“So this was the long-awaited trip to Libre Planet. My best friend Erle and I had spoken of this day for many years, and finally, luck would have it that we both had the time to be able to attend Libre Planet and visit Boston.
The conference organisation and updates where great, there was a last minute change in the keynotes which was communicated to all attendees and the wider audience. This change whilst upsetting was also kind of a special treat for me as I got to see my friend Mako talk 😀 this would be my first time seeing him talk and the topic was one that was sure to see a lot of after discussions. I am also happy to say that the talk was amazingly thought-provoking and left a lot of topics for after discussion and beers. So also the timing of Mako giving an endnote was perfect as we could all head for beers and chats afterwards. It was also a great way to wrap up what was a FANTASTIC conference and I must admit I am committed to coming back for next years one.
Upon opening the conference booklet I was compelled to read the profiles of all the speakers, I do not think I had seen so many PhDs in a lineup of a non-academic conference. The talks were fantastic and covered a range from USA Whitehouse Lawyers trying to introduce GPL in Government, software introductions and how to, philosophical look at Software Freedom in today’s society, to Bradleys “”State of GPL”” address. There was also a strong theme of “”Being Nice”” and helping people understand FLOSS more as it applies to their modern day technology consumer-focused lifestyles. This was helped by the first keynote by Deb Nichiolson who reminded us that the future is not all that pleasant if we don’t get along and also if we get along but don’t own anything or allowed to understand anything. She spoke about the importance of having more “”Nice People”” in our community and to always be aware of the bubbles that we live in and how that can affect our interactions with new people in a not so good way.
I really do wish this conference had been a week long and not a weekend, it was fantastic and the people were so friendly and welcoming. The after parties were great and allowed for further networking and conversations. Oh and I got to give a lightning talk on the work being done down in Melbourne by the amazing Bioinformatics Open Source community and their use of GPL3.
Here is looking forward to next year, I’m already planning my trip and thinking of a topic to put in for a talk. Any suggestions let me know 😉