Call for Speakers

With three years of the fundamentals behind us GOSCON’s focus for 2008 is on how government IT organizations around the world today are successfully using open source software to support the delivery of government services to the citizens they serve. Our 2008 conference theme is "Transforming the Delivery of Government Services".

Call for speakers is now open. Deadlline for submissions is July 16, speakers will be notified by July 18.

We’d love to hear from you if you’d like to be considered for a session at GOSCON. Here are our 2008 Conference Objectives for attendees as your guide:

  • Recognition of how open source can play an important role in government technology initiatives within real-world environments
  • Understanding of how to leverage the open source community to achieve agency objectives [strategic objective]
  • Understanding of the business case for open source, including financial, operational, and development implications for "buy vs. build" decisions
  • Practical understanding of how to engage the private sector in the implementation and support of an optimal mix of proprietary and open source software
  • Practical understanding of how open source tools, applications, and methods are being applied in governmental settings
  • Exposure to real-world examples of successful use of open source by government agencies, including the process and technologies used
2008 Conference Tracks : Open Management - Sessions that cover business case, legal, operational policy, organizational readiness, procurement strategies for open source and other management issues. Open Implementation - Best practices and use cases for open source applications (installation, migration, integration with legacy systems/mixed environments); collaborative projects/development (governance, communications, managing distributed development); models for vendor support for development and for extant open source applications. Open Public Health IT - focused on new and emerging open source applications and projects in this special government vertical, including domestic and international examples. International Open ICT Summit -National, regional and local governments from across the globe will share their experience, policies and approach to the use of open source software adoption in a series of general sessions.

To Public Agency Personnel: GOSCON attendees are keenly interested in hearing from other public agency personnel regarding their experiences with open source on a wide range of topics. How did you do it? With whom did you partner? What lessons do you have to share? If you work for a public agency or institution, you already appreciate what your colleagues may benefit from hearing about.

To Vendors: You should expect to participate in GOSCON as an opportunity to learn more about your customers’ interests and needs as well as educate them on your company’s role in the marketplace. Speakers' proposals are weighed based on the speaker’s background, content that supports conference learning objectives and ability address to our audience. Ideal proposals contain subject matter communicated in the context of real use case. Attendees are off-put by marketing pitches – let your customer’s experience tell your story. You may consider co-presenting with an agency customer.

Speakers’ Consideration: GOSCON remains a not-for-profit conference and committed to maintaining a modest conference fee to keep the barrier to participation low for the public sector. Conference admission is complementary for invited speakers. Some limited funds are available for speakers from travel and budget-restricted public agencies or institutions where they would otherwise be unable to participate. Requests for assistance will be considered as part of the proposal review process by the conference program committee and decided on a case-by-case basis. A copy of the conference reimbursement policy will be provided upon acceptance of a proposal.

Thank you for considering participating in GOSCON as a presentor. Here are the forms you'll need to submit a proposal:

If your proposal includes an additional speaker have them fill out the auxiliary speaker form.