So this weekend BarCampAustin3 (held during SxSW) featured a ton of amazing things including some fantastic sessions, a mini iPhoneDevCamp, and a singing Unicorn at Karaoke Apocalypse.

All went well save one small incident involving a 340lb BattleBot malfunctioning and then taking off as fast as it could for the closest Microsoft employees (including Josh Holmes who you see leap out of the way). Thankfully no one was hurt or injured and they were amazingly good sports afterwards:

Many thanks to the folks at Viewzi.tv for the amazing editing job. And, yes we still love Brady and TeamDX! Good luck in the new season on ESPN guys!

Many of you have asked for alternative ways to include the "open source candidate" poll in your blog or website. Apparently some sites don't allow java script. So here are a few alternative bits-o-code that you can use:

The Original JavaScript Poll Method
For most websites and blogs.

Flash Poll Method
For sites that dont allow JavaScript.

The WildFire Method
Just click on your blogs icon and follow the directions.

As I've said, the goal here is to get as many people involved as possible. So hopefully some of these alternative methods for including the poll will help those of you wanting to participate but finding yourself JavaScript challenged.

I wanted to provide an update on who had decided to participate in the "open source candidate" poll. Here is a list of the first 10 websites/blogs to add the poll code:

• Linux Journal
• Factory Joe (Chris Messina)
• Laughing Squid (Scott Beale)
• LinearB (GeekAustin)
• Botchagalupe (John M. Willis)
• Dawn Foster (Jive Software)
• Chris Brogan
• Todd Nienkerk (Drupal.org)
• Boneless Monkey (Johnny)
• Michelle's Blog

This is a really good showing for the first day of the code becoming available. So why haven't you added the poll code to your website or blog? While link backs are appreciated, they aren't required. It's truly open source. You want to take the poll code and write your own slant? Do it. Want to add the poll code without a link back? Go for it. Here's the code again for those of you just now joining in on the fun:

The goal here is to get as many people involved as possible. Let's see if together we can get 100k people in the technology and open source software community to participate. Like I said, steal this blog, steal the poll. Just help us get as many people as possible involved. There's one simple price for using the code and all related blog materials as your own; participation. So just do it.

With the first 526 votes in, Barack Obama is dominating the "open source candidate" poll. Obama has a commanding 267 votes or 51%. Here's a look at the results after the first 500 votes came in:

I'd still like to see more votes. Go see the original post for the code to add the poll to your own blog or website. Link backs are nice but not required. This isn't about traffic, it's about measuring the community's opinion. So we can all share the polling script and the results. Later tonight (after midnight) I'll post a list of the other websites and blog currently participating in the poll. Hopefully we can expand on these as we enter the weekend. However, you can go vote now.

Several people are asking why I posted the "Open Source Candidate" poll. Well, it's time to provide some insight. The idea behind the poll is simple:

So for those of you who asked "why" the answer is simple. Open source is in a position to influence patent reform and help the small businesses that drive our economy. Shouldn't we consider taking a look at the candidates from this perspective? I thought allowing people to share their opinion on who they see as the best "open source candidate" would be a good way to start a larger discussion.

So tonight I was up late as usual. This time I found myself watching the results from "Super Tuesday" and eating Milk Duds. As I saw the results pouring in from across the country a question came to mind:

My guess is probably not, which is sad. Think about the current issues around patent reform. Does open source play a role? If so, shouldn't the candidates have some basic knowledge of open source?

It's with that in mind that I put together a little survey. Assume for a moment that a knowledge of open source is prerequisite (or integral) in solving issues like patent reform. Who would you vote for? In other words, who would be the best candidate for the open source community? Here's a little poll to tally your votes. I took the top three performing candidates from the two major parties.

Ok, so the poll is simple, and perhaps could be expanded on. However, I think it will serve it's purpose. It would be great to see as many people from the community as possible participate. So feel free to spread it around. In fact, please blog about this issue on your site. Here's the code to include the poll:

<!-- begin poll --><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://s3.polldaddy.com/p/290674.js"></script><noscript> <a href ="http://www.polldaddy.com" >polls</a> - <a href ="http://www.polldaddy.com/p/290674/" >Take Our Poll</a> </noscript><a href="http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-whurley/whurley/">opensville</a><!-- end poll -->

I'll leave the poll open until 11:59am Tuesday the 12th, and post a results blog on Wednesday the 13th. Thanks in advance for sharing your opinion.

