Slashdot Mirror
LinuxFest 2000 : More Penguins Than People
"I thought the show could have been a lot more successful," said Christofer Bell, a Sprint Systems Programmer, Kansas Unix/Linux Users Association member and LinuxFest attendee, "I think the people that did attend had a good experience for the most part. However, there were very few people there, far fewer than I would have hoped for an event of this type. When I walk into a Linux showcase event and [Eric Raymond] is giving a speech and only a third of the seats are filled, I am embarrassed, not only for Linux, but for my LUG, whose name, however tenuously, is connected to the event."
In talking to the local LUG after the fact, I find that the two most-used words in describing the show are "disappointed" and "embarrassing." The biggest fear of the local Linux community in the Kansas City area was that people would come to the show, see the poor attendance and draw the conclusion that Linux is dead. The greater Kansas City area is not only one of the most conservative areas in the country, it's also an area where proprietary software reigns supreme in both server and workstation markets. A lot of the local LUG members were looking forward to LinuxFest as a large, well-funded tradeshow to give their favorite alternative OS some equal time.
Dario Landazuri, Senior in Computer Engineering at the University of Kansas, talks about his experience at the show. "I was very disappointed. I'd been hearing rumblings about possible problems with this event, about how it might go badly. Unfortunately, those predictions came true. I was astounded to hear of Red Hat and Informix pulling out within the first two days. I volunteered to work with LinuxMall one of the days, as it gave me a chance to attend for free. I worked Friday for LinuxMall, and was appalled to see every remaining exhibitor pack up by 5 p.m. Friday. People began to show up around 5, and walked around asking where everything was. It was kind of embarrassing to have to explain what had happened."
Still, hope abounds. Most everyone I've spoken to still believes that the greater Kansas City area is a fantastic place for a Linux trade show, as long as it's done right with support from the community and decent marketing.
Derek Moeller, Linux enthusiast and attendee, shares his thoughts: "The worst effect that was seen during the show was a harsh underpopulation. Unfortunately, many people will see this effect without seeing the cause, and will mistakenly assume that any Linux show in Kansas City will demonstrate similar effects. We believe this to be incorrect, as the cause of the effect seen here was mismanagement to the extreme. A decently managed show in KC would be much more successful. In this case, the show was underattended to the point that Informix left after the first day, and they had full right to. Red Hat left as well, and although it was mainly pinned on hardware problems, they certainly had little reason to spend a lot of money on overcoming those problems. As a result of all this, vendor apathy was prevalent. Shall we say, the convention was not filled with smiles. Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. In that respect, we can use this show to send a message to other hopeful LUGs out there. Not all shows are good shows. The existence of a bad show is worse than no show. When a show is planned to occur, always look into the past of the maintainers. Look at the structure with which the show is being managed. Compare it to successful shows. Are they similar? Different? If the LUG feels that the show is destined to fail, and to take a fair amount of respect from outsiders with it, then do everything in your power to stop that show, or at least minimize the impact. As many companies have learned, and as perhaps many LUGs have yet to learn, not all PR is good PR."
Dustin Decker, Network Sysadmin for Preferred Physicians Medical, enjoyed the time with the community more than the trade show that created it. "I would say the best part of the show for me really wasn't the show itself at all. I spent a good portion of time with Eric S. Raymond, sharing some meals and a net connection in addition to firing fully automatic weapons at his Geeks with Guns gathering on day two of his trip. Eric is a truly down to earth guy, with a wonderful ability to explain how the open source movement works. Of course we all know he's very involved in the Linux cause, but it was just really neat to have him in the Kansas City area and to have face to face access to him. Please note: I'm not a teenaged groupie geek type, I just like to meet neat people. We Linux users also had dinner at the Plum Tree restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas on Friday evening, with a turnout of about forty people. Dinner with that measure of my tribe was of course a very joyous occasion -- better than a Baptist revival."
Frank Wiles, mod_perl programmer for The Lawrence Journal World, discusses the benefits of a failed trade show to his LUG. "It really charged me up about the community. I met a lot of the people who I had previously only read about, or read their writings online. I feel that LinuxFest really breathed new life into KULUA, because of the pillars of the community that we got hang out with, as well as the fact of being semi-forced into saving the show. It really pulled us all together, and I realized that the 'pillars' of the open source community are real people, removed a lot of the 'star struck'-ness. And I realized, that these people are really wonderful people. Actually all the people that I have met in the open source community are really great, fun to be around people, and not just because they are geeks!"
