ATO 2015 was originally announced as a three day event to begin on Sunday, October 18, with the first day being devoted to extended workshops and the following two days being the traditional ATO conference. This morning Todd Lewis, the conference chairperson, told FOSS Force, “…the preliminary feedback we received was Sunday was going to be a tough day for a variety of reasons. So, we may very well offer extended workshops on Wednesday, October 21 instead. If that happens we’ll make it official very soon.”
As soon as we know, we’ll let you know.
Conference organizers also announced today that they’ve already lined up and confirmed 50 speakers — with more to be announced soon. Included so far are some names that’ll be familiar to those who’ve attended ATO in the past — like Facebook’s James Pearce, Red Hat’s DeLisa Alexander, Women Who Code’s Erica Stanley and others.
Also slated to make an appearance this year is Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s CEO. No schedule has been published yet, but I’m assuming until I hear differently that Whitehurst will be a keynoter — which should fill the room beyond capacity, especially in Raleigh.
Lewis told FOSS Force that he’s particularly excited about the inclusion of Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Azure, on this years roster. “He’s taken the lead on a lot of the company’s open source efforts and has been front-and-center on many,” Lewis said. “He has a long history with Microsoft and understands the company at a level few others do. In addition, he’s incredibly smart. Will be an extremely interesting talk for sure, one of many.”
A complete list of the speakers scheduled so far can be found on the All Things Open website.
As in years’ past, All Things Open will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center in the city’s downtown. The event is hosted by IT-oLogy, an educational nonprofit organization headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. The organization also hosts POSSCON in Columbia and the Great Wide Open conference in Atlanta. FOSS Force will again be an official Media Partner with the event, and we will, of course, be offering extensive coverage.
Help keep FOSS Force strong. If you like this article, become a subscriber.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
