Welcome Messages


From the AUUG President

I'd like to invite you to our annual technical conference, AUUG 2003: “Open Standards, Open Source, Open Computing”.

The AUUG annual conference is the highlight of AUUG's year. I invite you to take some time to get away from everyday issues and address the broader perspective of the UNIX, Linux and Internet community.

In the last couple of years we have targeted new aspects of the industry, and this year two things have come together. This year's conference theme, “Open Standards, Open Systems, Open Computing” is even more topical than we thought when we chose it: the Australian Government is investigating the use of Open Source software, and we're pleased to welcome a number of speakers from the public sector to show us that UNIX and Open Source are alive, well and set to expand that area. In addition, recent events in the marketplace have emphasized the fundamental importance of Open Source software.

That doesn't mean we've neglected other areas, though. Once again we had an excellent response to our call for papers, and the programme committee has put together a particularly well balanced programme ranging from low-level kernel issues to site planning considerations, from web design to database technology. Please join me in thanking the Programme Chair, Adrian Close, whose tireless efforts are reflected in the quality of the programme.

There's more to the AUUG conference than the papers, of course. The AUUG conference has always been an excellent opportunity for people to get together and talk. As always, there's a “networking” reception on Wednesday and the highly acclaimed conference dinner on Thursday. We consider them to be one of the most important parts of the conference, and once again we have taken pains to ensure the highest of standards for these events.

I would also like to thank all our sponsors, who, despite the current economic climate, has been particularly generous. Without their contribution we would not be able to stage this event. We're looking forward to our best conference yet.

Greg Lehey

President, AUUG Inc

Return to conference home

From the Programme Chair

Soon it will be time once again for the AUUG conference to grace old Sydney town with its particular brand of *nix-like fun, frivolity and clue-field bathing (and by this last, I'm referring to the amazing environment created simply by getting people together).

The body of submissions received, like our audience, was diverse and therefore something of a nightmare to carve up and schedule into a programme. It's always difficult to avoid creating dilemmas for attendees, but we think we've found a reasonable compromise.

This year we've attempted to showcase some of the great things happening in the world of “Open Computing in Government”, an area in which AUUG has been quite active in the last year or so, with some success. We have some great perspectives on the use of open source in that arena. Backing that up are a number of presentations on use of open source in the wider world that we think you'll find interesting.

We are pleased to welcome a number of international speakers, including Phil Karn (a man with more RFCs to his name than some of us have had hot dinners). It is a pleasure to welcome Phil back to our shores and we welcome his insight on the state of the Internet.

Our tutorial tradition continues, prior to the conference proper, comprising updates of some old favourites along with some challenging new stuff, all of which allow you to really get your hands dirty.

Of course, the conference is more than just the programme - it's very much about the people. We've kept the long lunch breaks that we find really help attendees connect with each other, either informally or through “Birds of a Feather” (BoF) sessions. And if you haven't been to an AUUG conference dinner...

My thanks are due once again to my hard working Programme Committee, our speakers and all those who have helped with the conference thus far. Without further ado, I commend to you our programme and I look forward to personally greeting you in September.

Adrian Close

Programme Chair, AUUG2003

Return to conference home