Highlights from Ontario Linux Fest – Oct 24/09 – ECM Meets Open Source

Was honoured to present at this weekend's Ontario Linux Fest in Toronto, Canada. Thanks to the great conference team for the hospitality, and the opportunity to talk to a community of seasoned open source professionals and up & coming student enthusiasts.

I found it fun because normally I speak to crowds who already are in an information management role and know the basics – this event allowed me to bring the 101 Overview to a whole new technical audience and help them understand why the business managers they advise & support might ask or need an information governance strategy.
Was glad to see the great attendance in the session, and the interesting & thought-provoking questions at the end.

And I learned a lot too – as a newbie in the world of open source, really found the sessions on the various licensing models of direct benefit, and was blown away by some of the success stories – some incredibly innovative and useful applications out there delivering huge benefit to businesses, citizens and taxpayers.

My recommendations?
For women in tech – please follow @RikkiKite with Linux Pro Magazine – an energetic and passionate promoter of open source and the importance of diversity in the technology world. She interviews women making a difference in Open Source at her Rose Blog (link)

To understand the tremendous value to taxpayers and the power of open source community – A must watch Youtube video with McMaster Professor David Chan on the Canadian OSCAR project – patient-centric electronic health records and a tremendous story to hear. Was a real inspiration, and made me really think about the opportunities for ECM in life sciences, health care and universities.