I`m in Spain for the Open Source World Conference, which has an fantasic array of people to speak and hear from. In only 24 hours I’m already meeting the most amazing people! I’ve already met FOSS advocates, users, teachers and policy makers from Mexico, Spain (obviously), Venezuela, Colombia, The Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, and more. Obviously Spanish is the language of choice for the conference so I am rapidly picking some up. I’ve made a deal that if I learn working Spanish by June, I’ll go to a FOSS conference in Colombia, which would be awesome! I’ve been bouncing my talk ideas around and people are very keen to hear it, which is a relief. It is the worst when you aren’t sure of your audience, but I am covering enough that even the most knowledgable here will get something out of it, I hope 🙂 The plan is to cover the evolution of FOSS, how it is going from a technology solution, to a busienss solution, to a social solution. Already here I am seeing countries at all three stages. I’ll also be covering what makes up ‘Open Love’, or Open Source/Licences, Open Knowledge, Open Community and Open Standards, without any one of which you wouldn’t be able to succeed. I’ll also be covering some case studies around the world, what we are doing in Australia, and the many challenges and opportunities for FOSS around the world. Should be fun 🙂
I’m looking forward to seeing Maddog this afternoon, Maureen tomorrow, Jeff tomorrow, and who knows who else I’ll meet here 🙂