Linux Fest Northwest 2011 This Weekend!

News

Just an update, Linux Fest Northwest is this weekend! If you’re free and in the area be sure to come by for at least one (or part of one) of the days! For more information, see the quote below from my previous post!

Well, it’s just about that time of year again. It’s time for the annual Linux Fest Northwest! If you happen to find yourself in the Pacific Northwest (or Cascadia if you prefer) come April 30th through May 1st (and within commuting distance of Bellingham, WA) do yourself a favor and show up for at least one day of this neat regional Linux Expo!

This free (as in beer) event is hosted every year by the Bellingham Linux User’s Group and takes place on the Bellingham Technical College’s campus. Exhibitor tables and displays are maintained throughout the duration of Linux Fest Northwest (LFNW) by various community groups (such as the Free Software Federation) and businesses (like Brown Paper Tickets) operating in the Free and Open Source community. There’s food, drinks, lots of chances to socialize and network with other members of the community throughout the entire weekend, and the World Famous Raffle!

However, as fun as that all is, the real highlight of LFNW is the dozens of sessions (nearly a hundred at the time of this writing) provided by various groups and individuals. These sessions are generally an hour or two long and provide a rich sampling of various topics relating to Linux and the greater FOSS culture. The big session of the last two years was undoubtedly the Linux Sucks! and Linux (Still) Sucks presentations. With that said, there are many, many interesting topics for people of all interests and levels of technical proficiency.

In fact, even if you’ve never touched a GNU/Linux based computer there are sessions and activities for you too! Throughout the entire Linux Fest Northwest weekend the Tutorium is open with several repeated mini-sessions running throughout and skilled volunteers looking to help and introduce new users (and potential new users) to GNU/Linux!

So, if you’ve been curious about this “Linux thing” but haven’t quite yet jumped in the pool (or drank the kool-aid) this would be a great opportunity to come and immerse yourself in this neat sub-culture and experience first hand (with zero risk) what Linux is all about (or at least, a lot of what it is about!).

To give a better example, some of the sessions I hope to catch this year include “OpenStreetMap: Mapping Party,” “Free (as in speech) brewing (as in beer),” “Joint panel with the ACLU and EFF,” “Linux in Healthcare,” “Honey, I deleted the kids: preserving your digital legacy for decades,” and probably several more depending on how everything ends up being scheduled. Next year Ainer.org will likely be presenting a session of it’s own, so stay tuned if interested!

This year I didn’t quite have enough time to commit to a full session. However, Ainer.org has become a Media Sponsor and will be providing an ASUS RT-N16 router for the World Famous Raffle!