quickstart.md

Quickstart

Use this walkthrough to experience the core OCG flow in one sitting.

Estimated time: 10-15 minutes.

By the end, you will have discovered events and, if you sign in, joined a group, RSVP'd to an event, and seen which dashboards are available to you.

Optional: Sign In

Open Log in, choose Linux Foundation SSO, complete authentication, and return to the home page.

!> You can skip sign-in if you only want to browse public pages. Membership actions, RSVP, submissions, and dashboard access require login.

Explore Events and Groups

From Explore, start with Events to see what is happening soon, then switch to Groups to find where you want to participate long term.

A practical pattern is:

?> Start broad, then narrow: community first, then one or two filters.

1. Narrow by community first.
2. Add one or two filters (type, region, category).
3. Choose the view that fits your goal:
   • Events: List for scanning and Calendar for planning.
   • Groups: List for scanning and Map for location-based discovery.

For deeper discovery patterns and participation mechanics, see Public Site Guide.

Join a Group You Care About

Open a group page and click Join group. This turns your account into an active member of that specific group, which unlocks member-level communications and creates a cleaner path to event participation.

If you later decide to stop following that group, Leave group reverses the membership cleanly.

After joining, OCG sends a welcome message with a link back to the group page.

RSVP to an Event

From the group page or explore results, open an event and click Attend event.

This action records your attendance intent and is the basis for event-day check-in. For live virtual/hybrid events that have meeting information configured, attendees can also get Join meeting access at the right time window.

After RSVP, OCG sends a confirmation message with a calendar attachment.

If the event is already full, you may instead see Join waiting list when organizers have enabled waitlisting for that capacity-limited event.

If a seat opens because someone leaves, capacity increases, or organizers remove the capacity limit, OCG may promote you automatically.

Apply to Speak at an Event

If an event has Call for Speakers open, create a proposal in User Dashboard -> Session proposals, then submit that proposal from the event page.

After submission, track lifecycle changes in User Dashboard -> Submissions.

For speaker-side status detail, see User Dashboard Guide. For organizer-side CFS and review controls, see Event Operations.

Validate Your Dashboard Access

Open your avatar menu in the top-right corner to confirm which dashboard scopes your account has right now. This step requires logging in with Linux Foundation SSO.

• User Dashboard is available to all logged-in users.
• Community Dashboard appears when you have community-team access.
• Group Dashboard appears when you have group-team access.

If you are unsure which workspace to use next, continue with Choose Your Dashboard.