Rania's Story about openSUSE.Asia Summit 2019

openSUSE.Asia Summit 2019 (oSAS19) has been successfully held, congratulations to the organizers and everyone involved in the long process of this event, you are amazing! This post is my concise review about oSAS19. Long reviews may be available later in Bahasa Indonesia.

oSAS19 was held at Udayana for two days, 5 & 6 October 2019 at the Udayana University, Bali. The event was attended by hundreds of people from all over the world. Very extraordinary, this year oSAS19 has more than 50 speakers who also come from various countries. The topic presented was also very diverse, although most of it, of course, was related to technical IT.

In oSAS19, I was part of the local committee, precisely as the design coordinator. I have several staff who helped me to complete the designs for this event. They are: Nugroho, Hervy, and Arif. At the beginning the committee was formed, there was also Ahfie on my staff, but in the middle of the trip he resigned.

Apart from being the design coordinator, I was also asked to help Rifki and Dhenandi to handle the volunteers. But to be honest, my role is rather useless here. Because without me it seems like the two of them are already very good at handling volunteers. It is only natural that on several occasions when discussing about volunteers I was almost never involved.

Before Day 0

I arrived in Bali on October 2, 2019, a few days earlier than others. This is because Rifki asked me to help him prepare for the event with the volunteers. Fyi, this volunteer oSAS19 is very fun. We can adapt to each other very quickly. Aji, the leader of these volunteers, I really appreciate his very fast responsibility in handling the problems that arise during the event. Besides Aji, there are also Adhim and Jena who are also very helpful.

I stayed at an Airy located not far from campus with Aftian. On October 3 & 4, 2019, almost all day, were on campus with Rifki & Dhenandi and volunteers to prepare all seminar kits that will be distributed at the time of re-registration tomorrow. Unfortunately, because there are some delays in print, the task cannot be completed on time. I, Rifki, & Dhenandi finally decided not to attend the first dinner at Jimbaran beach.

Ah, almost forgot. On Friday around 10 pm, the IT faculty held a public lecture with presenters Douglas, Sunny and Max Lin. Edwin acted as moderator in this activity. The event was lively, many interesting questions were given by the participants to the speakers. Almost all questions have a similar topic, namely questioning the ability of FOSS with proprietary software that they usually use. This is very reasonable I think, because most of them are almost new that day to know and understand about free and open source applications

When the event was over, and several presenters went to a place (I forgot the name), the volunteer team returned to prepare everything for the event tomorrow, from sorting out business cards, filling in goodie bags, to arranging the stage and parallel classrooms.

Day 1

I left for campus rather late, I should have arrived at around 7.30 am, but I arrived at campus at 8 am. But apparently everything is safe, re-registration of participants and speakers has been going well, consumption has also arrived and is ready to be arranged.

Today, I only attend a few main classes in the Main Hall and a few parallel classes. Why? Because I have to help the volunteers to tidy up a few things. The only class I took from beginning to end was the Aftian class on Balinese Script. This class is very interesting for me, because it’s not too technical and very open opportunities to contribute specifically for people who do not have IT skills like me.

In the afternoon, I filled in a parallel class in room 201. There were not too many participants in the class, not even 10 people, but I really liked it because they had extraordinary enthusiasm. About this number of participants, it might be because many people did not understand the title that I was displaying, yes, because in the rundown program my subtitles apparently did not appear, so it was only natural that many were not interested in this class.

The topic that I submit is Sozi vs Synfig: A Comparison of 2D Animation / Motion Tools. So for friends who want to submit titles later, it is better to put the subtitles and headings in the same column to appear in full. But, let it be :")

Aaah, unfortunately I don’t think my parallel class has documentation, or I haven’t found it yet, but I don’t see any photo vendors coming in to just take pictures or the like. So, sorry I can’t attach a photo of my class. Hope some one save the moment and share it to me later. :"(

Around dusk, I returned with the aftian to the inn. Tonight, all presenters and volunteers are invited to have dinner at Mak Jo. I arrived a little late, because several times failed to order transportation online. We spent the night familiarizing ourselves and talking with each other about many things. Very fun and filling.

Day 2

My activity on the second day of oSAS19 was to help Darian prepare a post-event video to be played this afternoon. Darian asked me to find some talents from participants and volunteers for a short interview and to be recorded.

