As part of the process of finalising the NZNOG 05 schedule it's been suggested that perhaps we have a session of lightning talks (it's been mentioned before but this is a semi-official call). Lightning talks are talks/presentations that last no more than 5 minutes. Several of them are usually run one after the other so that multiple speakers and topics can be covered in a short time. Here is a good page on the subject with links so where these have been held before and there are more links at the bottom of this email: http://www.justanotherperlhacker.org/lightning/ Possible topics might be (see also the pages linked in this email): - How to use RPSL with NZIX Route Registry. - Advice for finding IT jobs in NZ. - I'm involved in the X project, here is why it is cool. - I want to do cool project X. Does anyone want to help? - A quick way to clone Linux Servers - Interesting stats from the netflow across my APE link. - Building and maintaining a large and popular file archive while avoiding the lawyers. - Successful Project: I did project X. It was a success. Here's how you could benefit. - Failed Project: I did project X. It was a failure, and here's why. - Heresy: People always say X, but they're wrong. Here's why. - You All Suck: Here's what is wrong with the our community. - View from the Far Side, experiences as an IT journalist. - Call to Action: Let's all do more of X / less of X. - Wouldn't it be cool if X? - IF each ISP were an animal which animal would it be. - Someone needs to do X. - Maintaining router configs using awk - Wish List - How to get and keep portable IP addresses cheap. - Why X was a mistake. - Why X looks like a mistake, but isn't. - What it's like to do X. - Where I think the New Zealand Internet is going. - Here's a useful technique that worked. - Experiences with Juniper vs Cisco. - Here's a technique I thought would be useful but didn't work. - Why you shouldn't ever run qmail. What I would like to do at this point is gauge the interest people have in having and giving these talks at nznog05. Please email me if: - If you are interested in giving one (suggest possible topics). - You would like to suggest a topic that someone else could give a talk on ( Feel free to suggest the person) - You think it's a good/bad idea. - Any other questions or comments. I'll go over the emails (and subsequent followups) in the next few days and give a summary. If we get the numbers then I'll probably do one myself ( either on a topic I choose or something others suggest). Assuming we get at least half a dozen people prepared to give talks then I'll see if I can get us a place in the schedule. This is a good opportunity to get your pet topic out there or perhaps to get some experience with presenting without having to go to a full hour long talk. Some links. Advice on giving Lightning Talks: http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/07/30/lightningtalk.html A couple more links: http://www.metaart.org/maca/perl/lightning/lightning_what.html http://perl.plover.com/lt/lightning-talks.html http://www.metaart.org/maca/perl/lightning/lightning_what.html -- Simon J. Lyall. | Very Busy | Mail: simon(a)darkmere.gen.nz "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar | eMT.