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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: russell_-at-_flora.ottawa.on.ca
Date: 18 Oct 1998 11:06:32 -0400
For those who want to read a report from this Open-Source event..
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.org/russell/work/>
FLORA COMMUNITY WEB: NEW INTERNET CONNECTION AND NEW LOOK
http://www.flora.org/russell/press-19981001.html
Ottawa: It's our turn! <http://www.flora.org/?byebyemike> Oct 17, 1998!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 17:22:40 +0100
From: Apache Week <paul@apacheweek.com>
To: apacheweek@apacheweek.com
Subject: Apache Week issue 134 (16th October 1998)
This is the latest edition of Apache Week. To read this issue or any
past issues, see http://www.apacheweek.com/
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_[2]Apache Week Home | [3]Features | [4]Apache 1.2 | [5]Other Issues _
APACHE WEEK
The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
Issue 134: 16th October 1998
_Contents:_
Report from ApacheCon '98
Report from ApacheCon '98
This is a special issue of Apache Week, from and about the first ever
Apache Conference, ApacheCon '98.
The conference ran from October 14th to October 16th, at the San
Francisco Hilton in California, USA. This is the largest hotel in San
Francisco, and is located in the downtown area. In total, just under
500 people registered for the conference. While most people came from
the US and Canada, there were also a signficant number of people from
Europe. For the first conference on Apache, this was a very good
attendence, and the exhibitors and sponsors were very happy with the
number of people at the conference. In addition, most of the 18 core
Apache developers also attended, coming from the US, Canada, Italy, UK
and Germany.
This article contains some links to pictures taken at the conference.
Some [6]additional pictures are also available.
The keynote speeches
The first general session on the 14th started with a keynote speech
from author _Bruce Sterling_ ([7]picture). This was not directly
related to Apache, but contained Bruce's thoughts on the future of a
networked society.
This was followed by another keynote, from _John Gilmore_ of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) ([8]picture). The EFF is an
organisation concerned with freedom and liberties in computing and the
Internet. He outlined objections to software patents, and covered the
problems caused by the US export restrictions on secure encryption.
Decisions about what is exportable and what is not exportable from the
US are made by government employees, without any ability to appeal.
Even worse, government employees can revoke export permission at any
time without giving any reason, which could seriously affect
businesses who rely on exports. The export restrictions were applied
to the NCSA httpd server, where the government demanded that the
server removed all "hooks" which could allow encryption to be added,
even thoughb there was no actual encryption technology in the server.
This is the reason that Apache does not contain any hooks to enable
encryption to be added.
The first talk on the second day was by _John Patrick_ from IBM
([9]picture). He talked about his view of how the Internet will
evolve. In the last session, _David Filo_ from Yahoo! showed how
Yahoo! has used open source software ([10]picture). They started by
using commercial operating systems and home-written web servers, but
had problems with vendors not being able to scale to the huge number
of hits they soon received. They moved to FreeBSD so they could read
and if necessary tweak the operating system code. They also use Apache
on most of their servers and find that the majority of the performance
limitations come from the application layer software.
The Talks
There were four parallel tracks running throughout the conference,
with a total of 55 talks. The tracks were Dynamic Content,
Performance, Security and Case Studies.
On the Dynamic Content track there were talks about using Java
servlets at beginner, advanced, and performance levels. Two talks
about PHP showed beginner and advanced techniques. There were also
talks on writing Apache modules and mod_perl (although unfortunately
the first mod_perl session could not be given by the original
presenter and the second advanced session had to be cancelled).
The Performance track covered making Apache go faster on Windows and
Unix systems, using servlets efficiently, and tweaking Linux and
FreeBSD. Also on this track was a presentation on how the Netscape
Portable Runtime (NSPR) package (available under Netscape's NPL
license) could be integrated with Apache to provide a multi-threading
Apache on all Unix platforms as well as NT. There was also a talk
about how the Apache development process works and how people with
contributions can get involved.
On the Security track the talk about the new mod_ssl package was
popular. The author presented what mod_ssl does and why it was created
from the existing Apache-SSL package. Also on this track was an
introduction to SSL and TLS, basic security issues in Apache, NT
security, and a panel on public key infrastructure on the Web.
The final track had Case Studies from various companies. This track
also contained a demonstration of various GUI configuration programs
for Apache. There are various free and commercial configuration
systems in development currently, some of which were demonstrated.
This seems to be the start of a more concerted effort to develop a GUI
infrastructure within Apache, which will allow multiple front-end
implementations.
The Exhibition
About a dozen companies exhibited at the trade show during the
conference ([11]picture). Companies present included IBM, RedHat,
C2Net, Sendmail, nCipher, SUSE and O'Reilly. This was a very explicit
demonstration of how Apache has built an associated industry, and the
exhibitors we talked to were very happy with the quality, interest,
and response of people that they met at the conference.
Meeting the Apache core
The final session was a chance to communicate with the core Apache
developers ([12]picture). After introducing each member, there was a
short discussion of items of interest to the developers, such as plans
for 2.0. This was followed by an open session for questions from the
floor. Questions covered a range of topics, from IBM's involvement
with the Apache group (they have several people working full time on
Apache and will contribute back changes) to a request for Apache
incorporate SSL by storing it on a server outside the US (this cannot
happen because then no US citizen could work on any part of Apache as
it includes encryption).
Future plans
This was the first conference about Apache, and the first conference
ever organised by the Apache Group. The result was a very successful
conference, where sponsors, exhibitors and attendees were all happy.
The success of the conference means that there will be another
ApacheCon in the future, but the location and dates have not yet been
decided. As soon as anything is known, it will be announced in Apache
Week.
_________________________________________________________________
Comments or criticisms? Please email us at [13]editors@apacheweek.com.
[14]Apache Week is copyright 1996-1998 by [15]C2Net Europe Limited.
[16]C2Net sells network security and encryption products.
References
1. http://www.apacheweek.com/ads/?n=cannon&do=go
2. http://www.apacheweek.com/
3. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/
4. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/guide12
5. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/
6. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/
7. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/14-006.jpg
8. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/14-008.jpg
9. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/15-002.jpg
10. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/15-004.jpg
11. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/14-012.jpg
12. http://www.apacheweek.com/apcon98/16-006.jpg
13. mailto:editors@apacheweek.com
14. http://www.apacheweek.com/
15. http://www.eu.c2.net/
16. http://www.c2.net/
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