Update from thebazaar

Steve Blood, the pivotal figure for the bazaar has sent over an update about some pretty major changes to the actual. I've posted that below-but some of the good news is that the pricing will be changing dramatically: 175$ for all conference sessions and tutorials, and 100$ for students. That's good news for everyone's pocket book.

The Bazaar is going through a major transition which has been brought on by a number of factors which you can read about (if you have any desire to know more about what we've had to deal with) in a ranty, somewhat bitter, open letter I wrote, but decided not to do anything with.

To summarize what's happening: the Bazaar was conceived as a nonprofit conference and expo for free software that would benefit development groups. As it turned out, the dates which we chose specifically to not conflict with LINC Expo or Linux Expo, ended up being very close to IDG's LinuxWorld Expo -- another new show which wasn't announced until after our show was confirmed. Although this was unfortunate we didn't think it was the end of the world.

From the beginning we took a noncompetitive approach with IDG: the Bazaar was, after all, a different show in a different place. Hackers, developers, speakers and attendees liked that approach and we've had tons of support from all over the world.

However, that same approach got us no where with exhibitors and sponsors, i.e. the companies we need to support us so that we can afford to put this show on. Everyone has shut us down, given us the run-around and altogether sent the Bazaar to the brink of its life, except for a few, very excellent companies who believe in the spirit of our show (VA, Patmos, Linux HW).

Anyway, last week I appealed to a couple of leaders in the Linux business community for some help and they told me that competing with IDG was basically hopeless and wished me luck.

Well, our luck was running out, so I contacted a company that was interested in partnering up with us. It wasn't what I wanted to do with the Bazaar, but this company likes our mission and is willing to keep it as a nonprofit event with developers at the center. And they are a major company with the media and capital resources to make things happen.

So please bear with us as we go through some restructuring. If you have any suggestions -- except about the pricing which will change drastically, probably $175 for all the conference sessions and tutorials, $100 for students -- or questions please contact me or the staff.

-steve blood