Rick over at the Silicon Florist Blog reports that OSCON won't be back in Portland next summer. So ends a six-year run for the state's only really major high-tech conference, which will be held in the Silicon Valley in July '09.

It's a big blow to Portland's rep as an open source capital. I asked O'Reilly Media, which puts on the event, what happened. Here's what Gina Blaber replied:

OSCON drew about 2,000 attendees annually, which made it among the biggest -- if not the biggest -- national conferences held annually in Portland.

"They needed a change in scenery to boost their attendance and get people excited," said Deborah Wakefield, spokeswoman for Travel Portland. "They'll definitely be back. They really like Portland, and they think Portland's a mecca for open source."

Well, sort of.

Portland's still got Linus, open source heavyweights IBM and Intel, along with a cluster of startups that rely on open source technology. But Oregon has lost both OSDL and, now, OSCON. So we're definitely closer to the fringe than we have been in a long time.