If you’re following PlanetMySQL you’ve already seen Baron’s post about MySQL Conference which many of us just have returned from.
It was great event as well as 5 conferences I’ve been before that, though however it more and more becomes MySQL marketing channel and business event rather than Users Conference as it originated. This Year even name was changed to be MySQL Conference and Expo though I have not noticed it until Baron pointed out 🙂
There is nothing wrong with MySQL Conference and Expo – there are product conferences out where for pretty much any mature product with large user base, however it may not put users interest first any more.
I’ve been talking to a a lot of people and many inside MySQL/Sun and out share the same opinion so we thought we should organize one.
I would like to see the conference which is focused on the product users interests rather than business interests of any particular company (or personal interests of small group of people), I would like it to be affordable so more people can attend and I’d like to see it open so everyone is invited to contribute and process is as open as possible.
Just chatting about idea in the blog comments is poor way to make things happen so we organized OurSQL Google Group which is open for everyone interested in discussing organization of such conference (or set of conferences in different locations) to join. We named the group after Sheeri’s podcast – though conference name may change in the future. We just wanted to avoid using “MySQL” term due to potential trademark issues.
You can also check Arjens post on the same issue.
