As usual as the end of the CFP for OSCon, I find myself increasingly panicking to pick a topic. I keep going over the stuff I know enough about to talk about and everything appears to fall into two categories: either there's already someone on it and I don't want to duplicate, or there's no one on it and that gives me the impression that the topic is of interest to no one
mull, mull, mull...
OSCON topics (Score:3, Informative)
Another approach is a case study: is your company willing to talk about how they used Perl or any other open source system to make millions? Alternatively, if your company creates open source and has a justification for it in the business model, can you talk publicly about it so that other companies can see the light?
Pick a module you can't live without and convince others how great it is.
Figure out what you'd have to teach your replacement. If there's a skill (writing test cases, XS hacking, your preferred XML translation system, a particularly cute way of reading email from Perl) that you think applies outside your company, then submit a talk proposal on it. Think: core skills.
Some topics off the top of my head, not necessarily relevant to you, but which might kick-start others thinking:
- WxWindows tutorial
- Inline tutorial
- vcard or ical talk
- POE tutorial
- practical AI
- top ten things found in code audits
- top ten things you can do to make your code easier to read
- analysis of why a particular module or system Got It Right (what makes it well-designed or implemented)
- template toolkit tricks
- five critical OO design patterns you've used in the last six months
- signal handling
- threading
- five things everybody does wrong with XML
- practical talk about the content management system you use (what it does, how you have it set up, how you use it to do the things you want)
- live coding (build a program or a module in front of the audience). NB, risky!
- Why You Should
.... (tell people what they should be doing)
- I Saved My Sanity With
... (module/system/methodology/insight here)
- Guru Session (get together with one or two other experts in your field and take questions for 45 minutes)
Hope this helps!--Nat
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