LCA Browser Miniconf

Call for Papers

→ Submission deadline: 28th October

note that the submission deadline has been extended by two weeks

Submissions are now open for presentations at the first LCA Browser Miniconf, to be held at linux.conf.au 2012. LCA 2012 will be hosted at the University of Ballarat in Ballarat, Australia, on 16–20 January 2012. Miniconf sessions will be run on the first day of the conference.

Overview

As an increasing number of applications and services shift to “the cloud”, close attention needs to be focused on the platforms that deliver these services to their users. From a user’s perspective, the browser implements the web platform. Therefore, it’s important that there is open community-driven discussion about the browser development process.

Browsers are hard – they must support a family of incredibly complex specifications, provide a safe user environment in the presence of scripts, maintain backwards compatibility for old specifications and features, and allow multiple complicated web-apps to run in parallel while remaining performant. With the range of services now exposed by the web, browsers have been likened to operating systems, and at least one project, ChromeOS, is attempting to make this analogy a reality.

The Browser Miniconf is an opportunity to provide a focal point for discussing issues related to the development of open-source browsers. Several open-source browsers exist, and the two most popular rendering engines (Gecko and WebKit) both have vibrant and active communities of hackers in the Australasian region. This miniconf will allow those communities to meet and exchange ideas. It will also provide an access point for open source developers to discover more about the various browser efforts, and an introductory point for those developers interested in improving web browsers.

Topics

Proposals for any presentation surrounding open source browsers are welcome. Some suggested topics:

Browser internals, from bird's-eye right down to deep detail.
— Example titles: “1000 foot overview of the Firefox code-base”, “implementing accelerated compositing of layers in WebKit”
Integration of browsers with platform libraries and distributions.
— Example titles: “exposing Gecko to Gtk+ developers”, “why distros and browsers can’t all just get along”
The browser development process.
— Example titles: “open source browsers, standardisation, and the web”, “Hacking Chrome – how hard can it be?”, “Why is the browser like a kernel?”
Browser landscape/history/wars.
— Example titles: “Why did JavaScript just get 10x faster, and why does it matter?”

Details for presenters

Most presentation slots during the day will be 20 minutes long. Depending on the number of submissions, there may also be a chance for a 40 minute presentation. There will be a few minutes after each talk for questions. The venue will have projection facilities.

How to submit a proposal

To submit a proposal for a presentation at the Browser Miniconf, send an email to browserminiconf-organisers@mcc.id.au with the following information:

your name and email address
the title of your presentation
a brief abstract outlining your talk – up to 500 words
your preferred presentation length (20 or 40 minutes)

The submission deadline is 28th October.

More information