OStatic

Red Hat issued a call for papers this week for its upcoming conferences, Red Hat Summit and JBoss World. The co-located events are scheduled to take place September 1-4, 2009 in Chicago, IL.

Paul Cormier, executive vice president and president, Products and Technologies at Red Hat says combining events will give presenters a distinct opportunity to share innovative topics with both the infrastructure and middleware communities.

Are you an Ubuntu developer/Launchpad member who had fate conspire against you, keeping you from the the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week at the clandestine Google Crittenden Campus in Mountain View?

It's not quite the same, but Mike Basinger has the details on how to be there without actually attending. For Launchpad registered developers, the UDS schedule page has links to live streams (video and audio) for the talks and presentations, as well as instructions on how to use VOIP to participate.

Not registered with Launchpad? More of an interested onlooker than a developer? The Jaunty Jackalope UDS attendees have rigged a number of virtual postcards for the event featuring more than the local weather and obligatory wish you were here.

There are very few reasons I'd sign on for YACC (not that YACC -- I'm talking about Yet Another Credit Card ). The Linux Foundation is making my unwavering resolve on this front feel a little less resolute today.

The Linux Foundation is rolling out its Tux-adorned Visa Platinum Card. Through a partnership with CardPartner, Inc. and UMB Bank, the Foundation will receive $50 for each activated card and a percentage from every purchase made with the card. All of the proceeds from these cards will be used to create community technical events, as well as provide travel grants to open source innovators. Because no one wants a Tux-carrying card holder to rack up huge amounts of credit card debt in order to support these services, these proceeds will be combined with the funds raised from membership dues, Linux.com advertising, and event revenues.

There's one little domain name out there that's had a wild ride this year. In January, a rather cryptic post went up on Linux.com, a SourceForge web property, that said updates had been slowing -- and were as of that point ceasing -- because changes were in the works. Then came the silence on the wire.

In early March came the announcement that the Linux Foundation was taking the reins at Linux.com, transforming it from something rather static into something that could better capture the spirit of learning, experiencing, and giving back that is an enormous part of the operating system's allure. Input from existing Linux.com members and others interested in having a say was gathered through the IDEAFORGE submission tool, and the Foundation got to work at making these wishes a reality.

At this very moment, the little domain name is embarking on the next leg of its journey. The Linux Foundation is officially unveiling the new Linux.com, a product by the community, for the community.

At OSCON last year, Jaspersoft revealed that work was underway to re-vamp JasperForge, its developer community platform. Jaspersoft's goal was to ensure that the Forge could support its community into the future by integrating new collaboration and networking tools, while enhancing the Forge's existing features.

Today, Jaspersoft has announced that the JasperForge upgrade has moved into high gear, with all of its new features and enhancements in place and operational.

openSUSE recently announced the dates and agenda for its very first Community Week. Much like the Ubuntu team's OpenWeek, the purpose of Community Week is to assemble and introduce new contributors all over the Linux-using world to each other, and the openSUSE Project. And while developers are a vital part of an open source community and are encouraged to attend and get involved in openSUSE's Community Week, participants don't necessarily need programming skills -- only a willingness to learn, connect and pitch in the skills they possess.

Community Week kicks off on Monday, May 11th and concludes on May 17th. Most of the events take place on Freenode, with individual components (such as openSUSE-specific discussions on KDE, GNOME, or marketing) having their own unique #openSUSE-project channels and schedules.

I blame the souls at Ars Technica just as much as the diabolical (though creative) minds at Miro for the ear-drum shattering, make-your-teeth-ache squeal I just unleashed upon the world. Miro's new fundraising campaign -- where for $4 a month, one can adopt a line of code -- has got to be one of the most innovative, creative, and inviting fundraising efforts an open source software project could ever dream up.

While I still take stock in the notion that perhaps open source projects could benefit from spinning their requests for monetary contributions as investments rather than donations, the Miro team has hit on (figuratively, anyway) real gold with this effort. Adopting a line of code (as if it were a whale, or, even, say, a penguin) and giving a little to the adoptee in return -- a blog widget, an adoption certificate, and a picture of your fostered line -- has a low impact on the project's resources, can garner some great returns, and is just fun.

I'm betting it'll turn out to be effective in other ways, as well.

In my inbox yesterday, along with the notes from my mom, forwards from relatives and friends who never really write, and a wide variety of great deals on fake watches, I discovered a press release from Funambol. That in and of itself isn't unusual, but what the open source mobile sync and push solution company was reporting is remarkable on several levels.

Many open source software companies are seeing increases in revenue, stronger migration rates and a general upswing in business thanks to the rather anemic economy. You don't need to write about open source to see this -- it's readily apparent to anyone skimming tech-related headlines. Funambol's announcement certainly mentioned the economy, and gave some truly impressive figures surrounding the project's growth -- but they weren't in relation to undeniably important financial gains. The jaw-dropping growth is happening somewhere that's even more critical in the long-term: the community.