We just set up registration for the third annual OpenNMS Developer’s Conference, which we’re calling “Dev-Jam Double Oh Seven“.

(cue Bond music)

The idea for Dev-Jam goes back to February of 2005. Six of us met in Boston to work our booth in the LinuxWorld .org Pavilion. This was the first time many of us had met in person, and it was a lot of fun. Of course the talk turned to development issues, and we were disappointed that we really didn’t have enough time to get together and really work on the project.

The OpenNMS Group at the time was rather new, and being bootstrapped we didn’t have a ton of money in the bank, but I do have a farmhouse that can sleep about 5-6 people, so I made the following offer: get to Pittsboro, NC, and I’ll put you up at my place, feed you, and we can work on OpenNMS for the week.

We had 8 people at that conference (Craig flew in from the UK), and the only downside was that I got very ill for a couple of days and slept through a lot of it (my wife, who is a saint, put up pretty well with 5 geeks crashing at our place).

It was so much fun that we decided to do it again in 2006. Having learned from our first conference, we had a few requirements. First and foremost was solid bandwidth. Second was a set up where people could break away and sleep when they wanted, as well as work when they wanted. Finally there had to be access to food and caffeine at all hours.

Mike Huot (OGP) suggested that the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul had summer programs and could provide us with all three things as well as a nice place to work. Thus Dev-Jam 2006 was born.

We had over 20 people show up for this conference and it was a blast. Outside of a run-in with evil, predatory parking fines near the campus, our only complaint was that the room was a little small. We really liked the large common room in Yudof hall, with a large screen TV on one side and a kitchen on the other side, but they seemed reluctant to rent it to us.

Image yoinked from UMN.

So for 007 we pressed and pressed the college to rent us that room, and they finally caved. We plan to have space for up to 40 people this year, with the luxuries of the kitchen, TV and large deck overlooking the river that this room provides. I am so psyched. Perhaps we can even get Antonio to cook up some of his Italian specialties one night.

Being in the same building as the dorm rooms, people can nip off for a nap whenever they want without having to go far or drive, and we have a large choice of restaurants in the area. Just don’t go out drinking with Johan unless you practice (a lot) before hand. (grin)