Changes

About 1 week ago I attended the Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) hosted by Seneca College, along with fellow classmates. FSOSS is a major gathering of North American open source developers, businesses, educators, and users. The goal of the symposium is to explore how open source, open standards, and open content are changing technology, the web, the media and arts, education, and business. Being my first time attending FSOSS, I really didn't know what to expect. During my visit I was able to attend 4 presentations (5 if the Between Free Software and Open Standards: the Business Model presentation was not canceled), 2 of which I'll talk in greater detail. The first presentation of the day I attended was on Scene Creator done by Matthew Postil (a fellow BSD student), the second presentation was on Web Audio by our very own professor David Humphrey, after lunch I attended Spencer Kellys Freebase and the semantic web presentation, and lastly Popcorn.js and Open Video presented Scott Downe. Most of the presentations I attended were fairly done well. The Web Audio and Open Video presentations were my favorite and most interesting to me.

PRESENTATION SLIDESDaves presentation started off with an introduction to the Firefox 4 Audio Data API, leading into the the evolution of the <audio> tag.From there on, it was demo after demo.Demos were on audio visualization, generating and modifying audio, accessibility, sound effects and games.Lastly concluding his presentation with his view on the future of Open Source -- a Mozilla HTML5 video demo. 

As always, Dave was enthusiastic in his presentation as he is when teaching in the classroom. His knowledge and understanding of Web Audio and Open Source undoubtedly shows his love for Open Source.His presentation drew "wows", a lot of the demos he presented even "wow'd" me, even after all the cool demos hes previously shown us in class. Dave definitely went all out on his presentation. I think Daves passion for Open Source was displayed throughout the presentation but I believe it was shown the most during his conclusion on the future of Open Source, he feels very strongly about the path on which open web, video, and audio are being directed. 

A related His presentation I attended started off with an introduction about himself and what he's been currently working on. His first demo was former Seneca Student on the Flash vs HTML5 battle. He talked about some dude calling out HTML5 developers to make a better Flash button than his in HTML5 -- from there Scott Downe and CDOT developer and researcherdemonstrated how superior HTML5 was by showing one demo after another. He presented his presentation also focused on his work with the Popcorn.js library and Open Videosub-project: His presentation consisted of an explaination of open Web Made Movies (this is where my Candy.js effects were demoed). Popcorn.js time events in video and displays it on the community, what he contributed to popcornpage.js He demonstrated cool demos that used Twitter and mozillaFlickr API, dynamically translated language subtitles on the fly, and HTML5 a scrabbled a live video vs flash into a puzzle. I believe Scotts main points and highlights in his presentation were to demonstrate:* Simple <video> syntax (integrated into the HTML)* FREE! (use codecs, etc.)* Combining efforts (not just one company working on API, Ex: Flash Player)* Easy access: Right click > Save As...* Cloud-sourcing

* What can you say about open source in the In light of the points they made? * Do , open source is not only defined as "free" and "collaborative" to me anymore. I personally label Open Source as: innovative, open-ended, and simple. Both speakers demonstrated the speakers open web in similar fashion. They both demonstrated the direction in which HTML5 and open source are going. They both a have similar views positive and optimistic view for the success of open source or do they disagree? * How so?.

* Does the The picture of open source you've seen presented in these talks challenge or confirm your has confirmed my own views about what open source is and how it functions? One after these presentations. I was shown what the future of the remaining frontiers for open web standards is advanced audiowould look like. I was shown the power of HTML5. Firefox 4 will include And as a new Web Audio APIweb developer, and a W3C Audio Incubator Group has been formed it's relieving to seed know ANYTHING is possible on the web standards process. This presentation will explain Scott and demonstrate what Dave both demonstrated the web audio API can doimpossible is possible.