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Updated on May 26, 2016

DORS/CLUC 2016 (Report)

dorscluc2016

DORS/CLUC, Days of open systems / Croatian Linux Users’ Conference, is the oldest and biggest regional conference in the Balkans dedicated to topics of free software, open source, open standards and Linux.

It is jointly organized by two non-profit organizations HrOpen and HULK, going on for 23 years, and it gathers prominent individuals and companies from the free software communities and companies. This year’s conference has been held from May 11th – 13th, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb. During three days of talks, workshops and fun, DORS/CLUC is a place where hackers, companies, freelances and the public sector meets to learn, exchange contacts, make business and plan projects together, while focusing on free software and Linux.

DORSCLUC Keynotes

DORS/CLUC has been divided into two parts: keynotes/talks and workshops. Keynote/talk part falls into following categories: business topics, the newest experiences of FLOSS implementation and migration in industry and tech topics like for example how to use some technology. During workshops which are mostly tech oriented attendees have an opportunity to learn how to use some technology, how to troubleshoot and solve tech problems in the field of free and open source technology.

Mozilla’s Presence

Unfortunately, I was the only Mozillian at the event (apart Giannis Konstantinidis, who attended as part of the Fedora Project). For not having a booth however, people approached me quite a lot to ask about Mozilla, specifically in Croatia. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity, as quite some efforts could grow in the Croatian community, with a tiny little bit of mentorship and overview. Something to keep in mind for the Croatian community.

We are in talks of hosting the next Mozilla Balkans meetup in Tirana, Albania in September, so I hope to see representatives of the Croatian community as well, so we can properly prepare for the next edition.

My Talk

The main lecture hall where I was giving a talk was quite big, with a capacity of probably over 250 people, and therefore the biggest room I might have talked in. Obviously, the auditorium wasn’t crowded, but a solid amount of people came to my talk, which was great. The talk was recorded and livestreamed.

My talk went really well, although a bit short (I guess I need to adjust my slides for 30min sessions) and I had a few questions at the end which sparked some discussions. I still have some breathing issues during giving talks, as I fail to put in the right amount of breaks to catch my breath during presenting. People have told me it’s not something noticeable, but I plan to work on it. I also was trying to avoid fillers like “uhm” or “erm” but which still needs more work. I hope I can improve upon this in one of our next TechSpeaker sessions.

Conclusion

The conference was relatively cozy and many people knew each other. It seemed also like a good place for government officials to meet and talk as well. Around 300 attendees might have been part of the conference, in 2 tracks. What I really respect about DORS/CLUC, is the fact that it’s been running for 23 years now! That’s an impressive number! On the other hand, I felt a bit left out of many conversations, as the majority of the material and talks were in Croatian (although seemingly Croatians had amazing English skills).

Definitely looking forward to visit Zagreb soon again!

 

Category: Free Software, Mozilla, Open Source, ReMo, Reports

  • leoh

    Hey Elio! I think this is awesome and overall a really great talk! I had a few pieces of feedback I thought I’d share here:

    – I would recommend in the first minute giving a quick overview of where you’re going with the rest of your presentation. Lay out quickly what the point you’re going to make is, and how you’re going to get there. It’ll make it feel more tightly organized and easier to follow. I think the best presentations are like well structured arguments 😉

    – The content is great and it’s told as a good story but I feel it could be more powerful if you had one message you wanted to convey through telling this story, or something you wanted to teach. What is your call to action? Do you want them to start their own open source communities? Think about design when they think about open source? Contribute to this design community? I think that missing a thread that connects it easily for the viewers. The “what will I get out of listening to this” piece. Some ideas for framing your talk could be “how to build an open source design community” “5 reasons to explore open source design” “expand the way you think about open source”.

    – I get the sense you’re very aware and maybe a bit uncomfortable being a designer in a room full of developers. You say “you guys” and I think it might be stronger if you tried to more frequently count yourself among your audience, you’re all in the open source community after all! i.e. Setting the tone to be “We all want open source to have more people! Here’s what this means for all of us”.

    As I said earlier I think this was a great talk and hopefully this feedback is interesting and helpful!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Lucy

    • Elio Qoshi

      Thank you Lucy, very valuable feedback! I will try to build on these points and polish my presentation in London as part of the TechSpeakers group 🙂

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