Behind the Great Firewall

It's a little late and very short report.

I've joined openSUSE Asia Summit in Oct, 18th(Sat) and 19th(Sun) in Beihang University, Beijing.  It is the first Asian openSUSE summit.

Entrance of BUAA

Generally speaking, beginning something new is most difficult, and the core team (includes me, it's my honor) worked so hard and, and did it very well!

Organizers, by xxairwolf from Flickr

Because I had trouble with my business, I've arrived 2pm. on Saturday, and left 1pm. on Sunday.  Sorry to join very short time, but I have enjoyed the summit, it's nice talks, good exhibits, lovely fellows, awesome party, and lunch, Yoshinoya!

Yoshinoya is a Japanese fast food chain, but it seems Chinese style :)

Fortunately, I had a opportunity to have a short talk about LibreOffice.  In the talk, I explained LibreOffice as a product and as a community, and asked what we, eastern Asian LibreOffice users / communities, work together.  Here is my slide.

LibreOffice in Eastern Asia from Naruhiko Ogasawara

Since my practice was not enough, I have spent a time to talk and had no time to discussion.  However, after the talk, I chatted with some of the attendees about collaboration in the eastern Asia.  To summerize the chat, "We are close geographically, but we aren't close linguistically."
Yes, it's true.  We don't have "Asian" common language, and we have to use English, same as global.  And many people in Japan, China, or some Asian people can't use English well (yes I also).
It's a difficult problem, but I still believe I have something to work together and I'll be looking for what is a first point.


And last comment from me; if you'll attend a conference in China, don't forget to bring your important travel information locally (e.g. your hotel reservation info), not to leave in Google (I mean, Gmail or Google Calendar), and bookmark a search engine other than Google, because we have Great Firewall.  I totally forgot to do this, so I had lots of troubles (of course it's my fault).  But, thanks to my great fellows, everything was solved smoothly.

Thanks everyone, see you next openSUSE Asia Summit!

Group photo, by Bin Li from flickr

PS. You can find lots of nice photos in flickr's openSUSE Asia Summit 2014 group.  Check it out!