Episode: 946
Title: HPR0946: HPR Interview David Whitman with Carl Symons and John Blanford
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0946/hpr0946.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 05:20:47

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It is not the first year for Linux Fest that will be the 13th year.
It actually started the discussions about Linux Fest started in 1999 and the first
one was held in the year 2000 and John was actually part of the crew that started it, I wasn't.
All right, our first three Fest, like the first three Fest or so, were mostly local events.
So I think the very first Fest we had at most, maybe 50 people showed up and they were all
our relatives mostly. But every year it grew a little bit and we started getting a lot of
folks coming up from Seattle and down from the Vancouver Canada area. And I think in 2003, 2004
we decided to go regional and we named it Linux Fest Northwest and it really took off.
Tell us the dates of the Linux Fest Northwest for 2012.
It's the last weekend in April. That's the way we describe it. And this year that will be Saturday and Sunday, April 28th and 29th.
What are the admission costs for attending Linux Fest Northwest?
Okay, there is no admission cost. There's an expo with quite a number of commercial exhibits and
non-profits, educational institutions and the like. And then a whole host of presentations.
And there is no admission cost for that. It's free.
Can you tell us how people can support the Linux Fest Northwest with a sponsorship?
So there's different levels of sponsorship. The one that I think that you're referring to that
will be interesting to Hacker Public Radio listeners. We call it an individual supporter.
And the way to think about it is like a regular public radio sponsor where for $60, people can
support the Fest financially. But then as part of the $60, they get the lunches paid for both days.
It's a gourmet lunch from the Culinary Department at the college and a t-shirt, name badge.
The way we think about it is these are people who are really supporting the Fest and jumping in
and participating fully. Well, I'm just going to say on sponsors, if I like to always mention our
most important sponsor in that's Billingham Technical College, which is where we hold the Fest
is a college campus in the college, Billingham Technical College gives us access to college for
free. So there really are number one sponsor. There's what enables us to not charge admission for
everyone that comes because we get our facilities for free. And then we also have businesses that
do very sponsorship levels. We have platinum and gold and silver sponsors also that help
to free the rest of the cost for the Fest. Okay. And why don't we talk a little bit about your
sponsors and give them a little press time here, those that are supporting the Fest?
Well, our platinum sponsors are Caltura and SkyesQL and MariaDB. So those are our big guys.
And then for our gold sponsors, we have, let's see, we have OpenSusa,
Cloudstack, the parsec group and Oracle Technology Network are our gold sponsors. And I think we
have maybe six or seven silver sponsors to besides that. And then a bunch of as Carl will say in
the individual sponsors where people can contribute and also get their lunches as part of the
contribution. Okay. And so that sounds real good. So the Fest is sounds to be heavily sponsored and
like you get you have a lot of support going on there. So there's some, I'm looking here at the
Track Layout for the Fest and I see over a 101 sessions plan. And so can you maybe highlight
some of your favorites and some of the tracks that are going on? We can talk about them and I
have some favorites I want to share here just been going through the list that I'm interested in.
