This conference seems highly relevant to Wikimedia, so I hope some Wikimedians may attend (or even submit papers), and report back after the event.

cheers Brianna

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hinde ten Berge hinde@xs4all.nl Date: 26 Jan 2008 02:43 Subject: [Icommons] Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference, July 15-17 2008, Barcelona, Spain To: icommons@lists.ibiblio.org

Free Knowledge, Free Technology Education for a free information society SELF International Conference 2008

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

First International Conference July 15-17, 2008 Barcelona, Spain http://fkft.eu

The Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference (FKFT) is the first international event which will centre on the production and sharing of educational and training materials in the field of Free Software and Open Standards. Free Software, as opposed to proprietary software, can be copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restrictions. Moreover, open standards, and the capacity they offer for exchanging knowledge and sharing information, have become essential because they allow business and administration processes to function in a more flexible, transparent and cost-efficient way. The expansion of free software has brought together a continually growing community of developers.

With the objective of promoting Free Software and the sharing of free knowledge, the FKFT 2008 Conference will bring together hundreds of people from different continents including government representatives, school and university teachers, IT companies, publishers, and NGO's. By gathering together people from all these groups, we aim to stimulate both present and future collaboration between diverse disciplines, sectors and countries, through the medium of free software programs and the sharing of successful experiences related to free software and free technologies.

SELF (http://selfproject.eu) is an international project financed by the European Commission which has developed a platform to encourage the creative cooperation and the sharing of educational materials and continuous training, paying special attention to free software and open standards. Inspired by the Wikipedia model, the SELF platform is open to the contributions of all those who would like to bring their knowledge to it, and share this knowledge without restrictions.

The Free Knowledge Institute and the SELF Consortium (Internet Society Netherlands, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Free Software Foundation Europe, Goteburg University, Internet Society Bulgaria, Fundacion Via Libre and Tata Institute for Fundamental Research) will collaborate to organise the content of the conference and to build strong relationships between attendees. The conference partners recognise the vital importance of the collaborative creation and sharing of free educational and training materials on Free Software and Open Standards. Our conference host is the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

The programme consists of an elegant mix between keynote speakers, panel discussions and parallel tracks on topics such as Social implications of Free Knowledge and Free Technologies, Technological aspects of e-learning, Learning Standards, Free Software in society, Legal issues of Free Knowledge, Free Knowledge in public bodies, Introducing the SELF Platform, and many more. Invited speakers are, amongst others, Lawrence Lessig (pending confirmation), Karel de Vriendt (EU/IDABC), Pekka Himanen (pending confirmation). During the social evening the Award Ceremony of the "Free Knowledge, Free Technology" Open Documentary Contest will take place.

Registration is open since January 2008. The deadline for early registration rates is April 1, 2008. Please see http://www.ftfk.org/index.php/fkft/2008/schedConf/registration

All events take place in the centre of Barcelona, the Fira de Barcelona, unless otherwise noted. The FKFT 2008 organisers recommend to make reservations for hotels and flights as early as possible as July is high-season.

The preliminary programme will be announced shortly on http://fkft.eu

General Co-Chairs: David Megias (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) Wouter Tebbens (Free Knowledge Institute)

Program Co-Chairs: David Jacovkis (Free Knowledge Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) Dragoslava Pefeva (Internet Society Bulgaria)

Conference information: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008 Organising team: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008/about/organizingTeam For Papers: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008/about/submissions For Registration: http://www.ftfk.org/index.php/fkft/2008/schedConf/registration For Sponsorship: dmegias@uoc.edu, wouter@freeknowledge.eu

Contact Addresses:

David Megias, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya http://uoc.edu dmegias@uoc.edu Tel: (+34) 933 263 735 Fax: (+34) 933 568 822

Wouter Tebbens, Free Knowledge Institute http://FreeKnowledge.eu wouter@freeknowledge.eu Tel: (+31) 20 8910 319 Fax: (+31) 877 844 107 _______________________________________________ Icommons mailing list Icommons@lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/icommons