Thanks for the summary, Andrew. Very useful.
John
At 07:24 PM 8/1/01, Andrew po-jung Ho wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>Since Nandalal asked, I will share something about the O'Reilly open
>source convention for
>those who did not attend this year.
>
>Starting with some general observations -
>
>1) This is the first time that I have gone to an
>"open source" convention. However, I have presented at software
>conventions (commercial) and computer science/neuroscience/psychiatry
>meetings (academic) before AND, in comparison, I believe the O'Reilly
>convention promotes more lively and intensive exchange of ideas than most
>meetings that I have been to.
>
>2) In part, it may be because all software and methodologies presented are
>easily accessible and available via download/web-site. Also, people are
>less defensive and more open to discussions/disclosures due to lack of
>proprietary interests in obscuring information (because of pending
>grants/papers or marketing considerations, or they don't think weaknesses
>in their systems/approach can be obscured anyways).
> So, this spirit of openness is never "spoken of", "touted", or
> emphasized - but it is always felt and experienced during sessions and
> interaction between participants. It is truly a remarkable consequence of
> the Richard Stallman vision.
> The scientific method at its finest!
>
>3) People are very friendly, helpful, energetic, AND hard-working! Sure,
>many are young but sessions run to 10/11pm everyday! This, I have not seen
>in any other meeting to-date. Many people even hang-out afterwards
>conversing in the hotel lobby and everywhere. Of course, many people carry
>laptops with wireless networking and work furiously all day long.
>
>Now, some specifics -
>
>1) Linus (Linux) and Stallman (GPL) were not there but ES Raymond
>(Cathedral and Bazaar), Bruce Perens (Open source definition), Larry Walls
>(inventor of Perl) were there.
>
>I saw a movie called "Revolution OS" that documented the free software /
>open source movement. Raymond and Perens were there to discuss the movie
>before and after the viewing.
>
>Linus, Stallman and many others are in the movie. It is a very informative
>documentary and I highly recommend it (too bad it is not yet released to
>the public). It is a good movie to show the spouse so he/she can
>understand why we work so late into the night. :-)
>
>2) Guido van Rossum (inventor of Python) was scheduled to speak but family
>emergency forced him to cancel last minute. Python is strong but Perl
>still has a greater following - which is reflected in the number of Perl
>vs. Python
>sessions at the convention.
>
>3) I attended several SOAP / XML messaging sessions. Specifically, jabber,
>xbeans, and openadaptor are very promising for use in the OIO system.
>
>4) Jboss is promising for OIO on Java. Enough said. :-)
>
>5) PostgreSQL is strong but needs replication capabilities. MySQL has
>recently achieved that milestone and could catch up in other ways (e.g.
>transaction ACID). The PostgreSQL and MySQL teams are on good terms but
>are engaged in friendly (but intense) competition.
>
>I had a chance to talk to Jan Wieck (senior software engineer at
>GreatBridge) who is researching ways to implement replication for
>PostgreSQL. He is a very sharp guy and has a few good ideas on how to do it.
>
>Now that I have learned GnuMed is also using PostgreSQL (and Python too),
>the future of
>PostgreSQL is even more important to the open
>health community.
>
>6) I met Jim Fulton, Tres Seaver, and Amos from the Zope team (was Digital
>Creations, now Zope Corporation). I had a chance to learn Zope's Content
>Management Framework (=CMF, Tres Seaver) and new Page Template language
>(Jim Fulton).
>They, in turn, heard me talk about the OIO
>system and how it is synergistic with the CMF. :-)
>
>7) The OIO session went very well (except 10
>minutes overtime). The demo ran on the TxOutcome.Org's public access
>server (via the Internet) and did not break :-).
>
>People were impressed with the XML-mediated plug-and-play forms and
>integrated data analysis capabilities. I also demo'ed the brand new
>"Local Text" feature to show how one could track
>"Accounts" rather than "Patients" by modifying
>the local text.
>
>People asked questions about OIO's implementation strategy. Many commented
>that they will download it and take a closer look.
>One person came up afterwards and told me that the OIO system is the
>coolest "app" that he has seen! It was very gratifying to share
>one's work with peers and receive positive remarks.
>
>In Summary -
>
>Software research is still in its infancy and the "free" and open source
>way does make collaboration much easier (even in person).
>
>There are lots of active/energetic projects and participants in the "free"
>software community.
>In many ways, I see this as the future of software research and development.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Andrew
>---
>Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
>OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
>TxOutcome.Org (hosting OIO Library #1)
>Assistant Clinical Professor
>Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
>University of California, Los Angeles
>
>On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 18:25:48 nandalal wrote:
> >Hi Andrew,
> >When you return or while you are there give us a feedback on the
> >conference, on anything interesting happening and the people you meet. Did
> >you meet Linus?
> >Nandalal
>
>
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