About — OpenWorldForum

Experience the Open World Forum 2009

The financial crisis, globalization, threats to the environment... rarely has a new year started under such a cloud of uncertainty. Rarely has it offered so many promises. Having made a key contribution to the Internet revolution, Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is now starting to fundamentally transform the whole fabric of technology, and the way businesses and people use it. In the space of just 15 years, it has grown to become 'the hidden backbone of the software industry' and represent almost 10% of the entire information technology market. Industry analysts are predicting that it could account for 30% of the market by 2012, representing an essential engine for growth. This is opening up colossal opportunities, and also giving rise to some tough challenges. How can organizations and individuals alike take advantage of FLOSS, to strenghten their competitiveness and to support innovation? How can public institutions and governments make use of FLOSS to kick-start the economy and employment? What technological and economic breakthroughs in FLOSS can we expect in the future?

It is on order to explore these issues that the second Open World Forum is being held. Founded by a heavyweight group of communities and IT players, the Open World Forum is the premier global summit meeting in this field, bringing together decisions-makers from across the world to discuss the technological, financial and social impact of open technologies, and to cross-fertilize ideas and initiatives in these areas.

The numerous sessions, activities, and events at the Open World Forum aim to bring you FLOSS's best:

Keynote presentations, drawing special attention to key FLOSS opportunities and challenges for innovation and competitiveness, for FLOSS being at the heart of the digital recovery.
Special tracks for FLOSS community leaders, FLOSS evangelists, political leaders, CIOs and investors, plus community events, encompassing a wide range of the most vibrant FLOSS ecosystems today.
An Expo Hall featuring some of the most vibrant communities, projects, products and players.
Quality time with thousands of experts, decision makers, users of all levels, vendors and journalists.
Fun community events and receptions right in the Center of Paris, offering plenty of opportunities for networking and making new connections.

Beyond the conference itself, the Open World Forum establishes a new environment where people can think ahead, identify key trends, challenges and opportunities for the future. Bringing together international experts working on future planning, scenarios and recommendations, it delivers and debates each year the 2020 FLOSS Roadmap.

THE OPEN WORLD FORUM IS AN OPEN EVENT. HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR A SPEAKER OF TOPIC? APPLY >>>

Who Should Attend

The Open World Forum provides the new international platform where all FLOSS decision-makers and stakeholders can meet and make new connections. It is a great arena for giving exposure to, and evaluating new FLOSS business and social trends, players and technologies. It is also the ideal place to make FLOSS related announcements, and to unveil new projects or initiatives. The Open World Forum welcomes both:

CxOs and decision-makers
Entrepreneurs
Investors
IT managers and architects
Researchers and academics
Technology experts

Contributing Organizations

Established by a leading group of Open Source communities and players from the IT industry, the event has already attracted:

Most of the largest IT industry players including Accenture, Alcatel-Lucent, AtosOrigin, Bull, CapGemini, Engineering, Google, IBM, HP, SAP, Serpro, Siemens, Sun, Telefonica, Thales...,
Leading communities including the Apache Software Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, FOSSFA, QualiPSo Consortium, Linux Foundation, Linux Verband, Mozilla Foundation, OW2 Consortium, Plone Foundation, Spring...,
Key research centers and competitivity clusters including Cap Digital, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, INRIA, Fraunhofer FOKUS, OSOR.EU, Paris VII University, South China University of Technology, State University of Sao Paulo, System@tic, University of Bozen, University of Insubria, University Rey Juan Carlos, Unu Merit…
A large network of SMEs from 4 continents including Altic, AlterWay, European Dynamics, Elastic Grid, eXo, Ingres, Mandriva, Nexedi, Nuxeo, Ohloh, OpenLogic, OpenWide, Pilot Systems, PSNC, O'Engine, Wallix... among dozens of others.

Governance and Program Committee

The Open World Forum is a community-based, non-commercial event. It is governed by a Steering Committee and a Program Committee, with representatives from numerous international FLOSS organizations, associations and communities.

