent instead of paraphrasing:

Hi there,

[...]

I am in the process of contacting any and all Linux/Unix User's Groups in Utah to ask if they would be interested in contributing some time to help promote and organize an event I am planning called the Utah Open Source Conference, or UTOS for short.

The simple idea is that we get together for 2-4 days/evenings during the spring/summer of 2007 (and hopefully yearly after that) to discuss cool new Open Source concepts as well as recognize those of us who are true geeks in the real sense of the word. It would be a complementary to the O'reilly OSCON held each year in Silicon Valley. The big difference I see with this convention from the former is that this will be by, for and about Utah Open Source. Here are a couple examples I know of in the state.

One of the maintainers of the Metacity Window Manager lives in Utah. Another great source, of course for Utah tech is Novell and the SUSE and OpenSUSE projects. In addition, there are several hundred geeks I know or have met that have genius in some Open Source projects.

This gathering of geeks would consist of a few keynote speakers, some smaller sessions covering things like security, programming, etc. which would pique most, if not all geeks' interest levels.

To that end, we are looking for people who can help out and make this conference the best conference in the state. Our goals will obviously grow, and I see much more coming out of Utah, maybe even something rivalling (or bettering) what is done regularly in Silicon Valley.

We've set up a website at http://www.utos.org, and as well, we have a wiki at https://plan.utos.org which will help get things started. So sign up for an account on both, include email addresses and the like. We sure look forward to working with you and your geeks.

Cheers,

Clint Savage
UTOS - Utah Open Source Conference

So there you have it. I'll be bringing this up in the August 2006 meeting as well for those who might show up at the meeting but that don't read the forum (any such creature?). Personally, it sounds very interesting to me. Anyone know of any open source projects developed or significantly-contributed by a fellow southern-Utahn?

Anyhow, check out the UTOS site and see what you think.

[WDLostone]

I went to the site and it mentions that it is somewhere in Salt Lake. Anyone have any idea of a more specific location and are they thinking that they might be one down here?

Also is anyone going to this one?

[Kendall]

I just thought I'd follow up and give what little extra info I have about UTOS.

Basically, the plan is to have a conference next year. The tentative schedule as of now is to have it from August 2-4 in 2007, two weeks after OSCON 2007. The 2007 UTOS conference would/will be the first ever. Basically, the folks behind this effort are trying to start something new.

Since this is a new effort, the people planning the event are having "meetings" using IRC (irc.freenode.net:6667 channel #utos) every-so-often to plan for the event. It appears that the last such meetings was on August 10th from 7-8 pm.

Anyhow, the group putting this together could use help/feedback as they plan to organize the event from the ground up. The current state of the event plans are organized/designed and located on the wiki site: http://plan.utos.org/wiki/Main_Page

When this event does eventually take place, it is assumed it will take place in the Salt Lake City area. The event will, tentatively, be designed to interest both younger groups (high school to college-age hackers) and older/professional groups of open source users.

Anyhow, I hope that clears up possible confusion or questions anyone may have had. Also, check out both the main site and the wiki site for more details, past IRC meeting minutes/notes, upcoming planning meetings, etc.

[herlo]

Hi all,

I am Clint Savage, the organizer of the Utah Open Source Conference. I'd like to update a few of you on some things that have been going on at http://plan.utos.org.

If you take a few minutes to peruse the site, you will notice a "Planning The Event" link right on the front page. This link contains much of the plan that we've been working on over the last few months. Take a look around and you'll also see that we keep track of all of our meetings on this website as well.

In the near future, the plan is to obtain utosc.org (talks are currently in progress) and make this the official website of the Utah Open Source Conference. In effect, utos.org will become the site for the Utah Open Source Council, providing the Utah Open Source community with some clout. Further details about the Utah Open Source Council will come at a later date.

If you have any questions/comments or want to help us in planning this conference, we can always use your help. We generally meet every Wednesday @ 6:45pm MST online in irc at irc.freenode.net in the #utos channel. Additionally, we meet once a month after the Provo Linux User Group (plug) in person to hammer out any other details. Please come and join us any time you like.

Cheers,

Clint Savage
Founder, Utah Open Source