Concern

This was a crazy, fun week. Finally getting the opportunity to meet people I’ve known only online was great, and I’ll echo what Mark said, that it felt a whole lot like hanging out with old friends, even though I really only met them for the first time.

I’m not quite sure what the point of the whole thing is, though. I mean, I get it that a lot of the conference isn’t sitting in uncomfortable chairs, listening to dry technical talks (some of which were just over-the-top stupid), and that it’s more making connections and meeting people, though I fail to see how all these nervous computer geeks can really make much in the way of connections — maybe that part is for the marketing dweebs.

The sessions from the open-source track were great, though. Eben Moglen gave shared some great insights (in one official session, and one informal talk that I was fortunate enough to be able to sneak into) into free software, licensing, and where it’s going w/r/t proprietary vendors. Simon Phipps’ talk on free software and Sun’s new strategy was great, though I personally needed no convincing of anything, other than the genuineness of Sun’s intentions. The panel with Geir, Mark Reinhold, Tom Marble, Dalibor, Tom and Mark was a good exploration of where the community may be going next.

I still have to maintain the general disdain I have for the unwashed masses of Java “developers” that exist out there. Free software was a small sideshow in this giant Java circus, with the majority of the people flocking to silly “technologies” that happen to be the popular buzzword of the day, but we can’t expect many more than the top hackers to be interested in open, solid platform foundations.

The first day, during the keynote, I had an idea for a business venture. You can email me if you want an inbox full of this crazy idea.

Will I do it again next year? If I have someone to pay for it, sure. Otherwise, I might just show up for fun and parties after.