Ubuntu In Business Event

The Ubuntu UK community and Canonical held an event yesterday to promote the uptake of… Ubuntu in business! Featuring all kinds of Ubuntu advocacy from indpendent software vendors, the UK Community and Canonical itself, we saw some eye-opening presentations, great chat, re-unions, the best and most refreshing panel discussion in years and some dodgy cocktails…

Among the keynotes, Chris Puttick, CIO of Oxford Archaeology described the strategic decision to adopt an open source infrastructure with Ubuntu at the heart of it. I missed the start, but Chris speaks knowledgibly and entertainingly without pulling any punches.

Presentations included a great line-up of Open Source professionals on delivering solutions built on Ubuntu for businesses in the UK

Alan Lord – Open Learning Centre
David Hopwood -  DSNetworx Ltd.
Jeff Nott  – Alfresco
Michael Judd – Akuna Ltd
Steve Young – Likewise
Alan Pope – Ubuntu UK LoCo

Among the vendor demos, Canonical showed the Landscape Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud management tool and later, made the pitch for Ubuntu Advantage, the new support service

Panel Discussion
For me the best of the ‘formal’ part of the agenda.

“A panel with members drawn from Canonical, partners and the community chaired by author and journalist Glyn Moody and loosely following the theme of “The Benefits and Pitfalls of an Open Source Strategy”. 

The panel consisted of:

• Chris Puttick
• Boris Devouge
• Jeff Nott
• Alan Pope
• Gerry Carr
• well moderated and anchored by veteran tech journalist Glyn Moody.

Some good questions and comments from the floor, answers from Chris, Boris and Alan ‘telling it like it is.’ The two-way conversation was much appreciated by the delegates.

Late chat

“Attendees are encouraged to stay on, sample an Ubuntini at the bar, have a chat and enjoy the comedy night hosted by the venue itself.”

The Ubuntinis had a strange recipe that the bar-staff themselves hated and the delegates drank in a “spirit of experimentation” Since I’m on the wagon 10 years this month, I abstained.

I left ‘early’ around 7.30 having hung around the bar with Alan, Boris (who speaks English as a second language faster than our own Dave Wilkins!), Anton Piatek from IBM, Craig Box of Symbian and Gary Powell (lately open-source Adult-Ed instructor and Ubuntu guerilla-installer) among others. RC