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815 lines
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">It's Only a One Day Conference...</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:adler@ssadler.phy.bnl.gov">Stephen Adler</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<CENTER><img src=gx/adler/TheBanner.jpg></CENTER>
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<br CLEAR=all>
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<SPACER TYPE=vertical SIZE=20>
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<table align=right hspace=10 vspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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A pile of conference badges. If you look closely, you'll see Maddog's
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badge on top.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/BadgesSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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It was sometime during the week of Oct 4th. The day was sunny, bright,
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the sky a piercing light blue. I was walking north along Bell Avenue in
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Brookhaven National Laboratory on my way to the bank. I had just
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finished lunch and was savoring the walk. It was quiet, peaceful. The
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first sunny, crisp days of fall had arrived. The peacefulness
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surrounding me was so impressive. It had been 4 months since I've been
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able to enjoy such a quiet moment.
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<p>
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"What do you mean there are a busload of people wandering lost around
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the RHIC ring!" I replied to one of the organizers after being
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interrupted from fidgeting with that damn PC projector. "That's what
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I've been told, and <b>YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!</b>" she replied. I
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ran out to the lobby in a frantic disposition. One of my PHENIX
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collaborators was walking around looking at the vendor
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exhibits. "Please John, go out and find those wandering conference
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attendees and give them a tour of the PHENIX detector!" He looked a
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bit puzzled as I explained the situation to him, but was off in a rush
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after he understood what was going on.
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<br clear=right>
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<p>
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<center>
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<table>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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That's me making cables. One of those valuable Ph.D. analytical
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skills I've picked up. The poster/demo room's IT infrastructure
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needed to be assembled and thus there you have me making RJ45 cables.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/RJ45Small.jpg>
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</table>
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</center>
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<p>
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That was October 2nd, the day of the Open Source/Open Science
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conference. The whole day was a series of crises. The first crisis
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started that morning when we fired up the projector which was hooked
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up to the PC running Linux. The projected image jittered in such a way
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as to give me a rather nasty headache. "This will not do!" I
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exclaimed. Malcolm, one of the organizers swore again and again that
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it was working great the night before. "Hooking up a another laptop or
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PC is no easy feat" he warned me. It takes a good 20 minutes to figure
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out the settings on the projector so that it will sync properly with
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the video output. What to do - what to do. I had 15 minutes before the
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conference started, and the only working PC/projector setup was
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running Windows NT. What an embarrassment for an Open Source/Open
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Science conference. I was not going to do my introductory talk with
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the NT desktop brightly displayed behind me, as I used IE to down load
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my presentation. I had my laptop setup on a table on the auditorium
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stage from where I was going to run the conference. My intent was to
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monitor the inbox of the osos account on that laptop, to which people
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were to send their e-mail with questions I was to ask the speakers. I
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took down my laptop, set it up next to the projector, plugged in the
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video cable and pressed <em>fn</em>-<em>crt</em> which in theory
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should enable the video output on my laptop. Nothing. A big blue box
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shown on the screen with a clear message reading "No video sync." The
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conference was to start in 10 minutes. I quickly booted my laptop into
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windows 98, and back into Linux. The video projector came alive and
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projected my GNOME desktop after logging into my account. 5 minutes to
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go and I had a working Linux desktop environment projected onto the
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screen for the audience to see and from which I would present the
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introductory talk. Wheeewww. Crisis #48 averted....
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<p>
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<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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A view of the RHIC tunnel with some of the invited OSOS'99 guests and
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then some. Of those who I recognize are Gabor David of PHENIX on the
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far left, John Hall 5th from left, Mark Galassi one over from John
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Hall, followed by Fred Johnson of DOE, skip one and then Michael
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Johnson of Red Hat and finally Bruce Perens.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/RHICTunnelSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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The idea for this conference was begot back in early June after a
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lunch I had with Sean McCorkle. As we walked out of the cafeteria,
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Sean suggested that we put on an Open Source conference. This was the
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same idea I had in the back of my head for a long time now. "I would
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be glad to dedicate time for an Open Source conference," Sean told
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me. He said it with a zealot's enthusiasm whence I knew he meant what he
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said. With that bit of encouragement, I told him that we should
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"explore" the idea further.
