Imagine going to a presentation where you were actually “part of the show”? That is exactly what is going on with an organized conference called, “Open Source, Open Standards”. Since people are what make Open Source work, this conference is much more than the typical get together that you might be used to seeing when it comes to Open Source software conventions. This conference will be one of the few where you actually get to participate directly with the speakers and panelists.

A unique opportunity will come about two weeks from now (September 12-14, 2004) to participate in a discussion that could unblock software development and promote both open standards and open source software.

John Terpstra, a noted software designer, author, and consultant who is best known as a founder of the Samba team, has organized a conference called “Open Source, Open Standards” that will do more than educate its audience. The audience will become the show. Audience members will discuss deployment issues facing software developers and users, and see their input recorded in a book to be distributed to legislators who deal with such “intellectual property” issues as copyright and patent law.