I am surprised at the number of queries we are getting that essentially
boil down to "Do I/my_friend/well_known_hacker/etc. have to submit a
talk?". At this point, I have more than 20 such queries in my inbox.

Guys, get real.

FOSS.IN does NOT recognise the concept of "status".

This is a community event - all content at FOSS.IN comes from the
community. And community means that you/your_friend/well_known_hacker/etc.
submit talks like everyone else - whether you are Linux Torvalds, CEO of a
big corporation, office boy somewhere, or otherwise.

We don't recognise rockstars, nor to we wilfully set out to create them.
Some people become rockstars after FOSS.IN, but that is not our doing,
that is their own doing, and to their own credit.

The best examples of people ignoring their "status" can be seen from how
people like Alan Cox, Harald Welte, Jon Corbet and other well known
and established FOSS rockstars dealt with FOSS.IN. They all submitted
talks like everyone else.

And the worst examples are corporations trying to jockey for "position" at
the event by telling us how important their people are, saying they will
deign to speak at the event if they are given keynotes.

From a completely personal perspective (and I am not speaking for Team
FOSS.IN here), I am far more comfortable with "the little guys" who come
and tell audiences what they have done and achieved, and how you can
participate in this.

And my classic examples of this kind approach are (surprise!!!) again Alan
Cox, Harald Welte, Jon Corbet and others like them. And audiences got the
greatest value from listening to these "little" guys.

So everyone, get a clue.

If you think that your own "position" will get enhanced by you being
invited and being given a special position at the event, then this is the
wrong event for you. The event you are looking for happens in North India,
usually in February. :)

I know a number of people are going to read this all wrong, but I am going
to say it anyway:

Despite the fact that I am somewhat well known in in the little pond I
live in, I hate being put up on stage before anyone else, thereby being
treated "special". You may not realise it, but that is insulting my
community spirit. Putting me in as a speaker in the middle of the pack
shows that you consider me part of the community, and that is the greatest
honour I could ask for.

Saying that you attended a talk and learned something useful is the
biggest accolade you can give a speaker - knowing that the only reason why
people attended your talk is that you were "positioned well" at the event
is a very uncomfortable feeling.

If you consider yourself part of the community, then prove it - submit a
talk like everyone else.

And don't even bother if you all you intend to do is to walk in, be given
a red-carpet treatment, escorted to the stage to give a "keynote", and
then be whisked away by your company minions, without spending the day at
the event and without interacting with the community.

It is therefore no wonder that someone as deserving as Suparna
Bhattacharya did the keynote last year, rather than some megacorp VP. And
it will always be that way.

Get rid of the artificial sense of "position". If you need "position", you
aren't fit to be part of the community, and FOSS.IN is a community event.

Learn a lesson from Harald Welte. The dude, back in 2003, when he was
already a rockstar and well known, quietly submitted a couple of talks.

When I looked at the list of talks submitted, I at first didn't believe
that this was really him (I had never met him, though I was using his work
in iptables every day).

When he showed up at the event and presented his talks, he was the
ultimate in modesty. He mingled with people, had no airs, demanded not
special treatment or position, spent time explaining stuff, helped where
he could (and that included writing a wifi driver for a recalcient wifi
adaptor overnight so that we could get machines connected at the event),
etc. He refuses to be treated in a special way and prefers crashing with
friends rather than being put up in a fancy hotel. He has inspired more
budding contributors from India than anyone else I know.

And despite his fame (there are few people in technology world today who
don't know who he is, thanks to OpenMoko, GPL-violations.org, etc.), he
posts this:

http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/2007/09/24/#20070924-foss_in

Atul

p.s. Have you put in your talk yet? :)

--
F O S S . I N / 2 0 0 7
India's Premier FOSS Conference
December 4-8, 2007
Bangalore, India
http://foss.in