Late in the afternoon, I returned to the Main Hall to attend a lightning talk (LT) session. Btw, one of the interesting things that I got from this LT session was the Sunny session which was brief but really felt to me a few years ago, and maybe that was also felt by some other friends who were first joining the community .

In short, many of us feel inferior when we have to speak a foreign language, for example English. Yes, many of us are still shy to try to talk, but if we want to try, I'm sure it will. For children my age or younger, haven't we learned English since elementary school? Then why are you still hesitant to try: ")

However, without the courage to communicate, it will be difficult to establish a relationship, let alone community. So, let’s speak up!

On this second day, the we shared some surprises for the participants and the two best volunteers who had helped this event. Adhim and Jena were selected as the best oSAS19 volunteers this year. After the event closed, we still talked warmly with each other until sunset.

One Day Tour

A series of official oSAS19 events have been completed. Today we will do a one day tour (hereinafter I will be short) to several places in Bali. On the previous day, Kukuh had informed the schedule of the trip to the speakers.

We are getting ready to go to the Zuri Express hotel early this morning. The inn and Zuri Express are not far, so Aftian and I decided to walk to get there. As usual, the area around the inn is filled with village dogs, so that during our trip we barked and followed by more than four dogs, scary.

Aftian and I arrived at Zuri Express around 7am. We waited for several people while eating breakfast. After all gathered, the journey began.

The first location we visited was Alas Harum, Ubud. There we took time to enjoy coffee and some other warm drinks to unwind during the trip. The coffees here are traditionally produced using “Luwak” assistance and roasted using traditional stoves. This makes the taste of coffee in Ubud very unique.

Ubud area is very broad. Ubud is actually a rice terrace set in such a way as to be very beautiful. There are several holy statues in the area. Believe me, walking around Ubud is very tiring, because the path up and down. But all of that became even because of the atmosphere and the panorama that was truly captivating.

After going from Rice Terrace we headed to the monkey forest. As the name suggests, in this forest we can interact directly with groups of monkeys in the forest. All these monkeys are protected and protected. The Balinese believe that apes are one of the manifestations of gods on earth, therefore hurting apes is a very taboo act.

After leaving the monkey forest, we headed for Uluwatu. But before that, we stopped for a moment at a mosque to pray and some others took a rest. After that, we rushed to Uluwatu. a place that I have always wanted to visit.

We arrived at Uluwatu when it was late afternoon. Our main agenda in Uluwatu is to watch the Kecak dance performance which is indeed an authentic tradition on this bali island. Fyi, the original Kecak dance originated from this Uluwatu area before it later spread to all regions in Bali.

The day was very hot and we were even more excited. We took a walk around Uluwatu Temple while enjoying the bay air and the swift ocean waves. So fabulous.

Evening arrived. We flocked to the theater where the Kecak dance would be performed. Theater is filled with people from various countries. The oSAS19 group was lucky to get a strategic spot to watch this show.

The Kecak and Api Dance tells the story of the Ramayana puppet. The episode shown is the story of the rescue of Dewi Sprott from the abduction of Ravana by Hanoman. Hanoman is a monkey who has supernatural powers and is a confidant of Rama. The show ends around 6.30pm.

From Uluwatu, some of us returned to their respective hotels. Some others, including me, hunt for souvenirs in shopping centers in Bali. We shop till late at night. Before returning to each hotel, we took time to eat.

Finally, See You :")

The entire series of openSUSE.Asia Summit 2019 events has ended. Some people have gone home sooner. I flew to Surabaya on Tuesday, October 8, 2019. I did not immediately go home because next week will also participate in the GNOME.Asia Summit 2019 event in Gresik.

Finally, oSAS19 brought me together with many people with each character. Surely this is a very valuable experience. The thing that I cannot forget is none other than the time of working with volunteers. At that time I really felt alive and very happy. oSAS 19 volunteer assistance I think is nothing. So, thanks to all of you, thank you to openSUSE for funding this trip, and thank you to all the people and nature who have been involved in this really cool event. See you at oSAS19 next year in any region of the planet. We're Asia! :")

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Thanks to:

Our photos can be access via Google Photo Groups: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASMSYCJEiW94LGRA8