Presentations

Canvas 3D JS Library

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 1:00pm

Canvas 3d is an add-on to firefox 3 that enables users to do 3d within a canvas in the browser. 3D worlds are much more complex than 2D worlds. issues with coordinate systems, lighting, camera positioning and so forth all come into play into play in a 3D environment. The Canvas 3D JS Library provides a Scene/Object management tool for delivering 3D content. This presentation will introduce the audience to Canvas 3D and the Canvas 3d JS Library.

Community Building and the Architecture of Participation

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 3:00pm

Many developers of open source software seem to believe that releasing source code will magically generate a community of developers. The truth is that the vast majority of open source software projects never generate any significant community contributions. In this talk, we will explore the characteristics of projects that are successful in generating community contributions.

Creative Commons and creative copyright licensing

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 11:00am

An introduction to Creative Commons and other creative
copyright licences. Emphasis on familiarizing reader with the types and spectrum of copyrights: All <--> Some <--> No (Rights Reserved). Discussion of factors to consider in choosing copyright licences.

Eclipse: Beyond Java Development

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 9:00am

Eclipse is an exemplary Java IDE but it is also so much more. This talk will expand your view of Eclipse by introducing you to additional Eclipse IDE tools, non IDE applications for the Eclipse platform, and the broader Eclipse ecosystem. This talk will also provide an introduction to the Eclipse plug-in architecture, which provides the flexibility for Eclipse to be so many things.

Enabling Healthy Open Source Communities: Case study -- Thunderbird

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 9:00am

In this presentation, David Eaves and Dan Mosedale will talk about what open source communities, how the Thunderbird community works, and explore ways to improve the health of an open source community like Thunderbird.

Enterprise Collaboration

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 10:00am

MindTouch, recognized for the most sophisticated, popular, award-winning, enterprise-scale, open-source Wiki solution in the market today, is taking its innovation beyond open-source Wiki collaboration to delivering the next-generation social enterprise collaboration platform. MindTouch Deki enables the most comprehensive enterprise-level wiki-based collaboration through dynamic mashups from multiple enterprise applications and online Web services. Deki connects teams, enterprise systems, Web services and Web 2.0 applications both outside and behind the firewall. It solves a major pain point for businesses and organizations in that it enables them to connect, mashup and surface the growing number of application and data silos that exist across an enterprise – including legacy systems, CRM and ERP apps, databases, and Web 2.0 apps. MindTouch Deki’s Wiki-style collaboration allows people to connect with each other through Wiki pages that can be created, edited, and processed by the entire team in a variety of ways. Each page offers an intuitive and familiar user interface to many powerful features such as text editing, multi-media content management and file attachments, sub-page linking and organization, versioning and permissions. Thus, business colleagues can collaborate 24/7 via the Internet or within their internal network. MindTouch Deki empowers people, teams and departments to create, organize, and share knowledge and communicate instantly and broadly through collaborative Wikis. MindTouch Deki’s customers use Deki in a variety of ways

* Knowledge base - Burnham developed a 700,000-page wiki on protein structures, drawing information from multiple databases and content repositories. The goal is to let researchers from all over the world easily collaborate at www.topsan.org.

Evergreen: an enterprise-strength OSS solution for library ossification

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 2:00pm

Libraries have been society's trusted sources of authoritative information for centuries, and have traditionally been technology innovators and early adopters. Yet something changed: libraries turned to proprietary solutions for their core library systems in the 1990's, and their ability to deliver new services diminished as they discovered they were locked into systems with minimal APIs and minimal investment in enhancements to system interoperability. However, in 2006, after two years of rapid development, the Evergreen open source library system went live for a network of 200 public libraries in the state of Georgia. Since then, other libraries in North America, Africa, and Asia have migrated to or started working towards Evergreen. Learn what Evergreen offers today from both an infrastructural and user-facing perspecti ve for library-initiated innovation, and find out why three Ontario universities have joined together to adopt Evergreen and how they are contributing to the project.