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<p>
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A couple of days later, Malcolm Capel, a big Linux user doing
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structural biology work at the Light Source, Tim Sailer, a big Linux
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(Debian) developer, who was working for the RHIC computing facility at
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the time, Sean McCorkle, who does database work for the Human Genome
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project and myself, who spends much too much time on these silly
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write-ups, gathered during lunch to push forward this idea of
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organizing an Open Source conference at the Lab.
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<br clear=left>
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<p>
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<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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Same gang, but now we are posing for a photo op in front of the STAR
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detector. This is one of the two BIG detectors ready to study the
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creation of the Universe at BNL. Maddog took this picture.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/STARSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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"Let's get Maddog." "How about Bob Young." "Yea, IBM just released
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its data visualization software under an Open Source copyright
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license. Let's get them." "SGI has a bunch of Open Source projects,
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XFS etc." "Hey, Lincoln Stein wrote the CGI perl module. He works at Cold
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Spring Harbor Lab, that's right here on Long Island. He'd be a great
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speaker!" And so the meeting went. By the time lunch was over I asked
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the question, "So will it be worth having an Open
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Source conference?" The consensus was yes, its worth the time
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and effort. I can't remember who, but someone said that working on a
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conference takes up all your time. This was in reference to a
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conference which was recently held at BNL where 300 people came for a
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week to talk about small angle scattering experiments at the Light
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Source. The head organizer spent <em>all</em> his time working on the
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conference. We blew that fact off. "It's only a one day conference."
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(That phrase would be uttered many times between then and Oct. 2nd.)
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"How much time could it possibly take?!" It was going to be a bunch of guys
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from BNL plus a couple of outside speakers. "What's the big deal!"
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<br clear=right>
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<p>
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<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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I couldn't resist this photo. The PHENIX central magent system is in
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the background, with its logo painted on top, and Bruce Perens
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<em>Penguin Power</em> t-shirt logo in the forground. Nice juxtaposition of
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symbols.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/PHENIXSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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This brainstorming session stirred my blood for some action. I
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fired off an e-mail to Bob Young, Maddog, and Richard Stallman. I had
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met each one of them from previous meetings I strayed to earlier this
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year. The e-mail outlined the idea for the conference and asked for
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feedback. "Is this a good idea or not?" Bob replied within several
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hours. He thought it was a good idea. Maddog got back a couple of days
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later. He also thought it was a good idea. I didn't hear back from
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Richard for a couple of months. (Some e-mail glitch was at fault and
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the outcome turns out to be a whole 'nother chapter.)
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<p>
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With that positive feedback from Bob and Maddog, I asked to meet with
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Mike Murtagh, the chair of the physics department. "It's a software
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conference." I told him. "We spend too much of our time on software
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not to talk about it." I told him about IBM and SGI and their software
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work and about how our software affects our science work and how
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people may be interested in what we do, etc. Mike was warming up to the
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idea and it wasn't until about 45 minutes into this discussion that I
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spoke the words "Open Source" and "Free Software." When I did, Mike
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uttered a long "Ooohhh, that's what this is all about" with his
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signature Irish accent. He had visions of people dressed in tie-dyed
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tee shirts, purple colored rim sun glasses, and flower sack dresses
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forming a "Free Software" commune on site during the
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conference. "That's not quite the idea Mike, but it's close..." Mike
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told me that he noticed that I didn't say "Open Source" or "Free
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Software" until well into the discussion. I did that on purpose.
