I attended LibreOffice Conference Asia x UbuCon Asia 2023 (LOUCA23) in Surakarta, Indonesia, on October 7~8.
This was the second time LibreOffice Conference Asia has been held in Tokyo in 2019, as it could not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UbuCon Asia was first held online in 2021, and the first in-person event was held in Seoul, Korea in 2022, and this still was the second in-person event.
I was burnt out by the pandemic and had stopped most of my OSS activities, but I still had many friends in the OSS world, so I went to Indonesia to meet with them.
Therefore, I had initially intended to be a general participant. Still, a friend of the speaker was suddenly unable to attend due to illness, so I gave a presentation in his place. Here is my slide:
As mentioned, I am halfway out of OSS activities, but I know what my friends are doing, so it was not so difficult to talk about this subject.
Although I cannot say that the presentation itself was a great success (due to my English language skills), I was pleased because the audience was very responsive and easy to talk to, and many people approached me after the presentation was over.
Other than my presentation, I was naturally interested in the two keynote speeches by The Document Foundation and was surprised and grateful when Franklin Weng mentioned my name as an "Asian activist to be featured at the LibreOffice Latin America Conference. "
I listened to Muhammad Syazwan Md Khusaini's "Hands-On on Translating in Ubuntu" with great interest; however, I was a bit surprised to hear from a friend that many Indonesians use English for desktop environments and applications like LibreOffice. I recognized that this was quite different from Japan.
The event itself was just as enthusiastic. Unlike OSS events in Japan (laugh), the participants were young, and there were many women. I was also surprised to see junior high school students among the speakers.
Both lunch and dinner were complimentary, and the one-day Surakaruta city tour the day after the event was delightful. I appreciated the hospitality of the local staff.
This was my first time in Indonesia, and although short, I enjoyed many things, including the train trip. In Yogyakarta, I visited a museum and learned a lot about the history of Indonesia. However, I was overcharged by the tuk-tuk in Yogya.
I know it was a lot of work for the organizers, but as I have many friends in LibreOffice and am also an Ubuntu user, I was very grateful that the two events were co-hosted. Thanks to all the sponsors, global/local organizers, and everyone who talked to me there. See you soon!
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