Happy whatever-you-celebrate!

For anyone interested in attending FS conferences in 2004, there are six good ones that I know of:

FOSDEM - Belgium - 21 & 22 Feb Libre Software Meeting - France - July? FSF Associate Members Meeting - Boston - mid-march? AFFS Conference - UK - May? GNU/Linuxtag - Germany - July? IFSO Conference - Ireland - ???

FOSDEM : fosdem.org "Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting" This is mostly a developers meeting, but fsfeurope will have a booth and FSF have held their "Award for the Advancement of Free Software" ceremony at fosdem for the last three years, so it will probably be there again. Free addmission, donations requested.

This trip can be done quite cheaply. I got my flights from ryanair yesterday for 70euros. The bus from the airport to the city centre is an additional 10euro each way, and accomadation is 25-65 euro depending on how posh you are. I think there was free accomadation last year in a nearby hall (bring your own sleeping bag), but this gets snapped up quickly.

Libre Software Meeting (LSM/RMLL) For politically interested folks, this is probably the world #1 FS meeting. It's not yet decided what part of France it will be held in this year, or what date. Free addmission, I think.

FSF Associate Member Meeting In 2003, this was held on the 15th of March, in MIT, Boston. It's a great way to find out who works for/with FSF. Everyone wears stickers with their name & email address, so you'll quickly recognise people you've only talked to by email & mailing lists. Membership required: member.fsf.org

AFFS conference This was a one day event in 2003, held in May in Birmingham. By flying out in the morning and back the same night, this trip can easily be done for less than 100euro and is a good way to meet up with our nearest neighbours. Membership required: 10 pound sterling

GNU/Linuxtag I don't know much about this one but the fsfeurope folks say it's great. Held in Germany, addmission unknown.

IFSO Conference The cheapest trip of all. Details not decided. Possibly in Trinity, possibly in April/May. I don't know. Membership required: 20 euro.

hmmm. that's all. Depending on cashflow, I hope to be at the FOSDEM, LSM, AFFS, and IFSO conferences.

All the above conferences are community-run, or non-corporate, or whatever, except for [GNU/]Linuxtag which is a trade show.