After subsiding on minimal sleep and getting up for early tutorials (and the flight out) for three mornings in a row, this morning the flesh was just too weak. I slept past the opening keynotes and the first round of sessions. As I'm still polishing my slides, I've chosen to avoid the second round, as well, and try to finish the last 6-7 pages.
When the Allies finally took definitive control of the landing beaches at Normandy, it was safe to start bringing in the logistical personnel and set up permanent communications, supply lines, etc. And so it is on the third day of OSCON. Not to compare the first two days of tutorials to the beach assault, but as of today the numbers well and truly swell. Members of the press arrive and get settled in to the press room. The people who are here just for sessions and the trade room emerge, whether they just arrived in Portland or whether they were taking the first few days to sight-see. The bulletin board of messages and job announcements is almost completely covered.
Later today, the vendor trade room will open. The big draws are usually the tech book publishers who set up mini-stores in their plots, usually offering 10% or more off of cover price. It's hard to compete when OSCON is in Portland, though, because of the impending "field trip" to Powell's Books. But there will also be displays from various OS projects to big-name vendors like Red Hat.
There's also a very interesting social dynamic that is starting to buzz, but I'll write more about that later.