Oh my gosh, David, you're asking hard questions now. The first thing I should say is that we have
the response to our call for presentations or call for papers has grown every year. And
part of the attraction of Linux Fest Northwest is whatever you want to present on, whatever you're
interested in, there's probably somebody else that's interested in that as well. So sign up and
let's see how it goes. Sometime in the next week or so, there will be a meeting of the presentation
committee and we will window down those presentations based on how hot the topic is and how much press
it's gotten, how appropriate it is to open source. And there's a team of people who work on that,
who bring together several different perspectives. So it always surprises me what people do at Linux
Fest. I think my favorite last year was a presentation on Blender and it went so well that Oscar
Bateshler is back this year with another Blender presentation. And he actually takes people through
how you build a 3D model and meshes and all that kind of stuff with Blender, which is as you know,
a superstar in the open source world. So I like those. The other thing that I really like that we've
done for several years is called the tutorial where people can come in and we will, it can be an
install fast or people can ask questions. Just the whole idea of Linux Fest Northwest is that we
want to serve the community and that's where it started and then that's how we like it, you know,
that's an underpinning philosophy of the Fest. I think it's really difficult to pick out a few
because we have, as Carl said, we have so many presentations that will be going on. One that
caught my eye that I really like to go to is Jesse Keating and I think he has a co-presenter
that's going to work with it on. But they're going to do a two-hour session on
get the open source version control system and they're going to spend two hours and really get
into some of the details and because I'm one of the organizers, I hardly ever get a chance to see
a presentation but I'm going to try and get away and see this one because that one sounds very
interesting to me. John, I would just say that Jesse Keating is a name that people probably know
pretty well. Could you say a little background about Jesse? Well, I'll probably mangle because I
don't know exactly but Jesse Keating works for Red Hat and he's one of the Fedora guys and
has been one of the top Fedora organizers, I guess we'd call him for quite a while and
unfortunately I don't remember all the other details but that's who he is. Anyone in the Fedora
community would certainly recognize Jesse. Well, the reason I bring it up is because one of the
things that still amazes me about Linux Fest Northwest is the people that are attracted
to come and participate. So, you know, we have people, I know there are people that are traveling
from Germany and Holland this year to participate. A couple of years ago, Motividanius, who's the,
you know, one of the leaders of the original MySQL was here and it's amazing to be in the hall
and see people that you know are luminaires in the open source world and you can just go up and
start, you know, talking shop with these people. It's really an amazing open source community driven
event. I think the other thing that I'd like, you know, is sort of gives you a pulse of what's
going on in the tech world and the open source world. I would really be interesting to do a, like,
an analysis of our talks. We've got 13 or 12 years of talks and see how those have changed.
But you definitely see the trends. Like this year, I was just checking out the site here. We have
seven talks all about the cloud. So obviously the cloud is a big thing. So that's no
reason you can see these sort of trends coming up with the fast. Well, John, I'm so glad you
brought that up. I was going to say something about it. One of two of those presentations are about
own cloud and own cloud is an open source cloud implementation that you can put on your own server
and one of the things I like about is it came out of KDE, which I'm a KDE fanboy and so this
really shows the power of an open source community. And own cloud has just taken, it's just gone
crazy with the number of installations and the like. And it really fits in an open source kind of
mentality. Well, I'm interested in own cloud myself. And I've heard a presentation on this
on hacker public radio. Also, there was a nice, um, can't remember the exact episode, but it's
out there. And so seeing that on a schedule is really interesting to me. And I also see here,
there's, um, I'm going to think I'm pronouncing this correctly. Is Vardina open source school
management system? And if that talk is going to come, I guess to the step. I don't know.
Remember it when I'm part of the session committee. So I do remember looking at it, but I don't
remember the details. Uh, I do not know that there was, I noticed as a trend, there was three or
four talks all about open source and education this year. So that seems to be another one of these
sort of mini trends that's occurring. Yes. And I noticed that too. And I see there's, um,
several proposed sessions here then for, um, Drupal. And then I see one for Jumila. And then
of course, where goes along with that, my SQL and some other database systems. Right.
Yeah. We've got a heavy amount of web development and stuff because there's so many people in
our community, you know, do that. And so I noticed, yeah, those ones about Drupal and by Jumila,
there's also stuff on J query. I see one on that. Uh, a few other things to get one, obviously,
goes in that sort of category also. So, yeah, some development stuff in there too. So, so,
there's one other one I want to call attention to. There's, if we're lucky, um, we're going to have
the author, George Dyson, um, uh, make a presentation. He, he may be in London,
promoting his book, um, that talks about what his, his father, the, his father's name was Freeman
Dyson. And Freeman Dyson was one of the people who was around when computers were coming up and
and the Manhattan project was going. So, George Dyson was a young fellow at the Princeton, um,
advanced institute. And he has this marvelous story about the history of computing. And, um,
so if we're lucky, we'll get to have George Dyson. And the cool thing is that he lives in Bellingham
and he, um, he builds canoes, old like replicas of ancient canoes. And then he's this geek historian,
science historian, and just fascinating, and not to be missed presentation. It's very, very good.
