tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70896582443018299482024-03-08T21:17:49.189+01:00OPEN LEADERSHIPToday's leaders. Tomorrows Solutions.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-85854339556635630912012-06-09T16:39:00.001+02:002012-06-09T16:39:13.583+02:00Dear All.<br />
<br />
In the light of the recent hack of the
Linkedin server and advisement from fellow colleagues within IT
security, my account has been closed. This is not the first time a big
organization has implemented poor security policies, many times due to
it relating to costs. Well, their costs might be lower, but the cost of
having your personal information being spread across the net without
your consent, is much higher of a cost to <span style="color: black;"><b>YOU </b><span style="color: black;">than it will ever be to them. </span></span><br />
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black;">
Moreover,
I have checked and my account password was one of the ones that was
hacked. I am sure I will not even receive an apology from Linkedin,
especially since I was not a paying customer. Imagine if I was? Then the
hackers would have my credit card info also. </div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="color: black;">
We need to voice our opinions about
these issues before they happen, since after it is too late. So, join
the many of us conscious people and close your account too, since yours
may also be breached. </div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br />
</div>
<span style="color: black;">It is better to be safe, than sorry!!</span>gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-39670169130057541992011-10-09T17:11:00.000+02:002011-10-09T17:11:58.855+02:00Maintenance of blogHey All,<br />
<br />
Sorry for the blog post dump. I am doing a little maintenance on my blog and did not realize it would re-post everything again :-(<br />
<br />
My apologies!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-88413350338591130842011-10-04T19:40:00.003+02:002011-10-09T16:40:33.776+02:00openSUSE Marketing Hackfest 2011On the 15th and 16 of September 2011, following the oSC, the marketing team held a Marketing Hackfest at the SUSE headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.<br />
<br />
I was asked to attend this event for several reasons aside from the normal Marketing related things, two of which were the most important to me being new to this event. One, was to observe how the marketing team functions as a unit. And second, to hold meetings with different people to discuss certain issues with an outlook of solving them for the benefit of the openSUSE community. Moreover, many of us had a chance to further discuss (in person) initiatives started at the oSC, since we had a chance to digest them and come with some valuable input that was used to move things forward ;-)<br />
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The first day, was quite chaotic for one who had never attended and/or understood the process of how the team administered their hackfest. There were some communication issues, which eventually turned the event into an understanding of organized chaos on my part ;-) Things started out slow, but by the second day many people had an idea of the workload and were producing some awesome ideas and collaborating together to help each other implement those ideas. On the last day in the afternoon, Amie Johnson (SUSE's PR Manager) gave us a quick presentation on press releases: How to do them and the format that should be taken into account. Amie was nice enough to offer the community help with PR by collaborating between the community and SUSE, so we can work together on leveraging the messages we both have in common. <br />
<br />
Given the circumstances and meeting place, we were able to have some other people from SUSE contribute, who were happy to join and help out also by demonstrating their commitment to the openSUSE community. So, Thanks to Jan Weber, Susanne Oberhauser, Michael Miller, Greg K.H, Alan Clark, Andreas Jaeger, and Amie Johnson for helping out and filling in the gaps were needed. <br />
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Also a great big thanks again for the input and work performed by the marketing team and those that attended: Bruno, Francoise, Manu, Kostas, Stella, George, Izabel, N.B. Prashanth, Bryen, Jos, Andrew, Sebastian, and JDD. You guys did a great job coming up with new ideas, as well as, building on the current ones! <br />
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Last, but not least, thanks to Jos for the Stroopwaffles (Dutch Treacle Waffles) and SUSE for the lunches, drinks and the use of there offices and infrastructure.<br />
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Thanks Geekos for once again demonstrating the openness and collaboration that is so specific to the openSUSE community culture. Looking forward to help make one of the best, even better!!!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-38614169989808746792011-10-04T17:55:00.002+02:002011-10-04T18:24:18.299+02:00Looking back at the openSUSE Conference 2011 (oSC)Well, once again, I had a chance to meet a community, one of which, I have never met before ;-)<br />
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I arrived at <a href="http://www.zentrifuge-nuernberg.de/">Zentrifuge</a> on the 10th of September for the warmup to the <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/">oSC</a>. Immediately after arrival, I was greeted with warm smiles, open discussions, and cold beer ;-) No one knew who I was, but they all welcomed me. As the evening continued, I was witness to how the community also made sure that they welcomed everyone, once they arrived. This is pure class and I would like to say is very important to a newbie who is entering the community. This is one aspect where openSUSE makes the difference, since it is not practiced to this extent in many other communities. <br />
