Linux/FOSS cons?

[Ben Scott]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Jeff Kinz <jkinz at kinz.org> wrote:
> He is looking for any that are organized more along the lines of a
> Science Fiction con.  (created by and put on by the fans themselves)
>
> Anyone heard of such a thing?

  Hmmm.... Linux users... in a group... meeting together... where
would we ever find such a thing?  ;-)

  There are also more "vertical" gatherings -- if we define
traditionally geographically-focused LUGs as "horizontal", these focus
instead on a particular program or problem-space.  Many software
efforts put together their own meatspace events, usually something
like a day-long or week-long hacking effort.  The kernel developers
put together a yearly summit, for example (it's invitation only,
though).  The high-bandwidth provided by face-to-face communication
often yields significant benefits.  And if you think about it, two
hackers meeting together over coffee to collaborate on code is just
another form of the same thing.  It's just a question of scale.

  Finally, I might advise your nephew to not dismiss everything that's
got connections to business.  Sure, a lot of them are focused on the
commercial business stuff, but not all of them.  I've heard good
things about FUDcon, for example, and that's even fairly close-by.

-- Ben