GUADEC 2004 Announces International Slate of Speakers. No. 1 European open source desktop event will draw worldwide attendees.
Boston, Mass – May 6, 2004 – Hundreds of software developers, enterprise and government leaders will gather on the coast of Norway to discuss the rapid adoption of the world’s most popular open source desktop, GNOME. The Fifth Annual GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC), will be held at Agder University College from June 28-30th, 2004 in Kristiansand, Norway.
“I’m looking forward to meeting developers, industry, and government leaders in Kristiansand.” said Eva Hildrum, Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, “The conference can provide important fuel for innovative use of IT in an information society for all.”
GNOME adoption has been rapidly expanding worldwide. Recent examples include successful deployments by governments in Brazil and Spain in public telecenters, schools and government offices. The GNOME desktop environment is also being deployed by the Chinese government on over 1 million desktops over the next year.
Marking the growing acceptance of the Linux Desktop around the world, the GNOME Foundation, which organizes the conference in a different country each year, will host over 60 presentations on cutting-edge technologies and case studies on migration to an open source desktop.
“I have to choose my conferences and pick the most strategic ones to attend,” said Bob Stack, CTO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “GUADEC is one of the most important open source conferences in the world.” Mr. Stack will lead a roundtable policy workshop on “Defining Open Standards” with open source evangelist Bruce Perens and representatives from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Spain.
Other highlights of this year’s conference include:
- Keynotes by Dr. Edgar Villanueva, Vice-President of the Congress in Peru and Bdale Garbee, HP’s CTO for Linux.
- Cost-saving technology solutions such as how GNOME can cut information technology costs with thin client computing and HAL, a plug-and-play desktop device support for widespread use.
- GIMPCon – GUADEC will host developers working on the freely-distributed graphics program GIMP which is used for photo retouching, image composition, image authoring and animation. The GIMP Developers Conference 2004 will be held as a sub-event of GUADEC.
Registration for GUADEC is open to the public. Special student registration and housing is available. Discounts on flights to Norway is available through SAS, the Official GUADEC Airline.
###
About GNOME
GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.
About GUADEC
The GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC) is an annual gathering of GNOME developers, enthusiasts and individual, business, education and government users worldwide. It provides a forum for members of the GNOME project to showcase their work and to discuss the future of GNOME development. Housed in a different European country each year, GUADEC is a catalyst for the future development and direction of GNOME.
About the GNOME Foundation
Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.
About Agder University College
Agder University College (http://www.hia.no) is a three campus University College. GUADEC will be held at the brand new Kristiansand campus. The University College offers a wide range of programmes including development aid, Business, Fine arts, Humanities and Natural Sciences, and Information technology from Bachelor to PhD level.