I mean look at your top picture. Yea, there’s my buddy Casey from JoomlaShack (he and his gang are fantastic, fun people.) But, the .ORG group was stuck in the back corner, right? In your picture, who did we see when we walked into the area? You got your Novell (open source?), HP (open source?), SAP (open source?).

I attended what turned out to be an IBM presentation — and it was supposed to be on “What’s next for Open Source Linux Communities.” IBM’s take on a communities role was, you can test if you want and we will take your input, but don’t “bother” yourself, we test! No worries. And, there is no reason for you to do anything IF you are happy with what you have in the product now. Just get involved if you want something different. Huh????? And, this was presented to a group of very CALM PEOPLE! I was FURIOUS! How are communities driving open source with this product/consumer mentality.

Dude – the sign? It’s a sign, if you know what I mean.

Open source better figure out what the primary, central, driving goal is. Was it simply to loosen Microsoft’s grip on the industry? So that someone else could rush to the finish line? Or, is it REALLY to spawn innovation and keep solutions affordable to all and liberate knowledge? And, if those are our core values, how do developers get compensated? We have never really answered this riddle, even with Eric Raymond’s business case scenarios.

Perhaps it is to utopian, after all.

Hey – ArrayF – if I might be allowed to shout across the blog – yes, you are right, and sorry, you have never been so wrong. How absolutely illogical to assume because some idiot wastes tons of money on “stupid vendor crap” that they are now someone in charge of the rules and get to say what this is “for.” Are consumers so easily swayed that the investment in t-shirts accounts for the bottom line?

Hey – I have an idea! Keep your stinking t-shirts and frisbees and 48-inch television monitors and miked headsets and sexy, well groomed presenters and just tell us why open source is important to your company and how do communities play in your projects? Then, maybe even the kids can watch. I am FAR MORE LIKELY to return to my place of business and strike a deal with that supplier then the one who outfitted me for Saturday car washes.

Good blog entry. Thanks for sharing.

There are many younger programmers who would like to attend this type of conference. I worked with an explorer troop of high school kids who were excellent programmers, and know many high school age students who could benefit from this type of gathering. In fact, they ought to be encouraged to attend, not excluded.

I had gone in to find the Mozilla crew with the son of Mitchell Baker, Head Lizard Wrangler. I thought it would be great for her son to get a view of ‘mom in action!’ He was in a baby bjorn.

This was long before any signs were up.

The result was a serious brew-ha-ha. Their claim was liability. I think Jarett has been to many conferences /expositions by now but this is the only one which tried to reject him.

Good thing she’s a lawyer too. Kid was eventually admitted to the Mozilla Booth.

Cheers,

Og