So I have some outstanding items to blog 🙂
I went to Brisbane last weekend and met up with Software Queensland and HUMBUG. Software QLD are a new group there bringing together ICT companies to have education and discussion about issues and opportunities that face them. They also only allow people from Australian owned companies to join, and thus can suggest they represent Australian best interests for QLD ICT companies. This is quite a leap, and very interesting because some other organisations in Australia claim to represent Australian best interests but have mainly foreign companies on the boards. Anyway, the people I met were great, and we found some areas to collaborate on, namely the support and protection of IP creators in Australia. The idea that the Australian ICT sector can only really flourish in its own right by focusing on IP creators is such a good goal, and one that many Australian organisations and companies can agree on. Especially in a time when a lot of the chokeholds on innovation are mainly owned and practised by non-Australian companies. I digress… I think that we (the OS community) can protect and educate ourselves using LUGs for local perspective, Linux Australia from an OS national community perspective, and OSIA from an OS business perspective. Organisations like Software QLD can take a broader Australian ICT perspective, working with orgs like ACS. Anyway information can be found on them at http://www.softwareqld.com.au.
I also attended the HUMBUG AGM, which was a lot more fun than it sounds 🙂 I got to catch up with some old faces, meet some new ones, and generally see another LUG in action. I had some great conversations, my only regret was my work told me a few days before leaving that I had to be back in Sydney by 11pm for work (disaster recovery foo). So I had to cut short the trip and wasn’t able to participate in the beers and food post meeting 🙁 GAR! Anyway thankyou to all the HUMBUG gang, and especially to Rob Brockway for a breakneck rush to the airport when we all realised the classroom clock had stopped. Also, many thanks to AJ for the hospitality. Rock on QLD!
Back a few months in Brazil one of the people I got to catch up with was Bdale, who is one of my heros, influences and examples of leadership. In January last year, when I was speaking to a lot of people about Linux Australia, what they wanted out of it, and how we could make it more useful to the community. I was planning to run for the committee, and then someone (I’ll find out who someday!) nominated me for President. At first I was quite shocked, and I wasn’t sure whether I was the right person for the job. Anyway I had seen Bdale speak that day, his “Herding Cats” talk and thought if anyone knows about working with the community, it’ll be Bdale. I chatted with him for ages at one of the dinners, and he convinced me that I could probably do a pretty good job and gave some awesome advice, particularly about establishing common values before common goals. I spoke to him again in one of the theatres after a talk, and someone got this picture:
Which is amusing as Bdale looks pretty huge compared to me. It circulated pretty quickly, and even had Bdales lovely wife asking who this was 😉 Anyway we took the opportunity in Brazil to even the odds with this:
Apart from it being a hideous photo of me, I think we can safely say we are even 🙂