---
title: 'OSCON 2008: Off and running'
date: '2008-07-23T09:34:40-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 229
char_count: 1453
tokens: 298
categories:
  - Oregon
  - OSCON
  - Portland
tags:
  - Oregon
  - OSCON
  - Portland
---

# OSCON 2008: Off and running

If you’ve noticed a higher concentration of geeks in town as of late, there’s a good reason: [OSCON 2008](http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/ "OSCON") is in full swing. The annual open source convention attracts a couple thousand open source aficionados to Portland.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time at the Oregon Convention Center, chatting with folks and watching open source rockstars walk around. And I’ve already had the opportunity to talk with a number of folks who have interesting stories to tell.

Some of those stories are Portland/Silicon Forest based. Like the [EAUT](http://siliconflorist.com/2008/07/22/the-beauty-of-eaut-email-address-to-url-translation/ "EAUT") story. Some of them are from outside our area—but could have direct impact on how we build and market products around here.

And now the real fun begins. Because, last night, OSCON 2008 moved from pre-conference to conference-conference.

Stay tuned for more on OSCON and the afterhours OSCON activities. I’ll try to provide some brief posts on what’s what as the conference progresses.

And, of course, I’ll be looking to do a roundup of posts on the event from local folks. So please do let me know if you’re writing stuff up.

Sorry, no word on the [tattoos](http://siliconflorist.com/2008/07/18/oscon-2008-sourceforge-offers-free-open-source-tattoos/ "Sourceforge offers free open source tattoos") yet.