Asia Source II - The Taste of Asia

Asia Source II is a "summer-camp style" gathering of information and communications technology professional that pools around 100 "geek" and "users" from Egypt to the Phillippines and from Mongolia to East Timor. Advocating the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS) is the main agenda of this source camp.

Despite a number of representatives from Middle East (Egypt, Iran) and the southern and northern parts of Asia (Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia), the majority of "Asia Source II" participants came from the South East Asian countries. A bus load of people came from Phillipines and Indonesia (the latter being the host country), a handful of Vietnamese and Cambodians, one person from Laos, not to mention a few from Thailand and Malaysia.

The Malaysians are somehow amazed at variety of snacks offered during coffee breaks, while the Phillipines tend to be careful about spicy food as their diet are mostly less spicy. On the contrary, the Indians thought that the Indonesian menu were less spicy than theirs back home. The Cambodians were kinda stumped at the amount of oil in the Indonesian food that was served pretty much every day (we got some European and Chinese menu, although "beef piccata" and "rice" don't really seem to mix). Most of the people seemed to be happy when bread appeared on the dining table recently. Well, beef burger at 08:00 AM in the morning might be a challenge to some people, but after a week of rice, that was a happy change for most people.

I'd say the biggest buzz of all in this so-called "source camp" is the "salad bowl style" meet-up and one on one conversation with people of different nationalities and cultures. The picture of "one dollar a day" (in US Dollar) life comes to live when you hang out with the Cambodians. Talking to the Phillippines makes you feel the power of the people. The hunger for technology strikes when you talk to the Egyptians and the Bangladeshis. The cultural mosaic is woven beautifully when you translate "open source" into diverse characters and languages of Asia. Have you ever realized that Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have different characters, not to mention Mongolia and Iran?

Despite the ongoing controversy between "easy of use" and "open source" nature of F/LOSS, the next challenge would be demistifying F/LOSS and make F/LOSS as easy and user friendly as flossing teeth.

Not to mention lifestyle.

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Check out live blog of Asia Source II Campers:
http://blog.foss-at-work.net