Summary of Open Source Bridge

Some notes on the Open Source Bridge conference in Portland, Oregon:

There were somewhat more than 400 attendees, many of whom were also presenters. (These numbers were announced at theopening keynote.) A large percentage of attendees are women.

OSB is lighter than OSCON, the O'Reilly-run open source conference. OSB is three days; OSCON runs for 5 (well, 4.5) days. OSB is staffed by volunteers; OSCON has volunteers and paid staff.

These were the planned sessions that I attended. They occurred on the first two days:

* Drupal: What is it Good For?

The Drupal CMS is good for brochures and social sites. It's not good for e-commerce. It is flexible, powerful, and rapid; it has a long learning curve.

* Drizzle: Rethinking MySQL for the web

Perhaps not rethinking it for the web but thinking about where technology is going. MySQL (as with just about every other significant application) has been designed for single-processor, Moore's Law systems. Yet technology is moving to multiple cores. The MySQL team wants to leap over the current generation of tech and "skate to where the puck will be". The new design with use C++ (not C), count on lots of processors, and expose APIs for different projects to plug into the pieces that they need.

* How to build a successful open source consulting company

More of a conversation than a presentation. The discussion started on the topic of open source consulting but quickly moved to general consulting and freelance work. The lesson: Open source business is the same as any other business, and must worry about the same things.

* Clustering Data - How to have fun in N dimensions

A rather lightweight talk about adjusting data to identify the major clusters. Lightweight, yet just what I needed for that bit of analysis. I have a much better understanding now.

* Open Source Development - The Dark Side

A thought-provoking session on the chauvanism, sexism, and cultural biases in the open source development community. (And in the tech community in general.) The open source community is especially susceptible to these problems, since there are a lot of "cowboy coders" and people who want to avoid the stuffy corporate cultures.

The speaker emphasized the need for professional behavior, and made it clear that this referred to standards of the craft, not obliging corporate non-think.

A good session, and one that sould be repeated. We have problems, and we need people to stand up and tell us that we have problems.

* Scala for recovering Java developers

An interesting language. A functional language that runs on the JVM. I need to look into this more, but it falls on the "interesting but not an immediate payoff" category.

* Ubiquitous Angels

A presentation on sensors, the internet, the web, and real-time information for everyday tasks. How can technology help us? One example: real-time traffic information can feed into GPS direction units, and avoid traffic jams. What else can we do with information?

* Configuration Management: A Panel Discussion

Five people talking about the major programs in the configuration management space: cfengine, Puppet, AutomateIt, Chef, and bcfg2. Configuration management is not version control. CVS and SVN are not in this space. These tools help administrators ensure consistent configurations across multiple systems. This topic definitely goes on the "learn more" list.

* PHP - architecting and profiling for performance

Simple and easy changes can offer significant improvement of web server performance. One needs to be aware of them, be disciplined enough to use them, and have the right tools to measure performance. The presenter showed a nice tool for displaying performance breakdowns; it let us identify the bottlenecks visually (and quickly).

* Faking it til you make it - A woman on the fringe of open source

Thoughtful comments from one woman on her journey into the tech world. We're all aliens, all posers, expecting to be revealed and kicked out at any moment. Or so we think. Yet we are all here, in the world, doing what we can.

* Re-factor your mind: meditation

A session lighter on tech and heavier on wetware. The presenter walked us through some meditation examples. A good reminder that our most important process is between our ears, and it needs maintenance.

The third day of the conference was the "unconference": A day where individual attendees proposed and held sessions. We met at the beginning of the day. With assistance from volunteer coordinators, people thought up ideas, added them to a schedule, and announced them to the other attendees.

* Balancing work and life

An issue that extends into all aspects of our culture, not just open source development. A few key points:

- Learn to say "no" to a client, a co-worker, or a partner.

- Say "no" judiciously

- Be aware of what you accept; avoid accepting things that you will resent later. (Such as a low-paying contract.)

* The User Experience is important

More than just the usability study of your GUI, the user experience is broad view of an application, from acquisition to configuration to use. We do a poor job of designing the user experience in open source; we need to improve.

* Anticipatory anthropology

Using the art of questioning to let people express ideas fully. Similar to the Socratic method, but designed to reveal the vision, not a prespecified answer.

* How to run a software conference

Reflections on the preparations, logistics, and execution of a large conference. (The OSB conference itself. No coincidence there.)

Running a conference is a project, like any other project. It has a goal, deliverables, commitments from others, and a very definite deadline. Flexibility is important. Adapting is important. Changing plans is important. Plans are helpful but often wrong; you need to fix them as you learn.

Finally, some random ideas from the conference:

- Of man's great inventions (fire, the alphabet, movable type), we can add the Backspace key. The ability to make mistakes, recognize them, and correct them is important.

- The scrying pool of yore is now an iPod with an internet connection. We are all wizards!

- Companies should be run by (and for) the people who create value.

- Go to the third world and live among them for a significant period of time. Mankind has been in the modern age for only a short period of time; we evolved in the jungle and in the savannah. After living in an agrarian culture, come back to the first world and tell us which is "weird".

- Open source succeeds not because the people are smarter or the tools are free. Open source succeeds because people recognize and accept failure, learn from it, and change their code/design/plan quickly. They are not locked in to specific plans or programs. (In contrast, commercial development often has large plans, large code bases, perceptions of value of the code base, egos, politics, and reluctance to give things up.)

There is a lot in open source. Not just in programs and tech, but in the community. This conference showed the diversity of talent, the dedication to projects, and the acceptance of new ideas.