Karlie held a talk on the OLPC and the 4th Grade Math Project which was ulimately the reason I attended the event and there was quite a bit of interest in the project from BarCampers.

Luke and Remy did a talk on civx.us - an Open Source Public Government Information System

I also attended a talk on OpenStreetMap which I found quite interesting.

Due to a previous commitment I was unable to stay for the entire event but I am plan on and look forward to attending the next event.

Below is a run down of the sessions I attended.

State of the Wiki / Docs project presented by Ian Weller and Karsten Wade. - This session went over the needs for wiki in regards to categories, namespaces etc as well as how the community can help out with this. The Docs presentation covered possible CRM solutions that can be used.

SVirt presented by Dan Walsh - This session was very enlightening as I expected it would be. It covered some of the issues of with SELinux using Xen virtualization and how it can be resolved using KVM and SELinux.

Puppet presented by Jeroen Van Meeuwen - This session went over the general concept of puppet as well as some advanced configuration. I personally plan on implementing the use of puppet at a few of my client sites now that I understand it much better.

Fedora Cloud presented by Mike McGrath - This session covered the concept of the cloud being built by Fedora. The whole concept is utilizing ovirt. Currently this is a work in progress but should be ready to deploy shortly.

KVM presented by Sunny Dubey - This session was of particular interest to me as I am currently interested in migrating some of my clients over from Xen virtualization to KVM. The presentation covered real use cases as well as why KVM is a better solution than some other well-known virtualization solutions. One of the big topics discussed was KVM’s lack of a gui interface for management and the importance of having one available as soon as possible. Whether this neede GUI end up being ovirt or another solution we will have to wait and see what if anything the community may come up with.

FUDPub was a fun as expected.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

We also spent some time building Media Kits which are now at the registration table and will be stocked with F10 Media.

Discussions in regards to Mentoring new Fedora Project sign-ups as well as focusing on participation and contributors.

A few of us were invited to a “roundtable discussion” which was really cool. I didnt fully realize the impact that the NA Ambassadors work has had throughout the Fedora Project this past year until it was brought up during this discussion and I am sure I speak for all of the NA Ambassadors I am really excited about growing and continuing this for 2009 and beyond.

After dinner a few of us attempted to get a jump on installing Moksha to see if we can utilize it for Event Splash Page.

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On Monday December 8th, 2008 I gave a Fedora presentation at ITT Technical Institute in Harrisburg PA to 2 different groups of students throughout the day (the overall total was around 55 or 60). The entire group consisted of Multi-Media, Programming, Criminal Justice and Networking students. ITT Technical Institute already is utilizing Fedora in their Networking curriculum (currently Fedora 8). My presentation was geared mainly towards how students could build experience and a work portfolio while going to school by contributing to Fedora as well as some of the new features of F10 and I also did a small presentation on the XO and OLPC program.

The presentation was well received in fact I was invited by the IT Chair to do another presentation in the upcoming Spring semester.

I collected quite a number of email addresses of interested students that I am currently following up with on becoming possible contributors.

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This past weekend I held a Fedora F10 Release Party and InstallFest with the WNYLug (http://wnylug.org). I presented to the group (around 23) about the Fedora Project and how they could join to become contributors. During the event I created quite a few F10 Live-USB keys and assisted with new installations of F10 on laptops and desktop that were brought in by the attendees and any other questions that they had with existing installations.

Special thanks to the WNYLug (who has only been in existence since Oct 2008) for making this event a huge success and helping out with burning install media and live-cd’s.

Pics from this event will be posted shortly on the WNYlug site (http://wnylug.org)

This weekend has topics such as :

• SELinux Basics
• Firewall Basics
• Intro to Bugzilla
• Creating a Fedora Remix
• Beginners guide to getting involved
• Packaging
• Configuration Management using Puppet.

If any of the above is of interest, I encourage you check out the details, class dates and times located here

If you are interested in a topic not listed above, please take a moment and add it to the growing “Suggest a Class” list at the bottom of the page https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/IRC/Classroom

If you spot a topic in the “Suggest a Class” list or have another not listed, that you know like the back of your hand, and wish to contribute and share that knowledge with to others, please sign yourself up for a future classroom time slot. There is still one time slot left for this coming weekend.