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<p>
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Getting other Lab officials involved in the conference was something I
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didn't like. "They're going to hijack the idea and run away with it
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and take all the credit for it!" I told Mike. Mike was sensitive to
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this problem, but left me no choice. Either the Lab management was to
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get involved and give their stamp of approval or there was going to be
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no conference. "You can always reserve a conference room and invite
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your speakers, but if you want the Lab's logo (and resources and money)
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to back your conference, you have no choice but to get one of the
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departments to back you." Mike continued, "If it were a Physics
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conference or workshop, I could see the physics department backing you
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up, but for this one, you need to go to ITD." (ITD is the Information
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Technology Division.) I don't know why I was so jealous of this
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conference idea. Who on earth would want to take over this Open Source
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conference? No one in the Lab management had ever heard of the term
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"Open Source" and they had no interest in the matter. (As it turned
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out, this was mostly true. There were several "directors" in the
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directors office (we have lots of directors) who, in the end, did show
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interest.) I guess what I was worried about was that my efforts in
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trying to promote this as a computing conference as much as an Open
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Source conference would get those with computing empires at the Lab to
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take note and take the conference over. Hindsight has proven that this
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was the least of my worries.
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<br clear=left>
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<p>
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<table align=center hspace=10 vspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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Berkner Hall, the building where the conference took place, at about
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7am the morning of the conference. That was the last quiet moment I
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had before my crisis management skills were tested.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/BerknerSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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<p>
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<table align=right hspace=10 vspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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Nice photo of Maddog starting his talk.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/MaddogSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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From that meeting, Mike told me how to proceed. Make sure I get
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ITD management to back the conference. I had to
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broach the idea to them which meant getting ITD involved. We also
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needed to get someone from the Directors Office involved as well. My
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tendency was to go straight to the top, but Mike warned me that the
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first thing anyone in the directors office would do is consult with
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Don Fleming, the new Lab CIO and chair of ITD.
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<p>
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While I was pushing the idea of this conference through my contacts,
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Sean and Malcolm were pursuing the idea of the conference through
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Biology. From that we got two key people on the organizing
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committee. Donna Zadow and Ann Emrick. They are pros in this
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conference stuff, which I would later find out. "Let us worry about
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getting the speakers here, you worry about the content of the
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conference." That was a phrase they kept telling me. (And they were right.)
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<br clear=right>
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<p>
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<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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A picture of the LUG tables. The Conneticut Free Unix Group's table is
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in the forground and the Long Island LUG is in the back. Larry
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Augustin is hanging with the LILUG guys trading Linux war
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storries. CFUG is working on getting X to run on the FreeBSD
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setup. Give these guys a power strip and an RJ45 jack into the
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Internet and they're set to go.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/LUGSSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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After several weeks of having meetings to meet with X, Y and Z,
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meeting with X, Y and Z and then having more meetings to meet with U,
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V and W, we finally got 3 of the working folk of ITD involved. Tom
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Schlagel, Ed McFadden and Susan McKeon. Ed really pushed the
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conference idea. He wanted to set up meetings with Don Fleming and Jim
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Glim, the new head of the Center for Data Intensive Computing. We
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needed to get their OK for this conference to proceed. And at about
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this time, word started to leak to them of the conference as well as
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to Peter Paul, the big cheese in the Directors office. As I said, we
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have many directors. At the top is the Lab director, Dr. John
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Marburger. He had no interest in any of this, which was leaked to me
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by his secretary when she called about a month later, to inform me
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that he turned down my personal invitation to attend the conference
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and VIP dinner. Under him there is Peter Paul, who is the
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scientific lab co-sub director. There is another guy who is also a
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co-sub director who is in charge of the non-scientific aspect of lab
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management. The guy to talk to was Peter Paul. If we got his OK, then
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we knew the conference would happen. But we wanted to make sure he
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heard it from us, the original organizers. Not the head of ITD or
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anyone else. We had the idea first, and we want to make sure Peter
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knew that. (Again, I don't know why I was so jealous of this fact, but
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I was.) So, Malcolm, Sean, Tim and I decided on a pre-emtive
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strike. Instead of letting Peter hear about the conference from Don
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Fleming, or anyone in ITD, we were going to go to him first. The guys
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from ITD said that having this meeting with Peter Paul without someone
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from ITD would make it look disorganized and could potentially derail
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the conference. We didn't care, "This is just a <em>pre</em>-meeting"
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to tell Peter what was coming down the pipe. "It's just a heads up
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thing."
