What Trying To Farm Taught Me About Open Source

Just as we do in the tech community, the world of agriculture is wrestling with the sometimes competing interests between a world of closed-source innovation and patents developed by large established companies, contrasting with a growing community encouraging open-source sharing of everything from seeds to knowledge.

Based on lessons learned from the speaker’s recent experience starting a local gourmet mushroom farm after nearly 20 years in the technology industry, the talk will focus on parallels between seemingly unrelated industries, and create compelling examples of why open exchange of information can ultimately benefit all of us, regardless of whether we work in a digital or dirt-filled medium.

Speaker