The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing [LWN.net]

From:		John McCreesh <jpmcc-AT-openoffice.org>
To:		announce-AT-openoffice.org
Subject:		[ooo-announce] The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing
Date:		Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:10:50 +0000
Message-ID:		<47CBA47A.6070609@openoffice.org>

Members of the OpenOffice.org Community have selected Beijing, China as 
the venue for their 2008 Annual Conference (OOoC0n), which will be held
between October 15th and 17th (provisional dates). The result of the
on-line ballot of Community members was as follows:

Beijing (China)             597
Orvieto (Italy)             126
Amsterdam (The Netherlands)  62
Bratislava (Slovakia)        56
Budapest (Hungary)           50
Dundalk (Ireland)            22

This marks a milestone in the development of the OpenOffice.org
Community, as it will be the first time that OOoCon will be held outside
Europe. The voting also shows the continuing growth of the Community,
with the number of votes cast over 50% up on last year.

Peter Junge, joint leader of the successful bid, was delighted with the
result: "The Beijing OOoCon team is really honoured to be the
Community's choice to organize and host this years OpenOffice.org
Conference. We are looking forward to welcome a large number of
OpenOffice.org contributors from all over the world. Let's celebrate the
globally grown community for the first time outside of Europe. Now, it's
our job to face the big challenge, to land OpenOffice.org at a new shore."

Every year, a completely new team stages OOoCon. The result is a
conference which has a lot of fresh energy every year, guarantees
surprises, but which is also reliably interesting. Many attendees
consider it to be one of the most informative and friendliest
open-source events to be found anywhere in the world.

The Conference website is here:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference
People interested in attending are invited to subscribe to the
Conference mailing list by sending a blank email to
mailto:ooocon2008_discuss-subscribe@marketing.openoffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Conference Team

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: announce-unsubscribe@openoffice.org
For additional commands, e-mail: announce-help@openoffice.org

(Log in to post comments)

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 3, 2008 21:16 UTC (Mon) by sbergman27 (subscriber, #10767) [Link]

All the more reason to sound the voice of software freedom there.  You see, China is not the
Chinese government.  China is the Chinese people.

This is why I do not buy into all the well intentioned, but misguided, efforts by people to
avoid buying goods made in China, etc.  China's rulers will not be deprived of any meals
through boycotts or economic sanctions.  Only the Chinese people are hurt.  Perhaps the idea
of making the economy so bad that the people will rise up against their government might have
some merit.  But I can't help but feel that the ethics of applying such pressure are
questionable.

On the same note, I do not believe in shunning them when it comes time to pick a location for
an important conference involving the concept of software freedom.

And remember, the billion people of China potentially have a lot to give back to FOSS.  But
first, they must understand that it is in their best interest to respect the licenses and
contribute their changes back upstream, and must understand how that is best done, and all the
other little details about how and why to become integral members of the our world wide
community.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 5, 2008 12:19 UTC (Wed) by alankila (subscriber, #47141) [Link]

> But I can't help but feel that the ethics of applying such pressure
> are questionable.

Not only questionable but also ineffective. Generally (dictatorial) ruling is in part enforced
by lack of options for those who are being ruled. For instance, people might want to leave the
country but they have no money to do so. They might want to work elsewhere, but they have no
marketable skills because they could not afford education. In this light, any further economic
hardship just further reduces people into poverty and the grasp of their government.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 11:48 UTC (Tue) by danielhedblom (subscriber, #47307) [Link]

I think we westerners are feed a fair amount of propaganda about China. Its not the most open
country in the world but then again, in Guantanamo there are hundreds of political prisoners
held without trials and without any official charges. 

Democracy is not a process that can or should be forced. Its an evolution that needs time to
settle and develop. An unstable democracy is much worse than any one-party system.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 15:36 UTC (Tue) by Yorick (subscriber, #19241) [Link]

>I think we westerners are feed a fair amount of propaganda about China. Its not the most open
country in the world but then again, in Guantanamo there are hundreds of political prisoners
held without trials and without any official charges. 

And we thought that whataboutism died with the Cold War.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 18:22 UTC (Tue) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]

It's a fair point, though; the US is not exactly in a position to criticize other countries on
their human rights records, at the moment.  Our moral high ground, never that solid to begin
with, has turned into quicksand.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 18:46 UTC (Tue) by Yorick (subscriber, #19241) [Link]

>It's a fair point, though; the US is not exactly in a position to criticize other countries
on their human rights records, at the moment.  Our moral high ground, never that solid to
begin with, has turned into quicksand.

