Digital Copyright Canada

  I will be posting more information as it comes available, but I wanted 
people to know about this event in case they wanted to attend, and 
possibly to arrange travel if they are outside of Ottawa.

  There will be an "Open Source Solutions Showcase" hosted/organized by
Joseph Potvin, Manager, Enterprise Architecture, Architecture & Standards
directorate, GTIS, PWGSC

  It is a week-long event, but a specific keynote address will be made
more "open" for the public to attend.

  This is an extremely shortened idea of the sessions, to entice people to
want to learn more ;-)

Monday  - Introduction to Open Source methods and software
Tuesday - Keynote and Panel discussions
          - Morning is keynote, with additional notes below
          - I will be an example of a "very small" (one person) company on 
            the first private sector panel and discussion.  Sun and 
            Xandros are the other two companies listed.
          - there will be a 2'nd private sector panel, but with the theme 
            "Why Open Source is Bad for Business..." to provide a forum 
            for the other side ;-)
          - there will be a public sector panel, showcasing some existing
            Canadian Government work in this area, including a few 
            software packages released under the GPL!
Wednesday - Open Source Solutions "show and tell"
            Architecture & Standards Directorate will demonstrate some 
            Open Source technologies.
Thursday  - Special Topic Seminars
          - IBM, HRDC, OEone will be presenting.
          - in the afternoon David Skoll, President, Roaring Penguin 
            Software Inc. will be presenting
            (Yes, I centered him out as he is an active part of this 
             community ;-)
Friday    - continuing special topic seminars
          - Macadamian, KES PWGSC, Sun, Will Maton of CRC

Tuesday Keynote Address
-----------------------

  Rather than being in the smaller seminar rooms used the rest of the
week, the keynote address will be at the Mezzanine in the lobby of Place
du Portage Phase III, downstairs from the security desk at Tower A

8:30 - introduction by Joseph Potvin, Manager, Enterprise Architecture, 
Architecture & Standards directorate, GTIS, PWGSC

9:00 - Keynote Address: Open Source in the European Public Sector
Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz, Project Director, Unisys-Belgim.  Principle 
author of the European Commission "Study into the use of open source 
software in the public sector". 

http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/

http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&parent=highlights&documentID=333

  Please pass on the invitation for this event, especially for the
keynote.  The idea is to pack the Mezzanine, and I hope this will happen.  
Not only will it be very informative to be listening to this keynote
speaker, but the size of the audience will also be a useful indicator of
the size of the constituency.  The more people that are there and show
interest, the better the situation will look for Open Source in
Government.

Please note for those planning on attending the entire week:

  While the keynote is very open, space is limited for the other sessions.  
Make plans early.  The key person on this is Joseph Potvin
<joseph.potvin@pwgsc.gc.ca>

  More information will be posted as I am sent it, including how one would 
sign up for the event.

Please Note for private citizens planning on attending keynote (or any
other sessions):

  This is a time to learn about some of the positive developments in the
government in relation to Open Source, and to encourage more.

  If you feel the urge to protest something, please go the the US embassy
and complain about the DMCA/CBDTA/etc/etc.  The showcase is intended to
help convince government to move in a very positive direction, and to let
civil servants know that it is "OK" to do so.

  Those from the public who attend need to have as much of an Open Mind
towards Open Source as we expect from those in the public sector.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 Want to retain copyright? Author Free Software!  
 More on Peruvian free software bill     /    1841 Copyright speech

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Digital Copyright Canada

May 27-31: "Open Source Solutions Showcase"

All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!