Call for Papers

The Linux Exposition of Southern California is proud to announce the 13th Annual Southern California Linux Expo -- SCALE 13x -- will be held on Feb. 19-22, 2015, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel.

SCALE 13x will have the following specialized tracks:

  • Beginner System Administration track - This caters to system administration topics for an audience ranging from beginner to intermediate levels in this area. While all submissions will be considered, special consideration will be given to proposals that cover the following topics:
    • All about SSH, SCP, SFTP - How to set up, how to create and how to distribute ssh keys, how to set up ssh tunnels. Basic sshd_config options.
    • NFS - How to enable it on a server; how to export file systems; how to configure a system to mount an NFS share at boot time; the differences between NFSv3 and NFSv4
    • Samba for dummies - How to share a directory from a Linux system as a CIFS (Windows) share; how to mount a Windows share on a Linux system with Samba; share, user account and password management.
    • Various kinds of user authentication - Local accounts, LDAP, AD, etc.
    • Package administration - How to add, remove and patch packages via the command line (GUI demo optional). RPM and Deb based.
  • Developer track - This track coves a broad range of topics related to kernel, file system, and application development.
  • Emerging Applications track - This highlights hot new Open Source applications and appliances that have become popular in the last few years. Categories include, but are not limited to, multimedia, enterprise users, business development, etc.
  • Cloud and Virtualization track - This caters to to topics related to various Open Source virtualization efforts including OpenStack, Nebula, OVS, Storage, etc.
  • Kernel - Kernel development, tuning, and/or new features.
  • Embedded Systems
  • Next Generation track - This gives the Free and Open Source community youth leaders of tomorrow and users of today, the opportunity to spotlight their talents and ideas. This track is open to potential speakers aged 18 years and under.

In addition, we will have general tracks covering a wide range of topics related to Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and open hardware. We invite you to share your work on FOSS programs and open hardware projects with the rest of the community, as well as exchange ideas with some leading experts in these fields. Details about previous presentations and activities at SCALE can be found at http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale12x.

 

Topics of Interest

We have listed some topics of interest below, with the caveat that depending on the talk content, any of the topics mentioned below could fit into any of the program tracks.  Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Open Hardware
  • User Experience
  • Open Source for Software-Defined-Networks (SDNs)
  • Unix Variants: Tools and Appliances
  • Open Source Security
  • Open Source Provisioning tools
  • Open Source Web Development 
    (Examples include PHP, Apache, mySQL, Zope, JServ, Roxen, Zend, DHTML, etc.)
  • Open Source Mobile Device Development Platforms
  • In-depth Programming/Scripting with Open Source Languages 
    (Examples include Perl, Ruby, Python, Shell-programming etc.)
  • Desktop/Server Operating Systems
  • Linux/Unix/Windows Interoperability
  • Open Source Applications for BYOD
  • Open Source Productivity Applications
  • Open Source Multimedia and Gaming
  • Tools for Profiling and Performance Tuning
  • Open Source Animation Tools
  • Open Source Database Platforms
  • Open Source Licensing
  • Open Source Promotion and Adoption: Current State
  • Open Source Success Stories
  • Open Source Solutions for Big Data
  • Generating Revenue with Open Source Software

 

How to Submit a Proposal

  1. If you are a registered speaker from a previous SCALE event, you can re-use your account from the previous SCALE submission and you don't need to sign up for a new account (and you can skip the next two paragraphs).
  2. For first-time submitters, visit the link and create an account to register the speaker by entering various details in the form such as name, affiliation, bio, email address of the speaker. Please ensure that the personal biography is not more than 1000 characters; focus on relevant experience to your proposal topic and write from the third-person perspective. Note that the contact email-address is the one that will be used to confirm the account creation and speaker registration.
  3. Once a new registration is complete, an email will be automatically sent to the email-address to set the password for subsequent access.
  4. To submit a talk, please go to the link labeled Submit a presentation: Enter the title for the talk, the intended audience, the proposed track for this talk (Cloud/System Admin/Developers/General etc.). Then provide a brief description of the main points to be presented. Provide additional details in the space provided. Also, include the names of all speakers that will present this session. Each speaker must be registered with the system before they can be entered in the "speaker" field.
  5. Once the talk has been submitted, further edits to the submission can be made, if necessary, up to the CFP closing date by logging into the account with the credentials provided during registration. Be sure to include an email for the primary contact for the presentation. Important information will sent to that address.
  6. For submitting multiple talks for the same speaker, the step above may be repeated; note that you don't need to register the speaker again.
  7. Please notify us if the presentation will require a special technical set-up. The setup provided will include:
  • microphone
  • overhead projector
  • a laptop running Linux with a postscript viewer as well as OpenOffice

 

Presentations will be allotted a time slot of about 45 minutes. Please ensure that presentations are done in an open, non-proprietary format. In case you run into any problems during the submission process, for help, please email info@socallinuxexpo.org.

Proposal abstracts are reviewed by an expert committee and evaluated solely on merit. Given the number of high quality submissions received every year, we request that submission dates be strictly honored in order to provide the committee enough time to choose the best set of proposals.

 

Important Dates

18 August 2014: CFP Opens

10 December 2014: Deadline for abstracts/proposals submissions

5 January 2015: Last date for notification of acceptance

19 February 2015: Conference starts