Yeah, yeah, I definitely hope we get to see that one. I think another one that I just came across,
I'm just going through the session lesson. This is a good one. We've, it's not all just techie staff
and serious things. We also have some fun things. So, Alpha Geek, which is a trivia contest
that is run by a guy named Chuck Wobler. And he's done it for, oh, a number of years. I've,
I've got how many years Chuck has been doing this, but it's always one of the favorites of
festgoers. And, um, maybe you can describe it a bit called what they do at the Alpha Geek.
You know, I've never been there, but, but I really have never been there, but I hear people talking
about it, that, you know, like, um, somebody just lost because they couldn't remember what the
formula was for, for like titanium or something. He really does a great job of pulling to get
a questions and having a lot of fun. Well, I haven't been to it either. That's why I was hoping
you could describe the formula, but yeah, people are always telling me how much fun they had at Alpha Geek.
So that's really wonderful. Well, John, we would be remiss if we didn't bring this up as well.
Maybe we can segue into another interesting thing. We have a presentation called free as in speech,
brewing as in beer. Oh, yeah. So you know, Dave, that, um, that Linux and this crowd runs on beer.
Well, we have a company from, from your neck of the woods just across the Columbia River.
Um, I don't know what their official name is, but we call them the backyard brewers.
And they, they bring their setup the way they brew beer using Linux automation to do virtually
all parts of the, of the brewing process. And then they bring, um, brews that they've, um,
that they've already made. And so there's a range of beer from just barely beer to the best,
um, porters and stout that you've ever drank. And then they also bring root beer and other
lightly fermented things. So they are, they will have a presentation and they will also be the
people who supplied drinks at the Saturday evening party at the radio museum. We won't get into
that quite yet, but quite, we have quite, um, a party planned. Yeah, their, their presentation should
be pretty good. It's done this last couple of years. And we have, uh, at the community college,
we have one room that's, uh, uh, we call it the morgue, but it's a place where, uh, where
people are taught about culinary stuff so that it's already set up pretty bit of kitchen.
And they brew the whole day. So all day, Saturday, they'll be brewing in that, uh, that room. And
you can just walk in and, uh, talk to the brewers and watch the brewing process. And, uh, I've heard
that this year they're going to be brewing a barley wine, which is, uh, sort of an advanced, advanced,
uh, difficult kind of thing to brew for a high alcohol kind of beer. So it'll be interesting to, uh,
talk to them about that. Well, I have a question about the brewing. It's, you say it's driven, um,
with Linux software. Then is that software open source? Then where people can, um, get that and
use it for themselves? Yeah, I think it is. We'd have to find out from the guys that we're doing it.
He originally started out very simple. He told me that, uh, I think it was Kurt, one of the two brewers.
And it was really just a series of shell scripts that, uh, talked to, uh, some automation equipment.
But I think he's been improving it, uh, every year. And yeah, I think they, they even,
either have open sources or will open source it. But I don't know the name of the project.
Well, you know, there, as many open source people, they're, they're exceptionally generous and
willing to share, um, I've seen them share a lot. So they're really good people to have involved.
That, that sounds like a great addition to the, um, Linux Fest Northwest. So I'm looking forward
to seeing that right now. Well, I'm going to ask you, um, about the session notes and recordings
that might be available to people who won't be able to make it to Linux Fest Northwest.
And will there be any type of, um, recordings put online or anything or, um,
session notes available on the website after the fest is over?
Well, we, we give the, um, presenters a chance to upload their, you know, their slides and all,
and attach them to their sessions. So after the fast, if you go through the, uh, schedule,
and look at the, each of the sessions, they should have the, uh, slides attached to them,
uploaded to them. As far as the video stuff, that's something that we've always been a little,
haphazard about. We don't have a really good procedure for video taping our sessions at
this point. Um, in the past, people have, informally done that and we collect links to the
various videos that people have done of sessions and provide, uh, links on the website for that.
