FOSSCOM 2011 - Patras, Greece

By Efstathios Iosifidis (diamond_gr)

Last month, on May 7th and 8th, the annual conference of FOSS communities and projects, called FOSSCOMM, was held in Patras, Greece. FOSSCOMM 2011 was organized by the Patras Linux User Group (PLUG) and the Computer Engineering & Informatics Department (Laboratory of Computing/Computer Center), University of Patras. Most of the visitors were satisfied with the whole organization, although there were some technical issues due to the electricity blackout on the morning of the second day.


There were 74 presentations, and some of the speakers were from abroad. There were 662 electronic registrations, but only 453 visitors could make it. The Enlightenment, Gnome, Fedora and OpenSUSE communities were present with booths full of people, happy to inform visitors about their projects. Also a FOSS blog writer was there with a booth, and they distributed PCLinuxOS CDs with KDE, Gnome and E17.


Some PCLinuxOS Live CDs were made available to conference attendees.

Since this is a FOSS conference (meaning that most of the visitors know their interest), technical presentations were the ones most attended. There was lots of information about computer systems’ security and development, and there is a lot of serious development going on in Greece in many areas of FOSS. FOSSCOMM is an opportunity for everyone to present their work.


A sampling of some of the freebies, a.k.a. “swag,” given out by the Firefox folks.

But what is a FOSS conference if the participants and the visitors don't have a great deal of time? The openSUSE team decided to throw a small release for the new OpenSUNE 11.4. It is not a typo, someone made a mistake on the cake. But where is the fun if mistakes like that don’t happen? Some guys from chania-lug and osarena decided to join the party.


An openSUSE team member with the misspelled cake.

For more information, you can visit:       

1. Web page:             http://patras.fosscomm.gr/       
2. Presentations:        http://patras.fosscomm.gr/presentations/       
3. Videos of presentations:   http://blip.tv/fosscomm2011
       
Check out some of the pictures from the conference, below.


The conference hall.


The Rio Antirio Bridge at night, near the University of Patras.


A group photo of the conference attendees and organizers.


The RedHat “ambassadors.”


Some of the conference attendees give their attention to one of the many presentations.


The Fedora “ambassadors.”

The next event in Greece is the FOSS conference, from May 20th to May 22nd. For more information (in Greek), visit http://conferences.ellak.gr/2011/.