OpenSource Connections
Category: Uncategorized
The people who came by our booth yesterday seemed to represent a slightly different mindset than what we saw in Day 1. I can still categorize the attendees:
- People on a mission: They know what they want, and theyre very specific about what they are looking for. Questions like “Can you do J2EE” and “Are you familiar with Drupal [Alfresco, Joomla, Expression Engine]?” were much more common in day 2 than they were in day 1.
- Browsers who either havent heard of open source or misunderstand its meaning: These are fine people to talk to, as there is an opportunity for us to tell them what it is and what it isnt. Firstly, let me say that open source is not the answer to everything (saying something like that at OSCON would get me lynched. As an aside, Id wager that the number of people who attend both FOSE and OSCON represents less than 1% of either conferences attendee population. That number disappoints me greatly, as both populations need to learn about each other over the next few years if our government is to remain competitive without spending greater and greater amounts of a percentage of GDP.
- Schwag runners: The group of people almost sprinting through the exhibit hall sort of reminds me of the Filenes basement sale. It reinforces why we dont give out schwag. Perhaps the companies who give out schwag wind up having more conversations with people that they would not have otherwise had, but watching the surreptitious glances of candy grabbers hoping that nobody from the booth actually talks to them makes me think otherwise.
The one group of people whom I expected to see some of that I have yet to see is contracting officers. I know that many agencies are not meeting their set-aside goals, so I would have expected the KOs to be swarming the small business pavilion to find the vendors who can help them meet their goals. We have seen a few primes come by and talk to us and when they discovered that we are a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB), then the timbre of the discussion changed (though wed rather have people be interested in working with us because of the quality of work that we do) . Maybe, as someone put it, the KOs have been burned too badly by low quality set-aside qualifying firms who cant actually do the job in the past that they are now looking at the major primes to serve as the vetting mechanism. Its not a bad idea.
Im also surprised that nobody is blogging about FOSE. The number of blog posts found on Technorati covering FOSE takes up less than a page. Comparatively, OSCON is usually a top (if not the number one) search term on Technorati during OSCON. There are about 45 news articles on Google covering FOSE, but I would still expect people to be writing (and blogging) more about this convention. Its huge. There must be at least 4 times as many people here than at OSCON. At OSCON, crowds come in waves as people come out of sessions. At FOSE, there is a constant stream.
Still, being at FOSE is worth it, because its important that government users of software become more acquainted and comfortable with open source products and dont have the not invented here (or by a small group of proprietary software providers) syndrome. There are pockets of users of open source products, and some who are interested in learning more, but the road ahead is a long one. We intend to be there; as citizens, we have a vested interest in how our taxpayer dollars are spent.