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<i>The first day</i>: After a great evening of meeting various contributors, members of openSUSE and SUSE employees, and having great technical and non-technical chats, the first day of the event was kicked off. It was hot, not only the event, but the weather. Around 35 centigrade with a lot of humidity, so the speakers, like me, were really put to the test. I had the chance to meet many people in the openSUSE community and spend some time with them one on one to discuss their experiences and how they viewed the project. Furthermore, I met a few others who were not a part of the openSUSE community, but others within our ecosystem who were there to show there dedication to collaboration. I, myself, also held a <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=14&confId=2">workshop</a> entitled "Introduction to Cross-cultural Communication, Collaboration and Conflict" which attracted quite a crowd and I am very please with all that attended, showed interest and gave feedback. You guys and gals are awesome and did a remarkable job!!!<br />
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<i>The second day</i>: This is where the the fun and the heat started to both take their toll ;-) I made it a point to attend most all of the community track and also Greg KH's talk on <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed">Tumbleweed</a>. The first BoF I attended was <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=19&confId=2">Ambassador Program: Current status, potential changes and inprovements</a> held by Kostas and Manu. This was an interesting discussion on the current status of the program and what needs to be done to make the program more structured and what will be expected from new ambassadors when they join. The second talk I attended was <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=135&confId=2">Greg KH's talk on his initiative Tumbleweed</a>. Greg is an excellent speaker and really has a knack for communicating technical things in a way non-technical people can understand. This is a major accomplishment in itself ;-), let alone his long-time appreciated contributions to the kernel. I learned that I practiced a couple of Greg's don'ts while using Tumbleweed and have since corrected those mistakes. Furthermore, I would like to add that I had some discussions with Greg about some certain kernel modules and he was very helpful, took the time to research them and got back to me in a very short time with the answers. Thanks again Greg!!! The next workshop I attended was Pascal's <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=130&confId=2">Packaging, hands on</a>. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan in this workshop, due to a number of issues: The network was not working correctly, the heat was almost unbearable, and there were people of various different experience levels that attended making it very hard for the host to keep a steady pace. These things happen sometimes, so let's not shoot the messenger! The next BoF, I attended was <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=32&confId=2">Mentoring New Contributors</a>, held by Vincent Untz. This was quite an involved discussion about how to build a structure for a mentor-ship program for new people joining. This is quite a complex topic, still under discussion of how to mentor, who will mentor (given the limited resources and time) and how this program will be implemented. Overall, I think we came up with some good arguments to help build the program and of course we are still in the process of helping build it. In Final, this was quite an involved day, aside from all of the private discussions I had in between these workshops and BoF, which also yielded some solid initiatives for cross-community collaboration. Definitely , a very effective day that gave a great overview of the status of the project.<br />
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<i>The third day</i>: This day was quite ad-hoc, I hosted an open BoF to discuss issues/conflicts within the project and in our ecosystem. Thanks to all that attended and your input (for the sake of the issues themselves and trust, I will not write any details about this BoF). Furthermore, I attended BoF's regarding moderation held by Jos Poortvliet, and another held by Lydia Pintscher, which focused on how to get more women into openSUSE. The moderation discussion was interesting and always touchy subject, though we had the right people there to discuss. Thanks Henne, Pascal, Alan, Bryen, and Richard for your input and collaboration. We have come to agreement for a solid start to how we will approach this. This initiative should be implemented soon and IMHO all of the community will benefit from it. In final, last (not chronologically either) but not least was the BoF, held by Lydia Pintscher of KDE on her experiences and suggestions of how to get more women into openSUSE. This is a hot topic in all communities and IMHO, I believe it should be given more of a priority. We have come up with some things to build on and luckily have some of our own who have taken the initiative to continue the discussion and bring forth viable ideas. Thanks to Lydia, Pascal, Bruno, Stella, and Susanne for their suggestions and input. A special thanks to Susanne Oberhauser for taking the lead and initiative to build on the discussion. If any of you have any suggestions or would like to help, please contact her as we need your help to make openSUSE a more attractive project for women to become involved with. <br />
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<i>On the final day</i>: I attended one BoF hosted by Kostas entitled "<a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=107&confId=2">Do we need an ambassador mentorship program?</a> This was also a very interesting discussion, as it, in my eyes, ties into getting women into openSUSE and also to the discussion about a mentoring program in general held by Vincent Untz. Mentoring is a something all organizations and communities need. We need people who can answer questions, have patience with newbies and overall be a go-to person who can refer a new contributor to the right team/person in the project to get their initiatives started and to simply get their questions answered. Hopefully, within the next months, we will have worked out all the kinks and have a workable ambassador mentor-ship program that works together with the overall project mentor-ship program, so we have a clear line of communication that is also reflected down to the mentees. <br />
