[tlug] Open Source Conference 2008 "report"

[Jesse Casman <jesse@example.com>]

Hey all,

Craig Oda and I got to the Open Source Conference 2008 in Okubo last weekend.  I though I'd drop a quick note to TLUG on my impressions.

Basically, I was totally blown away at how many interesting projects and little companies are sprouting up.  I'd guess several hundred people in attendance, something like 50 companies and projects.  The event was held in a 7 story building that houses the Japan Electronics Technical School (日本電子専門学校）which had a smaller feel to it than maybe most "normal" shows.  Lots of great tables, everything from OSASK OS (a home-grown OS, only 76k total) and Koedo Linux Users Group (with the most professional looking LUG quarterly magazine I've ever seen) to the bigger boring guys (NRI doing open source consulting called OpenStadia) and many others.  

I talked with Asial for a while.  Young, smart supplier of PHP tools and services aiming for Asia.  They seem like they're really in the Silicon Valley mode, building up a company quickly, on their own.

NTT Data Hineos is an interesting open source project that appears to be like Groundwork's Nagios (IT Management software) with some additional features.  

SecureVM is an interesting open source virtual machine project that is designed for Japanese government use with involvement from the Japan National Information Security Center (NISC).   It is going to be open sourced this month as a work in progress.  The project involves Tsukuba University, Intel, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio University, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Toyota National College of Technology, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, NTT, NTT DATA, and SoftEther.  

Pretty exciting energy, all in all.  Two weeks ago I wouldn't have thought so, but I'm wondering now if open source might be the catalyst, allowing Japan to get in the software game in a much bigger way.  We'll see!

Jesse

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Jesse Casman, Page One PR

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