Open Tools

It sounds like hygiene :P

I am looking for some specific FOSS tools for the conference. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives to the following tools:
- Twitter display like live tweet app to display our twitter feed: https://app.livetweetapp.com/
- A visual pinboard of ideas and images like padlet: http://padlet.com/
- A bookable/shareable totally open calendar
Thanks!

@megansalole Not a direct answer to your question, sorry, but... May I respectfully suggest that you consider not displaying live tweets in rooms where presentations are happening? I know it's popular, but I have often observed presentations being disrupted by the audience being distracted by the Twitter feed, which is often not a good reflection of what's actually going on in the room. I also think it's disrespectful to speakers to have a distracting twitter feed (or anything else) displayed on a wall behind them. Just my 2c.

I hear you...Fear not! The twitter screens will be in the developer lounge and outside in the shared spaces for when people are roaming about! (

I'm with you man. Normally that stuff is for "between" talks...

Twitter... tools of mass distraction

Chiming in! @davelane @danmilward

IMHO it's effective to use both "free software" and "open source software" when talking about FLOSS with folks who are new to the idea. An important point to drive home is that one has certain "freedoms" to do what they wish with code when it is free software. When code is open source, it is usually publicly viewable (which is great) but may not grant freedoms that truly free software does.

For more on this, I suggest heading over to Stallman's article:

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

FWIW, Wordpress (which most of us have used at some point over the last several years) is both free and open source software. GPLv2 FTW!

@megansalole FLOSS options for Twitter streams would be Twitter Fontana and Twitter Wall, both of which offer their source code via Github. There are other free (as in cost, not source code) options that may be easier to work with.

For collaborative note-taking, I like FLOSS applications like Etherpad and Hackpad. I (unfortunately) do not know of any FLOSS that are exactly like padlet.

No suggestions for FLOSS calendar options.

-Billy

I am pretty sure the twitter stream is going to be displayed in a separate area, not in a way that's distracting while presentations are going on. @megansalole can confirm. If people want to talk about that topic, however, I'd encourage you to start a separate discussion so we can keep this thread focused on Open Tools.

Thanks for the info @billymeinke ! Looks like Twitter Fontana and Twitter Wall could be good options.

@billymeinke agree with your assessment of free vs. open source software. It's a very profound "nuance" that needs to be well explained... I see that as part of my brief in defining the term "open" for the purposes of the conference (I'm decisively in the "free and open source" not just "open source" camp)...

The NZOSS is making an etherpad instance available for the conference, and it's already being used (well, not very actively so far as I have seen) to discuss some collaboratively edited document. https://etherpad.nzoss.org.nz

For what it's worth, I agree on not displaying tweet streams during presentations.

@davelane so by freedom, you're talking about a type of freedom that stems from the GPL as opposed to something like MIT? I've heard and met Stallman a few times at various WP conferences around the world and he's pretty hardcore.

I think as long as people don't ram "freedom" down other peoples throats it is awesome. As soon as it becomes evangelical it takes away from other peoples freedom to choose to use whatever they like without judgement from others.

Totally not saying or hinting that you're doing that. I really am interested in your thoughts :)

I love this sort of open conversation, its great to be able to have it with somebody in NZ who has a good understanding of open source through experience. I'm preeeeeeeetty intolerant of people that don't have any hands on experience but have lots of OS opinion.