 Hi, this is your Saptim Bhatian. Welcome to another episode of Mainframe Matters. And today we have with us once again, John Murtic, Executive Director of Open Mainframe Project. John is great to have you back on the show. Likewise, great to talk to you. We are all looking forward to the upcoming Open Mainframe summits. But today we are going to talk about the one that is being held in Las Vegas. Of course, we earlier talked about these two summits. But now, since we are moving closer and closer to this event, talk a bit about what to expect from this summit. Yeah, so the summit is going to be part of a larger event that IBM is holding called IBM Tech Exchange, which is really focused on the IBM customer base and the accessory ISV and vendor community around it. For this event, we targeted this event, one because most folks that are invested in the mainframe also have an alignment with being IBM customer. So there's a correlation there. But I think also we wanted to use this as a way to help get folks that may not naturally have come to a mainframe event and wanted to come to Vegas a day early and check it out. There's a lot of different community day activities from some of the other IBM communities. But this is the only one really focused on the mainframe area itself. So if you're somebody who's already invested in IBM technologies and you might be looking at trying to understand what's the mainframe doing, what are the open source trends and things happening there, this is really the event to get a really great sense of that. So it will mostly be the IBM audience, which also means that the kind of sessions talks folks have planned is also to cater to such audience, or it could also be things to introduce new topics to the audience. So talk a bit about what kind of content we are looking at. Yeah, so we have a ton of sessions. We've really packed a lot in here. We had a really strong call for speakers. We were quite excited about that. And you're going to see a lot of different things. I mean, you're going to see deep dives into technologies, such as Zoey, such as the work that's happening in the cobalt space, such as the new project Galassa, mainframe open education, Feilong, a number of other technologies, and even just a broader of what's happening in open source on the mainframe. There's a ton of talks. We have two tracks going parallel with all of these talks. And we have speakers from all of these projects, all of these communities all coming together. At the front end, we have a really good set of keynotes after you deal with me for a few minutes. We really dig into learning about how these technologies are being used. We're pulling together a great panel that's bringing mainframe customers to the table that are saying, how we are transforming the way that they're working thanks to the work that's happening in the open mainframe project, and more importantly, just open source in general. And then we'll really also deep dive into mentorships and diversity and really, really the changing state of this industry and the changing state of the platform. So it's an event where there's going to be a lot of technical content, but I think you can also walk away and really get it inside of where this platform is going, because the technology is really, like any of our technical communities, the technology is the driver part of it. So one can walk away and get a really good sense of, this is where the mainframe is going, and this is where we should be putting our investments. When we are looking at this event and then we're looking at open mainframe's presence, let's not talk about what audience can expect from the event, but what are you expecting? How will it help open mainframe project with this exposure? I think the big thing that the project is really looking to drive is the, what is open source to a community that has not been deeply exposed to it before? Linux has been on the platform since 1999, and there's a decent uptick of customers and mainframe users using Linux, but really the deep, big mainframe installations are built around technologies that have the roots, like you said, are going back decades and decades, and many of these are not sort of connected to the modern open source tools that we're seeing today. So there's a change happening, and if you look at really any industry that is going through transformation, it's always a change from the legacy to what is new. That's happening. That's happening on a lot of different fronts, and we see a lot of vendors driving it, where we know the difference is at, and I know you have seen as you've worked and interviewed folks across a number of industries going through transformation, is open source is that accelerant. So us being able to help educate and showcase the audience that might not be aware of open source, might not be understanding of what it's about, might have a lot of misconceptions of it, not being secure, it's free, what does that mean, all of these sorts of things. This is a conference where they can hopefully walk away from that, and the nice part, it's a place where they're already being exposed to so many other new technologies and where the platform is going, that it really kind of helps round out their experience and it lets them go back to their organizations and say, this is an evolving platform and open source is behind the accelerant of it. You folks have a lot of projects, some mature projects, some early projects, what kind of projects you will be highlighting there, which once again, the decision will be made on the audience that is there at the event. You know, I think we're really, if you look at our catalog of projects, they've always really been focused on how are we connecting the mainframe application services and data back to where the end user, the developer, the organization is today. And Zoey fits right into that and you can look at the investments on the COBOL side and whatnot. We have a new project, Glossa, which is focused on test automation and really has its roots around ZOS, but is designed to be sort of a unifying framework across an entire organization. So, you know, if you're looking at sort of where we're at and where we're going and some of this I think I'll key on some of my opening remarks, it's really helping bring forward that