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Finally, I must admit, it was quite a wild ride for me ;-) I met and made some very good friends, got some great business contacts, had a chance to speak to many people individually to get a feeling of the overall health of the community, and also had time in the evenings to plan some social events. Thanks especially to Stephan whom was willing to take a small group of us on a tour of the Altstadt, be our guide, take us to dinner and drinks at a local brewery and not give up on us because we were late. Sorry for that Stephan, I know we broke the cardinal rule in German culture, we were late. It will not happen again. Thanks also to all those who attended. Thanks to those involved for the lunches, dinners and the fun we had after hours ;-) Oh, and who could forget, thanks to the Greek crew for providing their touch, getting people involved and most of all that Greek charm;-)<br />
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In Conclusion, I would like to extend my assistance to the openSUSE project with helping with community development, leadership, communication and conflict. I have already initiated some cases on pending issues brought to my attention by several contributors and will be working together with those contributors to help find a solution that best fits their needs and the needs of the openSUSE project. Moreover, I would like to extend a hand out to the openSUSE board and SUSE, so that we together can build a better capacity for clearer communication, a clear process for handling conflict, a more diverse and international community and a more effective and healthy community for all.<br />
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Overall, you Geekos should give each other a big hug and a pat on the back!!! You are a very unique, open, and welcoming community, one of which on this level is quite rare in our ecosystem. I look forward to working together with all of you to make openSUSE even better!!!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-41241998654069347792011-08-31T22:50:00.002+02:002011-10-09T16:41:11.400+02:00openSUSE conference 2011As promised a little look into the future: I will be attending the <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/">openSUSE conference</a> in <span style="font-size: small;">Nürnberg</span>, Germany in 10 days. This years conference topic/focus is RWX3, which places a heavy emphasis on hands-on workshops and <a href="http://news.opensuse.org/2011/06/14/opensuse-conference-and-rw-sessions-the-bof/">BoF's</a>. It should be a great conference with many side activities and a Wild West themed <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/social-event/">social event</a>. I also hear that there will be some cooking workshops which I definitely want to be a part of, since I have a great interest in cooking and have cooked professionally for several years, as well as, with and for many hackers and community members over the years and they love it :-) Now, this is the type of diversity and creativity all communities need to embrace!<br />
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In addition to my attendance, I will also be presenting a workshop entitled '<a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=14&confId=2">Introduction to Cross-cultural Communication, Conflict and Collaboration</a>' on Sunday the 9th of September from 14:30 to 15:50 in Salon Brendl. This workshop will definitely be hands-on and will include a conflict simulation which all attendees will take part in to help better understand their fellow contributors, as well as, themselves. I also look forward to learning more about Greg KH's initiative and future plans with <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=135&confId=2">Tumbleweed</a> at his talk on Monday. More information on my presentation and all others including the full timetable can be found <a href="http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//conferenceTimeTable.py?confId=2#all.detailed">here.</a> It looks to be a pretty full timetable filled with hands-on sessions, so this event is sure to yield significant outcomes. <br />
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I look forward to meeting with those colleagues and contributors with whom I have met before, as well as, those new faces I have never met before, to have discussions and launch initiatives that support collaboration, organization and healthy community development. Most of all, I just look forward to (GTD) Getting Things Done!<br />
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See you there!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-78129109061642419912011-08-31T19:04:00.004+02:002011-10-09T16:41:28.703+02:00HCC Linux Day Bunnik NL: Looking backI attended <a href="http://groepen.hcc.nl/">HCC</a> linux day on Saturday the 21st of May in Bunnick, The Netherlands. I have always wanted to see how the local communities present themselves at events in the NL, since I mainly attend the international events. HCC is one of the largest, if not the largest, communities in the NL comprised of members that use a variety of different distros and projects that support development within the FOSS ecosystem. This event's focus was on Security and was hosted at the Postillion Hotel.<br />
