LibreOffice Conference 2020 Proposals
The Document Foundation has received two different proposals for the organization of LibOCon 2020 from the Turkish and German communities. When this has happened in the past, in 2012 (Berlin vs Zaragoza) and 2013 (Milan vs Montreal), TDF Members have been asked to decide by casting their vote.
This document provides an outline of the two proposals, which are attached in their original format.
TURKEY: ISTANBUL
City. Istanbul, formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople, is the most populous city in Turkey and the country’s economic, cultural and historic center. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosporus strait (which separates Europe and Asia) between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. With a total population of around 15 million residents in its metropolitan area, Istanbul is one of the world’s most populous cities, ranking as the world’s fourth largest city and the largest European city. (Source Wikipedia)
Entity. Tubitak Ulakbim (Pardus) will handle legal and financial responsibilities on behalf of LibreOffice Turkish community. Tubitak Ulakbim is a research institute which support FOSS (mostly Pardus Linux and LibreOffice) and ODF in Turkey, targeting primarily public institutions. Each year, it funds and/or supports many FOSS events in Turkey.
Tubitak Ulakbim (Pardus) has agreed to support the event by covering expenses up to an amount of approximately 25,000 Euro.
Venue. Boğaziçi University (BOUN), İstanbul. The main venue has three conference rooms of different sizes and a foyer area, plus other conference rooms in a nearby building (at walking distance) which can be used in case of need. All conference rooms are in the same campus. Almost all areas in the venue are wheelchair-accessible. BOUN is extremely sensitive to this topic.
Team. Muhammet Kara: main contact. Nurcan Tür, Enes Kıdık, Furkan Tokaç, F. Ahmet Kara, M. Çağrı Dolaz, Ülkem Kasapoğlu, Ömer Çakmak, Doğa Deniz Arıcı, Berkay Aktunç.
We are a group of enthusiast volunteers who love LibreOffice, and would like to see LibreOffice/ODF widely used and known in Turkey, along with other FOSS projects. We see LibOCon as a very good opportunity to integrate the local and the global community, with a positive impact on the local community.
GERMANY: NUREMBERG
City. Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, with 511,628 inhabitants in 2016. The city lies about 170 kilometres (110 mi) north of Munich. (Source Wikipedia)
Entity. The organization is lead by the openSUSE community and it’s legally supported by SUSE.
Dates. The proposal is to organize the conference during week 42, from October 12 to October 18, 2020, including internal pre-meetings and conference. The geek number 42 is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”.
Venue. Z-Bau, a large building with many rooms of several sizes, and a large outdoor area with a beer garden. With four event rooms, two outdoor areas and various project rooms, there is plenty of room for events of all kinds. The entire area is barrier-free and the various rooms are equipped with basic technical equipment for events and day-to-day operations.
Team. Douglas DeMaio and Marina Latini: main contacts. Andrew Wafaa, Axel Braun, Simon Lees, Christian Boltz, Gertjan Lettink, Richard Brown.
2020 will be an important milestone date for both the LibreOffice and the openSUSE project. LibreOffice will celebrate its 10th birthday while openSUSE will achieve the 15th anniversary of the project. One more notable connection between the two communities is the historically strong relationship between the core LibreOffice development team and SUSE, given that a big number of core developers were all working together at SUSE.
I’m surprised that Turkey, a country with such a poor reputation for human rights abuses and treatment of women, is being considered for an international conference.
At least the inhabitants of Istanbul chose the candidate from the opposition at the last local election in Istanbul. After the election was not accepted by the authorities, a new election was held in june 2019. Now even more people voted for Ekrem İmamoğlu, and Erdogan had to accept it.
By the way, I’m unable to get the english version of the privacy policy I had to accept to post this comment.