I program in the Open Source community. There are no hidden seminars here, of companies that had "privileged" information for their chosen users... We all know the format as its publicly available and follow the documented releases, as that is free and available too.
We are a lot more focused on trying to make things better for everyone. So no place for the expensive seminars of greedy companies. Although, in my education I have seen that side of it all too, could have done same stuff without that I think.
I never understood why the Five Arts are, sometimes so much focused on profit and the closed format, in the world we live in that didn't seem a good choice for people. Yet that seems to be changing in different cases, so time will tell, I do believe the open initiatives will prove themselves worthy in here as well, as they usually do. Then if we are choosing based on what is good for people, the choices may lean in other directions...
That was always the plan, though. Stay in the open and meet the few that decide to join us here. Its very fun, no secrets to worry about, no closed stuff every step of the way or lies. I get both have their place,though, I had chosen back then to be the welcome wagon for the few that decided to approach this openly. There were others welcoming the rest. Although to be fair, I was a lot more active back then, have let it go for the most part, as its tiring now and there are others to point a way...
But for people that want to do this in an open way... There are good amount of those. Will that mean there is mountains of stuff I will never know... Of course. But its a very big world out there, that is always the case. We choose what we know, and its "powerfulness" is not the priority, its openness and honesty is. Although both have their place, but having only the first part is much scarier then having neither.
But its good you are posting your predictions for incoming years. If you get something right, that doesn't make you powerful, though, it just means you guessed something right. Its good, but it doesn't matter much in the long run, even people that aren't using any systems do that from time to time, after all. Its a privilege allowed to all.
I also make predictions. Did back then and still do now. I'm very happy with how that goes, but I have no reason to post it in forums or the open now. If you are curious how that go, can dig in archives of places, stuff is probably still there. As it doesn't mean much for me, yet in my estimate its usually accurate enough.
Someone somewhere said:
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
I think that was greatly misunderstood in some Five Arts places and from a very good people,at times... That doesn't mean aim for the triumph and try to skillfully avoid disaster, in my humble view. As that is doing exactly the opposite of treating them the same.
it means that "winning" with great power, in this context that could mean making a somewhat accurate prediction, doesn't mean much more then "losing" with great failure, meaning making inaccurate prediction.
Both are just experiences one will learn from and move on at the end.
Of course, here you can say - " Ahh, but its easy to say when you make inaccurate predictions!its just to justify why...", yea that isn't really the case as I have always been happy with my predictions, be that in the open, or just with people around me. I'm just aware that there are a lot more important things in life then that. Open source is one of those things for me. Hopefully you will find something for you as well, if you don't have already.