OSCON’s about to Kick Off!

I’m eager to get to Portland to kick off an exhilarating week at OSCON with the Community Leadership Summit but am stuck at the airport with a delay. CLS is always a blast and this year our Executive Director, Craig Chelius, will be joining me. Looking forward to discussing fundraising, launching local chapters, engaging non-technical users, and stimulating application development in our ecosystem among the many topics in community development.

Continuing into the week, OSCON will be a reunion of sorts and a chance to harness the power of our collective minds. Two of our board members, Zaheda Bhorat and Dave Neary will be in town along with advisor, Steve Thomson. I’m eager to make strong headway in charting our community forward heading towards our 2013 summit in Jaipur.

By Wednesday our Business Development Intern, Braden Timm will be joining to staff our booth in the Nonprofit Pavilion of the Expo Hall. With a year of development on Mifos X tucked underneath our belts, we are eager to seek out new volunteer contributors to join us in creating a world of 3 Billion Maries. We will also be on the lookout for individuals and organizations wanting to partner with us to build financial inclusion apps on top the Mifos X platform. Stop by our booth and say hello!

As OSCON winds down on Friday, I have the honor of speaking in a fireside chat-style panel with Gerardo Capiel and Deanna McCusker recounting the transformative experiences of volunteer contribution through Social Coding 4 Good. It will be the first time I get to meet Deanna in person after working with her so closely for three months. Join us in room E144 from 11:00 to 11:40 for oursession, Engage! Open Source Social Coding for Good, for Personal Growth, and for Sustainable Impact. 

Looking forward to a busy and productive week. Hope to see many new faces and to reconnect with our HFOSS friends at OpenMRS, Ushahidi, and more. Michael Downey I’ll be on the lookout for your hat!

Follow what we are up to on Twitter @Mifos and Facebook at http://facebook.com/openmf.org.