First Global Students Open Source Conference to Bring Together Next-Generation Tech Community

International Students Collaborate on Their Own Tech Conference in Los Angeles

Student Open Source Conference (sosconf) is the very first student-held, student-centered international conference focusing on open source. It will be a great opportunity for students around the world to gather, connect and learn from each other. For companies and organizations, it will be a chance to show their support for open source and to meet an extremely diverse group of students. This year, the conference will be held at University of Southern California in Los Angeles on September 1, with a welcome banquet on the previous evening. Students of any education levels around the world are welcome to participate as audience, volunteers or speakers, with an opportunity to obtain travel reimbursement.

Open-source software is a piece of software whose source code is distributed, modified and reused by the public with a few restrictions. The emphasis of open-source development on freedom, collaboration and community appeals to Silicon Valley companies and student organizations alike.

“sosconf is brought to students, by students,” said Ivan, an undergraduate student at University of Southern California (a.k.a. USC) and the Convenor of sosconf 2019 Committee. The conference is organized by an international community of students, who have also contributed to events such as GNOME.Asia, FOSSASIA, PyCon and IBM Developer Day.

On the other hand, only students are eligible to be speakers and volunteers. All speakers and volunteers with outstanding work will receive travel reimbursement. The sosconf 2019 Committee is dedicated to making the conference accessible to all students in the world.

Non-students can also participate in different ways. Our supporters and supervisors include active community members and professors from colleges in multiple countries.

Today’s students have diverse interests in the most exciting technology areas where evolution is a constant. “Many USC students I know are developing their own interests in very specific dimensions,” said Ivan, “and that deserves more attention.” The conference will be divided into several tracks each dedicated to a technology domain, such as Machine Learning, Operating Systems, Information Security, Decentralization, and Arts and Design. There will also be a “Women in Open Source” track, and a “Communities” track featuring student contributors in renowned open source communities.

The conference will be more than talks and networking. It will be a template for future sosconf’s organized by students in different places in the world. The team is developing open-source tools such as a user system and a ticket system, as well as Hexang.org, an “open-source lifestyle platform”, for project management. Other resources will also be available to student communities around the world for reference and “forking”.

“The conference itself is an open-source project,” said Ivan, “and we welcome students and sponsors who identify with our goals to join us to make this happen.” Contact information and event details are now available on sosconf’s official website, https://2019.sosconf.org/.

Call for Sponsors

sosconf is committed to exchange and collision of diverse ideas, and is dedicated to establishing active and diverse student communities.

We seek to provide financial assistance to student speakers and volunteers with diverse backgrounds, and to enhance the content of relevant activities and banquets to enrich the participants’ experience. Therefore, we cordially welcome sponsorship from enterprises and organizations to ensure the success of this far-reaching global conference. Sponsors will be offered opportunities for the following benefits:

Support open source with your actions.
Show your organization’s vision by supporting the first global Students Open Source Conference
Exchange ideas with distinguished academic institutions and outstanding students all over the world.
Help enterprises discover students with great potential and recruit high-quality students.
Help enterprises expand business opportunities.
Promote brand influence on a global scale.

Individuals can also sponsor sosconf 2019 through a free donation program. They will receive exclusive gifts and have their names listed on both https://2019.sosconf.org and https://sosconf.org.

If you are interested, you may download the sponsorship prospectus on https://2019.sosconf.org/#/sponsor, or request a copy by emailing sponsors@sosconf.org. We look forward to working closely with you!

Call for Papers

Would you like to share your experience with a package that saved your day, or a project meaningful to your growth? If you are a student excited about open source and technologies, we sincerely welcome you to join us this summer in Los Angeles to create the history together. Get to know students from institutions at other parts of the world, and connect with companies and corporations with an international vision. But most importantly, let you voice be heard and show your talents!

No matter which part of the world you are from, we will provide you travel reimbursement and local support. You will also get exclusive swags and souvenirs for speakers. Speaker application is now open, and can be found on https://2019.sosconf.org/#/speaker. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email speakers@sosconf.org. Below are the tracks of sosconf 2019:

Applications will be carefully reviewed by the sosconf 2019 Committee, Consultants Committee and Scholars Committee. Notifications of early decisions will be sent out no later than July, and later applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Call for Volunteers

Just like all open source projects, sosconf 2019 would only be possible because of its contributors. Join this team of students from different countries and cultures, and create the first global Students Open Source Conference together! Volunteers can be either local or remote.

What you will get:

A volunteer certificate
Exclusive swags and souvenirs for volunteers
Exclusive ticket to the conference and free food during the event
Opportunity to be invited to a free banquet
Opportunity to connect with student engineers, communities and companies from other parts of the world
Benefit from networks of the sosconf committee
Show your contribution to the open source community
Gain experience and knowledge to hold similar events
Non-local volunteers with outstanding contribution have the opportunity to be granted travel reimbursement to the event
A great experience!

For specific information on each of these teams, please visit https://2019.sosconf.org/#/volunteer. If you have any questions, feel free to email volunteers@sosconf.org.