The Tokyo Linux UG will have a technical meeting & nomikai on Saturday November 14th. Stop by.
Friday Nov 06, 2009
Friday Oct 09, 2009
The Tokyo Linux User
Group will be celebrating 15 years of Linux in Tokyo in a couple of
weeks. I`ll be there. If you want to go,
see the info here. I have been participating
in TLUG for over two years now, and I have learned a great deal --
not only about Linux but also about the FOSS community in Tokyo. And,
actually, the Linux community in Tokyo is international, so you are
always meeting people from not only here but from all over the place.
In any given meeting, you could easily have conversations with guys
from a dozen countries. Really interesting group. Friendly. Open. Technical. Diverse.
Sunday Sep 13, 2009
Some images from the Tokyo Linux User Group (TLUG). Really good technical meeting on Saturday and nomikai later at night. About 50 people came by to hear Zev Blut on using the shell effectively, Alberto Tomita on the upcoming Japan Linux Symposium, and Matthew (Karamoon) on Hackerspaces.
All
of my TLUG photos here on Flickr
All of my TLUG posts tagged here: http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/tags/tlug
Sunday Jul 12, 2009
A bunch of images from the Tokyo Linux User
Group Saturday afternoon and evening. Karamoon on Tokyo
Hackerspace, Marty Pauley on security, and Michael Sullivan on ZFS.
Tuesday Jul 07, 2009
Last month there was an interesting thread developing on ogb-discuss about the lessons learned from the Townhall session at CommunityOne. The conversation died pretty quickly, though, which was a shame. I think it could have led to some good issues being explored.
In a couple of posts in the discussion, I talked about Jono Bacon`s Ubuntu session I attended at C1 and what OpenSolaris could learn from the Linux community in general (actually, we are already learning even if many people don`t realize it yet). I was trying to promote the notion that the OpenSolaris community ought to take on more community building responsibilities and not depend on Sun so much. That was in response to an observation that the "community" was somewhat lacking at CommunityOne. That may be true to a certain degree. C1 was a large event run by a company, for the most part, but it was intended to benefit the community. Let`s take it. It was a gift. I think that too may people are too quick to look to Sun for everything, which is not realistic and only leads to disappointment because expectations are simply too high.
Sun is doing its part (opening code, funding development operations and global community building programs, running conferences, hosting infrastructure, moving engineers outside, etc), but the community shouldn`t expect Sun to build the entire community at all levels, and that`s the impression I get sometimes from some of our list conversations. I have said that the community needs to assert more of its own community building role for four years now, but it never really resonates on list. I`m not sure why. Maybe I`m just wrong, but I think it`s painfully obvious. Just hang out a bit with the Linux community and you see many layers of communities with no single company in the center responsible for building everything. There are many companies and organizations and universities and individuals, and the attitude is very different. And there is no reason why OpenSolaris can`t grow in that direction as well. In fact, it`s already happening. Companies and large organizations are getting involved, and there are elements in the community that are asserting their role as builders beyond Sun -- the user groups. The OSUGs are helping to diversify community building functions because many of them are now running their own events (in addition to their normal meetings, I mean), and they are growing in their own ways without Sun necessarily being directly involved. This is a model on which we should expand.
Building the OpenSolaris community needs to be everyone`s responsibility and everyone`s opportunity, and it needs to be distributed as widely as possible. This is what we are doing in Tokyo, by the way.
Saturday Jul 04, 2009
I hope to check out three community events in Tokyo in the next week or so:
- 7/10:
OpenSolaris User Group: ZFS and OpenSolaris Security
- 7/11: Tokyo Linux
User Group: Network Security and ZFS
- 7/13:
Tokyo2Point0: Cloud Computing and Lightning Talks
The timing is good, too. Canon called. They fixed my lens.
Saturday Jun 27, 2009
It's excellent to see the 9th Annual Linux Kernel Summit and the 1st Annual Japan Linux Symposium
coming to Tokyo in October. Check out this language from the LF
website: "The Japan Linux Symposium will be the showcase Japan and Asia
Pacific conference for The Linux Foundation." Showcase. This is
significant. The Japanese may not shout about it much, but developers
in this country are contributing to FOSS and their contributions are
growing. The potential in Japan for open source is huge. I've been
saying it since I got here. So cool that the LF clearly recognizes this
potential by bringing their conferences here. Also interesting: the LF website appears in two languages -- English and Japanese.