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<p>
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<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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The SGI table. Chris Porter is on the left and Ken Howard of Comnet,
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a local SGI reseller, is on the right. They're showing off their L1400
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server.
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/SGISmall.jpg>
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</table>
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So I called Peter Paul's secretary, set up a meeting and within a day
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we were talking to him in his office. "We want to have the accelerator
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facility, the Light Source and the lab scientific infrastructure as a
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backdrop to this conference." "It's a great way to promote the
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computing efforts of the Lab." "Look, people use this same software on
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their PC's at home that we use to do our research. This commonality is
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a great way to get them into the lab and show them around." And so we
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pitch the idea. "Wait a minute!" he said, shuffling over to his
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Xterminal, groping for his mouse. Click, click, click. "Hmmm, October
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2nd? I won't be here." Pause.... "But I don't have to be here for the
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conference do I..." Finally after about 30 minutes of pitching the idea
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to him, (some small/short heads up meeting this was, it was a full
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blown presentation,) he asked, "Well, what do you want from me?" It
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suddenly dawned on me what he was really asking, was "How much
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<em>money</em> do you want from me?" After a brief pause to think
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about what he was really asking for, I said. "We need money." I didn't
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say anything about how much we needed. He just offered to kick in $2K
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to get the conference going. He's got his own directors stash which he
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can do with as he pleases and that afternoon he gave us, what turned
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out to be, the last $2K he had in his scientific co-directors
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fund. Looking back on this, that was quite a feat on our part. Peter
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just donated $2K to help promote the use of "Open Source" software at
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BNL. More importantly, we got the official backing from the Lab Mike
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Murtagh told me I should get. But there was still work to be
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done. Peter said that we got his blessing and money but we still
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needed to get ITD to fully back the conference. This meant we needed to
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get back with the ITD contingent of our organizing committee and
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schedule a meeting with Don Fleming.
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<p>
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<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
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<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
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The AndoverNet reps read my Slashdot paper and wouldn't let me leave
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without getting a picture taken with me. I tried to explain
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to them that my /. paper was a bit of joke, but that didn't phase
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them. They still wanted a picture with "Dr. Adler". What could I do?
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</font></caption>
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<tr><td>
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<img src=gx/adler/AndoverNetSmall.jpg>
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</table>
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In the meantime, I set out to try and get other departments to
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contribute money to the conference. Our eventual plan was to hit up
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the vendors for money by selling ad space on our conference web site
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and floor space in the auditorium lobby. But for now, we needed some
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"startup" funds. Physics and the Light Source kicked in $2K each
