Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu Linux)
Larry Augustin (SugarCRM Inc)
Dirk Riehle (Friedrich-Alexander Universität)
Visitors can now find the program of LinuxTag 2010 at www.linuxtag.org. This event, with its 223 papers and 25 main themes, is taking place from 9 to 12 June on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Six prominent keynote speakers have announced their intention of attending, thereby emphasizing the importance of LinuxTag as Europe’s largest open-source conference and trade show. Among those attending will be Mark Shuttleworth from Canonical, Chris DiBona from Google, James Utzschneider from Microsoft and Larry Augustin from SugarCRM, as well as core developer Jonathan Corbet and the first German open-source professor, Dirk Riehle.
Mark Shuttleworth controls the fate of the Linux distribution Ubuntu, which has addressed the issue of making Linux more easily usable. He will be speaking about the challenges that operating systems will face in the age of cloud computing and increasing networking.
The productive integration of various themes demonstrates Microsoft’s active involvement in open source. In recent years Microsoft has increased its participation in open source projects and in open source communities, as well as working to improve interoperability with open source products and platforms. James Utzschneider, General Manager for Open Source in Microsoft’s Sales, Marketing und Services Group, is responsible for worldwide marketing in the areas of open source and emerging technologies. In his keynote address he will talk about how the company has created new perspectives and how it is working to increase flexibility and choice for the users of mixed technologies.
Open source has become indispensable for large companies. As an example, this is very evident in the case of the search engine giant Google, which is supporting a number of open source projects and also applies their results itself in a highly productive way. Manager Chris DiBona is involved in a number of activities. As the Open Source Programs Manager he coordinates Google’s involvement in this area. DiBona will be speaking about the links between companies and the community.
This is also the subject that will be dealt with by SugarCRM head Larry Augustin, who has already helped many open-source companies to achieve commercial success. As an angel investor he is currently engaged on behalf of SugarCRM, a supplier of cloud services which are based on open source software. He will be showing how open source is the force behind the most important technological developments, and what the future will be like for software, open standards and open source developers around the world.
Core developer Jonathan Corbet is not only doing something beneficial but will also be talking about it. The developer of core drives, from Colorado in the USA, is a kind of court chronicler of the core developers associated with Linus Torvalds, as well as being the publisher of the online magazine Linux Weekly Net (LWN). He will be presenting the very latest Linux core developments and will explain the development model for the most successful open source core.
Linux is already well established as a technical subject at universities. However, since the end of last year Professor Dirk Riehle has been investigating the subject at the University of Erlangen from a commercial perspective. He is seeking to determine the importance of Linux in modern teaching and with regard to the future career prospects of students.
"The keynote speeches and the more than 200 other papers show that the large number of submissions and their excellent quality present us with an enviable problem”, according to Nils Magnus, Program Chair of LinuxTag e.V, referring to the work of drawing up the program: "We were in the position of being able to select only those speakers who have provided evidence of their specialized knowledge through their actual involvement in a particular project or who have contributed in some other way to the creation of open source. The whole gamut of open source subjects will be covered, being highly attractive not only to core hackers but also to management executives. The direct exchange of valuable expertise in many areas is what makes LinuxTag such a unique event for its speakers and visitors, and clearly distinguishes it from other regional open source events.”
One useful item of knowledge for anyone considering attending LinuxTag in order to further their careers: LinuxTag 2010 is officially recognized as an advanced training event by the local authority, the Land Berlin. Advanced training certificates, for submission to employers, can be requested from the homepage at http://www.linuxtag.org/2010/de/besucher/fortbildung.html.
About LinuxTag
LinuxTag is Europe’s leading event for Linux and free software. This four-day event has been taking place annually since 2007 on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. It offers the very latest information for professional users, decision-makers, developers, beginners and the community. In addition to the program of papers and a separate congress for business and public sector authorities, LinuxTag traditionally includes an exhibition featuring projects and companies associated with the open source sector. LinuxTag 2009 in Berlin attracted a total attendance of 10,780 from all over the world. Verein LinuxTag e.V. is the non-commercial organizer of the event, which it stages jointly with Messe Berlin GmbH. More details can be found at www.linuxtag.org.