Jen Wike breaks down the RTP180 event in Raleigh, NC about open source. Summaries of speaker presentations and the idea that small, local events and meetups are an important catalyst for bringing open source to the masses.
The folks who planned the RTP180 conference for Open source all the things a few weeks ago in North Carolina did so in an open source manner. Using Triangle Wiki—a local collection of information about the towns of and around Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill that anyone can edit and add to—they posted info, found speakers, and coordinated the agenda. Then, they opened the event by bringing in "contributors" from the crowd to give the introduction.
Six attendees read from bits of paper they were given, adlibbing here and there, to introduce the topic for the evening's small, local conference: open source. Lots of laughter later, the mic was handed over to Will Hardison and Erin Monday, official hosts for the RTP180 events.
The show started as they welcomed nine speakers; each talked (for only five minutes!) about how they use open source in their lives and careers, to better themselves and the public. For an idea of what these short, lightning talks, on open source can cover to reach a broad range of folks, here are the ones from the recent Open source all the things RTP180 event.