OPEN SOURCE EVENT OF THE YEAR OPEN WORLD FORUM UNVEILS PROGRAM

• Tuesday, 14 July 2009

OPEN WORLD FORUM UNVEILS PROGRAM
Bringing together the FLOSS ecosystem to discuss, debate and exchange ideas and initiatives, to ensure that open software plays an active role in the digital recovery.

Paris, 14 July 2009 – The Open World Forum, (www.openworldforum.org), the leading global forum for Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) worldwide, aims to bring together all the key players in the open software ecosystem.
The Open World Forum 2009 will feature a number of different tracks where community and technical leaders, CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, legal experts, investors, political leaders, and other senior executives can get involved in group activities, brainstorming sessions, panels, discussions and networking/social events.

"The Open World Forum will enable decision-makers from the worldwide FLOSS ecosystem to openly share their concerns, issues and experiences, while collaboratively developing initiatives to ensure that open software is a key driver in the digital recovery," commented Jean-Noël de Galzain, Chairman of the Program Committee for the Open World Forum 2009 and CEO of Wallix.

The Open World Forum 2009 will feature:

- Keynote addresses: confirmed speakers include Jacques Attali, Michael Tiemann (Chairman of OSI and VP of Red Hat), Jim Zemlin (Executive Director of the Linux Foundation), Mike Milinkovich (Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation), Sander Striker (President of the Apache Software Foundation 2005-2007), Mark Surmann (Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation), Cedric Thomas (CEO of the OW2 consortium), Mark Shuttleworth (founder of Ubuntu ), Andrew Aitken (founder of the Open Source Think Tank) and Matthew Aslett (Analyst at The 451 Group) among others

- The FLOSS Communities Summit: organized in partnership with Apache, Eclipse, the Linux Foundation, OSA and OW2, to enable key FLOSS communities worldwide to foster synergies and ensure sustainability

- The summit meeting for the leading global NGOs promoting FLOSS: from Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, the USA, etc. This event, co-organized by the QualiPSo consortium, is the first of its kind worldwide

- The FLOSS Politics Summit: designed to highlight the advances made and the opportunities for open software in the wider geo-strategic context. It will be complemented by the annual IDABC Open Source conference, on Open Source interoperability and government initiatives in Europe

- An IT Directors/CIOs summit: co-organized by ANDSI and the CIO Forum, enabling IT Directors from public and private sectors to define best practices in open source governance

- An open innovation forum and emerging technologies radar: bringing together R&D centers, competitiveness clusters, start-ups and investors. This will also deliver the worldwide FLOSS Innovation Awards

- A conference on ’FLOSS: at the heart of the Internet of the future‘: being jointly organized with Google and the Mozilla Foundation.
The Open World Forum will also play host to a large number of related seminars and workshops, bringing together Open Source experts, architects, developers, IT Directors, decision-makers and investors from every continent.

The event will be rounded off with a unique forward-looking initiative, bringing together dozens of international experts working on future planning, scenarios and recommendations: the 2009 edition of the 2020 FLOSS RoadMap, coordinated by Jean-Pierre Laisne, Chief Open Source strategist at Bull.

“We are very excited to be taking part in this global FLOSS event,” comments Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. “It provides a great opportunity for us to share ideas and initiatives for making Open Source a decisive lever to foster innovation and competitiveness for the economic recovery.”

“For years, Open Source software has been a pillar of our competitiveness and agility throughout our company. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences,” added Valérie Humery, CIO at CarboatMedia.

The forum is an open event, and welcomes new proposals for presentations. The Call for Papers can be found at http://www.openworldforum.com/program/open-world-forum-call-.... The final programme will be announced in August.

About the Open World Forum

The Open World Forum is the leading global summit bringing together decision-makers from across the world to discuss the technological, financial and social impact of open technologies. The event started in 2008 and runs every year in Paris. With more than 100 speakers from 20 countries, and a 1,200-strong international audience, the Open World Forum highlights the influence that FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) will have on the implementation of tomorrow’s major technological advances. The Forum is organized by innovation clusters Cap Digital and System@tic, in partnership with the QualiPSo consortium, and operated by consulting firm ITEMS international. It is overseen by leading international consortiums (Apache Software Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, FOSSBazaar, Linux Foundation, Open Solutions Alliance, OW2 Consortium), five associations (APRIL, AFUL, Adullact, PLOSS, Silicon Sentier), Paris city council, Ile de France Region, Paris Region Economic Development Agency and Paris Chamber of Commerce.
For more information on the Open World Forum, visit: http://www.openworldforum.org

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