Preparing for POSSCON

The Palmetto Open Source Software Conference is coming up next week.  I've got a couple of classes that I can't miss on Thursday so I'll only be attending the conference on Friday.  There's not a whole lot going on that day, but at least I'll get to experience some of it.  On Wednesday and Thursday, the sessions are shorter so there are more of them.  On Friday, there are only 2 sessions (workshops), and they are each 2 hours in length.

Our assignment during POSSCON is to try to meet 3 speakers that we had chosen beforehand.  My first choice of all the speakers is Walter Bender.  He is the founder of Sugar Labs, and I would love to have the opportunity to talk with him about our group's planned activity and any advice he has.  Also, he is interesting to me because his experience with open source is with humanitarian efforts.  This is something I can see myself becoming more involved in once I'm finished with school.  At the conference, he will be on a panel of executives speaking about the future of open source.  Hopefully he will still be around on Friday.

Of the 4 workshops offered at 9:45 on Friday, I've narrowed my choice down to 2.  One workshop is about open source CRM software (presented by John Mertic, Sr. Software Engineer of SugarCRM), and the other is about OpenOffice (presented by David Both).  Both topics are interesting to me, but I will have to do a little more research before I decide.  Whichever I go to, I would like to meet that presenter and ask some questions.

For the 1:15 workshop, I will either attend the History of Linux (presented by John Hall) or Starting a Business on the Cheap Using Open Source (presented by David Duggins).  I've done some reading on the History of Linux so I think this workshop would be interesting, especially now that I have some experience with Linux and more knowledge of operating systems in general.  I'm not planning to start a business, but I do think it would be interesting to see what open source software that is available that Duggins thinks would be beneficial to businesses.

Besides POSSCON, I will also be attending the Check-IT-Out conference in Waxhaw, NC (south of Charlotte) this Friday and Saturday.  (I've actually been having a hard time keeping straight which conference is on which weekend in my head.)  This conference will focus on the software, etc. involved in supporting Bible translation efforts around the world (mostly Wycliffe Bible Translators).  It will be held at the JAARS facility. 

I'm very excited to know more about what this organization does and the software they produce.  I'd also really like to know what volunteer opportunities are available.  This seems like the perfect situation for open source.  I'm curious to find out if any of their work is open source, and if not, if they have considered it.  I think that I will gain some insight at this conference that will help me to ask more meaningful questions at POSSCON about how open source could be incorporated into Bible translation software.