| Linux job site launches |
Jan. 15, 2010
 The Linux Foundation (LF) has launched a Linux Jobs Board on Linux.com, with special services available from the JobThread Network. Meanwhile, the LF is accepting requests for invitations for its exclusive, invitation-only Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit on Apr. 14-16 in San Francisco at the Hotel Kabuki.
The LF's online jobs site aims to provide employers, recruiters, and job-seekers with a forum to find each other in one of the few IT job categories that is still something of a buyer's market: Linux. Employers can post their openings on Linux.com for $100 for 15 days and $200 for 30 days, or pay additional fees to post jobs on the JobThread Network on Linux.com to reach 50 niche publishing sites with a combined 9.8 million visitors every month, says the LF.
JobThread uses a pay-for-performance scheme in which recruiters set a budget for each job ad, with qualified views costing 49 cents each. When the job is filled, recruiters pay only for the number of qualified views, says JobThread.
Job seekers can include LinkedIn details on their Linux.com profile, including their resume, says the LF. They can also subscribe to the Linux.com Jobs Board RSS feed, receive alerts by email, and follow job leads on Twitter. Judging from the early listings, Linux system administrators appear to be in the highest demand, although there are also postings for developers, engineers, and various executive positions.
The Linux Jobs Board main listings screen
(Click to enlarge)
The Linux Foundation is a non-profit advocacy and lobbying group for Linux that also hosts conferences and runs Moblin.org among other duties. The LF relaunched Linux.com in May after acquiring the site from SourceForge in early March. Linux.com offers industry news and forums devoted to Linux information, software, documentation, and technical answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas.
The redesign aimed to "mirror the Linux community process by hosting a collaborative framework where users and developers can connect," according to the LF at the time. The LF also added an Ultimate Linux Guru contest that lets visitors earn points from various site activities that count toward a higher ranking as a "Linux Guru." Each year, Linux.com awards the top-scoring guru as the "Ultimate Linux Guru," a prize that includes a variety of gifts and honors, said the LF. The site also lists the top ranking gurus, who can add the award to their resumes.
Linux job market rides high
The LF cites a report by the JobThread Network claiming that the demand for Linux-related jobs has grown 80 percent since 2005, making the demand for the Linux professionals the fastest growing category in the IT industry. According to an IDC study this summer the open source software business will grow at a 22.4 percent rate to reach $8.1 billion by 2013. Open source software sales are being accelerated by the recession, as well as increasing acceptance from enterprise customers, said the study.
A related, LF-sponsored IDC study on Linux software announced in April, projected that spending on Linux-related software would grow 21 percent in 2009, and 23.6 percent through 2013, compared to two- and five-percent growth, respectively, for the general software market.
In December 2008, at the height of the recession, LinuxDevices interviewed Jim Zemlin, the LF's executive director, asking him whether the economy or any other factors might pose a major threat to Linux. He answered, "I don't think there's anything to slow it in the near future. Certainly, it could slow over a long period of time if Linux was unable to innovate, but there's no sign of that. The other potential problem is the lack of skilled labor. That's why we're trying to run LF events that offer training programs. Labor is going to be the big bottleneck for these companies using Linux. If you are an engineer who was recently laid off, I would go learn Linux. There is no shortage of jobs for Linux developers."
LF Collaboration Summit to co-locate with CELF
Later this month, the Linux Foundation plans to post an agenda for its upcoming, invitation-only Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, to be held Apr. 14 -16 at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco. The LF is now accepting requests for invitations to this exclusive summit gathering of core kernel developers, distribution maintainers, ISVs, end users, system vendors, and other community organizations.
As with last year's event the Collaboration Summit is being co-located with the CE Linux Forum Embedded Linux Conference, which is seeking papers for its event. CELF 2010, the latest edition of the world's largest embedded Linux conference, will be held directly before the LF's event, on April 12-14, at the same Hotel Kabuki venue. CELF has yet to announce its agenda.
Stated the LF's Jim Zemlin, "Linux' increasing use across industries is building high demand for Linux jobs despite national unemployment stats. Linux.com reaches millions of Linux professionals from all over the world."
Availability
The Linux Foundation's new job board may be found here here.
More information, including invitation request info, for the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit may be found here.
More information on CELF, including call for presentations details, may be found here.
-- Eric Brown
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