BIRDS-OF-A-FEATHER SESSIONS

Lead or attend a BoF! Meet with your peers! Present new work! Don't miss these special activities designed to maximize the value of your time at the conference. The always popular evening Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are very informal gatherings of persons interested in a particular topic.

Vendor BoFs
Want to demonstrate a new product or discuss your company's latest technologies with USENIX attendees? Host a Vendor BoF! These sponsored one-hour sessions give companies a chance to talk about products and proprietary technology—and they include promotional benefits. Email sponsorship@usenix.org if you're interested in sponsoring a Vendor BoF. Click here for more information about sponsorship opportunities.

Scheduling a BoF
BoFs can also be scheduled on-site at the conference. To schedule a BoF, simply write the BoF title as well as your name and affiliation on one of the BoF Boards located in the registration area. If you have a description of our BoF you'd like posted on this Web page, please schedule your BoF on the BoF board, then send its title, the organizer's name and affiliation, and the date, time, and location of the BoF to bofs@usenix.org with "USENIX '09 BoF" in the subject line.

BoF Schedule (as of June 17, 2009)

BoF Descriptions

Student BoF
Tuesday, June 16, 7:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 5/6

Attention Students: Don't miss the Student BoF.

We're looking for a little student input here at the USENIX office. Join us for drinks and snacks and a lively discussion about current USENIX student offerings. Tell us what is working, what can be improved, and how we can help you.

Undergraduate Systems Education
Cary Gray, Wheaton College
Wednesday, June 17, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 1/2

An opportunity to discuss how the research and industrial communities can join with faculty teaching undergraduates to improve education in computing systems. Further information at our wiki.

Challenges for Managing Large-scale Virtualized Data Centers VMware Vendor BoF
Wednesday, June 17, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 3/4

Enterprises are rapidly virtualizing their datacenters to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. Lack of effective management tools can be a big hindrance in realizing the full benefits and adoption of virtualization technology. In this talk, we discuss a few specific features of VMware vSphere's (formerly Virtual Infrastructure) management suite that helps address issues of scalability, manageability, efficiency, availability and extensibility. We will also describe the architecture of the various components of the virtual infrastructure management suite and outline some of the open problems and challenges in scaling to meet tomorrow's virtual infrastructural needs.

Beer, wine, and snacks will be provided.

GENI, the Global Environment for Network Innovations
Harry Mussman, GENI Project Office at BBN Technologies
Wednesday, June 17, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 5/6

Come and learn about GENI, and about how it is being prototyped now by members of the research community (with sponsorship from the NSF). What could you contribute to GENI? How could you use GENI for your research?  When could you start to use GENI?

CaCert BoF
Rudi van Drunen, Competa IT/Xlexit/CaCert
Thursday, June 18, 8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 1/2

CaCert Assurance and Keysigning Bof. Get CaCert assured and your PGP Key signed. More info on the CaCert Wiki.

Minicluster Hardware
Mitch Williams, Sandia National Labs
Thursday, June 18, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 3/4

Ancient UNIX BoF
Warren Toomey, Bond University
Thursday, June 18, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Royal Palm Salon 5/6

This is a chance for all those interested in ancient UNIX systems from the 80's and earlier to get together and reminisce.

Google Dessert Vendor BoF
Thursday, June 18, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., San Diego

Beer, wine, and dessert will be provided.