Open Tech 2009

The excellent Open Tech conference took place yesterday and, once again, it proved itself to be one of the very best events in the calendar. The high quality of speakers and intelligent, engaged attendees made it feel more like a Barcamp than a commercial venture (although clearly at £5 entry fee making money was not the main objective).

Which is why I was more nervous than usual when preparing my talk, ‘How to build developer communities’. I’d bounced quite a few of my ideas off the Osmosoft crew when I worked there, so was confident that they held water, but holding opinions and communicating them to a naturally skeptical crowd are two very different things. And being up against Bill Thompson on the other stage meant I had to make it worth the audience’s while.

In any event, it seemed to go OK and hopefully I escaped without too much egg on my face. If you’re interested you can see the slides on Slideshare.

Highlights from the event included getting to know Jeni Tennison and other OPSI folks; chatting with MP Tom Morris (who went to University with my missus). And of course Paul Downey gave a memorable talk, this time on the creation of standards. I filmed it and I put it on Vimeo. I did the same with some photos.

So, thanks very much UKUUG for putting together another brill event. Good work folks!