So how did it go? Before I went I really didn’t know what to expect from DORS/CLUC, this was actually the first Linux conference I’d had the pleasure of taking part in. I set off from Edinburgh feeling somewhat apprehensive of the next few days. It didn’t help that having set off at 6am I actually got into Zagreb at around 9pm due to a late connection in Frankfurt but once I was there I was able to find the hotel and get some rest before the start.
The first day was amazing but intense. A lot of new people to meet, including Igor Ljubuncic and Lucy Llewellyn who I’d not met before then in person. Some highlights from the talk schedule included an overview of the Geeko foundation by Douglas DeMaio which explained the need for an impartial organisation through which to channel funding for open source and of course Rust from Start to Snap by Canonicals own Ed Jones. It would be remiss not to mention the Snap workshop hosted by Lucy Llewellyn where I learnt a lot about the process of snapping an application from start to finish.
In the evening we met up in a lovely restaurant located in the center of Zagreb for the partners dinner where we had a great opportunity to meet representatives from some of the other organisations doing great work in the open source space around Europe. I had some productive discussions with Lina from the Free Software Foundation Europe and Angela from the Open Data Institute and a good time was had by all.
The second day was a bit more high pressure for me, I was helping out with the Canonical community competition, the hiring fair, and giving my own talk later in the afternoon. In the end, all came off without a hitch. We got to see some of the cool things the community were working on and send them some pretty interesting prizes, including some hardware! At the hiring fair we saw a decent amount of interest in getting into Canonical with questions from the audience taking up most of the hour long slot. Igor, Ed and I talked about our experience in the Canonical hiring process as well as sharing some tips we had picked up along the way on the do’s and don’t of written interviews among other things.
Almost at the end of the day’s schedule it was time for my talk. The reaction to it seemed positive and there was certainly a decent amount of interest in the stuff that Canonical was doing. The talk focused on the tech made here that isn’t based purely around Ubuntu. The audience had some knowledge of this but there was certainly an appetite to learn more.
At the end of the final day we went for drinks and dinner with some of the other speakers and got ready to head back first thing the next morning. Overall, an excellent introduction to the greater community of open source.