developer experience, because we all know that there's great data and services that are within these mainframes. How can that be brought into a central part of what an organization's strategy is? Not just, like you said, not a mainframe or not a mainframe we have sitting over here, but a central part of where they're going. And they're seeing is like, you know, we have this services, we have these, we have this infrastructure. This is a competitive advantage for us. We've made this investment and it's a little bit of a different mindset than I think people have often thought about mainframe, but, you know, as I talk to some of the largest customers out there, that's what they're thinking. That's how their minds are thinking about this. Earlier, you were also talking about diversity and the last opens, you know, mainframe summit. There are a lot of sessions. There are a lot of some great, excellent speakers. I talked to a few folks there. Talk a bit about will there be, we'll see in the, not only just the talk, but for the audience also because it's not just, hey, there are a lot of talks about diversity, but they should also feel welcome. The whole setup of the event should also be welcoming in a way. It is. I mean, you know, just like any event that you see the Linux Foundation run, it's, we see a diverse set of speakers. We see a diverse set of attendees. And we really seek to highlight a lot of that diversity because that's really what makes us all stronger is a broader sense of that. And we're seeing that continue to grow. I mean, our new project Glossa has come in, has, you know, Louisa Sears, who will be part of our diversity panel that's leading up that project. So we're seeing new projects come in that are bringing more diverse leadership right along the way. You know, our goal is really with, as we look at diversity is not diversity for diversity's sake, but diversity for showing the downstream value it provides in these communities and these ecosystems. You know, because we all core know that if you have a more diverse audience, if you have a more diverse set of users and contributors, the outcomes are gonna be better. And what we can do is help provide those spaces to have it happen. But at the same time, we wanna tell the stories of because this is happening, these are the great effects that are coming from it. These are the impacts that are being made. And that's where I think the value starts to come in is when then you have a richer set of participants in a community all because it's a welcoming and open space. So we start at the bottom level investment and then we highlight the amazing work that's happening. What kind of integration will there be with the summit? So once again, the point is that it doesn't matter which audience is coming to it and which event they benefit from both. So I mean, first of all, if you register for a pass, you can go to this. So there's no additional cost, which is good. And the other part is it's a part of the larger community day that is happening on the Monday of the tech exchange event. So you see a lot of attendees that are gonna be coming in early and this sort of gives them an opportunity to bounce in and learn a little bit about what's going on here. And maybe they might explore some of the other community day sessions which are in different topical areas and they might swing in here and say, hey, I wanna learn about what's happening on ZOS and open source. I wanna hear about what's happening in education. I wanna learn about what's happening in COBOL or test automation. So it's really kind of designed to integrate already with a great existing event. It's not like we're doing it somewhere else. We're doing it right in the same session rooms that all the rest of the event will be happening. And it's already part of the experience for everyone. So it should be a really nice natural experience for folks to bop in, bop out, kind of learn a little bit, take what they want to learn out of it. And we're really thrilled that the support that IBM is giving this event and helping position and promote it through a number of their channels. So we're really excited to see what the audience looks like. Of course, this is your event. So every session, every talk is like a baby to you. But if I ask, if anything is specific which you are looking for, not just because that special either is happening for the first time or whatever the opportunity may be, what would that be? I think the thing I'm really looking forward is we're seeing a customer really step up as a part of our keynote and talk about them being a user of Zoey and what does that meant and what they're using it. And that to me is sort of the testament. Like if you're a product marketer, you know the second that you get a customer saying and talking about your product, like that's gold. And I think for here, it's even so much more of a milestone just because of the road that open source really has to go through in this industry to really be accepted because there's such a high scrutiny and a high level of rigor that is put on what is delivered through a mainframe because of the importance of the mainframe to our society as a whole. And so having a customer being able to step forward and this is gonna be from M&T Bank, this is really gonna be something that we're gonna see people out in the audience saying, wow, like there's someone using this. This isn't just something that might be being played around with. This might not be something that random customer, this is something that's actually being used. And we did an interview last year, I think you did with Rune Christensen of Bank Data. So now we're starting to build more and more of that momentum of financial institutions and folks serving that industry are using Zoey and are using open source. And I think that's a huge milestone for this community. John, thank you so much for joining me today and talk about this event. This is one of my kind of favorite events because as you said, the communities, welcoming communities also the project is kind of at a phase where a lot of things are happening. So a lot of exciting things happen there. So thanks for kind of sharing insights about what's going to happen at the event. And I look forward to talking to you again soon. Thank you. Likewise, thank you.