User:Kpangilinan/FSOSS 2010

2010 Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS)

About 1 week ago I attended the Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) hosted by Seneca College, along with fellow classmates. FSOSS is a major gathering of North American open source developers, businesses, educators, and users. The goal of the symposium is to explore how open source, open standards, and open content are changing technology, the web, the media and arts, education, and business.

Being my first time attending FSOSS, I really didn't know what to expect. During my visit I was able to attend 4 presentations (5 if the Between Free Software and Open Standards: the Business Model presentation was not canceled), 2 of which I'll talk in greater detail. The first presentation of the day I attended was on Scene Creator done by Matthew Postil (a fellow BSD student), the second presentation was on Web Audio by our very own professor David Humphrey, after lunch I attended Spencer Kellys Freebase and the semantic web presentation, and lastly Popcorn.js and Open Video presented Scott Downe. Most of the presentations I attended were fairly done well. The Web Audio and Open Video presentations were my favorite and most interesting to me.

Web Audio

Summary

One of the presentations I attended was our very own Open Source professor David Humphrey. David Humphrey is a web technology developer and a professor in the Seneca School of Computer Studies/Centre for Development of Open Technologies. He is also the Educational Liaison for Mozilla, and the lead developer of the Mozilla Firefox Audio Data API. He presented on Web Audio: One of the remaining frontiers for open web standards is advanced audio. Firefox 4 will include a new Web Audio API, and a W3C Audio Incubator Group has been formed to seed the web standards process. This presentation will explain and demonstrate what the web audio API can do.

PRESENTATION SLIDES...

Analysis

As always, Dave was enthusiastic in his presentation as he is when teaching in the classroom. His knowledge and understanding of Web Audio and Open Source undoubtedly shows his love for Open Source.

Popcorn.js and Open Video

Summary

A related presentation I attended was former Seneca Student Scott Downe and CDOT developer and researcher. He presented on Popcorn.js and Open Video: His presentation consisted of an explaination of open video and the community, what he contributed to popcorn.js and mozilla, and HTML5 video vs flash video.

PRESENTATION SLIDES...

Analysis

Comparison

   * What can you say about open source in the light of the points they made?
   * Do the speakers have similar views of open source or do they disagree?
   * How so?

Conclusion

   * Does the picture of open source you've seen presented in these talks challenge or confirm your own views about what open source is and how it functions?

One of the remaining frontiers for open web standards is advanced audio. Firefox 4 will include a new Web Audio API, and a W3C Audio Incubator Group has been formed to seed the web standards process. This presentation will explain and demonstrate what the web audio API can do