The All Things Open conference is this Wednesday and Thursday and I’m looking forward to being there.
Although Raleigh, where the conference is happening, is only an hour and a half from my home, I haven’t been there since the mid-nineties. That would’ve been back when I was living and hanging-out in Chapel Hill, the southwestern point of the region called the Triangle which includes Raleigh and Durham as it’s other two points. Chapel Hill is an über cool blend of students from the University of North Carolina and old hippie-leftie types–perfect for an old devotee of Leary and Ram Dass like myself. Alas, as much as I’d like, I won’t have time nor money to visit my old stomping grounds. I’ll be in the area to work and get back home. No playing or partying will be on the agenda for this trip. Oh well…
‘All Things Open’ will be my first tech conference but it’s not my first county fair–I’ve been to conferences, long ago, for other industries. This means that although I don’t know exactly what to expect at ATO, I do have some idea. Regardless, I’m determined to have a lot of fun and I’m just as determined to do a good job of reporting on the conference for FOSS Force’s readers.
I’ve been working on how we’re going to handle our coverage of the event. For obvious reasons, most of our in-depth coverage will be posted after the good folks from IT-oLogy, the people holding the event, have folded-up their tents and returned to their homes in Columbia, South Carolina, their base of operations. Beginning on Friday, I plan to be publishing articles on the presentations and workshops I’ll be attending. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to grab some good interviews to share here on FOSS Force.
Coverage while the event is taking place will be a little more problematic since I’ll be too busy to get any in-depth reporting done. What I have planned during All Things Open are hourly updates on our Facebook page. These will include short reports on workshops I’ve just attended or anything else I find interesting and think should be passed-on.
On Wednesday, our Facebook updates will begin at 8:00 AM EDT and will continue until about 6 PM. On Thursday, the first update will go up about 9 AM and will continue until about 5 PM.
I’ve chosen to do most of our “live” coverage on Facebook rather than Twitter, because of the latter’s 140 character limitation. However, for those who follow us on Twitter, I try to post a heads up whenever I update our Facebook page. Those interested in following our coverage of All Things Open while it’s happening might want to go ahead and “like” our page so you’ll be reminded of our updates on your wall.
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
