Debian conference coming to World Heritage city Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

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The Debian Project http://www.debconf.org/
Debian conference coming to Cáceres, Spain [email=press@debconf.org]press@debconf.org[/email]
July 22nd, 2009 http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090722
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* Annual Debian conference to take place 24-30 July 2009
* Hosted at UNESCO World Heritage city Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain
* General public invited to open conference day, Friday 24 July
* Events streamed live over the Internet
* Unique wine available pressed from Extremadura grapes

Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, 22 July 2008 - Come 24 July, the city of
Cáceres in the autonomous community of Extremadura in western Spain will
be the temporary home for almost 300 attendees of the annual conference
of the Debian project. The Debian project is the team behind the free
and open-source Debian GNU/Linux operating system.

The conference takes place at Residencia Muñoz Torrero, Ronda de San
Francisco, 2. The event is sponsored by HP, the government of
Extremadura, Telefonica and many other supporters. Registration is
required to attend this free event.

On Friday 24 July, the conference opens its doors to host talks and
presentations geared at the general public. Developers and users will be
on site to answer questions. No registration is required to attend the
open day, and everyone is welcome. Admission is free of charge.

More information is available from the conference website,
http://debconf9.debconf.org.

"The government of Extremadura is very supportive of free software,"
says César Gómez Martín, a civil servant from Cáceres and one of the
local organisers. "In addition to our gnuLinEx initiative, a complete
computer software solution for all Extremadura schools and official
institutions built on Debian, we are keen to support free software
projects and events. We are happy to sponsor DebConf, and excited to
host the conference in the beautiful city of Cáceres."

Prior to the conference, more than a hundred contributors to the Debian
Project gathered on-site to cooperate in solving problems and adding
features to the the computer operating system.

The personal interaction at such an event trumps Debian's usual
round-the-clock, global collaboration over the Internet. "The main
benefit of meeting in person regularly is improved communication due to
the better bandwidth through real-life interaction, a technology which
is also becoming quite popular in the wider Debian community" says
Debian developer Holger Levsen.

As an additional highlight a wine made from organically grown
Tempranillo grapes in Extremadura has been produced by the DebConf9
organisers to celebrate this event, and the use of free software in the
world. Debian and wine are made and enjoyed worldwide, as expressed in
the sentiment written on the bottle: "Share the wine, share the
software."

While DebConf is mainly focused on direct communication and
collaboration, participation for people abroad is also possible via live
video streams and IRC (Internet Relay Chat). As has been happening since
2006, the world will be able to follow along as the talks happen, and
recordings will be made freely available for download for those who miss
the live sessions. See http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf9/Streams for
more information.


About Debian
------------

The Debian Project is an association of Free Software developers who
volunteer their time and effort in order to produce the free operating
system Debian GNU/Linux. Over three thousand volunteers from all over
the world work together to create and maintain Debian software.
Translated into 27 languages, and supporting a huge range of computer
types, Debian calls itself the "universal operating system".

For more information about Debian, please visit the project's website:
http://debian.org/


About DebConf
-------------

DebConf is the Debian Project's developer conference. In addition to a
full schedule of technical, social and policy talks, DebConf provides an
opportunity for developers, contributors and other interested people to
meet in person and work together more closely. It has taken place
annually since 2000 in locations as varied as Canada, Finland, and
Mexico.

DebConf9 starts on Friday 24 July, and ends Thursday 30 July 2009. The
conference will be held in Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain.

DebConf will be preceded by DebCamp, from Thursday 16 July to Wednesday
23 July 2009. DebCamp is a smaller, less formal event giving an
opportunity for group work on Debian projects.

On Friday 24 July 2009, DebConf Open Day will take place at the site.
The Open Day is a short conference aimed at Debian users, and others
interested in learning more about free software.

More information about DebConf9 can be found on the conference website:
https://debconf9.debconf.org/


Contact Information
-------------------

For further information, please visit the DebConf web pages at
http://www.debconf.org/, send mail to <[email=press@debconf.org]press@debconf.org[/email]> or call

English: Spanish:
Martin Krafft Anto Recio
Tel: +41 32 5119511 Tel: +34 617806594


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