sexta-feira, 29 de maio de 2009

FISL is not as it used to be

meta: I started posting in english and I did not loose any readers, thank you guys ;)

Here in Brazil we have a worldwide free software conference called FISL - Forum Internacional de Software Livre (Free Software International Forum, in english). This is the first time I will be able to attend this conference and I am already facing some bad news. It's all about the way lectures were aproved, too may questions surrounding the methods on how topics were choosed (link in pt_br). Some complaining about the lack of technical lectures and other claiming for more political ones. So, here is what I think:
  • Technical stuff we may learn at home freaking out night away at the computer.
  • Nerd events like this are just great to improve your social skills - yes we need this! Meeting new people, new free softwares iniciatives and so on.
But, int he other hand...
  • There is no reson to talk about "Why free software is good" or "Why Python?". Comon guys, we can do better! Let's think a bit ahead.
While we don't find a way to put these things together in equilibrium we could just avoid some topics that had already been presented in the past. This could be a good start :)

4 comentários:

Sérgio (Neo) disse...

Hey man!

Some things I think are worth mentioning:

- I don't think FISL is a "Linux conference" :-P.

- This will be my first time attending the event as well, as you know. So I have to agree, we're starting to see more bad news than we would like... But honestly, I think FISL was, is and probably will always be like this.

- The methods used to select the presentations were really obscure, and it sucks hard...

- Though we can surely learn technical stuff at home, IMHO it would be good to have more presentations contemplating this at FISL.

I think that's it. I'm going there basically because I expect to have great conversations with people *outside* the conference room. I sincerely do not intend to watch more than 10 or 20% of all presentations...

Regards!

Eduardo Otubo disse...

You are right, "free software conference" sounds much better ;) Thanks!

But, if we start to understand the purpose of this event, may be we won't blame it so much as we're doing now. I mean, I think you thought right (as the most of our friends). FISL is a place to make network, meeting interesting people and watch some *few* good lectures. Looking that way don't seem that bad, does it? :)

Forget the lectures, let's get some beer.

[]'s

crncosta disse...

Hi ;-)

After ten long years, I think it's time to rebase FISL. Because Brasil (and the world too) pass from "just another philosophical discussion" where some guys (RMS, Oliva) can evangelize people, to a more technical event.

How to rebase without to remove the Free Software philosophy itself? it is simple: extending FISL with one more day and do equal chance to both technical and philosophical discussion.

And I agree: they need to be more clear about the selection of presentations, it sucks a lot.

I'm not going there. But If you guys can say this to someone from FISL organization team, I appreciate a lot.

[ ]s

Thiago Jung Bauermann disse...

I believe it's time for the FISL organizers to face the obvious truth: the current method of talk selections doesn't work.

It's very pretty-sounding, very democratic and inclusive, but it just doesn't work. Simple as that. Last year's approved talks list was a joke, and this year it's just a bad joke. It's time to reinvent FISL.