Since I was at the show, I think it's only fair that I get to add a couple of quick thoughts to the end of this story. When I finished my keynote speech, Greg Palmer pulled me aside and said, "I want to do this again next year, but I want to do it right." The biggest problem for the show was the lack of infrastructure and foundation, a foundation that could have built with the rampant volunteerism of the local Linux community. There are some smart people out there who were all but begging to be involved with the planning and rollout of the show. Use them, Greg. I'll do whatever I can to make sure that happens.
I would also like to take some time to thank the members of KULUA, the Kansas Unix/Linux Users Association. When they felt the planning of the show was taking a dive, they invited me to come out and attend the show, and they paid my expenses out of the pockets of their members. These people saw a problem, and took it upon themselves to fix it. I had a fantastic time at the show, and I got to meet some of the coolest Linux enthusiasts in the world. The members of KULUA represent the finest sensibilities of the Linux community with a strong volunteer ethic, and endless amounts of optimism. While I was in Kansas, I slept on the couch of Joe Larcher, an intelligent, kind lawyer (lawyer!) who offered his place, bandwidth, transportation and refrigerator to someone he'd never met before. Dustin Decker, who I quoted above, performed the herculean task of pulling himself away from Geeks with Guns to pick me up from the airport. Sean and Kevin from Tummy.com bought me lunch when I showed up, lent me a wireless NIC, and updated my kernel. Cory Bosley drove me from the show to Joe's place, and got me a Coke. Frank Wiles, also quoted above, gave me the tour of Lawrence, from Java Break to the Granasty to the Tap. Randy Reames kept me knee-deep in Simpsons references. I met so many people that week, it's hard to keep track of them all. If I met you in Kansas, consider yourself thanked. You're all Aquamen.
Politicians and companies have spent years and millions trying to penetrate America's heartland with products and ideology. Normal people living normal lives and working normal jobs, representing the very core of conservative middle America. I never would have thought that one of the strongest outcroppings of community spirit I've ever seen would come from Kansas. The spirit and community of Linux and Free Software are alive and well there, regardless of one mismanaged trade show. I look forward to seeing you all next year.
The point isn't getting people to go to Kansas. Regional shows should give people in Kansas and surrounding states, or wherever they are held, a chance to attend a Linux gathering without having to go to high-buck places like New York or Silly Valley.
I agree that there are enough big-time shows already, but we need more Linux "gatherings" (or whatever you want to call them) that cost something like $50 ($25 students) to attend. You don't necessarily need a "big name" speaker at something like this, just a chance to share technical expertise and meet other Linux and Open Source enthusiasts.
Keep the whole thing small and simple, something for 200 - 400 people held in a (low cost) hotel instead of a convention center. Make it simple and inexpensive for vendors to attend, especially smaller vendors that can't afford the ever-growing cost and "booth inflation" of the big shows.
I have a major personal preference for small, humble Linux gatherings. They're more in the spirit of the true Linux community than shows that only corporate-backed people can afford to attend.
I believe regional gatherings should be held Friday and Saturday so that they give both the people who can get their employers to give them the day off, and those who are coming on their own time, a chance to be there. This is also an easier schedule for vendors, who can fly in on Thursday night, set up tabletops Friday morning, have a good time until Saturday, then break down their exhibits and fly out either Saturday evening or, because airfare is often a lot less if you stay over for a Saturday night, Sunday morning.
It's a lot more palatable for, say, Red Hat to send one or two people and a tabletop display that can be shipped via UPS to a regional meeting that only promises 300 or 400 attendees than it is for them to send a full-blown "trucked in" display and a dozen people to run it to a show ten times that size.
- Robin
That was one of the reasons why we incorporated, so that there would be a "shell" there around which such activities could grow.
But we concluded about a year ago that having "a Linux show" here would require really fine-tuning the purpose, in that there are just so many others.
This is not something that most would want as a career.
It's a lot of work to put on a show, whether it be small or large. It sounds like the Kansas group got overambitious, which is quite regrettable, as there will be some unfortunate fallout.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
IMHO, while Linux people need their own conferences maybe twice a year, they should also go the BIG publicized conferences and take some of the limelight from the Proprietary world of computing....