It's been a busy couple of weeks for the Open Source team as the first phase of "Conference Season" starts heating up. We have reports on three events from Googler participants.
Our very own Brian "Fitz" Fitzpatrick writes:
Flourish 2008: Open Source Helping Students to Flourish
If you've ever flown cross-country or around the planet to attend a conference, I'm sure you'll agree that nothing beats going to a conference in your own backyard. So I'm sure you can understand how delighted I was when my colleague, Ben Collins-Sussman and I were invited to give a keynote at the Flourish 2008 conference last week in our fair city, Chicago. It was a great conference, and the most amazing part is that it is an entirely student-run conference. Thanks for having us, Flourish.
I also attended ApacheCon Amsterdam where I gave a talk as part of the business and community track, in addition to co-moderating the ApacheCon Lightning Talks, which I started several years ago.
Other Googlers at ApacheCon EU included Chris DiBona, Greg Stein, and John Hjelmstad, Cassie Doll and Dan Peterson who together lead a BoF on Apache Shindig.
Last but not least, LugRadio LIVE USA was held for the first time in San Francisco last weekend, showcasing all things Free and Open Source. An enthusiastic crowd of approximately 350 enjoyed 2 days of talks, exhibits and cheerful verbal mayhem from the 4 blokes who bring you the LugRadio podcasts, aided and abetted by Google in the form of Leslie Hawthorn, Kynan Dent and yours truly, plus a bunch of stalwart volunteers. It was an old school FOSS community event with lots of surprises. Can you tell a good time was had by all? :)
