This year, the conference includes an in-depth 2-day forum devoted to Open Source development and the issues it raises – specifically Software Patents and IP issues. The open source forum will be focused on issues of interest to decision makers considering adoption of open-source, and to people in the software industry. The event, drawing key figures such as Eric S Raymond, David Ascher and Paul Everitt, will include case studies, panels, and talks.
The ACCU (Association of C and C++ Users) spring conference will be taking place at the Randolph Hotel in central Oxford, April 14-17 2004. Major sponsors include Microsoft, O’Reilly, Blackwells, ReportLab, Perforce and QBS.
This year, in addition to the impressive technical programme, the event aims to examine the big issues and latest trends in the software industry today and will feature a two-day Open Source Forum with experts instrumental in the Open Source revolution. Read more at:
http://www.accu.org/conference/opensource.html
The “Decision Makers’ Day” on Wednesday 14th April covers
– the rate of adoption of key open source technologies
– what kind of support major players are providing
– open source software in eGovernment and Financial Services
– numerous case studies on best practices
The “Software Industry Day” on Thursday 15th covers
– after the dot com crash, which business models are actually working for companies which give their software away?
– who is funding all those developers anyway?
– the debate over software patents, arguably the key issue in the industry this year
The keynote speaker is Eric Raymond, whose paper “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” popularized and explained the Open Source phenomenon. Other speakers include Paul Everitt, co-founder of Zope Corp, whose open source content management system is in massive use in the public sector; David Ascher of ActiveState (Vancouver), recently acquired by Sophos; Aljosa Pasic of Schlumberger-Sema; James Heald, a leading campaigner in the Software Patents debate.
The ACCU conference is a ten year old event which has grown into one of the leading technical events for software developers worldwide, and regularly features the authors of C++ and Python as well as many other luminaries.
The Open Source Forum does not presume any technical knowledge or prior background and will be an ideal opportunity to learn about the key issues affecting the software industry today.
Randolph Hotel, central Oxford, UK http://www.accu.org/conference/