[Foundation-l] Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference, July 15-17 2008, Barcelona, Spain

[Brianna Laugher]

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 at xs4all.nl>
Date: 26 Jan 2008 02:43
Subject: [Icommons] Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference, July
15-17 2008, Barcelona, Spain
To: icommons at 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 at uoc.edu, wouter at freeknowledge.eu

Contact Addresses:

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

Wouter Tebbens, Free Knowledge Institute
http://FreeKnowledge.eu
wouter at freeknowledge.eu
Tel: (+31) 20 8910 319
Fax: (+31) 877 844 107
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