SPUG: introduction/lecture series

[Ann Barcomb]

Hello,

As a few people on this list already know, I will be moving to Seattle
this autumn to attend grad school at UW.  I hope to become a mildly evil
technically competent manager.

Once I'm in the area I'll probably start to join the meetings, but I thought
I would already say hi.  I guess that I already know some of you from
YAPCs or OSCONs, but for people whom I haven't met, a short summary: my
name is Ann (I sometimes use the nick Kudra), and I currently live in
the Netherlands.  I worked as a programmer for a while, although I've
spent the last few months writing documentation.  I've been involved in
some conference/hackathon organization in Europe, and write Perl 6 summaries
when I have time (and now you know why I no longer have time to do them).

I'm looking for a bit of help with something I'm hoping to organize in
Seattle.  First, a bit of background:

One thing I noted about UW's MBA program is that although it is much more
relaxed about FLOSS software than many other schools I looked at (for 
instance, I can use any software I like, as long as I can get the work
done), it is naturally affected by its proximity to Microsoft.  From what
I understand from speaking with some FLOSS advocates currently in the
program, Microsoft contributes quite a few speakers to the program.

Therefore, I would like to arrange a lecture series which could bring in
business people who support FLOSS.  I am thinking both of companies which
sell support services or distributions, as well as companies which create
conferences or books.  Ideally, the speakers would be business people who
have turned to FLOSS, rather than people who are developers foremost, as
my intention is to expose the less technical students to other business
possibilities involving technology.  I would like to make the lectures
open to the public, however.

I hope that I will be able to work with the MBA technology club on this,
in order to get a public space for the lectures, but I could also use
some help from anyone in the larger FLOSS community who has an interest
in this goal.  Specifically, I could use assistance in securing funding
(I really do not know where to seek donations in Seattle) and in making
contacts with potential speakers.

If the idea interests you, drop me a note.

- Ann