OSBC West Redux

Matt Asay must be one tired camper!  I don't know how he manages to put together such a strong conference as the now twice-a-year OSBC gathering while holding down a regular day job at Alfresco!  While there are other conferences that target open source developers, OSBC is targeted to the business community: open source entrepreneurs, startups, innovators, investors.  Ok, he also allows lawyers and there's a smattering of end users.  But increasingly, OSBC is ground central for everyone who's anyone in the open source business.  For MySQL, it's a great way to connect with so many of our partners and also to meet with new companies who want to work with MySQL or understand how we've approached our business and what lessons we've learned along the way.  I'm always happy to "pay forward" by helping newcomers understand what it takes to build a successful community and how to avoid screwing things up. 

The sessions are of high quality and have more meat (and less marketing fluff) than most conferences.  There's also an excitement and energy to OSBC that is contagious.  You see new companies getting started, new partnerships being formed, new insights being created that help not only individual companies but also the open source market as a whole.   And not only are new companies coming on board with open source, but even companies that have been previously outspoken critics of open source are now starting to get it. 

The sessions were often standing room only and despite the fact that Matt says people aren't there for the hotel or the food, the wireless was good and the food was excellent. (Ok, it sounds shallow to comment on the food, but it was nice to not have the usual box lunch!) 

Here are a few news highlights from the conference:

• CRN: Microsoft, SugarCRM Collaborate
• Ross Mayfield: Mitch Kapor on WikiPedia
• ZDNet: SAP On Open Source Consolidation
• JasperSoft: Launches Global Partner Program
• Alfresco: Alfresco launches Release 1.2 at OSBC

Comments

[Matt Asay]

Zack: To what address should I send the check? :-)

Seriously, I appreciate it. OSBC never was, and never will be, a lead-generation event. But it always was, and always will be, designed to facilitate knowledge transfer between those experienced in open source and those wanting to use open source to further their businesses.

I'm going to post my own debrief on the event, and what I'd like to see going forward (More SIs, for example, talking about implementation issues with open source; more information like John Roberts' keynote on the mechanics of open source business (a quick overview of MySQL and its evolving business model would be ideal, btw); etc.)

It's a good event, but there are always things to improve. Thanks for being positive on it. Now email me what was lame. :-)

Matt