The Open Source Report

Announcements

Not strictly Open Source, but I’m hoping that we’ll get lots of support and interest from the Open Source community.

Anne-Marie and I would like to invite each and every Melbourne geek woman to join us for the first Melbourne Geek Girl Dinner on Thursday, 29 May.
We’ll be meeting at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Dinner is at 100 Mile Cafe, Level 3, Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe Street.
This is the first dinner for the Melbourne Group, so we’re calling it 0.1 - a planning dinner. The usual format will be an informal dinner with a technical talk by one of the members or guests. The first dinner won’t have a speaker, we’ll be brainstorming and planning what we’d like to do with the Melbourne group - and most importantly creating a list of the technical women who are based in Melbourne who we’d like to invite to speak at future dinners.
If you’d like to attend, please RSVP to sarah.stokely AT gmail.com by Thursday 22 May. Feel free to contact me with any question you might have too.
Oh and by the way - guys who are interested in coming along are welcome to do so if they have a female geek to escort them.
The group’s blog is here, and if you’re on Facebook, join the group!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Events

I spoke with Senator Kate Lundy this morning ahead of the “Foundations of Open” event which she is hosting in Canberra on Thursday. In the leadup to the national 2020 summit, Senators and Members were encouraged to host their own local summits - and Senator Lundy elected to focus on Open Source technology. I was intrigued and asked her why.

“I had a look at all the big public policy issues that I think have the most capability to change the way we do things for the better, and Open Source was the standout for me. I’m involved in a lot of different policy areas ranging from sport and health promotion, right through to things relating to IT, but this one has the greatest potential because it’s a different way of solving problems, and it’s a way that I think can help organisations capitalise on corporate knowledge and share that knowledge”

The program for the event is online here. The day will look not only how Open Source technology is being used in government and private sector, but also at open standards and free access to information.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Community

Not strictly Open Source, but I’m hoping that we’ll get lots of support and interest from the Open Source community.

Anne-Marie and I would like to invite each and every Melbourne geek woman to join us for the first Melbourne Geek Girl Dinner on Thursday, 29 May.
We’ll be meeting at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Dinner is at 100 Mile Cafe, Level 3, Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe Street.
This is the first dinner for the Melbourne Group, so we’re calling it 0.1 - a planning dinner. The usual format will be an informal dinner with a technical talk by one of the members or guests. The first dinner won’t have a speaker, we’ll be brainstorming and planning what we’d like to do with the Melbourne group - and most importantly creating a list of the technical women who are based in Melbourne who we’d like to invite to speak at future dinners.
If you’d like to attend, please RSVP to sarah.stokely AT gmail.com by Thursday 22 May. Feel free to contact me with any question you might have too.
Oh and by the way - guys who are interested in coming along are welcome to do so if they have a female geek to escort them.
The group’s blog is here, and if you’re on Facebook, join the group!

Popularity: 14% [?]

News Analysis

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Senator Kate Lundy’s pre-2020 Summit event, the Foundations of Open, last week. I was the only media representative there, and it was a fascinating event.

The day covered a range of topics about open source tech and its potential for the government and community/not-for-profit sectors, as well as open standards and open access to information. I couldn’t possibly hope to cover everything that was discussed but I hope to tease out a few more stories from the event over the coming weeks. Here’s the first story, anyway. It was published at ITNews:

Open Source the biggest potential game changer for government: Lundy

Senator Lundy asked all participants to create submissions to be taken to the PM’s 2020 Summit which is happening at the end of this month. It would be great to see more systemic use of open source tech - and particularly its ethos of sharing information and tech solutions - across government.

Popularity: 25% [?]