Yes, thats right, on Saturday June 16th OpenSolaris will spend the day in the park with friends, family, coworkers and everyone associated in any way with Solaris.

This all started some time ago. I’m not a Sun employee but I work closely with many. I always thought it’d be awesome to be at a Sun Company picnic, because I’m a family man and I really like to not just meet people but meet the whole family. Our spouses and girl/boyfriends hear plenty about what we do and the people we work with (in the community or at the office, there isn’t a difference)… but when do they get to meet these people? When do they get to see all these people we spend so much time with? A picnic! Thats the key. And now, thanks to OpenSolaris, the whole Solaris family, whether they have a Sun badge or not, can participate.

This event isn’t just for “OpenSolaris people”. Solaris is part of an integrated stack and whether your a Java developer or a VAR salesperson or a SysAdmin or just someone who thinks Solaris and Sun solutions are neato, your part of our family. Everyone is invited. Bring your spouse and children, bring your PM and their family, bring your manager and their family, bring your directors dog. Everyone is welcome.

This event is an Open one and I’m running it like one. I had an idea and started to work on it. My wife heard about it and got excited and wanted to contribute and had such good ideas I’ve named her as the project lead. We’re hoping lots of people will want to get involved. But just getting people involved and interested isn’t enough. If a project is going to grow it requires contribution, people who are excited and want to participate by giving back. That could be by evangelism (telling your friends and coworkers), that could be by submitting (bringing) food or drinks to share, that could be volunteering a grill (build team), or thinking of some games for the kids (user support).

Open Source projects are just like a picnic… 10,000 people can show up but if no one brings anything to the party it’ll be a pretty boring one. Its all about contribution, its all about adding your personal and distinct gifts and talents together with other peoples personal and distinct gifts and talents to create something fun, exciting, and in this case tasty.

So I hope you’ll join us for a good time on June 16th at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. Please see development lead Tamarah Rockwood’s blog for details and how to get involved.

An for everyone here in our beautiful SIlicon Valley for USENIX, please come and join us!

Registration is not required, but we’d encourage it for planning purposes: See the event on Upcoming.Yahoo.