COSCUP@SCaLE21x Post-Event Report

This article briefly documents what we saw and heard about the 21st edition of the Southern California Linux Expo and the FLOSS communities in North America from the perspective of Taiwan and East Asia. Report by: petertc

We're back from SCaLE21x!

On this trip, besides introducing COSCUP and the status of the Taiwan open source community to the local open source community and enthusiasts, we also took the opportunity to understand how this grandest open source exhibition in North America is organized and presented. This article briefly records what we saw and heard, serving as a reference for our future organization of COSCUP.

If you're interested in what the 'American version of COSCUP' is like, please continue reading!

Preface: About SCaLE

SCaLE, short for Southern California Linux Expo, is a well-known open source exhibition in the western United States. We spent over a year evaluating whether it was worth participating in this event. If you're hearing about this event for the first time, here's some background information we gathered before our trip.

SCaLE is one of the few events similar to COSCUP, besides Europe's FOSDEM:

• It's a comprehensive large-scale open source event, having been held for about twenty years with over a thousand participants annually.
• It's volunteer-run, not led by companies or organizations.
• The agenda is diverse, with the majority of sessions being operated independently by various communities (referred to as Community Tracks/Colocated Events), rather than being uniformly decided by the organizing committee.
• In recent years, the topics and participating communities have covered a wide range of areas including open source operating systems, databases, cloud native, embedded systems, open governance, DevOps, infrastructure, open data, Internet of Things, and cybersecurity. For more details, please refer to the website: https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x

Quick facts of some volunteer-run open source events:

Event	SCaLE	COSCUP	FOSDEM
Location	Southern California, USA	Taipei, Taiwan	Brussels, Belgium
Event Time	March	late July	first or second weekend of February
Launch Year	2002	2006	2001
# of Tracks/Colocated Events	~12	~40	~50
# of Booths/Exhibitors/Stands	~100	~30 (Sponsor excluded)	50+
# of Attendees	~3,000	~3,000	~8,000
# of Speakers	~200	~300	600+
Registration	Required, ~90 USD	Ticket Free	Ticket Free

References:

• https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2023/03/08/scale-linux-and-free-software-convention-returns-to-pasadena-for-first-time-since-covid-lockdown/
• https://coscup.org/2023/en/topics
• https://fosdem.org/2024/stands/

Venue: Pasadena Convention Center

This year, SCaLE was held in Pasadena, Los Angeles. Pasadena is located northeast of downtown Los Angeles, known for its good public safety and living environment. It's also famous for the TV show 'The Big Bang Theory' and the Rose Parade.

The venue is located in Old Pasadena, right in the heart of Pasadena. It's very convenient to take transportation to and from the venue, as well as for sightseeing after the event!

The conference utilized two exhibition halls this time, which were very close to each other, so there were no long journeys between them. Clear maps and schedules of the lecture halls were provided upon entering the venue, ensuring that even first-time attendees wouldn't get lost!

Having exhibited for these past few days, I found the event environment to be very comfortable. The venue was spacious, so even with a large number of attendees, it was easy to find a corner to relax and gather one's thoughts when feeling tired. The venue also had prominent safety signs and emergency procedures (though surprisingly, there was no first aid kit prepared!), which reassured everyone attending.

Check-in

Upon arriving at the check-in area for the first time, I was a bit puzzled as to why there were no staff members present. It turns out that the check-in process was self-service. Multiple self-service check-in systems were already set up on-site. All you had to do was log in with your registration number to print out your badge and collect your swag bag.

Another aspect that might be unfamiliar to COSCUP attendees is that this event requires paid admission, with an interesting feature of ticket prices increasing as the event date approaches. The ticket price of $90 might seem a bit expensive to Taiwanese attendees, but in the United States, it's much cheaper compared to other tech events.

Booths

Browsing the booths is one of the main reasons to attend SCaLE, and this time there were over seventy exhibitors and open-source communities! You could see many well-known open-source organizations or companies exhibiting, such as EFF, Free Software Foundation, FreeBSD, Open Source Initiative, major Linux distributions, and local communities as well.

The conference provided each booth with ample space for flexible use. Some exhibitors rented large screens and backdrops for greater exposure, while others from communities kept it simple. Many booths gave away various high-cost souvenirs such as clothing, socks, and more. Let me show you around!

The VLC booth designed postcards with a movie theme to pay homage to Hollywood, featuring characters like Jaws, Godzilla, and more, because Hollywood is right here!

At the OSI booth, they set up a rapid-fire open-source quiz where you had to answer questions like naming an open-source DNS (BIND) or an editor starting with 'E' (Emacs) within 5 seconds. If you won, you could get a piece of clothing!

