This past weekend I rode down to the Southeast Linuxfest in Clemson South Carolina. I tagged along with Freenode reps Jonathan Simpson and Crissi, plus Andrew from the Pennsylvania Ubuntu LoCo team. I was able to take Friday off from work for the drive down to Charlotte, NC where we were staying, the drive down was long (ended up being about 12 hours) but Jonathan and Crissi had a powerstrip in the car so our laptops and cellphones could stay charged for the drive! Wahoo, G1 with IRC for the whole ride down! Plus they kept us somewhat occupied with lively discussion and proof-reading some of the freenode materials that would be available for the crowds.
Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head down to the Linuxfest in Clemson. On the way down there was a giant peach:
But other than that the drive down was uneventful. We arrived around 10AM and got the Freenode booth set up.
As for me, I met up with several people I’d only known online until then, caught up with some other Ubuntu people I’d met various places, and at 11 I skipped over to Amber Graner‘s “Why not You?” session where we talked about talking to people about F/OSS involvement, which was a great session and I was finally able to meet Beth Lynn Eicher who I’d only vaguely known until then through her involvement with WPLUG, and Jimmy Harris, a Florida LoCo team member who I’ve worked with on the Ubuntu USTeams project (so Jimmy, going to mentor for us? Pleeeease? :)). The only talk I ended up going to all day was Pete Graner’s Ubuntu Kernel talk after lunch, which was a very interesting and informative talk, after which I headed over to Amber’s second session of the day on Ubuntu LoCo teams. Again it was a great discussion with a lot of valuable insight to team planning offered by Jimmy, Amber, Mackenzie Morgan and others.
I’d say more, but Mackenzie and Amber have both written great entries that cover much of what I wanted to say. Most notably is something Mackenzie pointed out – the percentage of women attending! I don’t know how many actually were there percentage-wise, but there were noticeably more than other Linux events than I’ve attended, it was very encouraging. But here are their posts:
Mackenzie Morgan: Southeast Linuxfest Post
Amber Graner: My First Linux Fest: SELF (Southeast Linux Fest)
The much of the rest of the event I spent talking with people informally, which is when I bumped into Ian Geiser, a Philadelphia local who I’d for some reason lost touch with and hadn’t seen in how long? Over 5 years? He was speaking on KDE at the fest and tending the KDE booth! I’ve hopefully successfully convinced him to come out to PLUG meetings again …or at least do some social stuff!
After the event wrapped up we headed over to Rock Hoppers Restaurant & Bar for the SELF after party! Ian was nice enough to give Andrew and me a ride over there while Jonathan and Crissi parted ways with us and headed out to dinner. We sort of just chilled out in the back and had dinner and chatted for a couple hours until it was time to skip off for the evening (fairly early, but we did have to get back to Charlotte before it got too late). Good times :)
Sunday morning we slept in a little bit and then started the long drive home. Huge thanks to Jonathan for driving all day :) We got back in the Philadelphia area around 9PM, snagged some burgers at Red Robin and then headed home.
Friday, Jun 19th, 2009 at 17:54
Apparently, I have very shiny shoes!
Friday, Jun 19th, 2009 at 19:26
Wicked cool work! :-)
Also, a giant peach, winner! :-)
Saturday, Jun 20th, 2009 at 8:47
I don’t know… that first picture with the giant peach, sitting as it is atop of “Fatz (cafe?) just seems so unappealing… I don’t think I would like to eat there, as nice as it may have been inside, outside….just ugh….
Also Pleia, what IS happening in that picture of you standing nest to CrissiD, you look petrified…
Wednesday, Jun 24th, 2009 at 0:27
Ok, I give. I will mentor for you :)
SELF was great fun. Overall I enjoyed the BOF sessions the most. I wish that we all could get together like that more often. The knowledge and detail that we shared as LoCo teams was very engaging.
It was an honour to have finally met you in person Lyz.