Over the last two days (August 20 and 21), I attended COSCUP 2011, the annual gathering of open source people. It is the yearly event of the open source community, and this year marked its sixth edition. Many experts give talks there, so you can learn a lot of new things and meet many new friends XD. Also, all of COSCUP’s funding comes from sponsors, so attending costs nothing at all!

Actually, this was my first time attending COSCUP. A friend invited me, so I signed up as a staff volunteer~ My friend originally wanted me on the network team, but I thought that work sounded hard, so I signed up for the venue crew instead. For these two days I stood guard at the entrance of the Intel AppUp booth on the 4th floor at Academia Sinica. I wonder if anyone noticed me XD?

▲▲ The Intel AppUp booth~~ They were giving away mugs XD

I used to think the most important thing at community events like COSCUP and ICOS was to learn new things. This time at COSCUP, though, I came to a new idea: the real point of these events is to meet new friends. The IT industry really needs friends, after all, since these are “community” events! I also feel that in the IT industry, friends matter more than technical skills. When you run into something you don’t understand, you can ask a friend for help, and new technologies get shared among friends anyway. Especially these two days, since I was a staff volunteer on shifts, I didn’t have time for many of the talks I wanted to see. Even when I had some free time, I was usually too tired and went off to rest… XD So the only talk I actually attended was “Now.in / Python Arsenal.” But because I was volunteering, I got to know a lot of people!

▲▲ Friends who waited for the bus together (and ended up being late together that morning… XD)

▲▲ Mo-feng and I have a running joke. On Friday, the venue-crew day, Mo-feng, Mosky, and I shared a taxi to Academia Sinica. Mosky thought Mo-feng and I were classmates (because my handle is Ting-feng 聽風 and his is Mo-feng 莫風, and both names end in 風, which means “wind”). So he said, “I’ll pay, you two are kids and have no money.” We shamelessly agreed! Later that afternoon, Mo-feng found out it was Mosky’s birthday, and that “Mo-feng is even older than Mosky!” XDD We laughed until we were nearly insane =)) In the end, we still pushed the money into Mosky’s hands, because we would have felt uneasy otherwise!

Don’t think the venue crew has an easy job… The venue crew’s work seems to be just check-in, handing out materials, access control, moving things, and so on. Each task is simple, but when they all pile up together, it is exhausting even though each one is easy. For example, on Friday I went to help with venue setup and was completely worn out. Even inside Academia Sinica, where the air conditioning was running, I was sweating like crazy. When I got home, my mom even said, “Why do you smell so bad?” =))

Speaking of which, on the first morning of COSCUP I was going crazy with work: I had to guard the door while answering a flood of phone calls XD. That morning, the planning meeting for the joint club freshman orientation was being held, so I asked another club member to go in my place. But he seemed unable to find anyone. Then a friend who was coming to COSCUP asked me how to get in. Even worse, I was wearing a vest, so lots of people came up to ask me questions. That morning I was talking on the phone, guarding the door, and answering questions all at the same time.

Also, that morning I had heard that we could sit on chairs while guarding the door. But when we got to our post, there were no chairs (my friend and I had assumed someone would have them ready XD). So we stood there like fools for an hour and a half, until the shift change. Only then did I ask someone and learn that we were supposed to bring the chairs ourselves…..

COSCUP 2011 photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/linroex/COSCUP2011

I don’t really have much to write about, since I didn’t attend any talks this time. But as a volunteer, I noticed some things that could be improved, and some things attendees should be aware of. For example, COSCUP did no rehearsal beforehand. They only sent out a venue-crew handbook a few days before the event to explain what to do. I think they could have gathered the volunteers for a practice run a few days before the event. Also, I was on the door guard team, and my job was access control: checking that everyone entering had a badge. I noticed that quite a few attendees left their badges on their seats, which made our job very hard. Some people even used that as an excuse to skip registration and enter the lecture hall, and we caught them. So I urge everyone: “Please always keep your badge on you,” to make our job easier!! Fortunately, I didn’t run into anyone too clueless, like someone who ignored our request to show a badge and forced their way through.

Another ridiculous thing: someone picked up a badge in another person’s name. Thinking positively, maybe they just wanted to attend COSCUP but failed to register. Thinking negatively, they might have been trying to sneak in to steal something. Right now, COSCUP doesn’t check identities very carefully when handing out badges. It runs on trust: all you need is your check-in number. I wonder whether it is necessary to verify identities. For example, you could be required to show an ID card when collecting your badge. If they went that far, it would probably be a first!

▲▲ So many little green ones at the check-in desk XD

At the celebration dinner, I also heard one of the seniors say that anyone who met the network team’s eyes would start to shake XDD. During COSCUP, someone kept running ARP attacks or deliberately jamming COSCUP’s access points, so people couldn’t connect to Wi-Fi. The network team had to run around trying to find out who was causing the trouble… Honestly, I accidentally turned on my own AP too, because the venue’s network was painfully slow. I didn’t know at the time that turning on an AP would cause problems, so I turned it off afterward. (A voice from nowhere: the fastest way to reach someone on the network team is not to call them, but to turn on your AP, and within five minutes someone will find you… XD) But some people were really there to make trouble, knowingly turning on APs and causing disruption on purpose. One senior commented: “Some people are just born troublemakers” XD. After all, this is COSCUP, not HIT!! If you did that at HIT, well, the network there always goes dark, but COSCUP has nothing to do with HIT!

▲▲ Seeing kk makes me shudder XD

Also, this COSCUP had a huge haul of swag! The coolest items were the Trend Micro calculator and the Intel mug. I had also planned to get the HTC mug and the Intel backpack, but I was too busy and didn’t have time to join in. 0.0 The Trend Micro calculator is solar-powered, and its keys seem to be touch-sensitive, so you don’t need to press them. That means I won’t have to worry about it being too loud when I study at the library later~~ And it’s super light too~