Fedora: The Future, First

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 9:00am

The Fedora Project is a community effort whose goal is to lead advancement in free and open source software. One of the ways we accomplish that is to bring the best, leading edge, free and open source software to an audience of enthusiasts, developers, and remixers. Another is to constantly strive to bring the best possible toolsets and practices to the community, such as enabling infrastructure, packaging guidelines, and low barriers to entry for as many parts of the project as possible. This presentation talks about how Fedora came about, the crossroads at which it exists today, and possible future directions for the distribution and the project as a whole.

How to be successful using SourceForge.net

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 2:00pm

SourceForge.net is a complex site. This presentation will help folks who are fairly new to SourceForge.net creating open source software development projects be more successful in their efforts. This talk will be of particular interest to professors/students who use SorceForge.net to manage development projects in academic settings.

Innovation in Open-Source Development

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 1:00pm

Software collaboration is key for driving innovation and fueling global economic growth. Open access to software-related intellectual property spurs innovation because individuals and companies can take previously written code (publicly available) and build on it – without having to develop the same base of code from scratch. Keith will speak about the economic benefits of open platforms and the need to foster a fertile ecosystem for open-source development.

Introduction to Asterisk and the dialplan

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 2:00pm

A gentle introduction to what Asterisk is, with a ground up overview of the dialplan; the scripting language which makes Asterisk so powerful.

Introduction to Google Doctype: an encyclopedia of the open web

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 9:00am

The open web is a beautiful soup of barely compatible clients and servers. It comprises billions of pages, millions of users, and thousands of browser-based applications. You can access the open web with open source and proprietary browsers, on open source and proprietary operating systems, on open source and proprietary hardware. Google has built its business here, on the open web, and we want to help you build here too. Find out what we're doing and how you can help.

Komodo: making proprietary products open source

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 11:00am

At FSOSS 2007 I presented OpenKomodo, just as we were just launching an open source version of Komodo, an IDE for dynamic languages. One year later, how has that gone? We've had some great successes, some roadblocks, and certainly some struggle in how we think about commercial open source software.

Making Movies

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 3:00pm

It can be worth a thousand words at thirty frames a second: whether you're filming a protest, shooting the next Oscar-winner or recording your child's first steps, if you have a story to tell you probably want to tell it in video. And now Free Software can help. In this presentation, Mike Hoye will be showcasing Ubuntu Studio and a suite of free and open source sound and video editing tools, and giving a short course on how to get your movies from raw footage to a story, and from OK to great.

Mozilla and Mobile

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 10:00am

People all over the world are starting to come online on mobile devices. At Mozilla we believe it is important that there be no "mobile web," and that the web we all know and love is available no matter how you access it. There are many challenges to having a desktop browsing experience on a phone including small screen sizes, different input methods, slower CPUs and memory constraints. In this talk I will be taking a look at these challenges and talking about what we've learned so far and how we plan on solving them.

Open Source .NET Development with Mono

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 2:00pm

Attendees will be introduced to the Open Source implementation of the ECMA standards 334 and 335 by the Mono project. We will examine what Mono provides as a rich next generation developer platform including technologies such as MonoDevelop, Moonlight (opensource silverlight) and how these technologies can be used on operating systems other than Microsoft Windows. Attendees will be shown real-world examples of how programs can be rapidly designed and developed using frameworks like System.Windows.Forms and Gtk#. We will also provide an overview of the future of applicaiton development with advancing technologies such as GtkSilver.

Open Source Design

Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 10:00am

Exploring the world of Open Source Design, looking at what designers are doing with open source tools like gimp, inkscape, and blender3d. We also look at how designers get creative with interface design using various designer friendly open source languages like CSS, PHP, JS, and more.

Open Source Tools for Government Transparency

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 9:00am

Presentation will: - Introduce ideas behind Open Government Data movement - Review recent work on open source tools promoting government transparency sponsored by 1) the Sunlight Foundation in the US, and 2) mySociety.org in the UK. - Review best design practices for citizen engagement.

