[GNU/FSF Press] FSF announces LibrePlanet 2010 free software community conference: March 19-21

[Peter Brown]

Free Software Community Conference LibrePlanet and GNU Hackers Meeting
to be held at Harvard Science Center March 19-21, 2010.

http://www.fsf.org/news/libreplanet2010

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA--Tuesday, January 5, 2010 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) has announced the 2010 dates for its
LibrePlanet international free software community conference. The three
day event will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Harvard
University Science Center, from March 19th to March 21st, 2010.

(Please visit http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010 to register and
learn more)

"LibrePlanet 2010 will be a great chance for both new and experienced
free software users to learn about the latest developments with the GNU
operating system; participate in workshops, presentations, and lightning
talks about key free software projects; discuss practical steps in free
software advocacy; and collaborate with others at the conference on code
and activism," said FSF's executive director Peter Brown.

As part of the event, the FSF will also be organizing the first US
edition of the GNU Hackers' Meetings that GNU maintainers and
contributors have been hosting in Europe since 2007. Prominent GNU
contributors already planning to come to the conference include
Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore, Emacs maintainer
Chong Yidong, GNU Scientific Library maintainer Brian Gough, and GNU
LibreDWG maintainers Felipe Sanches and Rodrigo Rodrigues da Silva.

Gilmore will also be giving a keynote speech to the full conference
along with FSF president Richard Stallman. Further details about the
schedule of presentations will be announced in the coming weeks, and
will emphasize a track highlighting women's participation in free software.

The FSF is expanding the conference this year from two days to three to
facilitate the GNU Hackers' Meeting and to add more time for
collaboration on code and free software activism projects among
attendees. Speaker proposals for workshops, presentation or lighting
talks will be accepted until January 31st.

FSF's operations manager John Sullivan explained, "The number one
suggestion from last year was to create more space and time for people
to act on the exciting ideas that were coming up during presentations
and discussions. That's exactly what LibrePlanet is about -- so many
other conferences are about how to best make use of the free software
community toward other ends; LibrePlanet is about how to build and
strengthen that community as an end in itself."

LibrePlanet 2010 attendance is free to FSF associate members, with
nonmembers who are committed to the ideals of software freedom paying a
$60 registration fee to cover conference costs. Space is limited to 250,
so the FSF is requesting RSVPs at
http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010 or by mail to address@hidden

Attendees will be using the #libreplanet IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
and the discussion mailing list at
http://lists.gnu.org/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss for advance
coordination on the projects they'll be working on during the
conference. More information about the GNU Hackers' Meeting component is
at http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010/GNUHackersMeeting.


About the FSF

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Media Contacts

John Sullivan
Operations Manager
Free Software Foundation
(617)542-5942
address@hidden