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I first arrived at the event at 10:00 and was quite impressed with the venue for such a small event. It was easy to get to (by car at least) and the hotel was quite new, which provided a quaint, by specialized feel. The presentation rooms were new and fitted with new equipment which gave the event an added feeling of style and prestige. I decided to attend some presentations held by Jos Poortvliet, the community manager for <a href="http://www.opensuse.org/en/">openSUSE</a> whom introduced the new initiatives (OBS, SUSEStudio, Tumbleweed, Evergreen) and the different desktops that are supported in openSUSE latest release 11.4 within the course of two separate presentations. I also got a chance to visit the openSUSE booth, which seemed to have quite a buzz going around it and Jos was nice enough to introduce me to his local team which consisted of some new members who looked very enthusiastic about the event and being involved in the openSUSE community. I also had a chance to speak to some of the local contributors, some from Ubuntu and others who were developers, gamers and just interested users. Many of the people attending this event had been users of FOSS for quite a while, either as a hobby or in their work. I had a feeling that actually most could be classified as users and not your hardcore developer types. I see absolutely no problem with this as these users help spread the message and play a part in keeping the ecosystem alive.<br />
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Overall, I really liked the event since I was able to speak to people who are not quite your "normal" FOSSies and saw aspects of our communities from a different point of view, which is always refreshing. In addition, this was quite a low key event, so it also carried a very relaxed feeling to it :-) There is still a need for these types of events, as there are for the events on other levels, since these events provide access points for people of all types to get involved in FOSS. Especially the locals, whom cannot or do not want to travel far to get their questions answered and to hang out with those that share the same interest ;-)<br />
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Thanks again HCC, I enjoyed the event and look forward to attending another event of yours. Also a great thanks to Jos and the local Lizards for the constructive discussions, openness, and engagement demonstrated by the openSUSE team. gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-67729322276940389452011-08-31T18:32:00.002+02:002011-10-09T16:42:12.852+02:00LinuxTage 2011: looking backSorry about this post being quite belated, but I have been wanting to make this post for quite a while. This last May (11-14th) I attended LinuxTage in Berlin where it is hosted every year. It was my first time at the event and many of my hacker colleagues gave me mixes feelings about the event before I attended. There complaints with the event were that over the years that it has become more corporate oriented and that community presence has been less regarded over corporate interest when arranging and planning for community presence (booths, etc.).<br />
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I always try to keep and open mind when attending an event i which I have never been to before, so I arrived at the event on the 11th with a business colleague of mine to introduce him to the world of FOSS to see his thoughts on it, but more to try and give him a picture of what I have been investing a lot of my time into over the past 3 years. He, like many others, rarely see the point of FOSS and the meaning behind just having another operating system on your computer. As many others I have spoken to over the years, he had a hard time understanding why he should give FOSS a try when he had no problems with using Windows. My strategy was to just introduce him to the ecosystem and let him make his own assumptions on what he saw and then provide answers and support to the questions he had.<br />
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As we entered the exhibition hall, the first time, he was reluctant from the beginning and <i>THEN</i> he saw names of projects he was familiar with which he did not know stemmed from our ecosystem. Projects he used on windows, such as VLC, XMBC, to name a few. He then shifted his opinion to being a little less reluctant and began to open his mind a little more to this FOSS thing. We split up for a while, as I told him to get involved, ask questions, and just look around! In the meantime, I visited my old colleagues at the Fedora Project and CentOS to see how they are doing. Furthermore, I had a good talk with the Debian project about their plans, future development, and got all of of my questions answered in a nice informed way about the CUT/Rolling release initiative. In final, as always, I also had a chance to chat with some community managers and discuss some issues facing our communities and ecosystem and how we can improve cross-community collaboration.<br />
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Overall it was quite a decent event, I met some new people, got up to speed with the old and planted a seed in someones mind of what opportunities and tools FOSS can give the average individual and business person, but I will have to agree with my hacker colleagues, it was a little to corporate and presented itself as more of a hybrid event rather than a community one. Berlin, in itself is awesome, one of my favorite cities in the world, since there are just not too many places like it ;-) C-Base is also one of a kind hacker meeting place/lab which definitely demonstrates the unique qualities of this city and the local FOSS community in Berlin. Oh, and not to forget, my business colleague left with a greater understanding of our ecosystem and a smile on his face, so I think that speaks for itself ;-) Will be seeing you again shortly, Berlin, that I can guarantee!!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-63753881882189197862011-08-31T17:52:00.000+02:002011-08-31T17:52:53.395+02:00Catching upI do not write blog posts very often, as you can see from my last post was over a year ago. That does not mean I have not been highly active within the FOSS ecosystem, but more so that the function I have and the topics I deal with (conflict management and community development) are not per say things I can freely speak about to those which are not directly involved. You might think, well, you are holding something back or being non-transparent, but that is not the case, it is more about trust. In open source, we all have our circles of trust. Those circles defined by who and what we trust and furthermore the level of trust that we have in these people or institutions. In my function, trust is at the highest level. I coordinate with many within our ecosystem to help resolve issues, some of these issue being highly sensitive for the parties involved. If I were to post these issues, I could foresee two things happening: a loss of trust from one or both parties, and furthermore, an escalation of the issue. Please remember that my function is compared to that of a doctor, just not a medical doctor, but an organizational doctor. Therefore, just as your doctor has ethical commitments to not share his/her patients information, the same goes for my function. <br />