Open Telephony: Freedom greater than the sum of its parts

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 11:00am

People sometimes have a hard time understanding what "Freedom" is. Certainly in the crush of our daily lives we do not think about Freedom as much as we should, until it is taken away from us. Sometimes Freedom is taken away slowly and we do not realize it. Sometimes we never had it, and so we can not envision it as it could be. The Openmoko project and the FreeRunner phone are examples of how Free Software, Free Hardware and Freedom in services come together, promising an experience that is greater than the sum of its parts. This talk will discuss the benefits of this freedom.

osbootcamp: bringing open source to the noob masses

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 3:00pm

Open Source Boot Camp (osbootcamp) is an international mini-conference aimed at outreach and awareness of open source software driven by community, academia, and industry. This talk provides a look at the value of open source, a nostalgic look back at the birth of osbootcamp, the events in 2008, planned osbootcamp events in 2009, and how to get involved with osbootcamp.

Painting a Picture: What the ingimp Project Tells Us About Users and Usage

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 11:00am

One year ago, an experiment in open source usability was initiated: ingimp, an instrumented version of GIMP, was released to collect information about how people actually use GIMP in practice. In that time, ingimp has collected 5,000 logs from over 800 users around the world, representing over 600,000 commands. In this talk, we'll use these data to paint a picture of how people make use of GIMP on a day-to-day basis, a picture created entirely from ingimp's rich, extensive data set. We'll also show how StatsJam, a new MediaWiki extension we developed, allows anyone to explore these data in a data analysis-enhanced wiki environment. The results from this project -- both its tools and data -- have broad applicability to the design of usable end-user open source applications.

Pecha Kuchas

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 1:00pm

Twenty slides, twenty seconds each, hard stop. No extension, no exception: Pecha Kucha forces presenters to get right to the point, and this year FSOSS is soliciting short, sharp presentations from the community in the 20x20 format. If you have a project, a cause or just something cool to show off, and if you can do it in six minutes and forty seconds, we'd like to hear from you: contact mhoye at off.net via e-mail.

Pecha Kuchas II

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 1:00pm

Twenty slides, twenty seconds each, hard stop. No extension, no exception: Pecha Kucha forces presenters to get right to the point, and this year FSOSS is soliciting short, sharp presentations from the community in the 20x20 format. If you have a project, a cause or just something cool to show off, and if you can do it in six minutes and forty seconds, we'd like to hear from you: contact mhoye at off.net via e-mail.

Protecting You with Exploit Me

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 11:00am

When it comes to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), security is often an afterthought. At the same time the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database reports about as many Buffer Overflow vulnerabilities as Cross Site Scripting, a vulnerability that can be exploited to scan your network or clear out your bank account. How can we move security earlier into the SDLC to reduce both costs and exposure? Enter Exploit-Me, a series of light Open Source Firefox Add-ons providing a Smith & Wesson style interface to running tests for common security vulnerabilities. This talk will explain the most common web vulnerabilities, their significance, and how to test for them using the Exploit-Me Add-ons.

Rich User Experiences - Open Web enabling Closed Platforms

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 2:00pm

The past 10 years has been the story of the open web. The prevalence and adoption of open web standards has been critical to the success of companies, platforms and ultimate consumers. The web has become the default platform for companies building brand experiences and distributing content. However, it is ultimately the user experience that matters to end consumers. This experience is being governed by more closed platforms that connect, publish and consume content from the open web. It is the end result of the need for richer user experience and a tighter coupling with IO hardware that will drive this integration.

Subverting Proprietary Economics

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 2:00pm

In small-town Canada we have seen an increase in the "cottage industry" as retirees cash out of urban centres and move to the country. These micro-enterprise businesses often have only the owner (and their partner) as staff. Although the businesses offer a huge range of services, they have one thing in common--very small budgets. Individually these businesses can rarely afford expert technical support and services and as a result they often end up experiencing vendor lock-in in the worst possible ways. By combining the idea of a LUG and a Chamber of Commerce, it is possible to subvert the proprietary economic model and gain new clients in the process. In this presentation Emma Jane Hogbin you show you how to convert businesses to FOSS by creating a sustainable, technology focused, business network. Pulling from experiences with her own client user group, she will show you how to: create self-sufficient clients that still pay you money; manage expectations (client budgets and contractor time); attract new clients by distinguishing yourself from your competitors; define and achieve success; and spread the ethos of free and open source software into the business world.

