Social Media Conference: OSCON Promotes Open Source For Technology

Opens Source technology is all the rage with new social media technologies- Twitter API is open source and Facebook is moving more and more in that direction. Other popular social media networks utilize open source technology in relation to mobile devices.
OSCON (Open Source CONference) is one of the meeting hubs for the growing open source community.

OSCON has been around for 11 years, this year it will be at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California July 20-24, 2009.

Expected attendance is around 3,000 programmers, developers, engineers, admins, educators, and managers from around the world for a nowhere-but-OSCON learning and networking experience. The early registration discount has been extended to June 23, 2009!

The 2009 conference will focus on interesting developments in Linux, Java, Web, and open source infrastructure. OSCON will have tracks for Linux, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Mobile, Databases, Desktop Applications, Web Applications, Administration, Security, People, Business, and Emerging Topics.

The question they pose on their conference page is both simple and infinitely complex: “If the first ten years of OSCON were about opening the minds of big business to the philosophy of open source, are the next ten years about opening the minds of the open source community to the possibilities of its future?”

The best description of the conference I found from a former participant:

“An amazing geek-a-thon…No better place on this earth to find out how to use all the cool new open source projects, and to see what’s coming next.” —Matt Asay, Infoworld

For more about OSCON, visit: http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009/public/content/about

OSCON Speakers will include:

Perl 6: Why? What? How?, Damian Conway, Thoughtstream
Introduction to Google App Engine, Joe Gregorio Google
How to Write Your Own Eclipse Plug-ins, Beth Tibbitts, IBM
Django in the Real World, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django
What You Need to Know About Rails3, Yehuda Katz, Engine Yard
Linux Filesystem Performance for Databases, Selena Deckelmann, PostgreSQL Project
Cloud Computing – Why IT Matters, Simon Wardley, Canonical Ltd
Building a Business on the Cheap, Chris Wanstrath, GitHubThe HTML 5 Experiments, Bruce Lawson, Opera Software ASA
High Performance APC, Brian Shire, Facebook, Inc.

As listed on their website:

Past O’Reilly Open Source Conventions brought together representatives from companies and organizations like:

ACS Inc., Adobe Systems, ADP, Alfresco, Amazon, Boeing, Christian Science Monitor, Cingular Wireless, City of Portland, craigslist, CSCI, Dell, Duke University, Federal Reserve Board, General Electric, Jobster, Kansas State University, Knova Software, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lexis Nexis, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Los Alamos National Lab, Lund University Libraries, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Motosport, Mozilla, MySQL AB, Napster, Novell, Omni Hotels, Otsuka USA, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, PalmSource, Pentaho, Plaxo, Red Bean Software, Ruby Central Samsung, EW Scripps Company, U.S. Probation Office and Pretrial Services, University of Alaska, Verizon, WhitePages.com Inc., Xerox, and Zimbra

Past OSCON Sponsors, Exhibitors, and Media Partners have included:

ACM Queue, ActiveState, Advanced Micro Devices, Autodesk, Inc., Conference Guru, Covalent Technologies, Dell Inc., DevtownStation.com, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Enterprise Open Source Journal, Google, Greenplum, Griffin Technology, HP, Hyperic, IBM, Intel Corporation, IPTV Industry, Laszlo Systems Linux Journal, LinuxQuestions.org, Linux Pro Magazine, MacMinute.com, Methods & Tools, MindTouch, mixi.jp, Oracle, Port 25, Powell’s Books, Roundabout Five, SDForum, Shopzilla, Six Apart Ltd., Solid, Sun Microsystems, Sys Admin, Technology Review, Inc., TechTracker, The 451 Group, The Open Technology Business Center (OTBC), The Women’s Technology Cluster, Ticketmaster, Timbuk2 Designs Inc., VoIP-News.com, WiMAX Industry, Yahoo! Inc., and Zend Technologies, Inc.
Aahz, PageDNA,
Chris Adamson, O’Reilly,
Kevin Altis, PythonCard,
Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL Experts, Inc.,
Michael Bernstein,
Avi Bryant, Dabble DB,
Pat Eyler,
brian d foy, The Perl Review,
Ask Bjørn Hansen, Developer LLC,
Arjen Lentz, Open Query,
A. Elein Mustain, Pandora Media, Varlena, LLC,
Anna Ravenscroft, Student, Stanford University,
Kathy Robertson,
Sam Ruby, IBM,
Alex Russell, Dojo Toolkit,
Craig Russell, Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
Kevin Shockey, DóndeEs,
Peter Scott, Pacific Systems Design Technologies,
Simon St. Laurent, O’Reilly,
Robert Spier, Google,
Laura Thomson, Mozilla Corporation,
Phil Tomson, Mentor Graphics,
Glenn Vanderburg, Relevance, Inc.,
Bruce Williams, FiveRuns,
Simon Willison,

Social Media Conference: OSCON Promotes Open Source For Technology