Open Source Bridge 2009 kicked off yesterday morning in Portland, Oregon. In her introductions, Selena Deckelmann told the audience that one-third of the presenters at this inaugural event are women. In fact, the event organizers went out of their way to invite women to speak.

In addition to being a particularly woman-friendly event, Open Source Bridge feels like a great "first" event to attend if you've ever wanted to go to an open source conference but haven't quite worked up the nerve. For example, Cat Allman and Leslie Hawthorn's talk offered helpful hints for getting started in free and open source. They suggest that you start by finding a need that matters to you and then find an open source community that fits you.

Not only is the event held in a great city, it's also quite affordable and the sessions offer something for everyone, from more technical sessions ("Agile JavaScript Testing"), to business ("How to earn an open source living without taking on investors or selling your soul"), to culture ("New Ways for Teaching Children Software Programming").

Mayor Sam Adams talked at this morning's keynote and sounded enthusiastic about making the Portland government more open. He said that Portland and Vancouver BC have a friendly competition now to "out open source" each other. Wiki developer Ward Cunningham spoke after the Mayor.

If you aren't here in person, you can watch streaming online and plan to attend the next Open Source Bridge in 2010.

Next up for me, Emma McGratten's talk, Ask Forgiveness not Permission, and later this afternoon I'll sit in on Maria Webster's talk, and then Emma Hogbin and Selena Deckelmann's bzr vs. git smack down.