The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance and Copyright Policy

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 10:00am

Free software relies on copyright law – both it protections, and its user rights. Free software developers rely on the protections copyright affords to enforce license terms. Developers rely on copyright’s user rights to access the software of others. Access to others’ software is necessary to understand the functionality of that software, to address interoperability issues, and to identify violations of a free software license. Copyright law supports all of these needs, and so supports a vibrant community of businesses, developers and hobbyists working on free software.

Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, changes this support. By introducing “anti-circumvention laws” – special rights that attach to digital locks – software distributors have the power to override the access rights of free software developers. These anti-circumvention laws disrupt the free software business model. One cannot “circumvent” a digital lock even for the purposes of enforcing one’s rights in one’s own code.

The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance (the CSIA) is a coalition of Canadian businesses and free software supporters working together to give free software supporters a voice in copyright policy. The CSIA opposes Bill C-61, and is calling on the Canadian government to reject the one-sided approach of Bill C-61 in favour of copyright laws that support the free software business model.

The Convergence of Open Access and Open Source

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/24 10:00am

Open Access refers to the free and unrestricted online availability of scholarly research. Open Access is one of the most contested topics in scholarly publishing and communication today as it also raises fundamental questions about the nature of the academies and the future of education. In addition to an overview of open access and current initiatives, the talk will highlight the commonality between open access and open source in terms of the mode of production, sharing, reputation management, and sustainability models. Divergence between the two processes and their implications will also be discussed.

The Fluid Project and Community: An Overview

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 3:00pm

Fluid is a community, a product, and a collection of tools created by an international team of partner academic institutions. Fluid is open source software that is focused on building commonly used pieces of functionality that easily integrate into existing applications. These components are designed with user-centred techniques, built for flexibility and customization, and are thoroughly accessible. This session will provide attendees with a look at our library of accessible, rich user interface components and open source UX toolkit.

The Most Important Thing - How Mozilla Does Security, and What You Can Steal

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 9:00am

The Mozilla project in general, and Firefox in particular, have a reputation for security that did not come lightly - it's taken us many years, and many hard lessons, to build up the processes and practices that keep our users safe. In this talk, Johnathan will explain how Mozilla works to build and maintain secure products, and will help you steal as many of our tools and processes as possible for your own projects.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - a case study in integrating two CMSs

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/23 10:00am

There are some really good PHP-based CMS platforms out there, but despite the claims of the faithful, it's fair to say no single system is the perfect choice for every kind of website. When no single CMS will fit your needs, then maybe it's time to integrate two systems and get the best of both worlds.

TikiWiki - When a Wiki is Not Enough

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 11:00am

TikiWiki is a powerful, multilingual Wiki, Content Management System (CMS) and Groupware. Translated to 35 languages, and with an install base of tens of thousands, over 200 people have contributed to the source code and it provides hundreds of built-in features to create all sorts of web sites, intranets and extranets, including support.mozilla.com. The community eats its own DogFood and applies the "Wiki Way" to software development. Written in PHP, it is released as free software (LGPL). TikiWiki is at the crossroads between Wikis and CMS/Groupware. It is more than a wiki. Most wikis are pure wikis. However, is that sufficient? He who is good with a hammer thinks the world is a nail. While a wiki is a great tool, it is not optimal in many situations. For some things, forums, issue trackers, blogs, etc. are better. That's why there are hundreds of Content Management Systems (CMS) out there. Many CMS are focused on classic publishing. In TikiWiki, the wiki way is found throughout the application. For example, the wiki syntax works in the forums, and in structured data trackers. Major features of TikiWiki include articles, forums, newsletters, blogs, a file/image gallery, structured data trackers, translation, polls, calendar, Mobile Tiki (PDA and WAP access), RSS feeds, a category system, a theme control center, and more. When would you need a wiki that is bundled with other features? Find out for yourself in this session what makes TikiWiki unique.

