Open source Pow-wow

January's open source conference in Wellington proved popular.By Danielle Schloffel, IT Brief, News Editor.True to its open source philosophy, the Linux.conf.au 2010 (LCA2010) was – in the words of co-director Susanne Ruthven, “for the community, by the community”.More than 500 local and international attendees descended on Wellington for the conference, the second time since its inception 10 years ago that it’s been held in this country.Those present ranged from newcomers to experts in the field, with 60% of delegates registering as professionals, meaning that they work in open source as a profession. Another 30% of delegates registered as hobbyists, while 10% registered as students.  With more than 70 speakers and 14 ‘miniconfs’, the aim was to educate attendees on the different projects happening in the open source community and the insights that programmers have gained.Keynote speakers included Gabriella Coleman, a New York-based media professor; Benjamin Mako Hill, a technology and intellectual property researcher, activist and consultant; Glyn Moody, a technology writer; and Nathan Torkington, a New Zealand technologist. The themes of the miniconfs, held prior to the main event, included how to use the Arduino open hardware, harnessing the Google Wave, and using open source in the public sector.The open day event featured a number of products and services on display, even including a few open source cars. Other stalls included the One Laptop Per Child organisation, and conference sponsors InternetNZ, Google, IBM and HP.