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That said, I can post about other things, that is true. I will post a couple more posts about the events that I have been to this year (something that has been on my list for a while) and some that I will attend in the near future.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-86885069807282015192010-04-12T14:34:00.001+02:002011-10-09T16:42:51.489+02:00European Legal Network (ELN) Workshop Amsterdam Day-2Once again another interesting and informative day at the <a href="http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/activities-workshop.en.html">ELN</a> Workshop in Amsterdam.<br />
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The topics of discussion in the final day were compliance, risk, patents and industry development. Different organizations made presentations in the morning regarding licensing compliance and how it pertains to the internal part of the organization, as well as, through to distribution. Intra-organization compliance systems were discussed in short and the various mediums that could be used in order to insure that the vendor(s) is complaint. Most all were in agreement that it was vital for an organization to integrate a compliance policy into the supply chain. Different measures on how this compliance policy could be constructed were discussed also.<br />
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The second topic discussed was Risk and how to evaluate and contain it. A balanced discussion on risk from both the legal and business sides of things gave a realistic case view on what open source companies are facing in the current and expanding market. Members of the ELN have also created and are developing a <a href="http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/article/view/10">Risk Grid</a> to address procurement of F/OSS and it's function within the supply chain. This grid aims to assist professionals in the field to regulate their actions with their suppliers and buyers by allocating risk to the appropriate actor within the supply chain.<br />
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A patent panel also discussed briefly about the pro's and con's of patents within the organization and argued how these patents can hinder, as well as, support innovation within an organization. The affects of patents on licensing and the various complications that arise were also discussed, but agreed that another workshop will be set aside to discuss patents in more detail.<br />
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Finally, Future developments were discussed and their impacts on the F/OSS industry. Technological innovations and shifts were discussed and weighed against the developments of the F/OSS movement in the past. We are seeing quite a shift from software as a product to more of a service driven industry with such developments as the cloud and embedded MID's. Awareness must be made now that assists professionals in evaluating legal risk in accordance to licensing and procurement, through educating professionals on the importance of compliance and how to properly implement a compliance policy within their respective organizations. Moreover, it is generally agreed that there must be more interaction with developers/engineers and management/legal counsel to work together and build a "best case" practice that incorporates the developer/engineers issues and needs together with the organizations compliance. The most sound method of accomplishing this is through working together to reach our common goal with special emphasis on proper education and documentation.<br />
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I would like to thank the <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/">Free Software Foundation Europe</a> and everyone who attended the ELN workshop and especially thank them for allowing me to participate in this closed discussion. It definitely opened my eyes to topics in which I have only scratched the surface on. The complexities of the topics discussed were just another confirmation that we need to work even harder together to meet the ever growing issues faced by all levels of the F/OSS movement. I look forward to working together with you at the ELN and sharing the knowledge and contributions from the unique position I hold between industry and community.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-1570735993405488752010-04-09T00:13:00.001+02:002011-10-09T16:43:11.096+02:00European Legal Network (ELN) Workshop Amsterdam Day-1I was invited by the FSF Europe to take part in the <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/ftf/activities-workshop.en.html">ELN Workshop</a> in Amsterdam for a discussion between industry professionals, lawyers and engineers with how licensing impacts their respective organizations. The workshop presentations consisted of highly recognized F/OSS industry professionals from Europe and the US. The first day of the event was well organized and quite refreshing since there were many open minded discussions that are leading up to implementation and management of governance in F/OSS projects, as well as, working towards a collaborative grid/matrix for developers/engineers to use when choosing a license to release their code under with a view to compliance.<br />
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Moreover, it was nice to hear presentations of up to date casework of GPL violations, casework from professionals about industry adoption of F/OSS and how the OSS industry is gathering momentum and legitimacy at lightning speeds ;-) Also, it was nice to hear the current information about the recent legal developments on a country by country level in Europe and also the recent development at the EU parliament level. Thank you especially to the small, but hard working group of lobbyists that attended!!<br />
