TIIME 2020 is over. As always, it was nice and pleasant unconference. But this year was quite special for us as we have conducted the very first MidPoint user group meeting before the main unconference.
Monday was a merry gathering of midPoint users that formed a surprisingly cohesive group. Katka and me started the day with a couple of talks to set the mood. But the whole group quickly moved toward informal discussions. We discussed many topics such as configuration management, IDEs, deployment practices, midPoint improvements and documentation. This was a great inspiration for us and we will consider all the suggestions we have received. It looks like the community enjoys to hear news from midPoint development team, therefore we have decided to organize midPoint webinars. We will start with “What’s new” webinars as a follow-up to midPoint releases. If the webinars prove to be useful, we will consider extending that activity even further.
The gathering was very friendly and there was a strong atmosphere of cooperation. MidPoint is a practical real-world software, therefore it is quite obvious that midPoint is not perfect. But there was hardly any critique at all. Everybody was very positive, everybody wanted to contribute to the discussion, everybody wanted to make midPoint better. I am very grateful that midPoint has such cooperative and helpful community. You motivate us to develop midPoint to the best of our abilities. Thank you all!
Tuesday was dedicated to open source IAM software. I reported on the plans for ConnId development that we have agreed on in the ConnId community. Then there was quite an emotive discussion about SCIM. This is hardly surprising, given all the issues regarding protocol interoperability during last few years. Then there was a couple of other discussions, but the last one was my personal favorite. Mike Schwartz talked about business models related to open source. I added my two cents by describing how our own business model evolved. The discussion that followed was a real highlight of the entire event for me. It is quite clear that open source is not a business model itself. But there can be a thriving business based on open source development. The very existence of Evolveum is a proof of that.
The main TIIME unconference went on Wednesday and Thursday in its typical friendly and honest style. I have to say I have became a real fan of unconferences during all these years. We had a dinner at an amazing museum of natural history in Vienna. And then it was time to go home again. The event ended just a few days ago, but I’m already looking forward to meet midPoint community again. See you again next year!
Photo by Petr Gašparík