FOSE2006
Summary:
FOSE's 30th year, Tux.org's 5th booth year.
FOSE has become (for me) a yearly rite of passage, now in my Junior
year at Tux.edu , I'll need to join the board, become staff or
a professor, get a real job, etc ;-)
A heavy Novell influence at the Tux.org booth this year, perhaps due partially
to Pete, our Tux.org president now working for Novell in sales.
With Nick Danger as booth captain and a majority of
NOVALUG's organization, setup
and booth staffing.
The FOSE Show Directory has Pavilions of the following types:
Enterprise, Homeland Security, DoD, RFID, Data Storage, HR.com,
Intelligence and Small Business. It is also tagged with GSA for
Schedule Contract purchasing. Perhaps an open source logo like tux
can be added for next years conference?
Some highlights were more of a training focus than noticed previous
years. HR.com had a Pavilion with
smaller booths for interviewing. Booz Allen Hamilton had a
competition for executives.
Much of the activity was probably in the smaller rooms, not on the
exhibit main floor but was never accessed. The first day around
Lockheed Martin's CEO, President & Chair Steven's Keynote time I was
registering avoiding a huge exhibitor line. Also, I missed the
second day entirely with a short personal out of town trip. This
included Scott McNealy's (Sun's CEO) morning keynote.
I was kindly introduced to Topic Maps which may come in handy for the
organizing the frenzy before and after.
Attendance:
Yes, I'm not beyond taking attendence and have probably missed
many important people going from memory... You are pictured and get credit!
Freshman Class
Patrick T and a Novell trainer
Alum
Justin S. (videotaped)
and a booth "stalker" w AT&T badge
Profs:
Pete N
Nick D
Chuck M
Kevin C
David L
Guest Lecturer
Rev Ted
Check the Yearbook:
Roger B
Nicholas W
Booth Neighbors:
For some unknown reason, I don't have enough of the right hormones to
join. Darn.
Is that legal? Creating a womens-only club? Can I be the token?
Please? PRETTY Please?
Or social engineering by conference planners? But probably exclusively
tux.org guys (this year) next to a women's group? Like wedding planning
seating algorithms? ;-)
Playing card type size for individual use and corporate training with
inspirational quotes and digested books like The Fred Factor and
Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Could they do one on
Knuth's Fundamental Algorithms Vol 3: Searching & Sorting, Please? ;-)
WJLA/ABC Channel 7
WJLA.com
Federal Open Source Alliance (HP Intel redhat)
Open Source Friendlies:
VMWare.com
ASAP (Novell VAR)
Suggestion:
Put an open source tag (tux logo?) on the Open Source vendors in the
FOSE directory literature. Get more visibility in the exhibitor categories
index in the back of the guide.
Missed:
Open source talks
USENIX Association booth
Publishers:
Wiley Wiley.com
(for Dummies, Sybex, Wrox, Visual)
handout "Wiley knows Linux" lists bibles
Linux for Dummies
Sybex: Mastering Red Hat Fedora Linux 5
Red Hat Fedora Linux Secrets w DVD
Pearson Technology Group PearsonTechGroup.com
No O'Reilly
Standard Blurb:
Tux.org is an umbrella organization of the local linux users groups,
we are an educational 501c3, have a server, email lists and more...
Monthly meetings in Virginia, DC and Maryland and have spun off other
groups like Beowolf (BWBUG.org) and
other open source projects. Join the email lists, Novalug is high
volume, DCLUG and UMLUG are low. Come to a meeting.
Better A: Welcome to the Bazzar!
Here's a card w links to cathederal & the bazaar, our tux.org groups, and FSF.org, OpenSource.org, SourceForge.net, etc
Recurring Themes or FAQ:
Q: Do you want to swipe my badge ?
A: No, we don't have a swiper, it costs $300-$600 and we are a non profit.
Better A: Would you like to donate one?
Visitors:
Somewhat anonymously to protect the innocent.
Q: typical Fed Who are you? stuff
A: (in heavy Dinero accent) You talkin to me? You talkin to me? You
talkin to me?
Better A: An American citizen, part of "We, the People", ALL the
people.
Q: Is there a Baltimore LUG?
A: Check with UMLUG or google Baltimore LUG, join the MA-Linux email list.
Anti Sentiment
Situation: A M$ Truck in the hall down from the booth starting up
later in the conf to drive off. Typically M$ bullying inconsiderate
of fumes and headlights in our booths. No running over penguins that
eat butterflies for breakfast.
A: Do they have air in their tires?
Better A: Is it a hybrid? Or are they supporting the War on Oil?
Situation: M$ or affilated walks by trying not to look at Tux booth...
A: Tripped them
HP Federal Open Source Alliance pavilion across the booth
Q: What is HP doing in Open Source?
A: They can do some things we can't...
Q: sign interpreted: Is Red Hat Dead?
A: No, I'm running it. Fedora is active.
Better A: They appeared to have lost some with changes a while back,
but have much name recognition.
Backend Booth Duty:
I was unable to help in pre event with other commitments (though I
biked to Chantilly on the Friday before NOVALUG and hoped to crash
somewhere in the area, but too cold at 20 degrees) Totalled 36.1
miles with bus and rail assists.
And my front line skills are dismal with little sleep, though possibly
somewhat entertaining, so trying to manage the materials burn rate.
What do we have?
Push the green Open SUSE disks we got 4 boxes and expecting 4 more on
the second day.
Miscalculated the end of show time as 5 pm, but really 3 pm.
Magazines gone by beginning of the third day, so the heavest stuff was
gone. DVD/CD's lifespan and shelflife is very short with Dapper
coming out, so Ubuntus going to be previous version in weeks.
Professionalism:
Not my strong suit ;-) Linux is also fun. Why present it as only in
a three piece business manner?
Run Out:
Q: Have you got Red Ubuntu?
A: No, we're out.
Better A: Contact the Ubuntu website for (a likely free) shipment.
Pics:
Anyway, enough fun, I have a camera and took the following with a few
more not fit for publishing. pub.001.html. Enjoy.
Reference:
Sampling of Interesting Booths:
PCRecycler.net
Palm.com
eTelemetry.com
SocketCom.com
LightBrigade.com
MindJet.com
nitaac.nih.gov
Logicube.com
www.SmoothSolutions.com
ColorID.com
GovWorks.gov
Rugged:
EmergencyCenter.DC.gov
NCSI.com
FederalEvents.com
itronix.com
meganet.com
www.esi.mil
dod.mil/dbt
www.ha.osd.mil/AHLTA
www.tatrc.org
Handouts Collected:
VerizonCenter.com/FOSE for special offer for all FOSE Participants tickets to Wizards vs. Maverics March 17th @ 7 pm $20 upper $75 lower level tickets.
Magazines:
GovernmentLeader.com
PostNewsWeekTech.com
FCW.com
WashingtonTechnology.com
Accessibility:
BuyAccessible.gov
AccessibilityForum.org
DisabilityInfo.gov
Counter:
A counter would be nice here to see if this is being accessed...
Last modified: Sat Mar 11 18:03:39 EST 2006