Open at Adobe

I'm not sure there is *one* conference as in the old days--which isn't quite the same as not mattering. There seemed a lot of interest and energy at OSCON last year. Linuxworld, on the other hand, seems clearly in decline if not quite freewall (yet). It seems the shows where developers are really engaged are the interesting ones.

So, if you could only attend one show, would it be OSCON?

Emphasis on "to you"; to me, GOSCON is a very important conference because it brings the bench strength of large government, the challenges of small government, and the vendor community to the table. GOSCON is a serious conference which has grown to be a catalyst for government IT management and industry to go about building an IT Ecosystem to support the growing move to OSS adoption in government. Some extraordinary networking happens there with people who might not otherwise meet and find they are working solving the same problems and just don't know it. And although some may argue that "innovation in government" sounds like an oxymoron, you'd be impressed with the resourceful and creative ways some agencies have exploited OSS applications or development models.

It's important to me because I think governments can benefit, not just in sharing application code, but also business processes, best practices, knowledge base, training and so forth in the process of "co-developing" some of the larger vertical applications. This will require partnering with industry and academia in new ways, and GOSCON is the place these conversations start and accelerate.

Thanks for asking.

Deb Bryant, public sector communities manager, and GOSCON director, Open Source Lab (OSL)

Agreed. Adobe had two speaking slots this year, at the last minute, and we expect to have even more presence next year.