OS//OS 2016 is here!
Welcome to a world where being open is better for business, technology and democracy.
That’s the prompt for OS//OS 2016, the second run of the Open Source Open Society conference. It’s a big prompt. And under it lies many questions. Big questions.
What does being open actually mean? Do open source principles work outside of software? How open is New Zealand already? Isn’t democracy already open?Can being open be competitive in business? How do open business models work? What does leading the world in open even mean?
Asking questions is easy. Talking is easy. Our challenge — and indeed our motivation, is to ensure OS//OS not only sparks thinking and ignites conversation but most critically, lives or dies in fuelling real action.
A city that embraces action.
OS//OS lives as an example of Wellington’s leadership as a place of ambition, innovation and getting things done.
Conferences live or die in the early support they receive. They takes people and organisations saying yes and putting money behind a vision and an idea, loaded with risk and potential. We’re lucky to be living in a city with fertile ground to try new things and the fertiliser needed to jumpstart action.
With the support of a fantastic community, including founding partners Enspiral and Wellington City Council, 2016 sees OS//OS grow into a series of events, including an Open Data Day event in July, a collaboration cafe event and an OS Hackathon in August, before the main event at the Michael Fowler Centre on Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd August.
Better for business, technology and democracy?
OS//OS is lucky to be led by an Event Director with a severe allergy to boring conferences. Silvia Zuur succeeded in designing OS//OS 2015 as 2 days of inspiration, connection and action where a notably diverse crowd spent more time learning, contributing and connecting than sitting and listening.
Expect another step up this year.
The first wave of speakers and content has been confirmed and we’ll be playing host to people leading the way from around New Zealand and some inspiring global champions who are pioneering new ways of thinking about the issues that sit at the heart of an open society.
Our work is the champion the open principles of participation, collaboration, transparency and freedom to innovate — and to explore how we can apply and amplify these across society.
If you’re interested in things like… best-practice culture for business innovation, leading examples of civic collaboration between citizens and governments, the race to improve democracy using the internet, how we can best leverage open data for business to improve society, distributed systems for radical new ways of building and sharing open source software, emerging business models for a free and open media, NZ’s role in the global push for transparency and tax justice…. join us. We’ll be diving right in.
The OS//OS train is moving. Jump aboard!
Don’t miss out. Tickets will sell out and numbers are strictly limited.
Join the mailing list and stay in touch.
