Registration Materials

Call for Papers
in PDF Format

February 11-14, 2002
Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco, California, USA

Conference Organizers
Program Chair
Sam Leffler, Errno Consulting

Program Committee
Chris G. Demetriou, Broadcom Corp.
Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino, IIJ Research Laboratory/KAME Project
Jordan K. Hubbard, Apple
Rob Kolstad, Delos
Perry E. Metzger, Wasabi Systems, Inc.
Jim Mock, Consultant
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Apple
Gregory Neil Shapiro, Sendmail, Inc.

Invited Talks Coordinator
Donn M. Seeley, Wind River Systems

Overview
The Berkeley Software Distributions (BSDs) represent one of the oldest and most vigorous streams of Open Source development. Together, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Darwin, and BSD/OS represent millions of servers and desktops. The BSDs have long been part of the backbone of the Internet, in everything from embedded applications to large server installations, and will soon be widely deployed on consumer desktops. If you want to develop cutting-edge network applications, then BSDCon is the place to be. Meet all the movers and shakers of the BSD community, and learn how you can use BSD as part of your enterprise-grade solutions.

This is the third BSDCon, but the first to be sponsored by the USENIX Association. Two days of tutorials will precede two days of technical sessions and a vendor exhibit. The combination of technical tracks, invited talks, tutorials, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, and Work-in-Progress reports provides an opportunity for people of all experience levels to learn from BSD experts, professionals with real world experience, and industry leaders.

Technical Sessions, February 13-14, 2002
Two days of technical sessions feature refereed papers and invited talks by community experts and leaders. Refereed papers are from the community and can win valuable cash and prizes. Papers are published in the Proceedings which are provided to all conference attendees. Refereed papers present problems and solutions in all areas from kernel internals to real world practical experience.

BSDCon seeks refereed papers on topics related to BSD-derived systems and the Open Source world. Topics of interest include:

• Embedded BSD application development and deployment
• Real world experiences using BSD systems
• Comparison with non-BSD operating systems; technical, practical, licensing (GPL vs. BSD)
• Tracking open source development on non-BSD systems
• BSD on the desktop
• I/O subsystem and device driver development
• SMP and kernel threads
• Kernel enhancements
• Internet and networking services
• Security
• Performance tuning
• System administration

Selection will be based on the quality of the written submission and whether the work is of interest to the community. Please see the detailed author guidelines on the web site, including sample extended abstracts and final papers.

Best Paper Awards
The USENIX Association will award cash prizes at the conference for the best paper and the best paper by a student.

How To Submit
The initial submission must be in the form of an extended abstract between 2 and 5 pages long. Submissions should be written from a strong technical background and should clearly demonstrate that:

• There is a significant problem being solved or a real world experience being demonstrated.
• There is active work being done.
• There is enough progress to make a complete written submission.
• There is data proving either the success or failure of any claims.

Extended abstracts must be received by September 7, 2001. Full papers will not be accepted without an extended abstract. Abstracts and papers should be submitted electronically in ASCII, Postscript, or PDF format via our Web form. If you have questions or encounter problems, please send electronic mail to the program chair at bsdconchair@usenix.org.

Include appropriate references to establish that you are familiar with related work, and where possible, provide detailed data to establish that you have a working implementation or measurement tool. Submissions will be judged on the quality of the written submission and whether or not the work is of interest to the community. Papers of a business development or marketing nature are not appropriate for submittal.

Papers submitted to BSDCon should be new papers, not previously read at other conferences. Likewise, accepted papers should not be presented at other conferences after BSDCon without new art. All papers should be considered 'open source' and as such non-disclosure agreements and other limits will be dismissed or the papers returned.

Authors will be notified by October 1, 2001. All accepted submissions will be expected to produce a final paper for publication in the proceedings and electronic files for the conference Web site by the December 4, 2001 deadline. The final paper should describe work that has been completed as of the time of their submission. Members of the program committee are available to help shepherd authors through the writing process prior to final acceptance for publication in the proceedings.

Each accepted paper must be presented by at least one author. Final papers are limited to 12 pages, including diagrams, figures, and appendices. It is understood that the state of the art advances at rapid pace. Presentations should, where possible, take into account changes since the publications due date.

Please see the detailed author guidelines, including sample extended abstracts and final papers. To discuss potential submissions and for inquiries regarding the content of the conference program, contact the program chair at bsdconchair@usenix.org.

Invited Talks
These presentations and discussions highlight the hottest new developments in the BSD world as well as real world experiences. These talks may range from highly technical to survey-style presentations and range over many timely and interesting topics. We welcome suggestions for topics and request proposals for particular talks. In your proposal state the main focus, including a brief outline, and be sure to emphasize why your topic is of interest to the BSD community. Please submit all proposals and suggestions by email to bsdconinvited@usenix.org.

Tutorials, February 11-12, 2002
BSDCon offers full and half-day tutorials on a range of topics from experts in the BSD community. Topics range from how the kernel works to administering and securing BSD systems.

To provide the best possible tutorial offerings, we continually solicit proposals for new tutorials. If you are interested in presenting a tutorial, please send email to bsdcontutorials@usenix.org.

Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions
Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (BoFs) are very informal gatherings organized by attendees and for attendees interested in a particular topic. BoFs are held in the evenings and may be scheduled in advance be sending email to conference@usenix.org. They may also be scheduled at the conference.

Work-In-Progress Reports
Do you have interesting work you would like to share, or a cool idea that is not yet ready to be published? The USENIX audience provides valuable discussion and feedback. We are particularly interested in presentation of student work. To schedule your short report, send email to bsdconwips@usenix.org.

Vendor Exhibition
In the Exhibition, the emphasis is on serious questions and feedback. Vendors will demonstrate the features and technical innovations which distinguish their products.