The second half of day 1 was really interesting.  I spent most of the time following the sessions showcasing the Chinese modifications to OpenOffice.org.  The guys from RedOffice2000 are amazing.  The interface changes they have made to create RedOffice are really well thought out.  They took the traditional interface that we all grew up with, and transformed it into something that is strongly based on their own cultural needs and expectations.  The thing is... it also has a mass appeal to non-Chinese users too.  That was very much in evidence with the very first question asked after the presentation/demo was finished... "Do you have an English version?"  I have a feeling that the RedOffice guys were not expecting that question at all... just my observation of the momentary look of surprise that they had.  They answered that they currently do not have an English version, but there may be one in the distant future. 

Regardless... if you have a chance, go download the presentation and take a look.  There are several screen captures of the new interface, and you can get a feel for what they have done.  The main concept is to increase the editing area and put the tools on the left stide.  The tools are all iconified, and are grouped based on task (vs the more generic and not-so-task-based grouping we are used to with OOo).

Other presentations that stuck out in my mind from Wednesday.... the one from eZ.  This is a content amangement system that uses OOo to convert doucments on the fly into an dout of the CMS.  The URL is http://www.ez.no 

But on to Friday.  Most o fthe "interesting" presentations are done now (well interesting to me anyway).  The first session of the day was the OOo Council Q&A session.  This was much too short.  The really needed a lot more time, and I think that was something tehy will take away from this conference and consider for nect time.  There were loads of good questions being raised... some easy, and ohters more difficult.  The feeling you get is that everyone there really wants to see OOo succeed... hopefully Kiberpiper will have the video of that session up soon.

Anyway, another day at the conference... and more fascingating topics (I am such a nerd soem days).  Also... loads of meeting up with various people... putting faces to names from the mailing lists and forums.

More tomorrow... I hope.