O'Reilly Media announced a new Android Open Conference Oct. 9-11, in San Francisco, designed for anyone who creates, sells, or markets Android-related products. In other open source conference news, the Linux Foundation last week announced keynote speakers, including Linus Torvalds, for LinuxCon Japan, June 1-3, and Linux Expo of Southern California announced events for Software Freedom Day 2011 on Sept. 17.

Scheduled for Oct. 9-11, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, the Android Open Conference is billed as "the first conference to cover the entire Android ecosystem." O'Reilly Media says it hopes to attract app and game developers, carriers, chip manufacturers, content creators, OEMs, researchers, entrepreneurs, VCs, and business leaders.

O'Reilly Media has just opened its call for participation, with speaking proposals due by June 1. The cmopany publishes technology books and hosts the annual Open Source Convention (OSCON) — this year scheduled for July 25-29 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

The Android Open Conference will start off with a Sunday, Oct. 9 event devoted to workshops, while Oct. 10-11 will see a mix of keynotes and sessions, says O'Reilly.

So far, the "featured speakers" are said to include:

• Sean Byrnes (Flurry)
• Aleksandar Gargenta (Marakana)
• Mark Gross (Intel)
• Frank Maker (Handy Codeworks)
• Mark Murphy (CommonsWare)
• Lars Vogel (vogella.de)
• Karim Yaghmour (Opersys)

Sessions will be divided into app development, business and marketing, and platform development tracks, and will cover topics including:

• building Android apps: best practices
• Android internals — under the hood
• development tools
• new frameworks
• alternative languages
• gaming and game development
• enterprise solutions and considerations
• performance and security
• analytics and revenue models
• multiple Android markets
• promotion and consumer needs

Conference pricing is lowest when registering before May 31, with early-bird pricing listed as $1,195, including the Oct. 9 workshops, $595 for workshops only, or $895 for the final two days of keynotes and sessions. Pricing goes up on July 12, says O'Reilly.

LinuxCon Japan to feature fundraising effort

Last week, the non-profit Linux Foundation (LF) announced keynote speakers for LinuxCon Japan, taking place in Yokohama, Japan, June 1-3. The event will feature a keynote by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and will include "special sessions and programs aimed at aiding the country's relief effort following the recent earthquake and tsunami," says the LF.

The event is a spin-off from the flagship LinuxCon event, which is scheduled for Aug. 17-19 in Vancouver, B.C.

On Tuesday, May 31, the day prior to the opening of LinuxCon Japan, the Linux Foundation will host a forum called "Open Forum: Power of Collaboration in Crisis."

Aiming to facilitate collaboration among "open source projects that are helping in a time of crisis," the forum features Patrick Meier of Project Ushahidi, which provides open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. Other confirmed speakers include Open Street Map's Hiroshi Miura, and Hack for Japan's Fumi Yamazaki. 

Keynote speakers for LinuxCon Japan include:

• Linus Torvalds (pictured) and Jim Zemlin, the LF's executive director, will share their thoughts on the first 20 years for Linux and what the future holds.
• James Bottomley, Linux SCSI subsystem maintainer and distinguished engineer at Novell, will discuss what Linux can learn from the Android development model and the lessons that can be learned for other open source projects.
• Mark Charlebois, director of Open Source Strategy at Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC), will discuss the role of Linux in mobile development and innovation.
• Alan Clark, senior manager and strategic advisor for Strategic Initiatives at Novell, will share plans for SUSE post-merger.
• Jon Corbet, editor of Linux Weekly News (Lwn.net) and Linux kernel developer, will share the latest happenings in the kernel community with the Kernel Weather Report.
• Dirk Hohndel, the chief open source and Linux techologist at Intel, will share his latest insights on the Yocto Project.

David Rusling, chief technology officer at Linaro, will discuss the reasons for creating Linaro, what has been achieved, and what the future holds.

Through May 31, revenue received from new LF individual membership dues will be donated to the relief effort. In addition, the LF is creating a special edition T-shirt to honor the Japanese people, available soon in the Linux.com Store. All revenue received from sales of this T-shirt during 2011 will be donated to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Children of Japan, says the Linux advocacy organization.

Registration for LinuxCon Japan is now open.

Stated the LF's Jim Zemlin, "LinuxCon Japan can bring together community leadership to help address technology gaps left by the recent tragedy in Japan while advancing Linux."

Software Freedom Day in L.A.

The Linux Expo of Southern California, which puts on the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) — held this year on Feb. 25-27 in Los Angeles — announced it will sponsor events during the observation of Software Freedom Day 2011 on Sept. 17.

Software Freedom Day 2011 is now a global network of events that continues an annual tradition that started back in 2004 by FOSS (free and open source software) activist Matt Oquist and others. The event is presented by the non-profit organization Software Freedom International, and is sponsored by companies including Canonical, Google, and Red Hat.

The Linux Expo will accept proposals from Southern California groups for events observing Software Freedom Day, and will issue five grants of up to $500 each to support each event. The funding may be used for space rental, media duplication, printing costs, or other expenses related to their event. More information may be found at Linux Expo of Southern California's website.

Women's embedded devices group seeks members

Finally, a Seattle-based group calling itself "Women's Interest Group for Embedded Devices" has set up shop on Meetup.com and is looking for members. The goal of the group is to "provide hands-on mentorship and growth opportunities that tend to be more difficult for women to secure through traditional channels."

Open to both women and men, the group will feature hands-on activities, including assembling working circuits, small devices, and embedded device programming. The group plans to start with small microprocessors like Arduino and Netduino, "and then maybe hone in on some kinetic art, robotics, and devices."

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