open source

& so nancy arrived, which was very exciting - we hadn't seen each other since isea in belfast, where we had many an adventure ... but that's another story! (nancy was also in haiti a couple of weeks ago at the ghetto biennale, so last week's earthquake has had a direct personal impact - more here and sign the petition to drop haiti's debt).

after lunch, the audience has shrunk by almost half, & it seems to be mostly men who have left. so we now have something like 90% female audience, & the talks are also becoming more overtly feminist.

first up after lunch was lana brindley, who gave an entertaining talk about the importance of good technical documentation. she was followed by angie byron, who works with drupal & spoke about getting involved as an open source contributor. (i had been feeling slightly conspicuous having a mac at a linux conference, so i was a bit relieved to see angie also has a mac - & she doesn't even cover her apple sign ... !!!)

i'm at the haeksen miniconf at the australian linux conference, being conveniently held this year in wellington, where i conveniently happen to be at the moment. everyone has rushed outside at lunchtime, because there's the first sunshine in about a week of appallingly bad weather. but in the foyer there are quite a few people lurking around, either chatting in groups or hunched over laptops attached to the powerboards that have been generously placed around. there's an open wireless network which doesn't seem to need any log-in, despite signs displaying the password, and a cafenet token in the conference bag. but an open network is what there should be, at an open source conference.