POSSCON

   We left for POSSCON bright and early Friday morning. Actually it wasn't even bright yet. We got fancy, scan-able IDs with our information loaded into them. The intro speaker said the day was going to be a lot more laid-back and low-paced than the previous days (which I'd missed).
   The first workshop I went to was the Great OpenOffice.org Challenge, even though nobody submitted Microsoft documents as requested (I'm not a Microsoft user). David Both explained his history in open source and his experiences with OpenOffice(.org). It was all very interesting information but as one guy mentioned, he was "preaching to the choir." Most people attending POSSCON already have an interest in open source so telling us the wonders of this open source office suite wasn't anything new, at least not for me. However, people started discussing open source software's use in business and in churches, and the workshop definitely veered off course from OpenOffice related stuff.
   After the workshop, we were released for a long lunch break before the next workshop. Some classmates who'd attended the 3D printing workshop were telling us about it. Later, as I was wondering through the conference hall, I noticed the 3D printing machine was still running in one of the lecture rooms, so I ventured on down to check it out. The android figure was just finishing up, and the presenters Neil Underwood (from RepRap) and Jim McCracken were getting ready to pack up the machine. I told Neil I'd missed the 3D printing workshop so he started telling me all about the machine in front of us and the other machine he works with, the self-replicating 3D printer, explaining the effects on costs when the printer can print itself. It is a very interesting concept and I think it could easily be taken further into other aspects of technology. Both Jim and Neil pointed out a few things on the machine when I asked about them such as the connections (since the circuit board was mounted in the open). John "maddog" Hall had wandered in to the room too since he was waiting on his little android guy to finish printing.
   Maddog presented the second workshop I attended, on the history of Linux. His first slide asked if Jesus would have attended POSSCON, and he thought yes, he would have been an advocate of open source. His presentation was pretty interesting, especially learning about the transition from open source to closed source and now back to open source, and why things have gone certain ways. I think it's important to understand that history when considering the future of open source software. Near the end of his presentation, he gave some examples of some very young guys who'd entered the computer science world with the help of open source and have been very successful with it; however, I was wondering where the women were? It's almost as if our society steers young girls away from technology, which is going to have very detrimental effects in the technological-oriented future if we keep this up. It would have been nice to ask Maddog about this, but it was hard to approach some presenters when others were swarming them or when they were in the middle of eating during lunch. Either way though, some of these problems are very evident and need to be addressed, which can start with people like us as students.
   Overall I think it was a pretty good conference, I'm just disappointed that I wasn't able to attend the earlier two days (what's up with conferences in the middle of the week anyway?). I most likely won't be able to attend next year either since I won't be in this area, but I think the northeast is going to have even more to offer, so that's something I'll look into.