OSCON is getting older...
Jul. 26th, 2006 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
connaticI'm enjoying the Open Source Conference. Yesterday evening, Larry Wall did his yearly State of the Onion, we had a good talk on creating passionate users, and Damian Conway did a brilliant parody of the Da Vinci Code. Today's sessions are more of a mixed bag - Patrick Michaud on the perl 6 parser was good, Greg Kroah-Hartman on Linux was good, but the session on AJAX security was a waste of time.
One thing I've noticed is that the average age of attendees has gone way up. I've been attending OSCON on and off since 2000, and it looks like the average age has gone up from 25-30 to 35-40 (so a lot of bald heads, often with beards). In ten years all the attendees will be of retirement age :-)
I'm not sure what causes this. They're certainly still getting a lot of very technical people, and the number of attendees seems to be going up, but I hope younger people aren't turned off by other subjects or the high price. I'll ask around to see what others think.
Update: Ingy and Tim Bunce have observed the same at OSCON, but not at the affordable perl conference, YAPC. The consensus is that OSCON is so expensive that it requires corporate sponsorship - which is easier to get for established (relatively senior) programmers than it is for younger new hires. It's a pity - fresh minds is what makes the conference interesting.
One thing I've noticed is that the average age of attendees has gone way up. I've been attending OSCON on and off since 2000, and it looks like the average age has gone up from 25-30 to 35-40 (so a lot of bald heads, often with beards). In ten years all the attendees will be of retirement age :-)
I'm not sure what causes this. They're certainly still getting a lot of very technical people, and the number of attendees seems to be going up, but I hope younger people aren't turned off by other subjects or the high price. I'll ask around to see what others think.
Update: Ingy and Tim Bunce have observed the same at OSCON, but not at the affordable perl conference, YAPC. The consensus is that OSCON is so expensive that it requires corporate sponsorship - which is easier to get for established (relatively senior) programmers than it is for younger new hires. It's a pity - fresh minds is what makes the conference interesting.
