The All Things Open conference is off and running!
If there was any doubt that Raleigh would be the perfect place to hold a major tech conference, an open source conference at that, those doubts are now laid to rest. In spite of a super large room, this morning’s keynote addresses, by Andy Hunt and Whurley, were presented to a standing room only crowd. The line lor lunch, provided free with admission, was…well, let’s just say something about the mouth of a gift horse, if you catch my drift.
The first presentation I attended this morning was also SRO, although in a much smaller room. Jason Weathersby, an “evangelist” for Mozilla spent his forty-five minutes talking about HTML 5, specifically its use in the mobile Firefox OS. Very clearly and without talking over my not-so-bright head, he talked about the app development environment for the mobile OS. Firefox OS apps pretty much are HTML 5, with a few identifiers added-on as prompts for the OS. Within a few days I’ll be offering a more complete look at Mr. Weathersby’s presentation.
I was also able to catch Christopher Clark’s presentation on Open Source Hardware. Clark works for Sparkfun Electronics, a company that wrote much of the book, metaphorically speaking, on Open Source Hardware.
Actually, who knew hardware could be so much fun?
I went into this one expecting to be a little bored. In fact, just the opposite was true. Clark offered-up a fascinating lecture on the ins and outs of Open Source Hardware, which is a new and quickly growing area in computer technology. Again, I’ll be turning-in a more detailed report on the ideas expressed by Clark, probably early next week. Stay tuned…
I’m only going to be attending one more presentation this afternoon, if I can find a seat, that is. I’m hoping to find a place in the room where Leigh Heyman, often called Obama’s “open source guru,” will give his presentation, “We the People: Open Source, Open Data.” I have a feeling I need to get to that one early or I’ll be left out in the hall.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