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The organizers and presenters did a great job of keeping theoretical concepts to a minimal and successfully explained their issues and topics in layman terms. I thank you all for your openness and collaboration and must say I have never experienced an event quite like this with legal council and industry professionals that was so open, free flowing and transparent without having the feeling or worry of those luring second agendas.<br />
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I look very much forward to continuing our discussion and developments on Day 2.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-58745710572948316112010-03-17T14:35:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:43:33.760+02:00After Chemnitzer LinuxTage 2010All in all, <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Chemnitzer_Linuxtage_2010">Chemnitzer Linuxtage 2010</a> was a very successful event.<br />
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I, including some of the Ambassadors from the Benelux/Western German Region , arrived on Friday evening to be greeted by <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JoergSimon">J. Simon</a> in Chemnitz.<br />
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We checked into our hotel after a 7 hour drive from Southern Netherlands and quickly headed off to a restaurant to meet other ambassadors and FOSS community contributors. The weather was cold and snowing, but not quite as cold as the Netherlands, due to the fact that we were in a landlocked region of Europe. After a bite to eat, we met other contributors at a local brewery to discuss our respective projects and what our plans were for the event which started the next morning. <br />
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CLT Overview:<br />
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Facilities: <br />
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The event was held at the <a href="http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/tu/sprachen/engl/index.php">Technical University</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemnitz">Chemnitz</a> (a.k.a Karl Marx stadt) in their modern building which was spacious and properly equipped with a fast Internet connection and modern rooms for presentations and lectures. There were benches and tables set up on the top floor of the exhibition room where visitors could have a place for meeting and working on their laptops. Next to the entrance was a full wardrobe facility for visitors and also a childcare facility which had places for children to rest and a massive Lego set-up with various toys to keep young children busy while their parents attended the event.<br />
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Purpose and Focus: <br />
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The purpose and focus of CLT 2010 was a little different than other events I have attended in the past. Most events were geared towards the technical aspects of the various communities where CLT had a user focus of curious people, newbies, and those contemplating on switching to Linux. There were a wide diversity of projects at this event from distro' s and desktops to 3D modeling programs, DAW' s and music labs set up for recording and mastering music, as well as, academic projects. There was even a PC doctor where you could drop off your laptop if it had problems and the technicians would try and solve the problem while you were attending the event. A nice little touch, I thought ;-)<br />
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Operations:<br />
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Day 1:<br />
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From initial observations, we entered the event and were met by a member of the event organizing team who was pleasant and professional in manner and immediately escorted us to the main booth where we were issued our event passes and meal passes. Thereafter, he escorted us to the location of the Fedora booth. Initial observation showed that the booths were very well evenly placed within the building without excessive overcrowded areas. This provided plenty of space for exhibitors and visitors alike to walk by and stand in front of the booths without interfering with the flow of traffic in the aisles of the event. It was also worth noting that the cords and cables were well organized and covered with carpet and secured with tape around all of the walking areas of the exhibition hall.<br />
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Day 2: <br />
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Throughout the day we were in contact with the event organizers which were happy to answer our questions and discuss the planning involved with the event. After the initial impression from day 1, I could confirm that the event and it's organizers were well informed, professional and highly organized. There was security present at the event 24 hours a day for both days and event personnel present 24 hours a day at the entrance who were attentive and checked all people entering and leaving the event at all hours of the day and night. <br />
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Catering: <br />
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The catering for the event was split into two sections. There was catering in the main hall for visitors and where a hot lunch was served both days in a timely fashion. The second section was in a private room and for event exhibitors and employees. I did not have a chance to try any of the visitors catering meals, but could observe that it was a nice sized meal for the price and generally people looked content. The catering for the exhibitors was well thought out with a good variety of hot and cold dishes, coffee and tea, candy, cakes and pastries, and a variety of juices and soft drinks. The staff was very cordial and efficient at always having food and drink available no matter how busy the lounge was at times;-)<br />
