The GNOME Foundation, in collaboration the Brno University of Technology, Liberix, and Linux v Brně, presents the 2013 edition of the annual GUADEC Conference in Brno, Czech Republic from August 1st to 8th. GUADEC—the GNOME Users and Developers European Conference—is an international forum for research and development around the Free and Open Source Software project GNOME. 

GUADEC will unite GNOME users and developers for an opportunity to discuss the main developments in GNOME technology and the future of open source software. The four conference days feature 40 formal talks, 3 keynotes and a number of lightning talk sessions followed by 4 days of working events and hacking sessions. The conference days will feature GNOME contributors addressing topics in User Experience, Developer Experience and Community Outreach as well as keynote speakers Ethan Lee, Matt Dalio, Cathy Malmrose, and the GNOME Board of Directors.

“GUADEC has become an essential event for the GNOME community, providing a venue for critical issues to be discussed and new community members to integrate fully,” said Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation.

GUADEC 2013 will be hosted in Brno, the second largest city of the Czech Republic and capital of the region of Moravia. Brno, a city of about 400,000 is a bustling university town and home to major offices of a range of of technology companies including IBM, Motorola, Honeywell and  Red Hat.

GUADEC 2013 is organized in collaboration with Brno University of Technology, Liberix, and Linux v Brně. The conference has received generous sponsorship from Google, Redhat, Ubuntu, Collabora and Igalia.

8 days, 3 Keynotes, 80 presentations

GUADEC 2013 will consist of 8 days, including over 80 presentations, lighting talks, workshops and Birds of a Feather hackfests.

Expected highlights of the conference include:
– Technological innovations in GNOME shell, the desktop environment, web browser, document management, e-mail service, and cloud integration
– Community outreach to new contributors in the Outreach Program for Women, hackerspaces, social media and greater FLOSS community
– Advances in graphics and multimedia applications, including high resolution display, animation and video
– Approaches to maintaining user privacy and security for application developers
– Improved accessibility in user experience in GNOME technology
– Solutions to testing in bug tracking and testing online services

Three keynotes and a presentation by the Board of Directors fill out the schedule.

Ethan Lee (@flibitijibibo) is a Linux game developer who has worked on porting games such as Super Hexagon and Proteus to Linux and is currently working on developing FEZ for Linux. 

Cathy Malmrose founded ZaReason, which distributes computers built with open hardware and preloaded with Linux.

Matt Dalio is the CEO of Endless Mobile, building smartphone software for the needs of the developing world, and the founder of the China Care Foundation.

For more information about GUADEC and the full program, please visit www.guadec.org

Follow our updates via identi.ca and Twitter at @guadec (#GUADEC2013)

About GUADEC

 

GUADEC (gwädek gwaw-deck) is the primary congress for GNOME users, developers, foundation leaders, individuals, governments and businesses worldwide. The conference is held annually in cities around Europe and brings attendees together to share their experiences and ideas for developing, using and deploying GNOME technologies. 

GUADEC attracts more than 300 key software developers, press, users, businesses and government representatives each year. Presentations are given by leaders, spokespeople, volunteers and motivated developers on a range of topics including the future directions of the GNOME Project, Unix, GNU/Linux, Free and Open Source software, development techniques, cutting edge features and new ideas in culture and technology. 

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

GNOME is an international project that works to create a free, open, easy-to-use computer environment with first-class internationalization and accessibility. The GNOME Project was started in 1997 by two university students, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena. Now, GNOME is an international project that works to create a free, open, easy to use computer environment with first­ class internationalization and accessibility. Built entirely from software approved as free by the Free Software Foundation, GNOME provides all of the common tools users expect from a modern computing environment: web browsers, file managers, multimedia players, e-mail applications, group-ware and games. 

Used by millions of people across the world, GNOME is a popular desktop environment for GNU/Linux and UNIX-type operating systems. The desktop has been utilized in successful, large-scale enterprise and public deployments, and the project’s developer technologies are utilized by a large number of popular mobile device manufacturers. GNOME is the result of collaboration between those companies and volunteers from the public who are dedicated to creating quality free software.

GNOME components form the basic desktop environments on many operating systems, e.g., Oracle’s Solaris, Fedora, Canonical’s Ubuntu, SUSE, Debian and Linux Mint. GNOME technologies have been adopted for consumer and vertical market products, like: Amazon Kindle ebook readers; TiVo digital video recorders; Nokia Internet Tablets and the N900 mobile phone; TouchTunes digital jukeboxes and GPS navigation devices such as Garmin’s and TomTom’s devices. 

Accessibility. GNOME, highlighted for ideals encompassing love, sharing and respecting standards, meets and exceeds accessibility requirements that allow all users, including those with disabilities, to interact with the most modern computer technologies. 
Privacy. GNOME is an alternative to proprietary software systems and is increasingly investing and growing alongside companies and administrations that favor the freedom and privacy of users.

The GNOME Foundation is a US non-profit organization focused on the advancement of GNOME and improving access to technology for all, regardless of geographic location or socio-economic class. It is comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies. The Foundation is a member directed 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project. The GNOME Foundation supports the pursuit of software freedom through the innovative, accessible and beautiful user experience created by GNOME contributors around the world. 

Media Enquiries

Karen Sandler

GNOME Foundation 
Executive Director

E-mail: gnome-press-contact@gnome.org

Phone: +1-617-206-3947