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without much fuss. Mike knew that I would need money. I asked if I
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could put money in from my own computing funds for the physics
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department. He OK'ed that. I sent an e-mail to the head of the Light
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Source and that was all it took to get $2K out of him. Chemistry never
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responded and I was told that Biology had no money. (But we did get 4
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people from Biology on the organizing committee, a much more valuable
|
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contribution. And we did eventually get $2K from Biology, thanks to
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Ann Emrick, about a month later which was a real help.) Mike Murtagh
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told me that I could ask one of the physics secretaries to help with
|
|
the conference and I was able to recruit Bonnie Sherwood, another gold
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nugget. The other missing component of this conference was a
|
|
budget. Ann Emrick worked up a MS Excel spread sheet with a bunch of
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costs she could think of. "You need XXX for lunch, the conference
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banners will be that much, the buses will cost this much." She had the
|
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figures pretty much on the ball. The total cost of the conference, if
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we did get 450 people to attend, would be $25K. The biggest single and
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unpredictable cost was the food which was going to be $25 per
|
|
person. If we added a $25 entrance fee, the cost would be $15K. We got
|
|
$6K in the bag and needed $9K more to go.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=center vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
A shot of the panel disussing how we can get DOE and BNL to GPL the software
|
|
they write, among other issues. From left to right are Maddog, Larry Augustin,
|
|
Oggy Shentov, Mike Johnson, Bruce Perens, and Fred Johnson.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/panelSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
This set the stage for the crucial meeting with Don Fleming. We knew
|
|
the numbers, we had a rough idea of who we were going to invite, the
|
|
date of the conference and all we really needed now was someone to
|
|
sign the lab conference paper work. In order to have a conference at
|
|
the Lab, you are required to fill out a form, get a head of a
|
|
department to sign it and submit it to staff services who works within
|
|
the director's office. This will then get an account created where one
|
|
can deposit money and more importantly, spend it.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
Mark Galassi on the left, Constantine Olchanki with is back to us and
|
|
Sean McCorkle on the right are blowing off some steam after the
|
|
conference finished. We are siting around waiting for rides to the
|
|
Bellport where we had our VIP dinner.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/MusicSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
The meeting we had with Don Fleming was a small one. Tom Schlagel was
|
|
there, along with Ed McFadden, Sean McCorkle and myself. We pitched
|
|
the idea to Don. Don got into the Open Source bit. Microsoft vs the
|
|
"Free Software" community was a theme he picked up on. He saw this as a
|
|
way of promoting ITD and the new computing initiatives the Lab was
|
|
embarking on. After about 30 minutes or so he wanted to know "What do
|
|
you want from me." Again, that question popped up which really meant,
|
|
"How much money do you want from me." We pull out the spread sheet,
|
|
showed him the figures. "We have $6K from other departments, the
|
|
conference will cost $15K" I started. I then I told him we would try
|
|
and raise as much money from outside sources as possible, implying
|
|
that this would repay any money he gave us. "OK he said, I'll cover
|
|
the remainder." Meaning that he would give us up to $9K for the
|
|
conference and he would sign that form needed by Staff Services.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Bingo! That was it! We had our conference! There was no turning back
|
|
now!
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><tt> *commit* *commit* *commit* *awwuuuugah*
|
|
*commit* *commit* *commit*<br><br>
|
|
Its a shootin war now, boys.
|
|
</tt></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
Was one e-mail Sean McCorkle fired off to our internal organizers
|
|
e-mail list. Just after that meeting, I had to give a talk to the
|
|
PHENIX detector council. The head of the online controls group, the
|
|
group I worked in for the PHENIX experiment, touted this talk as some
|
|
kind of opportunity to get in front of the senior scientist of the
|
|
experiment and "get some exposure." I was on such a high going into
|
|
that talk, that they must of thought I had lost it. I was so giddy
|
|
during that presentation. There is always some kind of tension in the
|
|
PHENIX experiment coming from a competitive attitude within the
|
|
