[Fsfe-ie] FOSDEM & other FS conferences for 2004

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

  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.

-- 
Ciaran O'Riordan - http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/