We're hoping that this year we'll get our act together and have more of the sessions,
sort of formally, uh, videotaped, but, uh, you have to watch this space. We're not quite sure
what's going to happen with that, but hopefully we'll do a better job this year.
Well, that's real, real good. And I want to ask how many volunteers does it take to run
Linux Fest Northwest? Oh my goodness. So, um, throughout the year, there's a core group of
ranges between, I'm going to say eight and 12 people who are the kind of steering committee
organizing committee. And John and I both participated in that and, uh, John has been doing that
since it's since this fest started. And I, I don't know, I've been doing it five or six or seven.
I, I don't even know several years. So during the year, you know, we, we talk about the fest and
what we need to do and plan to go to Oscon and things like that. When Fest arrives,
we, uh, we work with students at Bellingham Technical College who are in the computer networking
department. And, um, they, the faculty, we work very closely with the faculty, uh, to use the
Fest as another training vehicle for those students. And so, um, the faculty give the students,
so Saturday and Sunday are assigned days and then they have the following Tuesday and Wednesday off.
The entire Fest network is designed and installed by a group of students. All of the administrative
tasks are, um, done and to some extent managed by students, but of course there's a little bit
of management training that goes into this. And so, um, you know, we're, we're very close, uh, we
keep a close eye on how things are going so that it goes smoothly for the attendees and the
exhibitors and the speakers. So all together, um, I don't know exactly how many we will have this
year, but last year we had over a hundred volunteers. Um, actually, I've been calling them student
assistants because they really, um, they're, in fact, they're instructors volunteered them. They
didn't volunteer. So student assistants, we have about a hundred people who were involved.
And if you go to the Fest, um, we try and give almost all our volunteers red staff shirts.
So if you ever have a question like that, there's always a gather the red shirt around some place.
They can answer questions or help you with stuff. So we're real proud that we have a good crew of
student assistants or volunteers that help everyone out.
Well, that sounds real good and, um, we started to talk a little bit about the social
side of the Living Test Northwest. I know it's only a two-day event, but there is, um, apparently a
party going on. Well, you know, we start out on Friday, um, the local, uh, technology alliance group
as it is an advocacy group for Bellingham and Northwest Washington. They have, um, joined with
Linux Fest Northwest to do, uh, what is called, uh, Tech Night. And this is an event where, um,
people who are in the tech industry from all around town, um, managers, um, workers, etc.
It's a job fair, uh, a meat and greet, uh, there are things to eat and drink. Uh, so there's kind of a
social, uh, a social event that, that's on Friday night that's kind of like a gateway event
into Linux Fest Northwest. Um, it was a hit last year, which was the first year, um, several people
got jobs right at that event. So quite a success. Then on Saturday night, um, we, when we went to a
two-day event from Saturday to Saturday and Sunday, we wanted to have something for people to do
that Saturday evening. And so, um, we have a Saturday evening event since then. It's been probably
six years that we've done that. This year, we're moving back to, um, the, what's referred to as the
Spark Museum of Electrical Invention. And the URL for that is AMRE.us. So, and I just ask anybody
who's listening, they should go to that website and check this out because, um, there will be things
like, at some time in the evening, they will fire off, uh, a Tesla coil that shoots a lightning bolt,
probably 10 feet, uh, that's as big around as your arm. There's a Thereman, um, like the beach
boys use that you can play with. There are, um, guides for the, for the museum who will explain
everything that's in the museum, um, uh, Edison, things that Edison did in Faraday,
um, just like going back through the history of electricity and radio and, um, explicit, um,
displays and explanations of how things, how these things came to be. It is the perfect
Saturday event for a bunch of geeks. But there will also be appetizers and, um, beer from
the Linux automation people. Uh, and then we're gonna, we'll put together some information about,
um, all the restaurants, uh, that are available within walking distance of the radio museum so
people can get out and enjoy, uh, downtown Bellingham, which is, uh, just a deer, uh, a deer small
place where people get along and, and treat each other with respect and, uh, so we want people to
experience downtown Bellingham as well. Yeah, I'm looking forward to going back to the, uh,
radio museum because we've had our party there a few times in the past and it's always been a blast,
and everyone really enjoys it. So it should be good.
