Drones, IoT, Containers and Cloud: CollabSummit 2015

Our schedule for The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit is out and I’m proud of the speakers and projects we have assembled. I use CollabSummit and its unique structure as a litmus test for The Linux Foundation’s progress. When we started CollabSummit in 2007, we gathered about 200 people at the GooglePlex and brought Linux kernel developers, ecosystem executives, open source legal experts and more together for the first time. Convincing the world that open source was safe was a dominant theme on the agenda, as was better collaboration between business and the open source developers shaping Linux.

Eight years later we still have a large focus on Linux: From Jon Corbet’s Linux Weather Forecast to tracks on Linux tracing and file systems to the toolchains used to create and administer Linux, we are bringing the leaders from the Linux ecosystem and community together to solve problems and learn. Our members use this event to meet directly with the technical, legal and business leaders from the world of Linux.  But elsewhere in the agenda we also see how the process of Linux — the very DNA of distributed development that Linux helped pioneer — is transforming so many industries, technologies and companies.

The Internet of Things has arguably the greatest potential to change our lives. The dominant IoT platforms are open, hosted at The Linux Foundation and will be discussed at CollabSummit at length.

Containers built on Linux are changing how applications are built and maintained and, in the process, are altering the server landscape. Alex Polvi from CoreOs will present a keynote on this topic and we will have a keynote panel featuring many of the brightest minds and companies discussing this transformation.

Facebook will take us through how they use the power of open source in every aspect of their business. They wouldn’t exist without Linux and open source (or certainly not in this form) and have committed to using open source ideals to gain competitive advantage.

Networking is what makes all of this go. The future of networking and the cloud are open: be it OpenStack,OpenDaylight or OpenPlatform for NFV. But how do they work together? Where is the overlap? How can we optimize efficiency? Not only do we have a keynote on this topic, but we also are gathering the brightest minds from these projects together to enable a deeper level of collaboration.

We are mid-stream in the revolution from proprietary to open source as the dominant form of software development. Stephen O’Grady from Red Monk will take us through this transformation and explain the paradoxical position of the software industry we are now living in. Software is “eating the world” yet open source is eating software. Who will survive?

And kicking off the conference is a look at the technology that has the potential to transform industries: drones. Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, will take us through how he is using open source to change the face of autonomous vehicles and building the de facto platform in the Dronecode Project. If you haven’t seen Chris speak, you are in for a treat.

When we started CollabSummit, none of these projects existed. Look at us now. Please request an invite if you are a leader in the technology field. No longer is open source relegated to one operating system; it truly is eating the world and The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit has been a venue shaping that revolution over the last eight years.