Announcement: Open Standards and Libre Software in Government, Nov 18, The Hague

[Erik Josefsson <ehj@cleosan.com>]

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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
LibreSoftware.

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