
There are two
Tokyo Linux User Group
events in June -- a
technical
meeting followed by a nomikai on Saturday June 11th (
that's
tomorrow), and then a separate
nomikai on Friday June
25th. So, if you are into FOSS and want to meet some developers
from the international community in Tokyo then come on by.
For the last couple of years we've been holding
these Linux
(and OpenSolaris) meetings at the
Sun office in
Yoga,
which is just outside Tokyo. Just recently, though, Sun became Oracle
in Japan, and we'll probably be moving the meeting location for the
events to the
Oracle
building in Aoyama, which is where we held
BarCamp
recently. There is much more room in the Aoyama facility, and the
location is better for the majority of the community as well. I'm not
sure when we'll make this change, so watch for updated details
in the next month or so.
For now, though, we are at
Yoga.
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I attended the Oracle IOUC conference call last night, and I'm trying
to ask some questions and get some conversation going on list. See my
comments throughout the growing thread on
advocacy-discuss and osug-leaders.
Personally, I am not on the UG team at Oracle. I'm still on the
original OpenSolaris team on which I started in 2004. So, I don't have
any inside information about any of these new programs. I'm just trying
to help facilitate any transitions going on. Also, I've been directly
involved in the OSUGs since the beginning of OpenSolaris, and I'm proud
of what we've accomplished over the years -- when many people out there
said we couldn't do it. But change is clearly here. And I
strongly encourage OpenSolaris community members to fully engage in
these conference calls verbally and give feedback in writing on list. I
subscribed the
Oracle UG team mailing list to advocacy-discuss and osug-leaders, so
posting
there is fine. The Oracle team will see your comments.
And they are
directly asking for your comments. The time is
now,
guys. There is now
a direct connection for the OpenSolaris User Groups to Oracle. Take it.
See this as an opportunity to build on what we've done before, and
perhaps to move in a new direction. Get in there and pitch your stuff.
That's the only way we can educate Oracle about what we've done, and
it's the only way we can learn about what they do and how that might
benefit us. Jeb Dasteel from Oracle was clear on the call that this
program will evolve over the next couple of quarters, so the
opportunity to engage Oracle about user group issues is here.
Right now.
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We just posted the
schedule for BarCamp Tokyo 2010:
- 09:00-10:00 Arrival and Breakfast
- 10:00-10:15 Welcome/Orientation
- 10:15-10:30 Sign-up for Morning Sessions
- 10:30-12:00 Morning Sessions
- 12:00-13:00 Lunch & Sign-up for Afternoon Sessions
- 13:00-18:00 Afternoon Sessions
- 18:00-19:00 Dinner & Sign-up for Evening Sessions
- 19:00-21:00 Evening Sessions
- 21:00-21:00 Close
These are just the time slots, of course. All of the actual session
topics will be filled in on yellow stickies and moved around on white
boards (very high tech) at the event in real time. So things will be
pretty flexible. Anyway, if you booked to go to BarCamp, come by at 9
a.m. Stay all day. And all night.
Much more about BarCamp in Tokyo and Yokohama here.
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For those attending
BarCamp Tokyo 2010
this Saturday the 29th, I look forward to seeing you soon! If you've
never been to a BarCamp, here are two examples of what these events
look like from right here in Japan:
BarCamp
Tokyo 2009 |
BarCamp
Yokohama 2009. And there is some basic information about BarCamp
here and
here.
BarCamp Tokyo 2010 is just four days away, and it should be a really
great day. We'll have some nice donations from some sponsors (multiple
servings of food, shirts, stickers, pens, software, and the building
itself, of course).
But as
Karamoon said in his opening speech last year, BarCamps are basically living human wikis.
People make BarCamps.
People sharing interesting content and experiences openly and actively
in many-to-many relationships. It's all about direct participation.
That's the key. There are no special speakers standing on elevated
stages lecturing at people safely separated from passive and silent
audiences. Everyone engages. Everyone contributes. Everyone teaches.
Everyone learns. And everyone picks up the trash.
So, start thinking about what you will present. Or what conversation
you'll lead. Or what idea you'll plant. Or what project you'll start
and with who. Formal, informal, technical, non-technical, software,
hardware, community, panel discussions, debates, photography, artwork,
evangelism, marketing, hacking, leadership, activism,
internationalization, science, innovation, development techniques,
environmental issues, solutions to the world's most difficult problems,
health and safety challenges, economics, etc. What ties all these
things together is a spirit of
doing and
building and
sharing and that's what community is all about.
We have plenty of time and space for everyone to present something. We
have multiple rooms for short 15-minute talks, and a larger room for
longer 1/2 hour sessions (or even longer events if needed since the
schedule is made up on the spot and must remain flexible). And if you
don't actually deliver a talk, that's ok, but please participate by
engaging in discussions with speakers and others and in hallway
conversations or over lunch or dinner or at the bar afterwards. You
could very well find yourself directly involved in a new life changing
experience just by showing up and discovering a new project to which
you can contribute. Your input is valuable. Your voice matters. The
world changes by people doing things at the grassroots level, not from
the top down. This is where the ideas come from. This is where the
real value is generated. Down here where people
do things.
The facilities we'll have for the day are seriously beautiful. Bring
your cameras. The views of Tokyo are great. Bring your laptops. We'll
have free wireless. Bring your ideas and keep your mind wide open.
Also, keep
checking the wiki this week for more information and schedules.
NOTE: If your name is listed on the wiki that means
you are committed to come. If you can't make it, please remove your name so you give someone else the opportunity to participate from the waiting list.
We are getting close ...
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Here
are some images from the
Tokyo Make
Meeting 05 2010 this weekend at the Tokyo Institution of Technology
in Okayama. I saw a bunch of guys from the OpenSolaris and Linux
communities and also the crew from Tokyo Hackerspace. Great fun. Lot of
interesting hacking going on in Tokyo.
See Make on Twitter.
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Oracle today posted mail to two OpenSolaris mailing lists --
advocacy-discuss and osug-leaders
-- outlining details for the new International Oracle User Group
Community. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle more than doubled the
number of user groups in the program so the total is now 900. The
program has multiple models as well. More details will follow in a
series of open conference calls. See the link above for con-call
numbers, dates, and times.
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Last nite I went to the OpenSolaris Night Seminar in Tokyo, which is conveniently held just a few floors above my office.
Project Crossbow was the main topic of conversation from engineers Mami
Sueki and Junko Yoshida, who also received certificates as new
OpenSolaris Evangelists (yes, you have to earn your way around here) from Akira Ohsone and Shoji Haraguchi. The talks were streamed live and Shoji recorded everything so check his YouTube page in a few days for the video.
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