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Events GNU/Linux Free Software & Open Source Photography

Festival Software Libre Vallarta 2012

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The first days of november I spent them at the Festival Software Libre 2012, in Puerto Vallarta. Like last year, this is an event where most of the free software minds in Mexico and other nearby countries gather to exchange and promote technology ideas and projects. The location as always is great, and it was very nice to see all the people I only get to see once or twice a year at these type of events.

Basilio Briceño & Gabriel Orozco Gabriel Saldaña and John Maddog Hall Gozner the magician & Sandino Araico img_0137 Octavio Mendez img_0169

This time I had the privilege to give three talks:

  • Free Network Services: where I talk about having freedom in a world of “the cloud” where everything is getting centralized again. I talk about federated services like open microblogging, and invite people to participate in projects like Mediagoblin and Statusnet or create new alternatives to known popular SaaS (software as a service) platforms. You can find the slides (in spanish) here.
  • Semantic web and SEO tips: starting with some history on search engines to provide context, I talk about how search engines work and how they rank content. I explain what semantic web is and how it can help us in search engine optimization of the sites we create. It was the first time I give this talk and I was happy to have a full audience room. You can download the slides for this talk (in spanish) here.
  • PHP code quality tools: another talk I gave for the first time. Here I talk about some common mistakes I’ve found over the years working on different PHP projects and companies, and recommend some tools that are available to address some of them. Here are the slides for the PHP code quality tool talk.

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Aside of being a very good technical event, I also had a good time.

img_0086 Pelican in the sunset

I saw how some baby sea turtles were liberated and later that night I got to liberate some others that were found at the beach. It was a great experience.

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If you have the opportunity next year, I highly recommend you go to this event. It’s a great mix of technology, networking, relaxation, good scenery and good times. You don’t get all that in one package very often. Keep an eye on www.fslvallarta.org for next event dates and news.

I took a bunch of photos. If you want to see more, you can find them at my Flickr set.

By Gabriel Saldaña

Gabriel Saldaña is a web developer, photographer and free software advocate. Connect with him on and Twitter