Open source has a long history in Slovakia, reaching back to late nineties, when the community was organized around Slovak Linux Users Group (SK-LUG). They were quite successful in their Linux Weekends, gathering a followership of young enthusiasts, mostly college students. As this generation grew up and became engaged in everyday life, these gatherings have fizzled, with no apparent successor.

The Society for Open Information Technologies, has stepped up to fill this gap. It has started organizing an Open Source Weekend,  the latest iteration of which took place during the weekend of 9-10th April 2016.

It has marked the first time the SK-LUG and SOIT communities have come together in a cooperative fashion, broadening the topics covered.

I had the pleasure to hold a presentation on OpenDaylight, at least in broad strokes, its role in shaping the network industry even though it is an open source project, and also on how much of a difference Slovak people are making to it. You can find the presentation below.

For the first time, a panel discussion was introduced at an OSS Weekend. The idea came to us after an exchange on a social network, which has shown that there is great disconnect between what established corporations expect and what FOSS companies deliver — at least in Slovakia. I think the format of having multiple views and added interactions with the audience has resulted in better idea sharing and definitely in more fun. You can find the recording below (sorry, no subtitles in this one).

All in all, I found it refreshing to engage with the community. We have already made plans for more and better content, so stay tuned!

Róbert Varga
CTO in Pantheon Technologies