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I went to OSCON last week. It was even better than ever. There were lots of memorable moments for me this year. I'll try to capture them here, stream of consciousness.
*** Note *** this is a work in progress!
One of the big topics was cloud computing. Openstack was mentioned in many conversations. JQuery, Neo4J, extracting data from social networks, HTML5, Arduino hacks, an informative and funny keynote by Mayor of Portland Sam Adams.
I went to a presentation by Ward Cunningham on wikis and had lunch with him and GatorLUG's Clinton Collins (on the left).
Mark Shuttleworth and I talked for a few minutes. I asked Mark whether he had anything to add to my upcoming JCertif presentation in the Republic of Congo and he said "Tell them Africans will see great changes in their lifetimes and they can be a part of it!"
...please check back as I continue this blog post. Thanks!
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Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.
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