Hardware hacking, licensing and art were among a broad range of topics submitted to linux.conf.au (LCA) 2009 organisers by the time a call for papers closed today.

The annual Linux conference will be celebrating its 10th anniversary at the University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay campus in Hobart next January.

Following previous years’ successes, LCA 2009 is expected to attract 700 delegates and influential speakers from international and local Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities.

It is expected that over 100 speakers will be chosen to present at the Hobart conference, which organisers have dubbed ‘March South’.

“Something that's struck me from the submissions is the amazingly broad range of topics that people have submitted which just goes to show the broad reach that FOSS has these days,” LCA 2009 senior organiser Ben Powell told iTnews yesterday.

“Suffice to say we've had papers from just about every field of endeavour from hardware hacking, to robotics, to legal issues and licensing, to art and multimedia -- and of course plenty of kernel presentations to boot,” he said.

Since the call for papers opened last month, organisers also have received ‘a large number’ of tutorial submissions that will comprise a ‘hands-on’ component of the conference.

Organisers also will be introducing an artistic element to the conference by inviting local artists to engage with the event. Powell hopes to produce ‘interesting results’ from the collision between the arts and technology communities.

Successful presentations will be decided in mid-September and the conference will be held from 19-24 January 2009.

More information is available from the LCA Web site.