A. J. Venter has objections to Microsoft's presence at Idlelo. My thoughts...

A. J. is referring to the talk by A. Kayode Adesemowo entitled ``The Free and Open Source multi-language .NET community across multiple platform'', which is visible on the Idlelo programme.

A. Kayodo seems to be a ``Microsoft Academic Consultant''. From what I understand, Microsoft sponsors (gives laptops, flies them to conferences) students at universities (well, at least at UCT and now it seems at UWC) to say nice things about Microsoft and its products to the other students.

A. J.'s letter seems to take offense more at the presence of Microsoft at the conference than the talk itself. The talk, while on Microsoft's .NET platform, seems specifically to be focussed on Free Software and Open Source communities forming around the .NET platforms. I imagine the talk will mention NAnt, NVelocity, .NETUnit, dotGNU, Mono, #develop, &c.

A.J. mentions some stuff in private mail with me that is of some concern, but without direct evidence.

However, on the basis of the Open Position alone, I see no reason to boycott the Idlelo conference simply because a speaker, even one sponsored by Microsoft, is going to speak about Free Software and Open Source communities that just happen to use Microsoft's .NET platform.