NewsForge: A Low-Cost, Linux-based Conference Registration System

[ Thanks to Shayde for
this link. ]

“Massachusetts resident Dave Belfer-Shevett likes to attend both
technical and science fiction conferences, and for years he has
been appalled by the poor systems they used for registration and
badge printing. ‘I could do better than this,’ he said. And so he
did–using Linux, MySQL, and surplus hardware he picked up on eBay
and elsewhere.

“This is how Linux-based businesses are born these days. An itch
is found that is not necessarily the programmer’s, and in the
scratching process an opportunity to make money appears–and is
exploited.

“This is not communism, even though some proprietary software
boosters want you to believe communism is the predominant economic
theory behind Linux and Open Source. Rather, this is capitalism in
its purest form, specifically of the ‘find a need and fill it’
variety…”

Complete
Story