Don Marti

Sat 21 Feb 2009 07:56:01 PM PST

Big changes at OpenSource World

Here are my notes for my intro at the OpenSource World BOF at SCALE. Will post a followup with some notes on the discussion after the BoF. Show management has been willing to do some of the ideas that we on the Program Committee borrowed from SCALE, which should be good news.

show schedule: the new format is one day of "community day" events, then two days of regular keynotes and technical sessions. This format should be familiar to SCALE attendees. The total number of sessions in the main conference is down, but now you get community days.

new venue: previously, the show was in Moscone North and Moscone South, and instead of a hallway track, we had an ant trail from the exhibits in North to the sessions in South. The 2009 event will be in Moscone West, so everything will be closer. So, prepare for a real hallway track.

Cloud and Data Center: co-located with CloudWorld and Next Generation Data Center. Those have their own programs with separate program committees, so if you don't want to go to anything happening at OSW, visit one of the other conferences instead.

Turnkey exhibitor packages: another SCALE-like feature. As an exhibitor, you can get the whole enchilada instead of having to order carpet, trash can, and services separately. This should make it easier for small, innovative companies that don't yet have a dedicated trade show person.

Planet site: We're starting a Planet site for speakers, exhibitors and the program committee. Looking for other comunications channels too. Should we grab a ! group on identi.ca?

And the biggest.

Admission price: $0. Previously there was a very easy-to-get "exhibits only" pass and a relatively expensive full conference pass. Now, there's a single pass, free of charge. You do have to be a qualified Linux or open source customer (ask your favorite vendor or open source project for a code) but if you are, you're in.