Xen Summit North America – Call for Speakers/Topics

Xen Summit North America, scheduled for February 24 – 25, 2009 , at Oracle’s HQ in Redwood City, CA is now officially open for topic/speaker submissions. Topic submissions for this event will remain open till approximately early January 2009 to give time for people to submit their ideas and for the Xen Program Committee to properly review all submissions. To assist the Program Committee in better understanding the submitted topics we are changing the procedure we have followed for previous Xen Summits. All topics submitted must be categorized in of the following ways:
1.       Update on Previous Xen Summit Presentation
2.       Academic Research Presentation OR New/Extended Topic
3.       Lightning Round
CATEGORY 1 DETAILS
Primarily for: (i) developers to update the community on a development project that was described at a previous Xen summit or on the xen-devel mailing list, or (ii) xen users to describe a use case of Xen in the real world.  Timeslots will be in the 15-20 minute range, depending on time available.  Submittals are a minimum of 1-2 paragraphs, but more is better and an extended abstract would be great. (Don’t assume program committee reviewers know all the details of your topic just because it was discussed on xen-devel.)
CATEGORY 2 DETAILS
Primarily for: (i) Xen-related academic research; (ii) complex or extended presentations.  Timeslots will be in the 30 minute range, depending on time available.  Submittals must be in the extended abstract format detailed below. (NOTE: Submitters may request “privacy” for abstracts to avoid conflict with submittal rules for academic conferences.)
CATEGORY 3 DETAILS
All papers not accepted in the previous categories will be considered for the lightning round.  In addition, submitters may explicitly request a lightning round slot, e.g. for work-in-progress, wild-and-crazy ideas.  Timeslot will be at most 8-10 minutes and presentations will be required to follow a TBD restricted format (such as Pecha Kucha).  Submittals may use the short format or the extended abstract format.
All topics submitted for Categories 1 or 3 can follow the standard 1 or 2 paragraph abstract submission format that has been used in previous Xen Summit events. All topics submitted for Category 2 will require a detailed abstract described below.
CATEGORY 2 DETAILED ABSTRACT
A PDF file with one to two pages of formatted text (10 point font or larger), plus one optional additional page containing figures and/or tables, references, and acknowledgements.  First page must contain topic title, author(s) and affiliation(s).  The PDF file MUST not contain more than three pages.  Additional pages (or even a full paper) may be attached as a separate PDF but will not be considered in the selection process.   Examples of this format are available at: http://www.xen.org/xensummit/xensummit_summer_2008.html (look for links to “Abstract” on some papers).
CATEGORY 3 INFORMATION
This Xen Summit will contain approximately 1.5 hours for Lightening Round presentations. These 10 minute presentations will follow the Pecha Kucha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha) presentation format to allow for people to either introduce new ideas to the community or follow-up on previous concepts or presentations.
All submissions should be sent directly to Stephen Spector at stephen.spector@xen.org who will ensure that the information is forwarded to the Program Committee. If you have any questions, please call Stephen at (772) 621-5062. Thank you.
Xen Program Committee