“The first-ever Trans-Pacific Open Source Software Conference
(TPOSSCON) was held at the Hawaii Convention Center January 17 –
21, 2005. In many ways, it was a ‘pilot project’ meant to gain
credibility for what organizer Scott Belford of the Hawaii Open
Source Education Foundation (HOSEF) hopes will become a yearly
event that attracts people not only from Pacific Islands but also
from ‘mainland’ countries on both sides of the world’s largest
ocean.“Belford financed this event from his own pocket as much as from
any other source, an act of generosity he sees as ‘giving back to
the community…'”