various subgroups. This manifests itself through criticism of ones work
|
|
as being insufficient, late, not working or whatever angle of attack
|
|
your colleague conjures up at the moment. The speaker before me was
|
|
one such notorious colleague who would be quick to "qualify" any
|
|
statements I said about my particular project for the PHENIX
|
|
detector. As it turned out, I wouldn't care less what <em>anyone</em>
|
|
in that room thought about what I was presenting. And I was talking
|
|
away, at a mile a minute, bouncing around the front of the room,
|
|
making jokes about the work, heading off "suggestions" from my
|
|
notorious colleague with out a pause, and all the time I had one
|
|
thought screaming in the back of my mind. I had just raised $15K to
|
|
put on an Open Source conference at the Lab. "PHENIX detector council,
|
|
eat your heart out!" Of course I never said that to them, but they
|
|
must have known something was going on.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
Malcolm Capel setting up and testing the display projectors used for
|
|
the conference.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/CapelSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
The next step was to try and raise money from the Linux business
|
|
community. I got a copy of the Linux Journal and made a list of every
|
|
company who advertised there. I then split up the companies into 3
|
|
groups of which I was in charge of calling up 1/3 of them. The other
|
|
2/3rd's were delegated out to two others in the organizing
|
|
committee. Sean McCorkle snagged someone from Microway. He asked me to
|
|
follow through with them. I spent a couple of days working down my
|
|
list. I learned a valuable lesson during this part of the fund raising
|
|
campaign. One of the hardest things to do is call someone up you don't
|
|
know and try and sell them on the idea of giving you money. It is a
|
|
humiliating experience with a capital H. I have gotten a gazillion
|
|
calls from vendors trying to sell me their products and I usually keep
|
|
their pitch short and send them on their way. Now it was my turn to be
|
|
on the other end of the phone. Most of the time I couldn't get through
|
|
to the person in charge of promotions. A lot of the times all I could
|
|
do was send e-mail to these people and never get a reply. But there was
|
|
the occasional time I did get through to somebody. The first one I
|
|
did get through was KAI. I managed to pitch the conference to someone
|
|
important there. A week later, I got an e-mail that they were
|
|
interested in the coffee break sponsorship. Another victory celebration
|
|
erupted immediately.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
Bonnie Sherwood and Elaine Dimasi pictured the day before the
|
|
conference as they sorted out the badges for the registrants.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/SherwoodDimasiSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
Through out all this, we kept brining up the idea of getting a "major
|
|
sponsor" for the conference. They would contribute the full amount
|
|
needed to organize the conference and this would free up our time to
|
|
organize it rather than wasting precious time on this fund raising
|
|
task. "Ask Red Hat, they got lots of money." Was one comment. "These
|
|
guys are flush in Venture Capital funds." Referring to the general
|
|
Open Source business community like VA Linux and others. So it was
|
|
left to me to try and contact Red Hat and VA Linux. I knew Jim Gleason
|
|
of VA Linux from the NYLUG so I contacted him. He gave me names,
|
|
numbers and e-mail address of those over in corporate HQ who could
|
|
make the decisions. I contacted (via e-mail) Bob Young and pitched
|
|
the idea. He warmed up to it. VA Linux after a couple of days told me
|
|
that they could only be a minor sponsor. "All our funds have been
|
|
committed for the year" I was told. Fair enough, we were pushing to
|
|
fund a conference about 3 months before it was to take place. (Its now
|
|
mid July.) Also, everyone in Linux land was getting ready for the
|
|
Linux World Expo in San Jose CA (early August) and I knew that OSOS
|
|
would have to take a back seat to that event until it was over.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Parallel to raising money for the conference, we started to worry
|
|
about promoting it. When we first started working on organizing it, I
|
|
thought that a couple of postings on Slash Dot, Linux Today, Linux
|
|
Weekly News, Freshmeat and some well chosen news groups would be all
|
|
that we needed. WRONG! The first thing we needed to do was get the
|
|
word out to those who worked at the lab. "Simple!" I thought. BNL has
|
|
a Public Affairs office (PA) who's sole purpose is to promote the
|
|
Laboratory. I would just use those resources.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
Lars Ewell on the left, who's my office mate, and Martin Purschke, who
|
|
does online work for the PHENIX experiment are pretending to show off
|
|
a poster which is going to be presented at the conference. The poster
|
|
was made by Martin.
|
|
</caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/EwellPurshkenSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
"You can't use the term Open Source. Nobody know what it is." I was
|
|
told by PA, in response to our text for the BNL e-mail announcement I
|
|
wanted them to send out lab wide. "What do you mean I can't use the
|
|
term Open Source. It's an Open Source conference. It's in the Title!"
