The First Russian Open Source Forum took place in Moscow
May 06, 2005
On April 27-29, 2005, the first Russian Open Source Forum took place in Moscow, Radisson SAS Slavianskaya Hotel. The mail goal of the Forum was to bring together the leaders of Open Source industry from Russia, Europe and the USA; representatives of government bodies and universities - and generally all the users interested in using stable and reasonably priced software. More than 2400 visitors attended the conference and the exhibition. Open Source Forum Russia was organized by RUSSOFT Association, its official marketing agency Fort-Ross Ltd, VNIINS and Linux Ink, the oldest Russian Open Source company which lend the technical and ideological support to the Forum.
On April 27 OASIS Open Standards Day section was organized, where the leading experts of Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards made several reports about open standards and service-oriented architecture.
The commencement meeting of the Forum started with a show-program. The visitors could enjoy picturesque views of the Northern Europe followed by symphony orchestra and panoramic images of urbanized cities. A flock of Penguins struggling with a gale was demonstrated as a symbol of Linux. It was a metaphorical illustration of the way how Linux invented by Finnish student Linux Torwalds became a worthy alternative to proprietary operating systems.
On the first Plenary Section Jon maddog Hall made a speech about "The Death of Proprietary Software - the rebirth of service". In the exclusive interview Mr. Hall said that at the conference there was a nice mixture of business and users of Linux. He added: "All the people I spoke to personally were very good educated and had a very good idea about Open Source. I think Open Source will boost Russian economy in general".
Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, shared his impressions: "I am surprised by the excitement, and in it not surface excitement, but a deep one. This is how things happen!"
The government of Russia was represented by the Chief of Federal Agency of Information Technologies Vladimir Matiukhin and the Head of the Department of Corporate Governance and New Economy Tseren Tsetenov. They explained why Russian state organizations support the Forum, how open source software is used for the needs of the government and how it will be used in future.
The high significance of the Forum for IT industry was proved by presentations by the heads of the leading world corporations - Adam Jollans, IBM; Richard Seibt, Novell; Pavel Vlaskin, HP. Moreover, among the speakers there were David Axmark, Founder, MySQL; Harold Lockhart, BEA Systems; Francois Bancilhon, CEO, Mandriva (former Mandrakesoft). The sections of the conference surveyed the prospects and benefits of using OS in the sphere of education, in governmental institutions, in business and in science. The press-conference took the form of free discussion with the leaders of Open Source industry.
Linux City - the model of the city managed by means of Open Source software - was the core of the exhibition. The visitors could have a walk around the Linux City to see the visual demonstration of OS software usage in the various spheres, including power and water supply, television, banks, shops, etc. The demo zone Open Source Live was another place of interest. Speaker's Corner - the rostrum where IT experts could share their knowledge with the audience of the exhibition - was also in focus of the attention. By the way, the presentations to Speaker's Corner and Open Source Live were selected by competition.
The success of the First Russian Open Source Forum, the keen interest of giant corporations to Linux and the growing popularity of Open Source software give us confidence that next year Open Source Forum Russia will present an outstanding communications platform for meeting with customers and partners!
The sponsors of Open Source Forum Russia:
On April 27 OASIS Open Standards Day section was organized, where the leading experts of Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards made several reports about open standards and service-oriented architecture.
The commencement meeting of the Forum started with a show-program. The visitors could enjoy picturesque views of the Northern Europe followed by symphony orchestra and panoramic images of urbanized cities. A flock of Penguins struggling with a gale was demonstrated as a symbol of Linux. It was a metaphorical illustration of the way how Linux invented by Finnish student Linux Torwalds became a worthy alternative to proprietary operating systems.
On the first Plenary Section Jon maddog Hall made a speech about "The Death of Proprietary Software - the rebirth of service". In the exclusive interview Mr. Hall said that at the conference there was a nice mixture of business and users of Linux. He added: "All the people I spoke to personally were very good educated and had a very good idea about Open Source. I think Open Source will boost Russian economy in general".
Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, shared his impressions: "I am surprised by the excitement, and in it not surface excitement, but a deep one. This is how things happen!"
The government of Russia was represented by the Chief of Federal Agency of Information Technologies Vladimir Matiukhin and the Head of the Department of Corporate Governance and New Economy Tseren Tsetenov. They explained why Russian state organizations support the Forum, how open source software is used for the needs of the government and how it will be used in future.
The high significance of the Forum for IT industry was proved by presentations by the heads of the leading world corporations - Adam Jollans, IBM; Richard Seibt, Novell; Pavel Vlaskin, HP. Moreover, among the speakers there were David Axmark, Founder, MySQL; Harold Lockhart, BEA Systems; Francois Bancilhon, CEO, Mandriva (former Mandrakesoft). The sections of the conference surveyed the prospects and benefits of using OS in the sphere of education, in governmental institutions, in business and in science. The press-conference took the form of free discussion with the leaders of Open Source industry.
Linux City - the model of the city managed by means of Open Source software - was the core of the exhibition. The visitors could have a walk around the Linux City to see the visual demonstration of OS software usage in the various spheres, including power and water supply, television, banks, shops, etc. The demo zone Open Source Live was another place of interest. Speaker's Corner - the rostrum where IT experts could share their knowledge with the audience of the exhibition - was also in focus of the attention. By the way, the presentations to Speaker's Corner and Open Source Live were selected by competition.
The success of the First Russian Open Source Forum, the keen interest of giant corporations to Linux and the growing popularity of Open Source software give us confidence that next year Open Source Forum Russia will present an outstanding communications platform for meeting with customers and partners!
The sponsors of Open Source Forum Russia:
- Platinum sponsor - IBM
- Golden sponsor - Novell
- Silver sponsor - Kraftway
- Technical sponsor -