Announcement: Open Standards and Libre Software in Government
18 November 2004, Van Gogh Hall, Netherlands Congress Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands www.flosspols.org/conf/
Open standards and Libre Software are increasingly important to governments around the world, and Europe leads in their adoption and promotion. The most high-profile event of the European Information and Communications Technology calendar, the IST 2004 conference, takes place in The Hague from the 15th to the 17th of November. The conference “Open Standards and Libre Software in Government” is held immediately afterwards, at the same venue and in coordination with the Dutch Presidency of the European Union.
This conference will provide an unparalleled stage for discussing and learning about the concrete plans, policies and actual implementations of open standards and Libre Software by public authorities across Europe. The conference will also stimulate discussion and debate on open standards and Libre Software (as free software/open source is often known) in the design and implementation of affordable, scalable and secure eGovernment services. It will highlight achievements and landmark national initiatives and discuss the challenges and priorities for furthering the use of Libre Software.
The conference delegates will be mainly from public authorities across Europe, as well as from related businesses and community interests. Over 500 people are expected to attend.
The conference programme will include presentations by speakers drawn primarily from public administrations, and there will be a prominent participation of government ministry officials from various EU countries as well as from the European Commission. The programme is organised in three sessions on: - the national and EU-level; - the local and regional level; - and interoperability issues.
There will be a spotlight on case studies - including a presentation on the European Regional Innovation Award-winning gnu/LinEx policies of Extremadura by Regional Minister Luis Millan Vazquez de Miguel. Successful strategies will be presented for the large-scale migration and implementation of Libre software in government - including the German Federal Government’s Migration Guidelines
Confirmed speakers include: - Agnès Bradier Deputy Head, E-government Unit, European Commission - Mark Bressers Programma OSOSS, The Netherlands - Christian Hardy Chief of Information System Department, Forecasting directorate, Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry, France - Barbara Held IDA, European Commission - Gregor Lietz EDS (Federal Interior Ministry contractor for the Migration Guide), Germany - Alasdair Mangham London Borough of Camden, United Kingdom - Arnold Reinders Ministry of the Interior, The Netherlands - Bernhard Schnittger IDA, European Commission - Giovanni Sissa Osservatorio Tecnologico of the Ministry of Research and Education, Italy - Mauro Solari Deputy President, Province of Genova, Italy - Rolf Theodor Schuster Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Germany - Wilbert Stolte Vice-Mayor, City of Den Haag, The Netherlands - Jan van de Straat City of Haarlem, The Netherlands - Luis Millan Vazquez de Miguel Regional Minister of Extremadura, Spain - Robin Weissenberger City of Vienna, Austria
The conference, held in coordination with the Dutch Presidency of the EU, is partly funded under the European Union’s Sixth Framework Information Society Technologies Programme through the FLOSSPOLS project at MERIT, University of Maastricht, and a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. It is also supported by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and the Dutch Government’s OSOSS Programme, as well as FLOSSPOLS project partner Eurocities/Telecities. The primary corporate sponsor is IBM. The gold corporate sponsor is Novell.
Participation in the conference is free but early registration is required as places are limited. For more information and online registration, visit the conference website at www.flosspols.org/conf/
For more information, or if you want a conference poster, contact: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Project Leader, FLOSSPOLS, MERIT/Infonomics, University of Maastricht, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, the Netherlands. E-mail: conf@flosspols.org