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Fedora Activities: <br />
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The weekend consisted of various meetings in which I had with ambassadors which I have not already been acquainted with and finally had the pleasure to meet with and talk about various topics and issues within the Fedora project. It was nice for me to discuss with others what their feelings were about Fedora and what they viewed as needed to be improved within the community. In addition, I spend time at the Fedora booth speaking to various ambassadors and other community members while informing and answering questions that visitors had about the Fedora project. It was a nice balance of the internal and external aspects of the Fedora community and how it interacted with other communities and the macro environment. <br />
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Social Event:<br />
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On Saturday evening the event organizers planned a social event for exhibitors, volunteers and staff of the event on the top floor of the building. Long tables and benches were arranged (german beer garden style) and a nice buffet consisting of a nice balance of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes, pasta and various canapés, fruit and desserts. In addition, there was a wide variety of local beer, soda, juice, wine, coffee and tea served. The food was excellent, fresh, and the caterers had plenty of food and drink available for all.<br />
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During the social event there was also entertainment provided. During dinner there was a jazz band playing and after the dinner a magician who traveled around to each table to give a personal show to people with a mix of comedy, magic tricks and balloon animals for the children.<br />
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We had a very nice time at our table with members of the Fedora ambassador team and our sister community of <a href="http://www.centos.org/">centOS</a>.<br />
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Conclusion:<br />
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In conclusion, I would be comfortable in recommending this event to anyone. It was a very pleasant event with a relaxed atmosphere that was focused for all Linux users and contributors, possible adopters, and those just curious, as well as, their friends and families :-)<br />
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The planning and operations of this event were far superior to any other FOSS event I have attended and the organization skills were almost impeccable. Everything was thought out to the last detail and the planning yielded a good balance for the different types of people attending the event. <br />
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The ambassador team present at the event were professional and well organized also. It was especially nice to see those involved in cross/supporting project helping out and switching "hats" to help their fellow community members. <br />
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All in all, I would like to thank the event organizers of CLT 2010 for their superb event, Joerg Simon the event owner for his excellent organization skills and the extra special effort that he has made to make us ambassadors feel taken care of, and our fellow contributers who made this event possible. <br />
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From my personal and professional viewpoint, I believe the Chemnitzer LinuxTage should serve as THE example of the standard that ALL Fedora events should strive to be!!!!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-70432630596282699302010-03-10T13:21:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:43:52.639+02:00Chemnitzer LinuxTageIn just a few short days, I will be attending <a href="http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2010/">Chemnitzer LinuxTage</a> in Chemnitz, Germany. We have been very fortunate to have the FAmSCo chair <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Jsimon">Kital</a> arrange everything for us before arrival. And I must say, he has done a very nice job at keeping clear channel of communication to all of us attending the event. A great thanks to you Kital!!! I am looking forward to meeting more members of our community, as well as, other FOSS community members, but cannot feel bad that <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Hiemanshu">Hiemanshu</a> could not attend due to Visa problems. We will definitely keep him up to date as well as others during the event.<br />
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Looking forward to making this a great event where we cultivate innovation and creativity to further the development of the Fedora Project and it's contributors. See you there ;-)gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-41747436720056432792010-02-08T12:43:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:44:35.013+02:00After FOSDEMWow...What a really interesting and fulfilling event in so many ways. Being my first, my mind is still running in circles about the amount of meetings and presentations I attended through the course of the weekend. I had the chance to meet many of the founding members and proven leaders of the open source community and hear their experiences and better yet their ideas for the future. A truly amazing power networking event!!<br />
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I look forward to putting those plans into action which many of us agreed to collaborate on and to also continue to innovate new ideas and concepts that will allow our community to grow and expand into new areas. <br />
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In addition, it was great to finally meet those members of the Fedora community where up until now I only knew a name. It was excellent to meet in person and put faces to those names. <br />