TOS@FSOSS: Next Steps - Discussion

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2169
Time: 
2008/10/23 2:00pm

David Eaves will lead a discussion of possible next steps for collaborative and shared-value initiatives in Teaching Open Source.

TOS@FSOSS: The Community's Perspective

Location: 
S2169
Time: 
2008/10/23 1:00pm

A panel of open source community leaders talk about the what Teaching Open Source in an institutional setting means to each of their respective communities.

TOS@FSOSS: The Institution's Perspective

Location: 
S2169
Time: 
2008/10/23 11:00am

The institutional challenges of Teaching Open Source will be discussed by college and university administrators.

TOS@FSOSS: The Professor's Perspective

Location: 
S2169
Time: 
2008/10/23 10:00am

What works and what doesn't work when Teaching Open Source in the classroom? A panel of professors discusses the challenges and the solutions that they have found.

TOS@FSOSS: The Student's Perspective

Location: 
S2169
Time: 
2008/10/23 9:00am

A panel of students who have completed courses or programs in Open Source and who are working in the IT industry give their perspectives on Teaching Open Source.

Treasury of the iCommons - Reflections of a Commons Sourcing Lawyer

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1206
Time: 
2008/10/23 3:00pm

The proposed presentation will advance the thesis that “Commons Sourcing” is the emerging third wave of commercial transformation. It will begin with some background on the "Tragedy of the Commons" paradigm . It will then explain the iCommons concept and its origin in open source software (OSS) methodologies and emergence in other business models. It will then coin and define the term "Commons Sourcing" and situate it with respect to the two earlier waves of commercial transformation - in-sourcing and outsourcing. It will then conclude with some reflections by a Commons Sourcing lawyer.

Using Drupal: Community Powered Code to Run Your Site

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/23 1:00pm

Drupal is one of the most popular open source content management systems around. With each release, we fix hundreds of bugs and add tons of new features. Making the most of Drupal, however, comes down to more than just understanding the code. The people behind the platform are extremely important. Find out how to make the most of both the community and the code to ensure that your next Drupal project is a success.

When Software Is a Service, Will Only Network Luddites Be Free?

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S2168
Time: 
2008/10/24 1:00pm

So-called Application Service Providers, who provide "Software as a Service (SaaS)", are now the rule rather than the exception in the software industry. The freedom implications of ubiquitous, high-bandwidth networking and AJAX-based application delivery are not yet fully understood nor adequately addressed by the Software Freedom Movement, such that even those of us who have been paying attention during SaaS' rise remain befuddled by the freedom implications of the new environment. Our Movement must develop a multi-front response to this proprietary threat that will make the 1980s and 1990s battle against proprietary operating system vendors look easy. The challenge is specifically centered around two complex issues: (a) traditional user-freedom-protecting licenses (i.e., the copyleft) fail to protect the freedoms of SaaS users, and (b) even if users have the source code to the application they are using, they cannot run it themselves and generate the same network-effect available in the canonical instance. In this talk, Kuhn will frame and introduce the key questions introduced by these new issues. He will discuss the Affero GPL, which is one of few FLOSS licenses that address this concern from the software licensing perspective, and explain how our traditional solutions cannot succeed as easily in this new context.

Your Attention Please! Getting People's Attention with Software Notices

Presenter(s): 
Location: 
S1208
Time: 
2008/10/24 3:00pm

Software often needs to communicate vital information to users: License agreements, crash report information, security risks in installing third-party plug-ins, and so on. These messages must be localized and presented in a way that compels users to read them, two goals that can be difficult to achieve in resource-limited open source software development. In this talk, we will present new visual design techniques to help address both issues. The techniques employ a blend of typography, graphic design, and layout strategies to capture people's attention and encourage reading, while wordless diagrams help address localization problems. We present our specific instantiation of these techniques in the data collection agreements of ingimp, an instrumented version of GIMP, and describe how they can be applied to other scenarios.