The COSCUP booth also prepared various exhibition materials this time. Although we didn't have resources like other booths for massive giveaways, many attendees were still very interested in learning about us, the first-time participants from Asia. Some were even enthusiastic in recommending various attractions, foods, and even inviting us to go bar hopping after the event!

At our booth, we prepared various flyers and stickers for visitors interested in participating in our activities to take home.

To give booth visitors a more immersive experience of COSCUP, this time we prepared an electronic picture frame to showcase photos from our past events (thanks to the documentation team for curating these photos for us).

When we actively visited other booths, we also wore stickers representing COSCUP and the Taiwanese community to create opportunities for conversation.

Presentations

Although our main goal for this trip was exhibition and networking, we managed to schedule some time to attend a few presentations to get a feel for the atmosphere.

How to build a Mars Rover for Earth: NASA-JPL Open-Source Rover

Presentation page: https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x/presentations/how-build-mars-rover-earth-nasa-jpl-open-source-rover

This is probably one of the highlights of SCaLE! Because JPL, the famous NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is located near the venue at the California Institute of Technology, SCaLE takes advantage of this proximity to host several presentations by JPL engineers and researchers. This presentation mainly discussed how JPL open-sourced its Mars rover, sharing everything from component purchasing to design blueprints, allowing enthusiasts to assemble their own versions at home!

Hacky solutions to real world problems: Applied Computing Past, Present, and Future

Presentation page: https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x/presentations/hacky-solutions-real-world-problems-applied-computing-past-present-and

This was a keynote presentation that, while less directly related to open source, was still very interesting. The speaker reviewed how we have used technology in the past to solve various seemingly difficult problems, such as deciphering ancient texts, and how we can use technology to address various future challenges humanity faces, such as producing clean energy and exploring space.

Upscale

On Friday evening, SCaLE arranged what they called Upscale, a series of short talk events. The atmosphere was quite different from COSCUP's lightning talks, more akin to creating a post-conference leisure activity for attendees.

As soon as you entered the auditorium, you could see that the conference had prepared cups of cake and other snacks for attendees to enjoy during the performances. Each attendee received a drink voucher upon entry, which they could redeem at the bar for a drink (whether it was good or not is another matter).

The event kicked off with Forrest Brazeal delivering a music performance filled with various technical jokes titled 'Songs to Enjoy While Your Servers Deploy', before transitioning into the regular series of short talks. Honestly, the regular short talk portion was a bit dull in comparison. COSCUP's lightning talks might be more stimulating and entertaining. Fortunately, the event ended on a high note with the finale featuring podcaster Corey Quinn and Forrest Brazeal presenting the 'Containers vs Serverless Rap Battle', which provided a satisfying ending.

That being said, it felt like there were fewer attendees participating in this event, perhaps because Old Pasadena on Friday night had its own allure! Upscale seemed more like an optional side event, unlike the lightning talks at COSCUP, which have a 'must-have' status.

If you want to get a feel for the atmosphere at Upscale, you can watch the conference's released recording:

• Forrest Brazeal - Songs to Enjoy While Your Servers Deploy
• Corey Quinn - ChatGPT
• Forrest Brazeal - Closing song: Containers vs Serverless Rap Battle

Game night

If COSCUP's classic event is the lightning talks, then at SCaLE, it's definitely Game Night.

Game Night was scheduled for Saturday evening, and compared to Upscale, there were a lot more participants eagerly waiting to join the event. Even before the opening time, many attendees were itching to enter the venue, only to be sternly stopped by the security guards 🤣.

Before the games began, Game Night offered a simple buffet, which was probably the only time during the entire SCaLE event that hot food was provided. Unfortunately, we were already full from enjoying the delicious food in Old Pasadena before entering the venue 🥲. For those planning to attend later, remember to save some space in your stomach!

The event offered a variety of games, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to experience them all thoroughly. One of the activities we tried this time was a puzzle-solving game. The game involved using various physical clues on-site to solve puzzles on our phones. For those who don't often participate in escape room challenges, the puzzles were quite challenging, and it took us a lot of time (and hints) to finally solve them.

In addition to games, Game Night also featured a flea market, where items from previous editions of SCaLE were sold off. Collectors of memorabilia had the opportunity to add to their collections. For those who weren't into gaming, they could use drink vouchers to redeem beverages, participate in raffles, enjoy DJ sets, and watch magic performances. It's hard to imagine how much time the organizers spent arranging all these activities, but it was definitely a side event that catered to various interests.

