Czajkowski

I meant to get this out sooner but it’s been a manic week preceded by a crazy fun packed enjoyable weekend.  Firstly a big thank you to all those who came ! There were some slight hiccups with airlines and equipment but it all worked out well in the end.

This was the 4th OSSBarcamp to be run in Dublin by members of the Ubuntu Ireland LoCo.  This time we moved it to UCD – University College Dublin thanks to the  students in the Computer Society UCD Netsoc we secured their help in getting their department to open up over the weekend for us.  We like to run the events during the weekend so as many people as possible can attend.

We were a bit adventuress this time and went for 2 days and in hindsight we should have stuck to one day as I’m not sure the Irish community is ready just yet to give up an entire weekend just yet Over the two days there were a lot of talks on covering a multitude of different talks which was great to see happening and very interesting to see happening in our own back yard. We had some great talks from the DPL Stefano Zacchiroli who is a pleasure to talk to over a few pints and brought along some members of the Debian community who are over here in Ireland working.  He has some great plans for the future and if you can nab him do to chat!

We had talks on Make mine a MeeGo! Develop great apps everywhere, using Ruby on MeeGo, Git Awesome – Better OSSDevelopment Using Git, Using Ubuntu in an Average Home, My First Patch and Dexy plus lots more.  It was great to see speakers who I’d never met before sign up and come along and give really interesting talks. I thought it was great to see how people reacted to topics and discussions took place after the event in the pub for many hours over drinks and food  A special thank you has to go to Brian O’Donovan who took on the task of organsing talks to be video and a just over  a week later he has them all up! THANK YOU! We have our own video channel.

We were fortunate to have some great sponsors this year who made it possible to have this event and I’m always contentious of the fact I don’t like to ask the same sponsors over and over as it’s a small country and they could be promoting over events , but Enterprise Ireland coming on board to promote an open source event was a big kudos as I’d seen them sponsoring so many events in the past but none were OSS friendly.  A big thank you to David Scanlon who made this happen! Having Blacknight Solutions as a sponsor is great as they are Irish and do try and support OSS events and sometimes their staff come to events and give talks so it’s nice to see Irish companies supporting and promoting Irish events.

The Linux Fund came on board this year and I had the pleasure of talking to Michael Dexter which I never would have had in the past, it’s another reason why I help run these events getting to meet and talk to people I wouldn’t normally over here in Ireland.  People in the USA don’t seem to realise how lucky they are, surrounded by many OSS community advocates and developers on your front door steps it’s frustrating to others across the pond. Microsoft came on board supporting the event and sending a speaker who was engaging and eager to talk about his Coapp Project which is on launchpad , Garrett Serack.  I was also fortunate thanks to Microsoft to attend a press conference regarding open source Microsoft and community here in Ireland with Garrett.

Thanks to the folks on the Ubuntu UK podcast who came over also ye rock!

There will be more OSSBarcamps happening in the future, but we are really looking to move them out of Dublin to move things around, and also with me moving to the UK… we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thank you to all those who helped, rallied around and jumped in to help! That’s what being in a community is all about!

What started off as a one time event has surely grown.  This is my 4th OSSBarcamp I’ve run in two years. I decided to run this event as quite frankly there was diddly squat in open source events happening over here and I was spending a small fortune between time off work ,travel and and bits and pieces.  I thought if I got 70 attendees I would be very happy and this was my target…………130 people turned up. As you can imagine I was more than a bit surprised.  I was asked to run another and then well another, the rest is history.

This event is running with the help of UCD Netsoc, the college computer society who have very kindly sorted out the venue for me, which is half the battle.  It’s going to take place this time over 2 days, Saturday and Sunday 25/26th September.  We have a lovely new site done up thanks to James Forbairt , the guy is a saint! We have some new sponsors this time also, Enterpise Ireland are coming on board to help us with getting some new speakers over to talk, such as Stefano Zacchiroli and Daviey Walker, Alan Pope and Tony Whitemore of the UUPC fame who will be doing a live show! Linux Fund is also a sponsor this year. There will be lots of things going over the weekend, so do come along and sign up take part, either give a short talk, a demo or a presentation it’s entirely up to you.

OSSBarcamp is what you make it. It’s not just about Ubuntu, it’s about all forms of open source, if it’s about development, programming or other distros we want to hear about it, everyone is welcome to take part. There will also be an after party on the Saturday at the Landsdown hotel.

I had a very boring lunch hour today, made yummy scrambled eggs with ham on toast and a large mug of tea.  Now what, not in the mood to go out side as I may not come back in it’s so sunny out there.

I was curious on the Yahoo V Google search so decided to have some fun at lunch, though as one of the charming folks in the #ubuntu-uk channel “If that’s what you call fun … sheesh”. Anyway I chose 4 things very simply Laura Czajkowski, Ossbarcamp and something not related to me but I enjoy Ubuntu UK Podcast and finally I asked in channel for a topic any topic, “Pubs” was the final one. The reason behind the first two topics was I was curious what the results would be and had an idea already what Google would return.  The final two were just random ones that I could compare the results from.

I’m a little shocked over the disparaging results returned.  At present I run Karmic, and once I get a chance will upgrade my laptop run lucid and  then switch to Yahoo for a while as long as results improve as at present the results aren’t great for yahoo compared to Google.

Laura Czajkowski Google Results

Laura Czajkowski Yahoo Results

Ossbarcamp Google Results

Ossbarcamp Yahoo Results

UUPC Google Results

UUPC Yahoo Results

Pubs  Google Results

Pubs Yahoo Results

All of the results in a larger form are HERE

I’m not entirely sure where the last 12 months have gone.  I drove over 5.5 hours yesterday back to Dublin, from spending Christmas with my family in Castleconnell, Co. Limerick.  I did the drive two years to the day moving myself to Dublin for my current job.

