4th World Congress on Community Software

David Sugar writes “Libre Software Meeting (LSM): Sharing knowledge, Community spirit and, Exchanging and Discussing Progress in Technologies and Free Software. From 9th till 12th July 2003, Technopole of Metz, France, University of Metz’s Saulcy campus. For the 4th consecutive year, professionals, institutions, fans, experienced or beginning users of «free» software will be meeting for 4 days of workshops and debates in a friendly atmosphere. This annual meeting will enable a diversified public to gather around a philosophy that moves beyond simple Information Technology.

Free software (such as GNU/Linux, Apache web servers, MySQL databases, etc…) is engineered mostly through the work of thousands of volunteers throughout the world. It respects four fundamental freedoms: the freedom to execute software without limitations, the freedom to study the software (through it’s source code), the freedom to modify the software, and the freedom to redistribute those modifications.

The LSM also provides the opportunity to publicize the possibilities of such software (at times unknown by the public), through workshops such as «Free Software and Businesses», «Free Software and Local Communities», «Free Software for the Blind and Visually-Impaired», «Free Software for Music», «Relevant issues to Society» (with the team of www.copinedegeek.com), «Law, Economics, Politics and Free Software» and further debates. The Meeting emphathises a thematic and pragmatic (rather than theoretical) approach which allows participants to discover series of solutions tailor-made to specific uses. Please note that some workshops will cover technical themes dealing with current Information Systems issues (such as databases and security) where a specific level of expertise is required.

This Meeting – held as a result of the existing synergy between local and national Free Software User Groups – will provide a unique and open forum, and will enable the sharing of information as well as the launching of new projects. This 4th Libre Software Meeting will gather users, professionals and non-professionals alike free of charge.

For any information concerning the agenda of the conferences: http://libresoftwaremeeting.org

Press Contact:
David Sugar
phone: +1 732 302 1849
email: dyfet@gnu.org

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