COSCUP doesn't have an official event similar to this, but in recent years, there has been collaboration with the 'Open Culture Foundation' to arrange the 'Open Source Newbie Village' tabletop gaming experience, which welcomes participation. If you're a gaming enthusiast, you're also welcome to organize your own 'Game Night' during the BoF (Birds of a Feather) sessions at COSCUP!

Family-Friendly

Possibly related to American family culture, SCaLE is an event that strongly emphasizes being family-friendly. Many parents bring their children to the venue, and some even engage in activities like playing catch directly inside? Apart from having dedicated family-friendly sessions during Game Night where only children and their accompanying adults are allowed, there's also a special program called "The Next Generation (SCaLE Youth Track)" for kids.

Unfortunately, we couldn't participate ourselves, but from the description, the program brings together local resources like the Los Angeles Public Library and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, offering children the opportunity to learn about and use open-source software and hardware, operate robots, create games, 3D print, and explore AI/computer vision. If you're interested, you can learn more from the event page: https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x/events/scale-kids

COSCUP has been organizing "Family Workshops" activities for the past few years, encouraging open-source enthusiasts with families to participate more. Any ideas are welcome!

International Participation

We feel that this event leans more towards serving the local community. While there were participants from South America, Europe, and Asia, the majority seemed to be from Southern California and the West Coast. We also discussed this with the SCaLE program organizers, and currently, their focus is primarily on accepting English-language presentations, unlike some other events, e.g., PyCon US, which accepts Spanish or other languages.

Nevertheless, considering the long-standing development of open-source culture in the United States, we still believe that this is a worthwhile venue for exchange. We are also delighted to be one of SCaLE's first community partners from the Asia-Pacific region in recent years.

Infrastracture

As event curators, we tend to pay special attention to certain details of each event that regular attendees might not notice. There were a few things in this event that left a lasting impression on us:

1. The live streaming of sessions: On the day of the event, some key session recordings were immediately streamed on the conference's Twitter account and the official website's schedule. However, it seems that only sessions organized directly by the conference organizers were included, while most others were likely handled by the community themselves.

1. Badge friend adding: The conference badges provided had a QR code containing attendee information such as name, organization, email, etc. Attendees could easily exchange contact information when visiting booths or networking with each other, facilitating post-event connections. While sponsors had scanners to scan QR codes, community exhibitors did not. Our volunteers developed a mobile QR code scanning shortcut, but later found out that the official conference app could also accomplish this!

2. Professional vendor services: In Taiwan, organizing events typically requires recruiting many volunteers for various tasks, such as venue setup and management during the event days. At SCaLE, similar tasks were outsourced to exhibition companies, including ticket scanning, decoration setup, and cleaning, all handled by professional personnel without the need for conference volunteers to intervene. Even exhibitor communities could request their services, such as logistics and renting exhibition equipment, which is a very different approach compared to Asia and Europe.

Conclusion

This exhibition not only allowed the North American open-source community and supporters to learn about COSCUP and the current state of the Taiwan open-source community but also provided opportunities for face-to-face exchanges and experience sharing with SCaLE organizers, EFF, Free Software Foundation, FreeBSD, Open Source Initiative, OpenInfra Foundation, and other open-source community organizations. We believe that such exposure can gradually enhance the visibility of the Taiwan open-source community internationally, attracting more overseas key open-source communities and contributors to Taiwan for sharing and exchanges.

SCaLE seems to be a relatively unfamiliar event to the Taiwan open-source community, and this account hopes to help friends who are interested in participating in the future understand it better beforehand.

👉 If you are interested in SCaLE or what we are doing, we will share our experience from this exhibition at COSCUP 2024 in the middle of this year. Feel free to chat with us face-to-face at that time~

👉 Do you know any overseas open-source events suitable for COSCUP exhibitions, or do you hope to see which overseas communities or speakers come to Taiwan for booths or speeches at this year's COSCUP? Feel free to email us at booth@coscup.org and let us know!

👉 To stay updated with COSCUP news, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter. Our LinkedIn page is also active again, so feel free to follow us! https://linkedin.com/company/coscup-tw/

Appendix: Nearby Venue

Bus stops in Pasadena display arrival times using e-paper displays.

The Huntington Library in Pasadena houses books printed by Gutenberg and whimsical works of art.

The hot dog shop near the venue offers cheap, delicious, and perfectly portioned hot dogs (by American standards, of course).

The ice cream shop located on the main street of Old Pasadena offers a variety of wonderful flavors.

S Lake Ave, a half-hour walk from the venue, offers various shopping and dining options such as Trader Joe's, Macy's, Target, and more. One coffee shop provides Eastern-style osmanthus lattes and stickers in Traditional Chinese, which are quite popular.

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