|
|
I argued. "Also, no one knows what source code is. You can't use that
|
|
term either" they continued. "We asked someone here what they thought
|
|
source code was and they said it must be some kind of government
|
|
specification for plumbing. Sorry, you can't use it" PA said. I
|
|
couldn't believe what I was up against. PA continued, "Also, we don't
|
|
e-mail lab wide announcement of conferences. No body is interested in
|
|
conferences, and that is not our job. We do have a special e-mail
|
|
list which people sign up to where we can post your announcement
|
|
too. It has about 800 people signed up" they boasted. I checked out who
|
|
was on the list and it was slim pick'ns as far as laboratory
|
|
scientists and engineers went. I had never heard of this announcement
|
|
e-mail list which PA was telling me about so how would the rest of the
|
|
lab know about it. And I have been at the lab for over 10 years!. So
|
|
be it, we did our best to reword the text for our e-mail announcement
|
|
to the Lab, replacing the terms Open Source and source code and let
|
|
them send out the e-mail to the their 800 list subscribers. This
|
|
generated about 30 hits on our web site of which about 5 were
|
|
interested in the conference. We had to do something. We used the lab
|
|
channels and came up empty handed. Furthermore, of all the people I
|
|
asked, no one had gotten our e-mail announcement. And I asked all my
|
|
colleagues who I worked with who I knew would be interested in it. This
|
|
left us with little recourse but to SPAM the Lab. We were left with no
|
|
choice. We were going to get the word out to the Lab via e-mail no
|
|
matter how high the obstacles PA and Lab management were going to
|
|
throw up in our path. So, after about 2 hours of perl scripting, I
|
|
was able to generate a list of over 5000 e-mail addresses of anyone
|
|
who in one way or other was involved with the Laboratory. After
|
|
setting the mailing in motion, (I had to send out the e-mails slowly
|
|
since there was the possibility of crashing the NT mail exchange server
|
|
of the Lab and if the OSOS SPAMing did so, we would be in <em>big</em>
|
|
trouble. It had happened once before with a situation not related to
|
|
our conference and thus our caution) we got a healthy hit rate on our
|
|
web site and everyone I talked to had received notice of the
|
|
event. Sorry Public Affairs, but we just had to do it. You left
|
|
us no choice in the matter.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
The photo of Eliane Dimasi, Bruce Perens and Jon "maddog" Hall during
|
|
the pre-registration dinner.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/RegDinnerSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
But that was just the beginning of our efforts to get the the word
|
|
out. We spent a healthy 2 weeks generating our own mailing list of
|
|
colleges and Universities through out the NE to which we would
|
|
snail-mail a flier announcing the conference. But we realized that we
|
|
needed to do more. We further realized that we didn't budget a penny
|
|
to advertise the conference. By this time, I was able to get KAI, SGI,
|
|
Portland Group and others to sponsor the conference. We had generated
|
|
about 5K in sponsorships at this point. So we decided to spend all
|
|
those funds on advertising. Also, this was just around the Linux World
|
|
conference. It turned out that Donnie Barns was talking with VA Linux
|
|
during Linux Expo, about a possible joint major sponsorship. A week
|
|
later I got e-mails from VA Linux and Red Hat that they were
|
|
interested. This sent chills down my spine. This was the mother load!
|
|
The organizing committee huddled and tried to figure out how we would
|
|
"package" a major sponsorship. It was rather easy. We would put
|
|
their names and logos on every bit of real estate we owned, on the web,
|
|
on every banner, conference bag and brochure we would print. Anywhere
|
|
and everywhere we could think of, Red Hat's and VA Linux's logo would
|
|
be there. They like it, and we got $25K. Thank God, because we spent
|
|
it <em>all</em> on advertising.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
Bill Horn talking about openDX.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/HornSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
The NY Times science section and Newsday took up the lion's share of
|
|
advertising funds. We also got 10 days of prime time space on WSHU,
|
|
the local public radio station broadcasting out of Connecticut. My
|
|
guess is that we got word out about the conference to well over
|
|
100,000 people. In the end over 200 people showed up, a 10^-3 effect
|
|
which is what I expected. The important thing was not so much that we
|
|
got over 200 people to attend the conference, but that hundreds of
|
|
thousands of people saw the Brookhaven Laboratory logo associated with
|
|
Open Source software along with Red Hat and VA Linux. In a country of
|
|
250 million people, hundreds of thousands are not large numbers, but
|
|
you have to start somewhere. And the long term effects of this "brand
|
|
name" association are yet to be known but I'm sure it will be
|
|
positive. (Dr. John Marburger, the director of the Laboratory, should
|
|
be very grateful of us for what we did here.)
