Thoughts on EclipseCon Business Track

So I think we're narrowing down on the EclipseCon Business track. There are 4 long talk and 1 panel slots allocated, and 18 submissions on record.

#1 - Brent Williams 3877 is IMO a sure choice. Brent gets high feedback from all the sessions I've seen him speak in. His topic is really appealing for anyone trying to build a business around open source and the content is something we've been asked for (Business Models) a lot.

#2 - Alan Zeichick 3703 is also IMO a sure choice. Alan has a lot of great data, is not afraid to share information that others might consider proprietary and this is a great Marketing focused session that appeals to everyone (note to project leads - you won't want to miss this).

Panel - I feel strongly that we need a very strong Intellectual Property discussion at EclipseCon. I am not sure that having a single presenter speak is ideal, because IP has many different angles to it. Moreover, there is an underlying business implication related to the challenges of mixing (aka Blending) commercial and open source, and the benefits it can bring. Therefore, I have proposed 3917 as a panel and have confirmed Palamida, Blackduck, Open Methods and IBM to participate (awaiting BEA's confirmation). I think this will be a strong panel and generate a lot of conversations and connections.

So, I feel very strongly about those three sessions. Things get a little more fuzzy for the remaining two slots.

I would like to choose one of 3656 and 3682. I think it's important to have a talk that focuses on the Enterprise. Maher's talk (3656) looks like it will take the perspective of adopting and using Open Source within the enterprise, and compares it to small groups/individuals adopting open source. John (3682) on the other hand, will take the perspective of how to get your organization into developing open source, and how to use that to strategic advantage. I would pick both, but given the scarcity of slots, I want to pick just one with an enterprise focus - should it be adoption or strategic development focused?

For the final slots, there are a few ways to go. Mary Ruddy looks to have a good proposal on how to build an ecosystem from the perspective of a small group in submission 3765. 3808 from Varun at Microsoft looks really interesting too, but there was a talk from MSFT a couple years ago and it was not well received. Session 3819 looks good also, and seems like a melange of a few topics and would appeal to smaller ISVs. To be honest, I had mentally rejected 3863 when I first read it as being too general and not of interest to an EclipseCon audience. But there has been a pretty strong response and comments are quite good. Moreover, we do get asked a lot at the foundation about Certification (all kinds, from training to products to plugins), so perhaps I initially underestimated this topic.

What are your thoughts?

- Don