POSSCON is over, and now it's back to work. I posted my schedule and mentioned the three people with whom I wanted to speak, but there were some slight changes. I will post an overview of the first day and post an overview of the second day later.
Day 1
Keynote: Open Source - Now and in the Future:
Larry Augustin talked about the three major groups involved with pushing open source forward: management, technologists, and educators. He also mentioned that mobile, social, and cloud are the three key words in the industry at the moment. Augustin is a proponent for open source, but he was not afraid to admit that the best solution might end up being proprietary software, depending on the circumstances.
Education: Here We Come, Ready or Not: Undergraduate Software Engineering Practicum in Open Source:
I was very pleased with Dr. Bowring's presentation. I contemplated going to a different event because I did not want to waste time hearing about something that I already knew; however, the summary of CSCI 362 and 462 helped bring it all together for me.
Demo: Benefitfocus Technology:
Don Taylor spoke at an ACM meeting at CofC before, but I wanted to learn more about their platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model. Their use of metadata driven architecture to minimize the footprint is a really interesting concept. Some of the design is still a little over my head, but it is easier to comprehend the second time around.
BOF Session - Securing Cyberspace with Open Source Software:
Several of my classmates were present with me during this lunch/discussion. I honestly felt a little out of place because everyone else, aside from my classmates, were very familiar with security and relevant open source software. The speakers kept us engaged in the conversation by asking our opinions on certain matters. These security specialists rarely get a chance to know how "young people" think, and our input had some value in this regard.
Keynote: Big Data, Hadoop and Open Source:
I have heard the term "Big Data" used before, but until Dr. Brodsky gave his keynote speech, I was not very sure what the term meant. I took a Data Mining class, so many of the ideas were not unfamiliar. The main point that I took out of this presentation is that unstructured data is measured by volume, variety, and velocity.
Education: Google Summer of Code and Google Code-In:
Google's Summer of Code program sounds like a great opportunity to get involved in the open source community and make some money in the process. I spoke with Carol Smith after her presentation and asked her if there are any other opportunities for non-students. I am still eligible for Summer of Code, but I will likely be working during that time. She offered to pass my resume along if I saw any interesting jobs on Google's job page.
Technical: Introducing C++11:
This presentation was definitely a little over my head; however, I did learn about some cool new features in C++11. There are new core language features, such as concurrency, move semantics, auto, lambdas, and a range-based for loop. There are new library features, such as containers, regular expressions, and smart pointers.
Big Picture: Changing the Face of Open Identity in Ecommerce:
I really enjoyed this talk. Jonathan Leblanc suggested that people get rid of the annoying registration forms and use other available profile systems instead. Here are some statistics that he mentioned: "23% of customers abandon carts when asked to register" and "45% left a site when they couldn't remember their password." I spoke with Mr. Leblanc afterwards and asked him how to avoid irrelevant information. The example I gave was this: A friend wants a new laptop but does not know much about hardware; he asks you to look for possible laptops within his price range online; the website assumes that you are interested in laptops. Mr. Leblanc admitted that this kind of situation can be a problem, but measurements taken over long periods of time can address this issue and help make an accurate personality profile. Just like people, these profiles must be able to adapt to an individuals changing needs and interests.
No comments:
Post a Comment