The OSUOSL Heads to LinuxCon North America 2011 Next Week The entire OSU Open Source Lab team will be catching a ride on the Tux Bus next Monday, headed to Vancouver, B.C. and LinuxCon North America 2011. We’re very excited to be leading all the sessions for the brand new Linux Learners Day, a full day of talks geared to students. The schedule includes: Fundamentals of Open Source Development Linux Basics Introduction to Python Embedded Systems Careers in Open Source Linux Learners Day is one of the many ways the Linux Foundation supports students in pursuit of future careers in the Linux arena. Other efforts include Linux Training Scholarships, with the first round of scholarship recipients announced just yesterday.

Energy Sector Security Consortium and the Oregon State University Open Source Lab Partner to Establish Effective and Inclusive Collaboration and Governance Models 8-8-2011 CORVALLIS, Oregon - The Energy Sector Security Consortium (EnergySec) and Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) announced today that they will partner to perform strategic research on the current use of open source software in the energy sector, especially as it relates to computer security. OSUOSL will perform case studies looking at leading and influential organizations or projects, the tools they use and the challenges these groups have faced in adopting open source software.

The Oregon State University Linux Users Group (LUG) exists to promote free and open source software on campus. Its members and moderators turn to events like OSCON to find support from premier open source affiliates to help boost the group’s reputability at Oregon State University, and last week some OSU Open Source Lab (OSL) students —also LUG members— were treated to mass donations. An incredible 23 organizations and companies —listed below— opened their booths and handed the students boxes of t-shirts, books and other great gifts to help the LUG’s development this coming year.

Summer Camp for Geeks Students at the Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSL) get into a project development groove, especially during the summer months. They’re happy to exit the groove, though, when major open source events roll into the region. A group of them took a break from their daily routines and traveled to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland last week for OSCON, now in its 13th year. Amidst dozens of booths, each with its own ornamentation – simple and extravagant – they wandered, hunting for stickers, branded flashlights and other free promotional garb, when they weren’t tending to the OSL’s own booth.

It’s that time of year again in Portland, Oregon. It’s sunny and warm - well, it is today - and the annual OSCON conference is just around the corner. The OSU Open Source Lab team will be participating in several activities at the conference, and we hope to meet some new folks, introduce them to the lab and our offerings to the open source community, and catch up with old friends. Here’s what we’re up to at OSCON 2011:

Three representatives of the Open Source Lab gave presentations at last week’s Open Source Bridge conference in Portland. The annual four-day conference is a public platform for open source developers to discuss various technologies and projects. Hundreds of people filed in each day to listen to the individual talks and share information with the open source community. Programmer Tim Harder gave the first of the two OSL project presentations on Tuesday afternoon, while lead systems administrator/architect Lance Albertson with lead software engineer Peter Krenesky presented on Wednesday morning.

Eric Searcy, a former three-year student employee at the Open Source Lab, has picked up a new role at the Linux Foundation as the organization’s IT Infrastructure Manager. He will be in charge of maintaining and deploying systems, systems security, and keeping the Foundation’s IT infrastructure up and running. In Spring 2008, Searcy graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Computer Science. He immediately began working for Corvallis-based InsightsNow, a market research company, as its Infrastructure Architect. He was hired by Jason McKerr, then InsightsNow’s Director of Technology and one of two people who founded the OSUOSL. If you’ve been following the news from Oregon’s tech scene, you may recall that McKerr recently joined Portland based startup Puppet Labs as VP of Development.

Summer conference season is upon us, and employees of the OSL will be giving several talks. Kicking off June’s festivities, Leslie Hawthorn will be discussing “Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software: Saving the World One Bit at a Time” at Southeast LinuxFest. The conference runs from June 10-12 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Leslie will be speaking this Friday, June 10th. If you find yourself in Portland, Oregon for Open Source Bridge, you’ll hear from all our technical staff at the conference. Tim Harder will be covering OSWALD: Lessons from and for the Open Hardware Movement. Lance Albertson and Peter Krenesky will be giving a tutorial talk on Hands-on Virtualization with Ganeti. Open Source Bridge runs June 21-24th.

Ed. Note: As part of our ongoing series of interviews with the OSL’s student employees, this week we’re bringing you the story of Emily Dunham, one the newest additions to the OSL. Emily joined us just over a month ago as a student developer. Emily was kind enough to share her thoughts with the Lab’s student writer, Anthony Casson. Emily hard at work on her latest creation, which fetched the Artistic Design award at this year’s Oregon State University Engineering Expo

You may recall from our recent newsletter that the OSL team is organizing a student focused track at the Linux Foundation’s upcoming conference, LinuxCon North America 2011. Dubbed Linux Learners Day, these sessions for students will be taught by OSL staff and will focus on fundamentals of Linux, embedded systems and open source community involvement. LinuxCon NA 2011 will take place the week of August 15th in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Conference registration is now open, and the folks at the Linux Foundation were kind enough to put together several discounted packages for student attendees.