SCALE ready for launch – Pre-registration for SCALE spikes, WIOS/OSSIE and more on Friday

LOS ANGELES -- To get a sense of how the health of the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) community is in general and to monitor the interest in FOSS and Linux in the region in particular, the Southern California Linux Expo staff watches pre-registration closely leading up to SCALE 8X.

Having said this, at the 36-hour mark before the expo starts, pre-registrations for SCALE 8X are running over 30 percent higher than at this time last year. This bodes very well for both the robust health of FOSS and SCALE 8X, and we predict that this year’s event will be nothing short of an awesome show.

Friday marks the start of SCALE, highlighted by the Women In Open Source (WIOS) and Open Source Software in Educaction (OSSIE) segments.

WIOS features sessions by women – and girls – promoting empowerment and activity in the FOSS sector. New this year is the participation of three girls – two 12-year-olds and an 8-year-old – discussing in one session about their experience using FOSS and what they do in their social circle (including LUGs) to promote FOSS.

OSSIE brings together FOSS and the educational environment, with sessions that couple concepts of FOSS and how it benefits the learning realm. During the course of the OSSIE sessions, a Try-It Lab will be available for attendees to try out different software.

Other Friday events include SCALE University, where sessions deal with system administration education for everyone from the beginner to the seasoned veteran; Birds of a Feather sessions, where like-minded software users get together; UbuCon, with sessions revolving around Ubuntu; the Fedora Activity Day, which is centered around getting folks ready for the upcoming Google Summer of Code; as well as Zenoss Community Day and the Status Camp LA “unconference.”

The schedule for all Friday events can be found here: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/conference-schedule-fe...

The Birds of a Feather schedule can be found here: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/special-events/birds-f...

[MEDIA: Press can contact Larry Cafiero at larry@socallinuxexpo.org]