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Guess O’Reilly’s moving OSCON to San Jose didn’t work out so hot.

O'Reilly OSCON 2010 announcement

I might attend OSCON 2010, depending on ticket prices and other factors. I’m more interested in Open Source Bridge 2010 — last year’s conference was epic.

I continue to be impressed and excited by the Open Source Bridge conference. It’s easy, because the conference organizers have been a poster child for how to create a first-class grass-roots conference.

I’m doing my small bit to publicize the conference here in Seattle, and did some outreach at PyCon 2009. I’m hoping that John Cook will cover it in TechFlash, at least in an article, or (better) with an article + also covering the conference sessions. [Some of TechFlash's news choices have been very odd lately, but that's a post for another day.]

My interest exists at several levels:

• It’s a conference focused on open-source technologies
• It’s community- and volunteer-driven and organized
• Its accessibility, both from being local, and reasonable fees
• It fills a void left by OSCON’s departure. It also fills voids that existed even when OSCON was here, given OSCON’s straight-ahead technology focus
• It’s new
• Note the correct usage of “its” vs. “it’s”
• I’m unemployed, so what the hell else have I got to do during the day?

Today’s big news is, some talks have been accepted. They are:

RubySpec: What does my Ruby do?, Brian Ford

Drizzle, Rethinking MySQL for the Web, Brian Aker

Advanced Git tutorial: Not your average VCS., Sarah Sharp

Remember Tcl/ Tk? Grandpa might be old, but he can still kick your ass!, Webb Sprague

Open Source Library Software: Empowering Libraries – Creating Opportunities, Lori Ayre

The Linux Kernel Development model, Greg Kroah-Hartman

Configuration Management Panel, Moderated by James Turnbull

My Grand Experiment: A Portland Women-focused Tech Group., Gabrielle Roth

Is the Web Down: a Practical Tutorial on How the Web Works, Michael Schwern, Joshua Keroes

HOWTO earn an open source living without taking on investors or selling your soul, Brian Jamison

A Tour of CodePlex, Sara Ford

Drop ACID and think about data, Bob Ippolito

Organizing a Volunteer-Driven Open Source Community Project, Sarah Beecroft, molly vogt, Joaquin Lippincott, Melissa Anderson

See the announcement blog post for more detail.

If you’re working with/in OSS, this will be an event you won’t want to miss. Sign up today!

I was disappointed by OSCON’s move to San Jose starting this year. Their official justification was nonsense — basically, O’Reilly expects infinite growth forever, and thinks that bigger is better.

As a happy northwestern transplant, I wish O’Reilly lots of luck with infinite growth in this economy. And with San Jose’s higher costs of everything, concrete everywhere, more traffic everywhere, poorer air quality, and general suckitude. Personally, I’d rather have my arms gnawed off by mutant radioactive weasels than be in San Jose.

Well. Into the vacuum comes Open Source Bridge, a result of Portland geek natives taking matters into their own hands and creating an OSS conference to replace OSCON. It’s being held June 17 – 19 at the Oregon Convention Center. They already have 13 talk proposals.

I’m rooting for Open Source Bridge. I’ve signed up to be a volunteer, and I’ve registered this morning. Have you, and will you?

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Updated 2/26/09: Replaced a very coarse adjective with one less so.

Updated 2/26/09: They just opened registration, and I updated this accordingly.