Berlin, 21 May 2008 ? On 29 May 2008 high-ranking representatives from business and politics will be meeting at the CIO summit in Berlin. The event forms part of LinuxTag 2008, Europe's leading trade fair and conference for Linux and open source software. LinuxTag e.V. and Messe Berlin have invited CIOs and heads of IT to this meeting.
The programme at the summit also includes an invitation to the opening event of the Public Authorities Conference on Thursday (9.30 a.m., Berlin 2 Room). Dr. Hans Bernhard Beus, Government Commissioner for IT, will open the conference with a speech on federal strategies regarding Linux and open source software. Anette Klein, the Foreign Ministry's head of IT, will outline the steps which the ministry has taken in switching over to open source software. The Foreign Ministry is one of the biggest users of Linux in Germany. The international keynote will be held by Dirk Hohndel, Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist with Intel. He will also be presenting the Linux and OSS projects in which Intel and international companies are involved.
A programme of events for business and public authorities
Once again leading speakers from Germany and abroad will be attending this year?s Business & Public Authorities Conference at LinuxTag. Topics on the first day (Wednesday, 28 May) will include business solutions (Berlin 1 Room) and business development (Berlin 2 Room). Among the speakers will be experts from FH Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, IBM, Wilken, SugarCRM and tarent. On the second day (Thursday, 29 May) participants will be able to choose from a selection of business topics (Berlin 1 Room) and issues of concern to public authorities (Berlin 2 Room). Speakers at the administration tracks will include representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the BSI, the capital of the Bavarian State München and the KDE project. More details can be found on the internet at www.linuxtag.org/2008/de/conf/events.html.
This year the Business Conference is being organised together with the Linux Solution Group e. V. (www.lisog.org), and the Public Authorities Conference is being held in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of the Interior (www.bmi.bund.de). LinuxTag is offering a special Professional Conference Package for representatives of companies and administrations for visits to the Business & Public Authorities Conference (Wednesday + Thursday, Berlin Rooms 1+2).
From 28 to 30 May, companies and institutions will be presenting a large range of additional topics on professional use of Linux and open source software at their own business forum. Speakers will included experts from CAcert, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lightwerk, Sun Microsystems and Talend.
IBM Gameframe at LinuxTag
One of the highlights at the show will be the presentation of the Gameframe project. IBM will be demonstrating use of the Cell processor on an IBM mainframe. This hybrid platform makes it possible to simulate virtual worlds in real time for tens of thousands of users. Potential future applications include 3D online games, virtual shops, 3D business programs and three-dimensional meeting rooms. A special feature is that the Cell processor and IBM mainframe split job processing between them.
Sun Startup Networking Event in Berlin
Under the slogan "Jumpstart your Startup" the Startup Networking Event by Sun Microsystems will also be taking place at Europe's Linux and open source day. On the second day (Thursday, 29 May) the Californian technology company will be presenting special offers for startups (4 to 6 p.m., Europa 2 Room). These include low-cost servers and storage systems, web hosting of partners at reduced rates, free software and free advice and supervision for young enterprises. Marketing support and networking with customers of Sun are among their special services. Additional details of the Startup Essentials programme can be found at http://de.sun.com/startupessentials/
LinuxTag Mobile & Embedded Area '08
This year LinuxTag will also direct special attention to mobile devices and embedded Linux systems, represented, among other companies, by OpenMoko and Trolltech. This year the software and development company tarent (www.tarent.de), based in Berlin and Bonn, is sponsoring a specially organised Mobile & Embedded Area. In addition to Nokia ten independent projects will be here as guests, whose focus is on the exciting topic of open source on mobile devices. They are freedroidz, jalimo, GPE Phone Edition, OpenEmbedded, OpenEZX, Coreboot, OBICO, T2SDE, Tntnet and my STEP.
Tickets and travelling to LinuxTag '08
Tickets to LinuxTag and the parallel IT business trade fair IT Profits 4.0 can be purchased online in advance at www.linuxtag.org/2008/de/besucher.html. A day ticket costs EUR 9 (reduced rate EUR 5), an unlimited admission ticket costs EUR 24 (reduced rate 13 EUR). In collaboration with Deutsche Bahn, Messe Berlin is offering travel tickets at attractive prices for visitors to Linux and open source events. For those interested, all details of travel, hotel offers and full travel packages can be found at http://www.linuxtag.org/2008/de/besucher/hotels-reisespecials.html.
IBM Germany and Sun Microsystems are the official sponsors of LinuxTag 2008.