Ballarat, 19 November 2011 With nine Miniconferences accepted, and three keynote speakers already announced, preparations are in full swing for linux.conf.au 2012, to be held in Ballarat, Victoria 16-20th January. Conference Director Josh Stewart was particularly pleased at progress to date. "We've got some huge names lined up to keynote, including Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Gnome Foundation, Bruce Perens - the creator of the Open Source Definition, and the community's own favourite Mad Scientist Paul Fenwick. We still have one keynote up our sleeve, but it's a very closely guarded secret!". The conference schedule boasts a number of perennial favourites, including Jon Oxer, Andrew Tridgell of Samba, Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner of The Ada Initiative, Bdale Garbee and Jonathan Corbet. A number of new speakers are also on board for the first time, including software freedom advocate Ben Sturmfels. The number of accepted talks by female presenters was the highest on record, at just shy of 25%, speaking volumes about the ever-increasing diversity of the Linux and free and open source software community. Registrations for the conference are filling up fast. Early Bird registration for the conference sold out just before the early bird close of end of October. Stewart was enthusiastic at the response. "There was of course the usual rush just before Early Bird closed, and the whole team was sitting there with anticipation watching as we sold out! It's a great indication of the interest in the conference." For those interested in the conference, but for whom professional registration is out of reach, there are a number of alternative options, including Hobbyist and Student registration. Volunteer nominations are also welcome. Volunteers are given a free ticket to the conference in exchange for four days' volunteer work undertaking tasks such as audio visual, ushering and administration duties. * Registration pricing options: http://linux.conf.au/register/prices * Volunteer nomination: http://linux.conf.au/register/volunteer linux.conf.au will be held 16th-20th January 2012 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. http://lcaunderthestars.org.au and @linuxconfau on Twitter and Identica. Registrations are now open and a tentative schedule is at: http://linux.conf.au/programme/schedule <http://linux.conf.au/programme/schedule%22> Media enquiries are warmly welcomed to media@lcaunderthestars.org.au