Industry Leaders Headline University’s 6th Annual Open Source Festival, April 11

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 8, 2016) – The University at Albany’s student chapter of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is hosting its 6th annual Open Source Festival on Monday, April 11, from 12-5 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom. Registration is free and open to the public.

A celebration of vitality and creativity, the University’s Open Source Festival invites local and national industry leaders to showcase open source technology through a variety of workshops and demonstrations. Representatives from companies including Google NYC, CommerceHub, Odd Networks, Apprenda, Kitware, and Mozilla, will be in attendance this year.

UAlbany's student chapter of ASIS&T will host its 6th annual Open Source Festival on Monday, April 11, from 12-5 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom.

The festival’s theme is “Outreach in the Open Source Community.” Deb Nicholson, community outreach director at Open Source Invention Network and community manager at GNU MediaGoblin, has been selected as the keynote speaker. Nicolson is a free software activist, and currently serves on the board at Open Hatch, a.k.a Free Software’s Welcoming Committee.

Additional workshop presentations include:

Email Self-Defense: getting started with GPG and email encryption

Presenter: Christopher Kotfila, Kitware and Dan Lamanna, Kitware

Description: Whether it’s Wikileaks, the Snowden revelations or the Panama papers, secure email encryption has played a part in exposing some of the largest international scandals in recent memory. Encryption is a critical part of protecting your privacy online. Come learn how to protect your communications and those with whom you communicate. This workshop will cover open source email encryption basics including public/private key encryption concepts, GPG and the myriad tools that help to send and receive encrypted emails. Participants are highly encouraged to bring laptops as this workshop will focus on the practical steps to getting up and running with email encryption.

Introduction to Functional Programming with Haskell

Presenter: Grant Seltzer Richman, Commercehub

Description: A dive into what makes functional programming different from other programming paradigms. Along the way, we'll learn the basics of Haskell, a purely functional programming language. Attendees will need laptops but don't need any prior programming skills.

Introduction to Python

Presenter: Vadim Castro, University at Albany

Description: Python is a widely used high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than would be possible in languages such as C++ or Java. Attendees will need laptops but don't need any prior programming skills.

To learn more about the University’s Open Source Festival, visit its official website. Also contact [email protected] with additional questions.

About UAlbany ASIS&T:
UAlbany’s student chapter of ASIS&T is part of an international professional association that covers the entire scope of the information sciences. The mission of ASIS&T is to advance the information sciences and related applications of information technology by providing focus, opportunity, and support to information professionals and organizations. Its chapter seeks to fulfill this mission by holding workshops, field trips, and hosting the Open Source Festival to introduce members of the community to new applications of information technology. Learn more here.

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