|
|
<br clear=left>
|
|
<br clear=right>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<table align=left vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
"Where are those PC's!"<br>
|
|
Jim Gleason and Ari of VA Linux screwing around for a photo op in the
|
|
basement of the Physics building while we were looking for Xterminals.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/JimAriSmall.jpg>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
|
|
By the time the spots on NPR started airing and the ads in the NY
|
|
Times and Newsday started to appear, the registration rate started to
|
|
pick up. It peaked the weekend before the conference. All that was
|
|
left was to make sure we put on a good show for the attendees. (Ehmm,
|
|
I meant to say a good "conference".)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"What do you mean the VA Linux PC's are stuck in NYC?" I asked Jim
|
|
Gleason. Those were the PC's we were going to use for the Post/Demo
|
|
room. "Its a union thing" he replied. "The Fed Ex guy wasn't allowed to
|
|
cross the corridor to pickup the boxes. Only a union guy could do
|
|
that." Where are are we going to get replacements? "Sean, Ed,
|
|
Heeeelp!" (Sean McCorkle, Ed McFadden and I managed to scrounge up
|
|
enough Xterminals from around the Lab to cover the missing VA Linux
|
|
boxes.) "What to do you mean we have to have to conference photo in
|
|
the back of Berkner. I want it taken just out side the main entrance!"
|
|
I told Ann Emrick. "Sorry, the photographer said there was too much
|
|
sun light" she replied. Who ever heard of too much sun light!
|
|
<br clear=left>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=right vspace=10 hspace=10>
|
|
<caption align=bottom><font size=-1>
|
|
The VIP Dinner. From left to right are Steve Adler (me), Larry
|
|
Augustin; CEO and co-founder of VA Linux, an attendee, Sean McCorkle,
|
|
Ari of VA Linux, Ed McFadden, Maddog and Bruce Perens. My stiff drink
|
|
is hidden behind that carafe.
|
|
</font></caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<center>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/VipDinnerSmall.jpg>
|
|
</center>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
And so October 1st and 2nd went, one crisis situation after
|
|
another. The day flew by and before I knew it, what remained of the
|
|
speakers and who ever I could find hanging around after the
|
|
conference, were seated at <em>The Bellport</em>, for our "VIP"
|
|
dinner. It was all over at that point. I had a stiff drink which I
|
|
rarely do. "A whiskey on the rocks please, and make it a double."
|
|
Everyone seemed to have a good time there. I spent most of my time
|
|
reminiscing about DEC hardware with Maddog, Larry Augustin, and Bruce
|
|
Perens.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
The following week I started to hear feedback on the conference. As
|
|
best as I can tell, it turned out to be a great success. The most
|
|
admirable compliment came from Tom Kirk, the associate director for
|
|
Nuclear and High Energy Physics. (He makes all the decisions
|
|
regarding future nuclear and high energy experiments at the Lab. In
|
|
other words, he's an important guy.) He told me that the conference,
|
|
when looked back several years from now, would be considered as a
|
|
key turning point on the topic of Open Source and science. I also got
|
|
word that a lot of good things were said about the conference through
|
|
out the directors office.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
<table align=left>
|
|
<caption align=bottom>
|
|
<font size=-1>
|
|
There I am on the left with Sean McCorkle on the right. Cheers to the
|
|
Open Source/Free Software world from BNL!
|
|
</font>
|
|
</caption>
|
|
<tr><td>
|
|
<img src=gx/adler/SteveSeanSmall.jpg vspace=10 hspace=20>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
So there I strolled along Bell Avenue, heading north towards the
|
|
bank. A bright breezy day. The surrounding trees vibrated in fall color.
|
|
Peace and quiet. "So what's next?" was a thought I was trying to avoid. I
|
|
was recovering from my 4 month marathon organizational project. I was
|
|
going to have to heal some open wounds I had left with my colleagues
|
|
over in PHENIX. They were threatening to take my name off the
|
|
authorship list of the PHENIX experiment for skipping out on all their
|
|
meetings and generally blowing them off. Finally, I was going to have
|
|
to think about the future. "Open Source/Open Science 2K. Hmmm that has
|
|
a nice ring to it."
|
|
|
|
<br clear=all>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=-1><EM>
|
|
I would like to thank Matthew Prete, Joe Louderback and Andrew Pimlott
|
|
for their corrections to the grammar and spelling of this
|
|
article. Thanks guys.
|
|
</EM></FONT>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 1999, Stephen Adler<BR>
|
|
Published in Issue 48 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 1999</H5>
|
|
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
|
|
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|
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