In what way would USA's follies prevent us, or Americans for that matter, from criticising
China in any way? Countering a criticism with a reciprocal criticism of something else is the
very essence of whataboutism. The point is that a wrong is never excused by another no matter
on whose side.

That said, OOo is clearly in their right to hold their conference wherever they like and they
have good reasons for their choice. The Chinese need all encouragement they can get to
contribute to free software.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 22:12 UTC (Tue) by szh (guest, #23558) [Link]

> In what way would USA's follies prevent us, or Americans for that matter, from criticising
China in any way?

Lets get back to the 1st post in this thread.

Somebody who is against "honoring China by having a conference there." MUST also be against
"honoring bloody aggressor USA by having any FLOSS conference there."

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 17:31 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

China is actually better than North Korea, according to Reporters Without Borders (163 vs 168). USA ranks 53th (along with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga). Extraterritorial USA (I believe this includes Guantanamo) ranks 119th; below Cambodia, Sierra Leone or Indonesia. Where do you set the limit?

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 5, 2008 8:47 UTC (Wed) by janpla (guest, #11093) [Link]

"I have a hard time understanding a freedom loving software group honoring China by having a
conference there. Is China not the most restrictive country for journalists, much less its
citizens?"

To answer your question: No. You are simply repeating the propaganda you have been fed since
birth. No wonder you have a hard time understanding. If we want to propagate ideas about
freedom, this is exactly the right thing to do: go out there, meet people, let them see that
what we stand for is friendly and peaceful, that we have something good we want to share. You
can't force people to be free - it has been tried in Iraq (as well as in Afghanistan, Vietnam,
Korea, ...), and we ought to have learned by now.

This is not to say that there is nothing to criticise, but show me a country where everything
is perfect; where everybody enjoys perfect freedom, where there is no inequality, no social
injustice, etc etc. And try to turn it around: America has been criticised strongly - and with
good reason - for its transgressions, but the only effect this has on most Americans is that
they get defensive; it certainly hasn't made the American government change its ways, as far
as I can see. So why would anybody expect it to be different for other countries? If we always
criticise China, we only achieve to alienate the Chinese.

Apart from that, before we even think about criticising, we should at least make sure that we
get the facts right, so we don't make ourselves look like idiots. "Democracy" and "freedom"
means different things to different people, and if you ask people, you will find that it
rarely has anything to do with lofty principles; people just want to be free from worry.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 3:35 UTC (Tue) by NZheretic (guest, #409) [Link]

Given your nick of "myopiate" it's a wonder you didn't comment on Bill Gates past statements on China:

Gates shed some light on his own hard-nosed business philosophy. "Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

With Openoffice.org GPL'ed source code base (along with Linux,Gnome etc) it will always be freely available. It's time to start comparing Microsoft purely proprietary approach to that of the British leading up to the Opium Wars.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 6:48 UTC (Tue) by euvitudo (subscriber, #98) [Link]

I was in China (Beijing) last May, and loved every minute of it.  Fascinating place (though a
bit overwhelming--an abundance of sites to see, people to meet).  I would have loved to tour
the whole country, but alas, there's only so much you can do on a limited budget.

If someone hasn't traveled there, and this is their chance, I would highly recommend it.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 16:13 UTC (Tue) by pi_3 (guest, #50884) [Link]

I am in Beijing for 24 years. It is a huge and crowd city and enlarges every year. If someone
wants to travel China, I highly recommend a southern, small city.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

Posted Mar 4, 2008 21:37 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]

My wife comes from Beijing, and while I agree that it's one large beast, it's also a wonderful
city and province, with several interesting sites around, and it almost HAVE to be on any
travel schedule to China. (Just visiting the Forbidden City  is something noone should miss)

That said, other places is definately also "needed" on that schedule, Lijiang/Yunnan for the
wonderful mountain areas and traditional cultures, Hangzhou (near Shanghai) for the sheer
beauty and incredible temples, Shanghai (or Hongkong, though I've never been there) for the
feeling of an insanely busy city, and for the extreme contrasts possible in a single city (Can
be stressful, though).

There's probably several more, but those are the ones that stood out for me.

Oh, if you really like fish, Shenzhen is probably also of interest (But WAY too hot for me...
Normally I hate shopping, but we more or less ran from mall to mall, just for the
airconditioners).