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Most of all, I would like to thank the ambassadors for the fun time we had and look forward to doing it all again next year :-)gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-33315409991788198262010-02-03T14:03:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:44:58.677+02:00FOSDEM Beer EventDirectly after the <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD_FOSDEM_2010">Fedora Activity Day</a>,another exciting and necessary social event, from what I hear ;-) is the <a href="http://fosdem.org/2010/beerevent">FOSDEM Beer event</a> located <a href="http://www.deliriumcafe.be/">here</a>. This event will start on Friday the 5th at 18:00 and will be home to many of those from different projects and organizations whom are attending FOSDEM. I look forward to this activity to get a chance to see the F/OSS industry and it's members. <br />
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See you all there! And hope we survive to see Saturday morning:-)gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-15646502355027764812010-02-03T13:50:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:45:26.023+02:00Fedora Activity Day at FOSDEM<a href="http://fosdem.org/2010/">FOSDEM</a> will offically start on Saturday February 6, but the Fedora Ambassador team will be <a href="http://alamortsubite.com/ENG/contact.html">meeting here</a> starting at 13:00 to discuss various topics on Friday February 5 at our <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD_FOSDEM_2010">Fedora Activity Day</a> at FOSDEM. I will be attending and look forward to meeting those I know, but especially those I have not met yet since this is a new year with new initiatives. One of our project <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MaxSpevack">leaders</a> whom spent some time developing the Fedora Project in the EMEA will be there as well as many others involved in board positions, as well as, various teams within the project. I look forward to seeing you all <a href="http://alamortsubite.com/ENG/contact.html">there</a> and discussing future opportunities to support the Fedora community as well as the greater "Open" movement.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-28778296611004806672010-01-25T22:42:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:45:54.799+02:00FOSDEM 2010Just 9 Days away from the start of <a href="http://fosdem.org/2010/">FOSDEM</a>. The start of a new year and with it the start of new opportunities. This will be my first FOSDEM and my first big event with Fedora...<br />
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The <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Ambassadors_from_Netherlands">Ambassador team in the Netherlands</a> has been preparing for a number of months for this event and the opportunities that it will yield for us and more importantly for the greater FOSS community. I can only expect great new ideas and projects, since now Industries and Governments are starting to see the big picture of FOSS and Open source due to access to resources, as well as, the value-added factors of low-cost and organizational sustainability.<br />
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Recently, there have been a lot of changes and focus on "All things open" where many public authorities are finally admitting that they "Do not have all the answers" or "<a href="http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/blogs/browse/2010/01/linux-market-needs-more-talent">Enough Human Resources</a>" to sustain their systems. In addition, many non-profit and for-profit organizations are adopting communities to enhance and or jump start innovations to contribute to their long-term sustainability. <br />
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I believe that 2010 will be the year of "All Things Open" and look forward to sharing ideas, initiating projects, promoting and supporting the development of a better society, world and planet, not only for ourselves, but for our future generations. <br />
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See you at FOSDEM!!gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089658244301829948.post-55403122969574776132009-11-11T01:31:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:46:50.184+02:00Leadership in de-centralized communitiesAfter speaking to various people within open source communities, one thing that is lacking, or would rather be avoided, is responsibility for leading projects and/or movements. Institutions within society in which we are trying to sell the benefits of open source to are looking for legitimate communities which offer proven sustainable results no matter how large or small they might be. <br />
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So much momentum has been gathered over the years through the development of communities and their product of innovation that it has produced projects yielded by "leaderless" communities. These communities work within circular networks which are often driven by shear idealist interest rather than practical goals. <br />
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Adversely, Traditional institutions are measured though a result based approach that is highly focused on either top-down or semi-flat management structures where the goals are defined by management. <br />
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<a href="http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_burns_mechanistic_organic_systems.html">Here</a> is a good comparison of both aspects<br />
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I believe there is a spot in societies for both beliefs and their followers, but the future might bring more of a hybrid concept where one concept builds off the other. It will be interesting to see, but overall we need to start thinking more dynamically no matter what school of thought we subscribe to, and unfortunately I do not think we have quite made it there yet.<br />
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One day................A day after tomorrow.gmzyskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07226581135915726502noreply@blogger.com0