I've now posted all the current talk submissions to the OpenSQL Camp Wiki. A big Thank You to everyone who contributed so far and helped us to bang the drum for this event! If you haven't heard about OpenSQL Camp yet, it's a subconference of the Free and Open Source Conference (FrOSCon) in St. Augustin, Germany, which takes place on August 22+23. The topic of OpenSQL Camp is "Open Source databases and related technologies" and we're looking for interesting presentations in this field.

As we have 12 session slots to fill, we still have room for at least 6 more submissions! It's also a tad bit MySQL-centric at the moment, that should definitely change! We would love to get some more diversity to cover a broader range of Open Source Database technology.

So please submit your talk proposals and help …

FrOSCon, the Free and Open Source Conference, will take place on August 22nd and 23rd in Sankt Augustin, Germany. Sun Microsystems is a Gold Sponsor of the conference which takes place for the fourth time now. As for the previous years, the organizers have managed to arrange a great lineup of speakers and content. Presentations are held in both English and German — a first draft of the schedule is now available. However, it is still subject to change in some details, based on the feedback by the invited speakers.

I am looking forward to this event, especially since we're helping to organize the OpenSQL Camp subconference there, which will take place in parallel (there also is a subconference about Java this time). By the way: if you've missed the deadline for submitting …

Giuseppe stumbled over this website and recommended it to me as a potential useful service for organizing the registrations of the OpenSQL Camp: Eventbrite is a Python/MySQL-powered web site (judging from their job openings) that provides the following:

Eventbrite is the leading provider of online event management and ticketing services. Eventbrite makes it easy for anyone to hold a successful event of any type and size. Eventbrite is free if your event is free. If you sell tickets to your event, Eventbrite collects a small fee per ticket. So just like you, Eventbrite wants your event …

This is the 150th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. Someone accidentally left Dave Edwards‘ cage unlocked, and he escaped, thus leaving me with the pleasurable duty of compiling the 150th weekly Log Buffer.

Many people other than Dave are finding release this week. Giuseppe Maxia explains some details of MySQL’s New Release Model. Andrew Morgan announces a New MySQL Cluster Maintenance Release. Aleksandr Kuzminsky of the MySQL Performance …

The OpenSQL Camp 2009 web site is now ready for business, I've updated various pages and added some more information about the call for papers. I've also set up a Twitter account (no way without one nowadays, right?), which might also play an important role in the voting/rating of talks later on (Giuseppe came up with an interesting proposal for that).

So we're now seeking your input! Let me quote from the web pages directly:

OpenSQL Camp is a free conference of, by, and for the open-source database community of users and developers. The first OpenSQLCamp 2008 took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, …

For the fourth time in a row, I will be speaking at FrOSCon, one of the most charming open source events in Europe.
Hosted in the bright environment of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, this event will get you hooked from the beginning. The organization is done by volunteers, who have always done an amazing job, with even better results than more expensive and famous conferences.
This year, there will be some more action than ever before. In addition to the main event, the organizers have given away a few developers rooms, to let some projects build their own event within the main one. There will be a Java subconference, and, closer to my interests, the European edition of the OpenSQLCamp 2009, which applies to all open …

Today I received a confirmation that I will be giving a talk about "Working for a virtual company" in the main conference track of the Free and Open Source Conference (FrOSCon) in St. Augustin, Germany (August 22nd+23rd). Yay! I've been giving talks at every FrOSCon since its inception in 2006, so I am happy that I will be able to continue this tradition. FrOSCon is really a gem among the various Linux and Open Source Conferences in Germany — it takes place at a nice venue, the weather is usually warm and sunny and the conference organization is just great. And they of course always have a good lineup of speakers and OSS projects! As for the last years we (Sun/MySQL) will support the event by sponsoring and we will likely have a booth there as well. My colleague Joerg Moellenkamp also …

OpenSQL Camp 2008 has come and gone, and hooray again for Baron who came up with the idea and made most of it happen (but let’s not forget Sheeri!)  Events such as these are always educational, but the most interesting stuff happens outside of the organised sessions (and this being an un-conf, they weren’t that strictly planned anyway

For me (Arjen) a major chunk of the exercise was acquiring jetlag there and back with no days to spare either side, but I feel it was well worth it. I spent most of the time listening and talking with people rather than coding. It was a great opportunity to catch up with Monty, the Percona crew (Baron, Peter, Vadim, Tom, and more - there’s so many of them now!), Brian, Stewart, Jay, Pat, Eric and other Drizzlers, Sheeri, active OurDelta people like Nick and Rob, ex-Brisbanite Ronald, and of course Jim who …

Kudos to Baron Schwartz, who has shown everyone that you can organize a conference from scratch, without the logistics of a company. He has motivated other people in the community and received spontaneous help, which in turn became a web site, sponsor donations, free food for the participants, T-shirt, bags, internet connection, and a glorious feeling of camaraderie throughout the event.
Well done, Baron!

The picture shows a surprised Baron holding a T-shirt covered with "thank you Baron"s, secretly signed by all participants and finally awarded to him in public.

The OpenSQLCamp started yesterday in Charlottesville, VA.
As expected, the gathering is impressive. There are many well known names from the open source database world. MySQL is probably overrepresented, but that's fair, considering its wide adoption.

Yesterday was an informal "meet anyone and let's see what we do tomorrow". The schedule, as you can see, is very dynamic.