Open Database Camp 2011 opens today!

The Open Database Camp 2011 opens today with the Welcome Party, starting today at 7pm CEST. The party (with good Italian food and drinks) is open to all the ones who have registered in the Attendees list. By car you have to reach Pula, take Via Nora (Nora Street), than Via Sant'Efisio (Sant'Efisio Street), until the end, directly to the party location. Organisers will also make a bus available on Friday 6 May, leaving from Pula Hotels (Nora Club Hotel - Villa Madau - Baia Di Nora - Is Molas - Marin Hotel - Is Morus Hotel) around 18:30 and reaching Nora. From Nora back to Pula Hotels a bus will leave around 21:00 and 22:00.

The conference itself will start on Saturday, May 7th, at 9am. Travel arrangements to reach the venue are listed in the conference wiki (wiki: Travel).
There will be a bus collecting participants from the hotels at 8:30am and the same bus from the conference venue (Sardegna Ricerche) back to the hotel in the evening.

Sessions

Open Database camp is an Un-conference. As with the previous editions, the schedule will be decided on the spot, on Saturday. You can list your intended sessions and your wishes in the Sessions page.

Logistics

You will need an ID for your wifi access. (Sorry, it's a law requirement)^(*). If you want your username and password, you should collect it at the reception as soon as possible.

Customized meetings

There will be room for 1:1 meetings between attendees, if you like to do so. You will find a board with the names of all attendees and their affiliation, and you can easily schedule a meeting with them.

^(*) The law has expired but after having put the fear of the state into every internet provider, the lawmakers have not said how the new regulations should be applied. Regretfully, we have still to live with the old rules.

Open Database camp 2011 - Travel logistics, and don't forget the party

The Open Database Camp 2011 is near. In 9 days, the welcome party starts, and then the conference itself gets going. If you are coming earlier than Friday, May 6th, you can either use public transportation or book a private seat with a volunteer in the car pooling page. Please help the organizers: post your arrival and departure dates and times, so we may be able to help you even outside the official conference days. About the conference itself, as everyone should know, it's a un-conference, where the talks will be decided on the spot. But you can book ideas and topics in the sessions page. Since we will have many participants from Italy, there will be dedicated sessions in Italian in addition to the ones in English, which is the official language of the conference.

Open Database camp 2011 - Opportunities for sponsors, culture, and more

The Open Database Camp 2011 is barely one month away.

Sponsorship

Many thanks to all the sponsors! We very much appreciate your support.
Speaking of what, here is some important information for sponsors: The venue owners, Sardegna Ricerche, has given us the availabilkity of an ample hall for sponsors, where they can showcase their products and services.
Each sponsor will have a desk, and a double panel sized cm 195 x 75 (6.3 x 2.4 feet).

Culture, fun, and more

The Science park is something unique that geeks may want to visit. It is one of the biggest research centers in Europe, and the owners have graciously organized a guided tour before and after the conference.
Near the conference there is Nora, an archeological site that alone is worth the trip for a visit. You can see it during the welcome party on Friday (if you show up before sunset, that is), or you can visit on your own after the conference.

To give you an idea of what expects you, here is a promotional video of Sardegna Ricerche.

More

The event should attract many local open source enthusiasts, with varying degrees of knowledge about open database. To meet their curiosity, there will be a parallel beginners track, with introductory sessions to open databases. SQL and noSQL fans, get ready to evangelize your beloved products. There will be many people eager to listen!

Open Database Camp - Accommodation and Sponsoring

The Open Database Camp 2011 is shaping up nicely. The logistics is being defined and local and international volunteers are showing up for help. (Thanks, folks!) If you want to start booking, there is a list of hotels in the Accommodation page. And don't forget to sign up in the Attendees list. Local travel information will be released as soon as we finish cranking up the plan. Open Database camp is free, but we still have expenses to get the job done. We need both official sponsors and personal donations. No minimum amount required. You can donate painlessly online through the nonprofit organization Technocation. (Thanks!) Please see the Sponsors page for more info.

Announcing the Open Database Camp - Sardinia, May 2011

I have been traveling to many conferences in the last 10 years, and many times I have been asked to organize an event in my native land, Sardinia. After delaying the inevitable for long time, here I can announce it. The Open Database Camp 2011 will take place in Sardinia, hosted by the Sardinia Technology Park, a local scientific and business institution with international links. Mark your calendars: the Open Database Camp will be held in Sardinia on May 6-7-8, 2011. I have already confirmed the venue, and I will have full cooperation from Sardegna Ricerche about the conference logistics. I will meet the organizers on January 27th to get in touch with nearby hotels and restaurants and negotiate rates. The place is a beautiful and modern compound, built in the middle of a forest. About 40 Km from Cagliari and its airport. There is a public bus service to reach the venue, and there will be an integrative bus during the conference. The place is a few kilometers from the sea resort of Pula, near the archeological beauty of Nora.

If you want to start booking your flights, look for connections to Cagliari Elmas.

There are cheap direct flights from several European airports with EasyJet, Ryanair, TUIFly, Air Berlin, and probably a few more.
For example, you can fly to Cagliari from Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Venice, Rome, Milan, Turin, Basel, Geneva, Krakow, and probably more by the time you come.
If you book now, you should be able to get a good price.

The weather in Sardinia is mild. May is almost summertime. If you live in cold places like the North of the USA, Canada, Scandinavia, May in Sardinia is definitely warmer.
More logistics information will come.

Why Open Database Camp, and not Open SQL Camp like before?
The Open SQL Camp tradition has evolved since its inception in 2008. It has now become a gathering of database professionals and enthusiasts, not necessarily identifiable with the SQL constraint.
So, the conference welcomes everyone who deals with open databases, regardless of the languages used to interface them.

Stay tuned for more info. In the meantime, you can discuss this matter in the opensqlcamp Google Group.

OpenSQLCamp - Pictures from the first day

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.