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==Mike Hoye: How to start an Internet Famous Business with Open Source Software==
One of the presentations I attended was from Mike Hoye. Mike started a new internet based business in late 2010. He did this after he quit his job and was given a 1 one year deadline to start a new business and bring in profit. His company launched products like BeSDS and BerrySync. His presentation is to talk about what he did right or wrong and the lessons he learnt from it.
As an individual trying to launch a technological product in a highly saturated market, it is hard to deliver a stable and competitive product within an estimated timeline. According to Mike, one of the biggest challenging was trying to resist the temptation to add features to the product to make it stand out from the others. This often ends in missing the deadline, while the company is losing money in the meantime.
==What did I learn?==
Both the presentation brought out a lot of good points. I tried to develop an idea with a friend over the summer and the reason for failing in that venture was trying to add more feature to make the product stand out. This was the biggest mistake we made as we kept pushing back the deadline due to scope creep. After listening to the presentation by Mike Hoye, I was able to understand many things that seemed obvious at the time. The reason why I failed in my attempt to create a product out of my idea may be due to my lack of experience.
From the presentation by Chris Tyler, there are number subtle points that I wished to disagree. One such point is that Apps are useless when the web designer can make create a site catered to small screens. The reason for using an App and not a browser on the phone is the usability that is available with the app which is not available when using the browser. I believe that apps are designed to allow a user to accomplish simple and commonly used task, which is laid out in convenient positions within the app, instead of going through a browser on a small screen.
==Conclusion==
The FSOSS event was a big insight for me into the world of Open Source. The open source community had always made me wonder how they operate and how they survive in a cut-throat market. By attending FSOSS, I managed to gain additional insight to this world where everyone helps one another.