BMC invites the systems management "community" to BarCamp
Imagine a room full of people that all want to solve the same problem. Now imagine that it included both the people with the money to fund the solution, as well as the people with the expertise to develop the solution. Let's call it BarCampESM. Read on
I like this idea. Will Hurley of BMC is calling for a meet-up of those on the vendor and customer side of systems management. Why? To allow people to get together to shape the future of the systems management market.
One-on-one with a vendor is useful but limiting. This idea provides for a more collaborative approach to solving customer problems:
As Will writes:
It's time for the systems management community to start acting like one. BMC is taking the lead, with the help of several open source projects, bloggers, analyst, and even competitors. We're sponsoring the world's first Enterprise Systems Management BarCamp. Like BarCamp, DevCamp, and SuperHappyDevHouse, BarCampESM will throw users, developers, vendors, and anyone else interested in systems management together at a non-commercial event, organized by volunteers, with free attendance for all. Everyone's invited; go sign up on the wiki today. Just add your name and you're good to go participate.
BarCampESM will be user driven. I'm calling all who have complaints about systems management to present your ideas and solutions to an audience that can actually do something about them. This IS NOT about getting the latest, greatest demo from your friendly neighborhood enterprise sales person. This is one attendee, one voice. Ask the tough questions to your community leaders, and then we'll work together to address our users needs for a change.
This feels like a good idea. Undoubtedly, there will be more vendors in attendance than customers, but not if the end-users a) hear about it and b) realize that done right (meaning, done by them, which requires their participation), this could be a great way to have their voices heard. It's a way to collaborate with other customers to figure out what's possible, and then to tell the vendors what's required, and to decide together how to get there.
It would be great to have this same sort of event for other software products (CRM, ECM, ERP, etc.). When are you going to host yours?