After a year and a half of virtual conferences, the fall looks somewhat promising for community collaboration in conference settings — settings that go beyond the postage stamp squares on your screen. And like you, the VMware Open Source Program Office experts dusted off their suitcases and readied their travel skills. CFPs submitted in the spring sprouted, allowing you to find us at a variety of shows this fall. Some in person, some still online — but either way, we’re looking forward to all that’s in front of us.
So, where exactly will you find us? Up first: Open Source Summit, Sept. 27–30, 2021 in Seattle, Washington, followed by KubeCon + Cloud Native Con Oct. 11– 15, 2021 in Los Angeles, California and finally, closing out the fall schedule with All Things Open, Oct. 17–19, 2021 in Raleigh, North Carolina. If you’re attending in person, take note of the time and location of our VMware-led discussions in advance. And don’t forget: all of these shows offer an online option, so you don’t have to leave your favorite coffee cup behind. Just log on and join in!
Open Source Summit (Seattle, Sept. 27 – 30)
This is “THE” show for open source. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, this annual event draws experts from around the world across a broad range of open source topics. Open Source Summit connects the open source ecosystem under one roof. It covers cornerstone open source technologies, includes tracks on business and compliance and dives into the newest technologies and latest trends touching open source, including networking, cloud-native, edge computing, AI and much more. And for the first time, Open Source Summit will also include the newly formed OSPOCon. Yes, we’ll be there too, logging in for our front row seats on Zoom!
Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy
- Navigating Open Source Project Risk
- Getting Over Your Imposter Syndrome to Become a Conference Speaker
Dirk Hohndel, Chief Open Source Officer
John Hawley, Member of Technical Staff, Open Source Engineer
Nisha Kumar, Senior Open Source Engineer
Omer Bensaadon, Product Manager
Steven Rostedt, Staff II, Open Source Engineer
KubeCon + Cloud Native Con (Los Angeles, Oct. 11 – 15)
At KubeCon + Cloud Native Con, 35 presenters—from VMware engineers and subject matter experts—will hit their stride discussing a plethora of open source and cloud native topics. The VMware Open Source Program Office team members Dawn Foster, Joshua Lock and Nisha Kumar bring their expertise around SBOMs, security and community strategy. But don’t limit yourself there. Explore “all the things” KubeCon offers, including workshops, maintainer meetups, the online option as well as the Expo floor.
Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy
Joshua Lock, Open Source Engineer / Software Supply Chain / Secure Release Pipeline
Nisha Kumar, Senior Open Source Engineer Tern Co-maintainer
All Things Open (Raleigh, Oct. 17 – 19)
North Carolina is the next stop on the tour. All Things Open welcomes open source-minded people from all walks of life to its annual conference. This year’s event is a three-day gathering covering topics from community management to software supply chains and everything in between. It’s a great conference for newbies and open source veterans alike. And speaking of veterans, VMware’s experts in open source risk management, project health and data annotation will be on stage. Join in person or online – this is a can’t miss event.
Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy
Jonas Rosland, Head of Open Source Community Management
Tracy P. Holmes, Open Source Engineer
Julia Li, Staff II Engineer
Nigel Brown, Senior Open Source Community Manager
- LGTM: Acronyms feel like the language of the internet. l33tspeak aside, we’ve gotten used to character limitations, abbreviating and quick responses due to FOMO so we write and speak in ways that we assume are common knowledge. This talk makes a case for being more careful in our language and recognizing that just because it looks good to us, things can get lost in translation. Now IANAL (I am not a linguist), I’m a person who’s transitioned into tech and has stories about when these assumptions go wrong — and sometimes very wrong — and some propositions for how we can move forward with a more collective and inclusive vocabulary. As a takeaway from this presentation, I hope you’ll leave with a better appreciation for etymology, some funny stories and serious considerations around how to better communicate.
Steve Liang, Engineering Manager, Data & ML
Virtual conferences, however dreary they might seem to us these days, increase the accessibility of gaining information. Even though we are all excited to attend in-person events and finally get out of our homes, online options enable more people to join in and contribute to the growing open source community. With virtual options at all of these conferences, the open source community lowers the rung of the ladder once again, inviting and enabling more people from more places and more backgrounds to experience collaboration “beyond badges.”
If you’re able to travel, we hope to see you there. And if not, pull up a chair, launch the show platform and join us from the comfort of your home.
