For the past couple of months, I've been helping organize a student mini-conference for LPC, which will take place on September 16th. So far we only have 9 people registered for student day. We would like at least 15 students to make the student mini-conference a full-day event, and this week is the deadline for conference organizers to decide whether they need to scale back.

If you're a student, and you're even remotely interested in open source development, I suggest you take a look at the Linux Plumbers Conference Student Day page and register for the event.

Why is this event cool? As one project manager at IBM's Linux Technology Center said, "I would have killed for an experience like this as an undergrad. Students get to talk one-on-one with open source developers for a whole day, and then they get to go to Linux Plumbers Conference too! How could you pass that up?"

To some students, it may sound daunting. A whole conference full of professional open source developers? I was nervous when I went to my first Linux conference too. It was a small conference called FreedomHEC. I was really shy, but I (a lowly undergrad at Portland State) got to talk to Greg Kroah-Hartman (subsystem maintainer for USB and PCI) face to face. That's when I realized that open source developers are people too, and I could actually, like, talk to them.

Student registration is $50. (My friend Brandon, when asked if $50 was too expensive for students, said, "$50 is a new video game or a really hot Friday night date. It's not that much.") Registration is open to part-time and full-time undergraduates and graduate students, along with advanced high school students. (Trust me on the registration requirements, some portions of the LPC site haven't been updated with the new requirements yet.)

So you have no excuse not to attend! If you have any questions, feel free to email me personally. Otherwise, go register!

Last night I sent out an email with notes for our last Linux Plumbers Conference planning meeting. It had a list of todo items for everyone. I added my own items to my remember the milk list, and then I decided to explore the publishing/sharing features. My LPC todo list is now publicly viewable (published). Check it out if you're interested in what I'm doing on LPC right now.

If more LPC members were on remember the milk, we could have a shared list of all todo items related to LPC planning, and each LPC member could finish, postpone, or add items to the global list. It's kind of like having a bugzilla with assigned bugs. I think it would allow us to see which LPC planning committee members are overloaded, and which are slacking off. "Bob, I see your todo item for getting a quote on 100 devil ducks has been overdue for two weeks. Do you need help with that?" I don't want to force LPC members to use a new tool, but I think it would be a great idea.

Eh, who am I kidding? I'm just writing this blog entry so I can avoid my own todo list. ;)