When I was leaving the mothership was asking when I’d next be home, and already looking at my google calender I can see an opening in February, and if not then March for Mothers day. That’s 3 months into 2010 or a quarter the way through. Which made me think where had 2009 gone.

January 2009 was a quiet month, I don’t think anyone really is in the mood to do things, everyone is exhausted after Christmas and waiting on pay day! I did get the brain fart of having my own event over in Ireland for OSS events as I  was tired of always having to travel to events, and wanted one in my own back yard, and so I created OSSBarcamp.

February kicked started nicely by waiting for 6 hours for a flight to FOSDEM due to 2 inches of snow in Dublin airport, the inability to cater for a bit of snow is  baffling.  It was my first year at FOSDEM, and it was well worth the wait, I’d tried to go in the past and always other events clashed.  I’ve booked to go again this year and looking forward to seeing more of Brussels this time. Towards the end of February, Ubuntu-ie had its first big event, taking part in Global Bug jam.  We had the help of DIT sponsoring us a venue and had students come along and learn how to take part in logging bugs and triaging them. Good day out followed by a few quiet beers.

March swiftly arrived and my brain fart of OSSBarcamp turned into a reality, turns out if you organise it, set a date, book a venue folks do come! Great day was had and lots of good discussion took place.  As with organising any event, it takes it toll on you and you clearly need a holiday ( any excuse really) and I went over to London for a few days as a holiday.  Great break away and saw London again for the first time in a long time and did all the touristy things and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

April saw Jaunty release party and the Irish LoCo in full swing burning cds in the pub and handing them out to people, having a pub quiz and meeting more people off IRC land and over a drink having a chat.  I should add that once a month we all meet up in Dublin for a face to face meet up, but we did have over 20 people turn up for the Jaunty party, dinner and drinks, and a late night.

May, Kick starting the month was our first Geeknic – a picnic for Geeks. Knowing Ireland you cannot always guarantee the sunshine, but we had a nice day out and people brought along their kids and it was nice to do something different. I sponsored myself to attend UDS Karmic in Barcelona, but before I got here I went via Edinburgh for the weekend to see the Heineken Cup final, at least an Irish team won!  I’d bought the tickets Months in advance!

I’d never been to a UDS before, and it was fantastic, to quote ubuntu folks  it was AWESOME! Getting to meet people you’ve spent time talking online about the work you’re involved in, to work on projects face to face for a week and come up with ideas, solutions and a way forward is remarkable. I got to meet some great folks and I’m really glad I went.

June saw the first MySQL meet up in Dublin, not sure more were planned but it was nice and great to see more groups starting to have more meet ups and discussions take place.  I came back so energised from UDS I went for my membership which I’d been putting off as was nervous.

July moved house, bloody stressful!  Summer months tend be filled with weekend trips home and to Lahinch and visiting mates.  Ubuntu Ireland became a recognised LoCo in July, so we were rather happy as a team!

August, we had our second Geeknic in Farmleigh Park followed by drinks and meeting some of the people behind Ubuntu who were in Dublin for a sprint!  My mate TC came home from Canada for 2 weeks so was back and forth to Lahinch and Limerick. Busy month.

September, I ran another OSSBarcamp, and 3 of the presenters from Ubuntu-uk Podcast, Laura, Tony and Daviey came over!  It was a great way to celebrate Software Freedom day and meet more people.  Pretty sure there will be more of these to come. I just need to work on a venue.

October I turned 30 and fled to Canada for 12 days to see what all the fuss was about.  I had an amazing time and celebrated my birthday in multiple timezones to keep everyone happy.  Ubuntu Ireland had another Bug jam day and release party, Karmic Koala  this month so all around a busy month.

November, I got sponsored to attend UDS Lucid which took place in Dallas, USA.  It was a fun packed week, with working on Ubuntu and night time events, from firing range, ice skating, and meals out to having an afternoon in the A&E Department at local hospital.  Y’all come back now ye’ here!

December is the month, of Christmas meet ups, and working crazy to get it all done so I could take a few days off, and catch up on doing diddly squat.  I did just that!

Cripes, I did a lot, and now I know where the time went. 2009 was amazing fun packed and entertaining, I hope 2010 is just as good!  Looking forward to working on more cool projects and helping where I can.

Thanks to all those who came on Saturday 19th September in Dublin to mark Software Freedom Day. I ran another OSSBarcamp and once again was amazed but the level of support from the Open Source community here in Ireland, and not only that but in Ubuntu community. Members of the UUPC gang came along, Tony, Laura and Daviey, but also Paolo from Ubuntu Italy came over!

There were a lot of diverse talks and something to suit everyone. I like to have everyone in one room for the first talk, it’s the first time for some people to attend these events and a way to meet people you’ve not seen, Jan Lehnardt— Peer to peer applications with Apache CouchDB was the first to step up and a brave task at 9:30am on a Saturday morning but there was an audience for him there.

CouchDB talk

We had talks on Gnome 3.0, Easy parallel programming with ipython,  Growing Eucalyptus with Ubuntu, Automated Documentation, Landscape Server, easy management of lots of Ubuntu boxes and many many more.  The day went well and we’d over 120 people at the event so thank you all for coming and making it a great day! We ended up having a BBQ and a few drinks!  But this wasn’t till the TOG folks came and entertained us.  I’ll be hopefully running two more Ossbarcamps in 2010 around Ireland.

TOG – OSSBarcamp September 19th DIT