LinuxCon North America 2012 Call For Participation

All submissions must be received before midnight May 1, 2012 PDT.

LinuxCon is the leading annual technical conference in North America, providing a much needed collaboration and education space for the Linux community. Launched in 2009, LinuxCon has quickly become known for offering top speaking talent, a cross-section of the leading players in the Linux community, innovative and timely content, a wide variety of opportunities for attendee collaboration and a place for smaller groups to co-locate for topic-specific mini-summits and workgroups.

The Linux Foundation invites our members, and the technical, business and legal leaders who are making a difference in the world of Linux and open source to submit a speaking proposal for LinuxCon North America 2012.
CFP Changes For 2012
Please note that there are two important changes to all of our event CFPs for 2012.

All submitting authors must agree to adhere to our Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy when they submit their proposal. The policy should be considered when preparing the presentation and the slides.
All accepted speakers must submit their slides one week before the event so that they can be approved by the program committee and uploaded to the event website. Speakers who do not submit their slides by the deadline will not be allowed to participate in the event. There will be no exceptions.

If you are unable to meet these requirements, we ask that you do not submit a proposal. Thank you.

Suggested Topics

Linux on mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, etc.)
Open source compliance
Cloud Computing
Optimization of Linux in enterprise environments
Case studies on impressive Linux performance in data centers or embedded computing
Kernel
Managing of Linux systems (i.e. tracing)
Virtualization
Security and best practices for systems administration
Filesystems
Legal issues facing the Linux and open source communities
Non-technical subjects affecting the Linux ecosystem, including lifestyle, productivity, culture and more. Think wildcard.

Proposal Guidelines

Tips For Preparing a Successful Proposal

Identify your target audience: There are a lot of smart people in the room so make sure your presentation will engage their interest.
Stay "Commercial Free": This event is not a platform for a marketing presentation or sales pitch, submissions of this type will be rejected.
What is the level of expertise required: is your presentation for beginners, core developers, IT professionals, CTOs?
Keep it relevant: why would someone want to attend your presentation? Is this a critical project or are you providing insight into an existing problem and require community input?
Watch the clock: you only have 50 minutes, so make sure your proposal has a very specific scope
Not just technical knowledge: The Linux Foundation is looking for people who not only understand their topic but are able to present it in a captivating and interesting way. We are looking for the type of presenters who will engage people so that they close their laptops (or at least look up every once in a while) and listen.

If you are proposing a panel discussion, please ensure that you mention all of the participants (please include company name and job title). For technical tutorials, please keep in mind that your material needs to cover a 2hr time slot and should be focused on giving attendees the ability to walk away with skills and/or knowledge that they can use immediately.

Presentation Types

50-minute presentations & panel discussions
2 hour tutorials
1/2 day, 1 day, or 2 day workgroup meetings

Submission Requirements
1. Choose a submission type (Presentation, Panel, Workgroup)
2. Choose the category for your proposal (Developer, Operations, Business/Legal)
3. Select a specific topic that best describes the topic of your proposal (See "Suggested Topics" list)
4. Provide a 150 word biography including your speaking experience
5. Prepare a 150 word abstract that briefly summarizes your proposal. It should be split into two paragraphs:

Paragraph 1 - A brief summary of your presentation, including key highlights
Paragraph 2 - Who is your audience, what can they expect, your speaking experience and why your presentation is important to the Linux ecosystem and this event.

6. List any technical requirements that you have for your presentation (i.e. internet connectivity, whiteboard, etc.)
7. Please note that you ARE REQUIRED to submit your slides by August 22, 2012 in .PDF format.

Complimentary Speaker Registration
While we are happy to receive proposals for talks that may have more than one speaker, please note that complimentary speaker, registration can only be extended to one individual of the talk that is chosen.

Important Dates
December 7, 2011: Call For Participation Open
May 1, 2012: Call For Participation Close, 11:59PM
May 15, 2012: Speaker Acceptance/Rejection Notifications
August 22, 2012: Slides Due
August 29 - 31, 2012: LinuxCon North America 2012