“Every time I go to a conference that doesn’t specifically
revolve around free and open source software I turn on my ‘Open
Source Software Radar’ (OSSdar) to see if I detect any signs of
non-proprietary life in the area. This year’s sold-out Web 2.0
Conference had so much open source going on that my OSSdar
receptors went into overload mode. Even the Microsoft guys talking
up MSN Search had Firefox and OpenOffice.org icons on their
laptops.“Indeed, the open source aura was so strong here on the first
day of Web 2.0 that I felt a little sorry for the MSN people, whose
workshop was titled Building a Developer EcoSystem. Their session,
at 8:30 a.m., had only attracted about 20 people when it started,
while a discussion of AJAX from a business perspective in the
100-seat room next door had an audience so large that it spilled
out into the hall. Two other sessions going on at the same time
were also full to bursting…”