[Fsfe-ie] Conference on software patents and free software at European Parliament

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

> 14-15 April 2004 : Brussels is the Hub to go 

Last years 1-day version was great, so I'm going again.  Also, Brussels
is a really nice place.

Brusselonians are helpful and speak pretty good english, and the EP is a
~30min walk or a ~E10 taxi from the city center.  It's not the sort of
city one'd get lost in.

Cautious people should book accommodation, for everyone else, just get
it in the morning instead of waiting until midnight.  Last year I did
the latter, and then found all the hotels were booked out because there
was some local fish festival on.  I've no idea if this years meet-up
also coincides with said fish festival.

The cheapest way that I know to get to Brussels is by ryanair, but you
have to get a bus from the ryanair landing strip (plus newsagent) to the
city center, so if you get the 6:30 flight on the morning of the 14th,
you'll get to the EP by 11:00.  (1hr flying, 1 hr busing, 1hr lost to
timezones, .5hr waiting for bus, 1hr to get bed + get to EP)

Day 1 timeline:
http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/

Day 2 timeline:
http://www.greens-efa.org/en/agenda/detail.php?id=1365

For security reasons, you have to register for day 2 which is in the EP,
and registrations have to be in by April 7th.

Anyway, this is a great sort of thing for getting to know the people
behind the other organisations of Europe.

And while I have the mic... I've just noticed that the LSM 2004 website
has been set up: 
http://libresoftwaremeeting.org/rubrique2.html

Bordeaux July 6th -> 10th.  LSM is the largest real/pure FS event of the
year (in the world).  The site is still a bit under construction though.
I think the majority of this event is done in english, but I haven't
been before.  Also, I haven't yet figured out a nice cheap way to get to
Bordeaux.

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Irish Free Software Organisation: http://ifso.info/