Well, that sounds like that's something just to go to Bellingham for us to visit that.
Right. Yeah, absolutely. And as long as you, as Carl said, there's going to be free beer and
appetizers. All you have to do is when you get to the fast register and get a, uh, a badge,
and your badge will be your ticket to get you into the party. So it's all free.
Okay, that sounds like the, um, Linux Fest is going to have a really exciting two days.
And, um, I want to ask you, at this point, um, is there anything else you want to inform the HB
listeners, HPR listeners about for the Linux Fest Northwest in April 28th and 29th of 2012?
Well, I would just say that, um, we're really proud that our Fest has a, uh,
your reputation has been sort of the laid back Fest. And we try and give a, a really fun
atmosphere. We also encourage people to bring their families. And we try and have some activities
for our kids to go to, uh, to go have some, we usually have some robots around and things like that.
And, uh, activities for kids to do. So if you haven't been to the Fest, it's a, it's a great
couple of days. And I'm certainly encouraged people. Yeah, it's really unlike any other conference
that, that I know about, um, you know, just really some people who are dedicated to, to what
they're working on and interested and interesting and, um, genuine and collaborative. It's just
quite an environment. I, I think it's, I don't know of anything else that's quite like it.
And we, we do a, uh, survey after every, or during the Fest where we ask people, you know,
what can we do better? And, you know, like nothing else. And what does you enjoy most about the
Fest? And that particular question when we ask people, you know, what, what did you enjoy most
about the Fest? What was the thing you'd like the most? You know, and some people say sessions,
or, you know, some exhibit or something like that. But the, the most common thing that people say
is that they enjoyed the social nature of getting a chance to talk to other geeks and talk about
open source and Linux and all that. So that's a big part of the Fest. Okay, it sounds like it's
going to be an exciting time. And, um, I want to ask you to, um, please tell the HPR audience,
again, the dates of the Fest and where it is located at. And, um, perhaps the closest major
transportation to the area if they were going to fly in from somewhere else to be able to go to
the next set of Northwest. It is, um, April 28th and 29th, that Saturday and Sunday in
Bellingham, Washington, specifically at Bellingham Technical College. Um, if you get within
side of Bellingham Technical College, it should be no problem for you to find the Fest. We
pretty much take over the campus. Um, the nearest transportation hub is Bellingham International Airport.
You're coming from the West Coast. Um, there are direct flights in from, um, from many cities
along the West Coast. Uh, a train ride from Portland is one of the more enjoyable, uh,
ways to get here. Uh, we're about 100 miles north of Seattle and, um, maybe 50 miles south of
Vancouver. Um, so it's, um, uh, let's see. Uh, i5 is the major corridor. Um, I think that's
John anything else I missed. Well, and once you go to LinuxfestNorthwest.org, we'll have, uh,
maps and instructions. We also have some lists of, uh, local hotels that are offering discounts
and things like that. So, uh, our website is probably the best, uh, best spot for more information.
Well, real good. And I want to, um, say thank you, John. And thank you, Carl, for, um, coming on
Hacker Public Radio on talents about LinuxfestNorthwest. And I for one will be seeing you there because
I am going to be manning the HPR table. They're at LinuxfestNorthwest and we hope to get some other
interviews there and people interested in contributing to Hacker Public Radio. And Hacker Public
Radio doesn't take someone to interview you. You can just make an episode yourself and all the
details are available at Hacker Public Radio.org. And thank you very much for coming on today with
me and talking about LinuxfestNorthwest. I'm excited to attend. Thank you for having us. Thank you.
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