I already hang out with the Tokyo Linux User Group (here, here), so I hope to attend this gig in October.
I already hang out with the Tokyo Linux User Group (here, here), so I hope to attend this gig in October.
Saturday Jun 13, 2009
I've been thinking that it might be an interesting time to do a little kernel conference for OpenSolaris, Linux, and the BSDs right here in Tokyo. Get everyone together. See what happens. What the heck.
We could hold the event right at the Sun office on the 27th floor just like BarCamp back in May. We already hold the Tokyo Linux User Group meetings here and get about 40 people each time, we hold OpenSolaris meetings and get about 40 people (and about 100 for formal product launches), and BarCamp drew 100 people from multiple communities. That`s basically where I got the idea from -- and, of course, watching James C. McPherson put together his kernel conference in Australia. So, I wonder what would happen if we organized a day long conference specifically to bring together developers and community members from the key open source operating systems in an informal, un-conference format? I wonder what technology and community building bits we could all share together? I bet we could attract 150 top guys from Tokyo, and I bet we'd make quite an impression in the process. And I think there is more than enough talent right here to pull it off without having to call in people from the U.S. or Europe (although they'd certainly be welcome to come and participate, of course).
Just kicking this idea around ...
Sunday May 10, 2009
Some shots from the Tokyo Linux User Group
technical meeting and nomikai tonight.
Everything tagged TLUG: http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/tags/tlug
Monday May 04, 2009
If you come to Sun`s Yoga office in Tokyo for OpenSolaris or Linux meetings or the upcoming BarCamp event, it`s really hard to get lost now. I updated the directions with new text and photos.
Thursday Apr 30, 2009
The agenda is all set for the next Tokyo Linux User Group technical meeting.
It's Saturday May 9th. It's right here at Sun's office in Yoga on the
27th floor. Shoji and I will be there. And after the meeting we'll go
out for some beers, of course. These meetings are generally very well
attended with 45 or so people. There are usually two main talks and
sometimes a third short talk stuffed in there as well. Then there is an
auction to raise money for the group (for hosting services, etc), so
people are always bringing stuff to, well, auction off. And speakers
drink free after the meeting, too. Good all around. Great group of
guys. Stop by. All open communities welcome. To get a feel for these meetings, check out the many TLUG photos I keep at this tag right here: http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/tags/tlug
Sunday Mar 15, 2009
I spent the day yesterday with the Tokyo Linux User Group at the March technical meeting and nomikai. Great turn out of about 45 guys. I was too tired to go out for the nijikai afterwards because of all the other events this week, but I had a great time while I was there. There were two full length (and excellent) talks -- Stephen J. Turnbull on version control systems and Akira Kurogane on natural language processing -- plus the regular auction to raise money for the group and then drinks later on.
TLUG is 15 years old this year. That`s quite a history for a user group. I`m a new guy around here (about a year or so), but TLUG is a genuine community and I feel most welcome at all these events. It`s great to see OpenSolaris guys in Tokyo participating as well. Hopefully, we`ll get together for the 15th year anniversary in June. Anyway, here are some images from yesterday.
Thursday Mar 05, 2009
There are three upcoming events in Tokyo for OpenSolaris, Linux, and Tokyo2Point0:
- Japan OpenSolaris User Group: Friday, February 13
- Tokyo2Point0: Monday March 9
- Tokyo Linux User Group: Saturday, March 14
Sunday Feb 15, 2009
After the OpenSolaris session on Jaris last night I went across town for the Tokyo Linux User Group nijikai. I missed the nomikai a bit earlier, but I couldn`t resist round two for a couple of hours. Some images ...
Sunday Jan 11, 2009
Wednesday Jan 07, 2009
The Japan OpenSolaris User Group will meet at Sun`s Jingumae office in Tokyo on Friday night to talk about security issues and the history of Solaris and OpenSolaris. More info here. Also the Tokyo Linux User Group will meet on Saturday at Sun`s Yoga office in Tokyo to talk about Amazon Web Services and how to deploy new Amazon Machine Instances to EC2. There will be a Linux hack session as well. More info here.
