Bernelle Verster
Bernelle is called the water maverick because of her wide and unconventional engagement in the water sector, from thinking as water as a resource, to contributing to skills development to promoting a entrepreneurial thinking in the water sector. Her nick is indiebio - indie as in indie rock, and bio as in biology. She can't really code yet, but she did recently pass her first online Python course and she is starting to laugh at dev in-jokes. Mostly she doesn't pretend.
With a background in biology, chemistry and engineering, she is passionate about water, specifically wastewater, and how it fits into water sensitive urban design. She is exploring how to generate products with viable markets from wastewater.
Socially, Bernelle works towards building the skills that the circular economy requires, through what she calls 'ShackLabs'. DebConf is part of that goal, and her specific agenda is open hardware, through the ShowMeBox initiative.
Accepted Talks:
Orienteering ice-breaker: learn the campus, end with a well-earned beer. Meeting in lobby of Menzies, by the Hetzner banner.
A friendly introduction to free software, open source, and Debian, with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
Panel discussion, aimed at the general public and more technical participants alike.
The panel will discuss the open hardware movement, and how it fits in with Smart Homes. It will highlight and discuss the futurology, trends, and challenges. Challenges include security, the role of big vendors, the requirement for a more powerful platform, competing interests and the role of industrial providers.
The panel will be hosted by Bernelle Verster, and panelists include Andy Simpkins and others. (Please get in touch if you want to be on the panel too)
A bof especially targeted at DebConf first timers, from DebConf old timers. What to expect, how to communicate effectively, how to get the most from this experience.
This is a repeat of talk by Enrico Zini (enrico), and Francesca Ciceri (MadameZou) at DebConf15, which was my first DebConf. When I learnt they will not be coming, I asked to repeat the talk on their behalf as I found it very useful.
You can see their talk here: https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/170/new-to-debconf-bof/