f2c

f2c is an interesting name.

Norm Schryer at Bell Labs coauthored f2c - a Fortran to C converter - at Bell Labs way back when. Early open source gamers remember it as it brought many of the open source Fortran games over to the emerging world of C ... even Zork (via a circuitous path:-)

free and open is good

Another friend from the Bell Labs days, David Isenberg, runs the outstanding f2c conference.

freedom to connect

Many of the movers and shakers in the net neutrality debate attend. Most are on the side of net neutrality, but there are those from the other side of the fence and the conference has severed as a catalyst to focus efforts. The press was surprised by the net neutrality storm that stuck Congress last Spring. There were so many reasons why it shouldn't have happened. f2c 2006 was a catalyst and one of the reasons why it did.

So who should go?

Anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of the issues around network neutrality - certainly Representatives and Senators:-) More seriously CIOs and CTOs of companies with major Internet presences attend to equip themselves with the tools to sift through the astroturf being generated at the rate of million$ per month by the telecommunications companies. Telco people should attend to participate in the debate.

We live in interesting times and legislation is increasingly likely this year. It is unclear what might be good and what might be bad -- and for which parties... There is no better venue to explore the issues.

An added feature of the conference is its small size (generally a few hundred) - off-line serious talks may be the best feature. I remember going until 4 in the morning one year.

This is net neutrality ab ovo usque ad mala

And f2c goes beyond network neutrality.

recommended!