Saturday Dec 13, 2008
Some shots from the Tokyo Linux User Group Bonenkai earlier tonight. A bonenkai is basically a year end party in Japan. There were probably about 40 people there from well over a dozen countries. A pretty typical TLUG nomikai but just a tad bigger. Nice time.
Friday Nov 28, 2008
Shoji posted an announcement for the first Tokyo OpenSolaris User Group nomikai on Thurs, December 4th.
Should be fun. For two years, I've been posting images of nomikais from
various events around Tokyo, but this is the first time we're getting together as an international OpenSolaris community.
We are just starting, so hopefully it will be nice and small. But the
intention is to grow and build with diversity in mind as the foundation
for the community. The model for this is TLUG,
which started with one person and grew to hundreds. Also, those
guys get about a dozen countries represented among 50 or so people at
their technical meetings and 25 or so at nomikais. You can't beat that
size and diversity for global reach in a local user group. So, if you
are interested in stopping by and talking about OpenSolaris, let me
know. No agenda. Just conversation. And food. And drink. TSUG
Sunday Nov 09, 2008
Friday Oct 31, 2008
The next technical meeting for the Tokyo Linux User Group will be on Saturday November 8th. I'll be there for sure. Come on by. All the info is here on the TLUG wiki.
Saturday Oct 11, 2008
Nice nomikai
tonight with the Tokyo Linux User Group.
There were guys there from 12 countries. Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, US, Argentina, Brazil, Korea, France, Iceland, Australia. And that's normal for this group. It's quite an international crowd, and to me that's part of what makes a healthy community. That's also why I like hanging out with these guys.
Sunday Sep 14, 2008
Images from the Tokyo Linux User Group meeting at Sun earlier today. And, of course, the nomikai later in the evening. As with every TLUG event, it was great to meet a bunch of new guys in Tokyo.
Saturday Aug 09, 2008
Went to the Tokyo Linux User Group nomikai tonight. As always, I met a bunch of new guys. Very cool.
All TLUG pics here.
All TLUG pics here.
Sunday Jul 13, 2008
Sun`s Shoji Haraguchi and Hisayoshi Kato presented DTrace with a bunch of demos at the Tokyo Linux User Group meeting yesterday. Lars Kotthoff also presented reading Felica cards from Linux/BSD. I took 88 images and dumped 40 or so on the train ride home. The stuff below is what survived. It was a good day (and night) with about 50 people turning up. I had been wanting to get the OpenSolaris guys together with the Linux and BSD guys for a while now since I seem to mix in both crowds these days. We got together at the launch of OpenSolaris 2008.05 and then again tonight, so hopefully we can have more meetings in the future with all three operating system communities.
I have quite a nice collection for TLUG and related images at this point. Now I have to go back and fill in some names. A project for the next week or so.
Saturday Jun 14, 2008
Saturday May 24, 2008
Here are some images from the OpenSolaris 2008.05 launch last night in Tokyo. It was great to see some guys from the Linux and BSD communities stop by, and many thanks to Simon Phipps for coming all the way from London to open the evening of presentations.
Wednesday Apr 02, 2008
Matt Asay explores open source in Japan and concludes that it may be time to give the place a second look -- Open source: Made in Japan?
Good post. He points to some excellent examples of open source
contributors in Japan and also corporate and government use of open
source.
I found Matt's blog being discussed on the Tokyo Linux User Group list -- [tlug] "Open source: Made in Japan?" blog -- today where Curt Sampson was talking about the language/culture barriers in Japan and also how Japan is home to more NetBSD developers than any country outside the United States. I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised I didn't know since Japan is a country absolutely determined to down play its role in just about everything possible. It's exactly the opposite behavior of the United States, which tends to over play its hand in just about everything possible.
Anyway, I agree about the language/cultural barriers. They are big. Generally, I find very few in the west interested in software development taking place in Japan, and I also find very little interest here in exploring anything outside of Japan. It goes both ways. It's tough to look inside, and very few here are looking outside. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but I've been quite surprised by the size of the east/west divide for a market so big. See Matt's blog for the exceptions, by the way, which are all very encouraging.
