Open for thinking, open for participation, open for collaboration

The name of the two day Wellington conference on Thursday and Friday 16/17 April says it all.

Open Source//Open Society (OS//OS).

As a digital immigrant who has, without sometimes knowing why, gone down he android path for my devices, I’m inherently drawn to the open source philosophy.

In a sense, at a time when public participation in democracy is lessening, it is events such as this that continue to hold the flame for non-secrecy and more sharing in society.

It is the antidote to businesses that want us to purchase their own proprietary products – locking us in, holding us to metaphoric ransom.

And given that bits and bytes represent today’s key infrastructure, being open rather than closed around how computing’s coding source is used, by all, can be considered the epitome of democracy.

So I’ll be attending the very reasonably priced ($199) event, which is the first time the world’s largest repository of open source code, Github, has co-hosted a conference outside the United States.

This in itself is a real feather in the Wellington tech community’s collective hat – and for Enspiral and its fellow travellers Loomio and Chalkle who have helped to organise it.

OS//OS describes itself as a gathering of bright minds and communities from open technology, open government, open business and open education.

You can see this in some of its speaker’s topics, such as:

• Is the Internet a tool for liberation or control?
• What happens if we work together? What does a commons based future look like?
• My Dream. “What if…”

At the same time, one of the major benefits of any event such as this is the ability to share, participate and collaborate.

It is an opportunity for peoples’ ideas to mate and spawn new ideas. Given OS//OS’s openness, I expect the “we could do this” discussions to be very savvy.

Finally, a note on the cute name the organisers have called the afternoon tea break on the first day.

As a message maker at Punchline.biz, it appeals as an encapsulating idea and ideal for OS//OS.

What is it called (and check it out in the event timetable here)?

Diversi-Tea!