I want to thank all of the volunteers who already signed up to teach a class this coming weekend without you this initiative would not have gotten off the ground.

Max’s original message to the mailing list:

Please make sure you get your event added asap.

Fedora Event List : here

The Fedora booth was in a prime location (right at the entrance) and received a lot of exposure.

We had a very pleasant surprise during registration. One of the packets handed out at registration contained a USB Flash drive (2gb) provided by a local open source company Anteil. At first sight of the flash drive Jon and I both looked at each other and said we are going to be busy creating Fedora USB sticks. Just about that time Jim Capp, The CEO of Anteil, introduced himself and stated that one of his employees, whom is a big Fedora fan had already configured the usb flash keys he was handing out, with a Fedora 9 live image. This was a huge plus for us!

Major kudos goes to Anteil for helping us promote Fedora!

Throughout the event I had the chance to talk with many people, during one conversation I talked with Jason Hubler the IT Chair person from ITT Technical Institute where the event was being held. He was inquiring about having someone from Fedora come in and speak to his students (whom currently utilize Fedora as part of their course work) which I gladly accepted and have planned in Dec 2008. I anticipate getting quite a few contributors signed up during this speaking opportunity.

I was very impressed with this event, the only suggestion I would make for future events is to not cap the registration, as they were turning people away due to space limitations, other than that the event was very well run and organized (as I expected it would be, based on previous events I have attended run by this group) and I look forward to next years venue!

OLF was well manned by various Fedora Ambassadors (13 to be exact) which made handling a crowd of roughly 1000 people very easy. I met and spoke with people across the board, everyone from families (including their young children) to Linux Var’s.

The booth was in a perfect position and we had a lot of traffic. The OLPC XO’s were quite a hit with everyone. I know the young children attending with their parents loved them and while they were entertained we got a chance to talk to mom and dad!

Overall I think event itself was very good and we should hopefully get a few more contributors to add to Fedora and it was great to finally put faces to everyone that I talk to on irc.

I look forward to attending / helping out with next years event!

FADNA 2008

Minus a few glitches with the SIP Phone this went very well. We covered everything on our agenda and are laying the groundwork for the future.

The topic that really stood out to me was the Mentoring role that Ambassadors play, we spent quite awhile talking about this as it is an important part of our duties, we will be drawing up a draft of this on the wiki over the next few weeks.

I really liked the ability of discussing things face to face, don’t get me wrong I am a huge fan of irc but you can really see and feel the passion that each person has when it is done first hand.

At the end of the weekend not only was OLF and FADNA worth the 12+ hour round trip drive time but the experiences I shared with everyone while there makes it even better.

Some other post’s by more attending Ambassadors:

http://vwbusguy.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/ohio-linuxfest/

http://jtadlock.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/fadna-report/

http://jbwillia.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/fadna/

http://jbwillia.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/hello-world/

http://www.nalley.sc/david/?p=112

http://jtadlock.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/ohio-linux-fest-2008-report/

http://sexysexypenguins.com/2008/10/12/fad-na-day-1/

http://sexysexypenguins.com/2008/10/12/olf-day-1-fadna-day-1/

http://sexysexypenguins.com/2008/10/11/ohio-linux-fest-day-0-fadna-day-2/

So I went out and purchased the required Sandisk Extreme III 4 gig SD Card needed for this and the only thing missing was the XO itself.

I just received a call from my wife that the XO has arrived at my home just in time for my scheduled testing block tomorrow evening. I am really stoked about testing and filing bug reports on the XO.

So now I am counting down the seconds left at work so I can get home and finally see this “Green Machine”

Not to mention I am all for it!

Solution to Financial Bail Out - We Deserve It Dividend.

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.  Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a  We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 U.S. citizens 18+.  Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.  So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion; that equals $425,000.00 each.  My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.  So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.  That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.   A husband and wife have $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

- Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

- Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

- Put away money for college - it’ll be there

- Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

- Buy a new car - create jobs

- Invest in the market - capital drives growth

- Pay for your parent’s medical insurance - health care improves

- Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back.   And, of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult US Citizen 18+.

As for AIG, liquidate it.  Sell off its parts.  Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.  Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale.  We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.  Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”  But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?  I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, this plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.