I think similar issues were present in China, as well, but recently when I go to China and visit the universities I find the students much more willing to learn from and engage with the west. They are loud and enthusiastic and bold. I'm no expert on China, and I could be seeing only one part of that market because they have so many students in computer programs now, but it seems to me that the trends are clear and distinction with Japan is now very big. Whereas the language/cultural barriers here in Japan are the same as always (and I can find no one to dispute that), they seem to be going away in China.
Another factor for Japan may be that this market is mature and expensive and suffers from under exposure because massive attention and resources are flying to China and India because those guys are rapidly emerging and sucking up all the publicity. I was also thinking that some of this may be just a mis-understanding since the west and east view "community" and "contribution" and "individual motivation" somewhat differently. Who knows. Some good opinions on the Tlug list, too. Check out the thread.
I found Matt's blog being discussed on the Tokyo Linux User Group list -- [tlug] "Open source: Made in Japan?" blog -- today where Curt Sampson was talking about the language/culture barriers in Japan and also how Japan is home to more NetBSD developers than any country outside the United States. I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised I didn't know since Japan is a country absolutely determined to down play its role in just about everything possible. It's exactly the opposite behavior of the United States, which tends to over play its hand in just about everything possible.
Anyway, I agree about the language/cultural barriers. They are big. Generally, I find very few in the west interested in software development taking place in Japan, and I also find very little interest here in exploring anything outside of Japan. It goes both ways. It's tough to look inside, and very few here are looking outside. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but I've been quite surprised by the size of the east/west divide for a market so big. See Matt's blog for the exceptions, by the way, which are all very encouraging.
I think similar issues were present in China, as well, but recently when I go to China and visit the universities I find the students much more willing to learn from and engage with the west. They are loud and enthusiastic and bold. I'm no expert on China, and I could be seeing only one part of that market because they have so many students in computer programs now, but it seems to me that the trends are clear and distinction with Japan is now very big. Whereas the language/cultural barriers here in Japan are the same as always (and I can find no one to dispute that), they seem to be going away in China.
Another factor for Japan may be that this market is mature and expensive and suffers from under exposure because massive attention and resources are flying to China and India because those guys are rapidly emerging and sucking up all the publicity. I was also thinking that some of this may be just a mis-understanding since the west and east view "community" and "contribution" and "individual motivation" somewhat differently. Who knows. Some good opinions on the Tlug list, too. Check out the thread.
Also, Matt mentioned Ruby. Very cool community. I was so impressed with the Ruby community a while back. Here are all my blogs on Ruby. And Matt mentions the Japanese government getting involved in open source, too. Well, they are also exploring OpenSolaris (here, here, here). Oh, one more thing: the Japan portal for OpenSolaris is our #1 portal by far in terms of total page views hitting the site. But, man, the Spanish are catching up jet fast! :)
Tuesday Feb 12, 2008
Here's an attempt to help bridge natural language and cultural barriers here in Japan -- [tlug] Cross-cultural Engineer Party in Tokyo, Feb 15.
I'm going for sure. I deal with this every day. It's not just a
problem here in Japan, though. It's a challenge whenever you run any
global project that cuts across any language and any culture.
Saturday Feb 09, 2008
Every time I hang out with the TLUG guys I meet new community people from all over the world. Very cool time tonight. As always.
TLUG 2/08 pics on flickr. TLUG Nomikai announcement. TLUG.
More pics from Pietro Zuco here, here, here, here, here, here.
Wednesday Jan 16, 2008
It was great meeting some of the Ubuntu guys in Tokyo a few days ago when Benjamin Mako Hill was in town. Great conversation about Japan, community building, user groups, translations, contributions, Ubuntu and Debian, One Laptop per Child, and FOSS generally. Thanks to Barton George for making the connection. :)
Left to Right: Rion Aoki, Mitsuya Shibata, Jun Kobayashi,
Fumihito Yoshida, Benjamin Mako Hill, Jim Grisanzio.
Photo Credit: Rion Aoki.
This blog copyright 2009 by jimgris
