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About OSCON

Once considered a radical upstart, open source has moved from disruption to default. Its methods and culture commoditized the technologies that drove the Internet revolution, and transformed the practice of software development. Collaborative and transparent, open source has become modus operandi, powering the next wave of innovation in cloud, data, and mobile technologies.

OSCON is where all of the pieces come together: developers, innovators, businesspeople, and investors. In the early days, this trailblazing O’Reilly event was focused on changing mainstream business thinking and practices; today OSCON is about how the close partnership between business and the open source community is building the future. That future is everywhere you look.

Now in its 13th year, OSCON is the best place on the planet to prepare for what comes next, from learning new skills to understanding how new and emerging open source technologies are going to impact how we live, work, and do business. In keeping with its O’Reilly heritage, OSCON is a unique gathering of all things open source, where participants find inspiration, confront new challenges, share their expertise, renew bonds to community, make significant connections, and find ways to give back to the open source movement. The event has also become one of the most important venues to unveil ground-breaking open source projects and products.

"For those who have not been to OSCON, it's a great technical conference covering the whole spectrum of open source, including Linux, MySQL, the LAMP stack, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, middleware, applications, cloud computing, and more. OSCON always has great keynotes, tutorials, and evening Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. As with many conferences, a lot of the meat takes place in hallway conversations and impromptu sessions."
- Zack Urlocker, InfoWorld

Experience OSCON

Through hundreds of sessions, tutorials, activities, and events, OSCON 2011 will educate, provoke, and inspire, with:

• Hundreds of sessions covering the full range of open source languages and platforms
• Practical tutorials that go deep into technical skills, new features and applications, and best practices
• Inspirational (and relevant) keynote presentations
• Over 2,500 open source developers, hackers, experts, vendors, and users of all levels—many of whom share your interests
• An Expo Hall packed with an impressive array of open source projects and products
• A vibrant "hallway track" where attendees, speakers, journalists, and vendors debate and discuss important issues
• Fun evening events and receptions, Birds of a Feather sessions, awards ceremonies, late night parties, OSCON activities around town, and plenty of networking opportunities for everyone

Who Should Attend

OSCON welcomes anyone who’s passionate about open source:

• Developers and programmers
• Architects
• Engineers
• CxOs
• Designers
• Sys admins
• Hackers and geeks
• Analysts
• IT Managers
• Enterprise developers and managers
• Entrepreneurs and business development professionals
• Community leaders and managers
• Activists
• Trainers and educators
• Vendors and suppliers in the open source ecosystem

O'Reilly is committed to promoting diversity at OSCON 2011, and at all of our events. Read more.

Why Attend?

No matter the economic climate, a strong technology foundation is the key for moving your business and projects forward. In just five information-packed days (and nights) OSCON gives you the tools you need to succeed:

• Learn techniques you can use to write great code
• Get the information you need to migrate from expensive commercial installations to more efficient, cost-effective open source solutions
• Explore innovations in system and network administration that your company can start implementing immediately to increase efficiency
• Master essential techniques and advanced tips to scale and optimize your systems for trouble-free, time-saving performance
• Learn how to maximize productivity, increase ease of use, and lower the cost of deployment, from databases to cloud computing
• Get exposure to the most promising projects and people to give you first-mover advantage in analyzing new tools and software
• Stay ahead of the curve with new technologies, platforms, and languages like HTML5, Android, Clojure and OpenStack.