Let's start a conversation. To start things off I asked 1300 people on twitter what "open source" meant to them. Here are a few of the responses:

	"Open source, to me, means innovation, community & opportunity. Time & again it's OS that has lead to each new plateau in tech & thinking" - Johnny / bonelessmonkey
	"a group collaboration meant to better the community" - brianthecoder / brianthecoder
	"OSS means the evolution of software. It's not only freedom of Software, it's a whole process for creating stuff from an universe of code." - Ryo / Ryo
	"...for nonrivalrous resources, there is nothing to hide." tom / tomwiththeweath
	"Open Source refers to 100% transparency. What it doesn't mean is free. I hate that." - missrogue / missrogue
	"Open source means the source is available to the community. To be remixed, modified etc... for the good of the developers and the community" - Dj / djtrippin
	"developer community!" - Colby Palmer / colbypalmer
	"Open Source means I can see the source code, modify it, and distribute my modifications." - Jim Thompson / jimthompson

So given what these people thought I pose the same question to you. What does "open source" mean to you? Please add your comment and participate in the discussion. I also highly recommend adding these folks if you're on Twitter (especially missrogue who posts very useful/insightful twitters). If you want, you can even add me and maybe I'll use your insight in the future.

Another interview hit the wire last week entitled "BMC Software's William Hurley: A Penguin Among Sharks". I thought I'd share a link to it along with these excerpts:

"This isn't about trying to jump onto the open source marketing bandwagon. It's about directly interacting with customers in how you can apply open source to build better products. I'm a guy who likes a challenge, and even with the support of the management team that I have here, you're still talking about a very large company, a pretty big ship," said BMC Software's William Hurley.

Dossier:

Name: William 'whurley' Hurley
Title: Chief architect of open source strategy
Organization: BMC Software
Location: Houston - This should be Austin ;)
Favorite movies: "The Big Lebowski" and "Office Space"
Previous career that most people don't know about: Member of a touring funk band; plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboards
Wheels: A lime-green 2006 Scion XB
Favorite food: Sushi and other Asian cuisines
Current read: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Favorite place to take his 11-year-old son: Dave & Buster's arcade and sports bar. "He loves the zombie games; he can't get enough of those. And he loves winning tickets in the game machines."

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So it's Saturday and I'm technically still on vacation. It's a beautiful day outside but something just wasn't right. I felt a disturbance in the open source force so I decided to check my BMC email. Outside of the fact that I'm now hundreds of emails behind everything seemed fine. That was, until I read an email from someone who said they were "representing" someone "desperately" trying to get a hold of me. Apparently they found themselves lost in the BMC switchboards. Their frustration only increased when they finally got to my extension. You see, apparently someone has been too busy changing the DNA of BMC to set up his voice mail properly (whoops). After doing a search for "voice mail" and "phone", I found several others who shared this sentiment.

Now, I'm not one to let problems fester. I have to do something about this vacation or no vacation; and fast! I really do care about my peeps in the community. After a few moments of contemplation, I came up with a solution for all those opensville readers out on the interwebs. Behold, the mighty call button:

Beautiful isn't it? I mean it's simple, and it works. What does it do? Why that's simple. Click on it, enter your phone number, and then hit call. Moments later all of my phones will ring. If I can't take your call I'll get an email moments later with your message.

You'll also see this shiny new button directly below my picture. Now that's open. So, if this doesn't make it as easy as pie to get in touch with me I might just have to give up…or will I?

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Several people asked me to post something about it but as most of you know I haven't been doing to well with the whole 'blogging' thing lately. So, here's my mediocre attempt to share. If you want to read the entire story, it's available online.

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Mary Jo Foley has posted probably the single best post about Microsoft's open source strategy ever. Seriously, go read it now.

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This is just a quick blog post to say thanks to everyone in the community who has supported me as I’ve worked to make BMC one of the top names in open source. I especially want to thank everyone who let me know that I was named one of 2008's Top Leaders in Open Source Business by LinuxWorld. It’s an honor to be mentioned along side Marten Mickos (CEO, MySQL AB), Andy Astor (CEO, EnterpriseDB), John Roberts (CEO, SugarCRM), Larry Augustin (Private Investor), Jonathan Schwartz (CEO, Sun Microsystems), Matt Asay (VP of Business Development, Alfresco), James Governor, Stephen O'Grady, Michael Coté (Redmonk), and Raven Zachary (Research Director, The 451 Group). Here’s a screenshot and the link to the details for those of you who are interested:

The New Open Management Consortium | Slashdot It! | The Need For An Open Agent