The Steering Committee includes two international consortiums (OW2 and QualiPSo), several international and French associations (Adullact, AFUL, April, PLOSS, Silicon Sentier), two major French competitiveness clusters (Cap Digital and System@tic), French public sector bodies including the City of Paris, the Ile de France region and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Key partners include the Open Source Think Tank, the Linux Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, the Eclipse Foundation, the Open Solutions Alliance and the FOSSBazaar Community.

The Program Committee includes many of the world's most highly respected FLOSS experts worldwide. It is free to define the conference program in a spirit of total independence, identifying and inviting speakers from all over the world. It also contributes to the structure and content of the 2020 FLOSS Roadmap, which are to be drawn up before the event, and presented at the forum.

The event is organized by a Forum Committee managed by Innovation Clusters Cap Digital and System@tic, with the support of the Qualipso consortium and the ITEMS consulting firm. The Open World Forum also benefits from the support of European and French institutions.

Program Committee Members

The Open World Forum 2009 Program Committee includes:

Philippe Aigrain, Founder and CEO, Sopinspace
Andrew Aitken, Founder, Olliance
Jean-Pierre Archambault, CNDP
François Bancihlon, Mandriva
Jean-Luc Beylat, Vice President, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs
Frederico Camara, SERPRO
Frederic Couchet, Founder, APRIL
Stefano De Panfilis, R&D Director, Engineering
Bertrand Diard, CEO, Talend
Roberto Di Cosmo, Paris VII University
Nico Elema, Director, FOSSFA South Africa
François Elie, Chairman, Adullact
Oliver Fendt, OSS Clearing House Director, Siemens
Stéphane Fermigier, CEO, Nuxeo
Elmar Geese, Chairman, Linux Verband
Steven Grandchamp, CEO, OpenLogic
Juan Hierro, R&D Manager, Telefonica I+D
Jinpeng Huai, BUAA
Laurent Joubert, Consultant, Accenture
Fabio Kon, Professor, University of Sao Paulo
CN Krishnan, Director, OSS Indian National Resource Centre
Christophe Lacroix, Director, Cap Gemini
Bernard Lang, Research Director, INRIA
François Letellier, Consultant
Pascale Luciani, Profusus
Bjorn Lundell, Chairman, OSS Sweden
Emma K.McGrattan, Vice-President, Ingres
José Maldonado, Professor, University of Sao Paulo
Renato Martini, President, ITI Brazil
Cezary Mazurek, Manager, PSNC Poland
Franz Meyer, SEMEA VP, Red Hat
Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation
Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun
Pascal Pujot, Director, AtosOrigin
Dirk Riehle, Chief Open Source Officer, SAP
Phil Robb, Chief OSS Officer, HP, Chairman of FOSSBazaar.org
David Sapiro, CEO, Pilot Systems
Gerd Schuermann, Director, Fraunhofer FOKUS
Jean-Paul Smets, CEO, Nexedi
Christiana Soares de Freitas, UNB Brazil
Thierry Stoehr, Chairman, AFUL
Giancarlo Succi, Professor, Free University of Bolzano
Shuichi Tashiro, IPA Japan, General Manager of Japan OSS Center
Huaimin Wang, China National University of Defence Technology
Anthony Wasserman, COSI Director, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley
Hongbo Xu, Professor, Guangzhou Middleware Research Center
Jim Zemlin, CEO, Linux Foundation

The management team of the Open World Forum 2009 includes:

Chairman: Jean-Noel de Galzain, System@tic VP, Founder and CEO, WALLIX
Vice-Chairman: Philippe Montarges, Founder and CEO, AlterWay
Vice-Chairman, Marketing: Jean-Christophe Spilmont, NovaForge.org Founder, Bull
Vice-Chairman, International Relations, Marie Buhot Launay, Software Director, ARD
FLOSS Political Summit Director : Alix Cazenave, Consultant, APRIL
Open CIO Summit Directors : Philippe Montarges, CEO, Alterway - Boris Auche, Director, Bull
Open Innovation Summit Directors : Eric Mahe, Consultant - Stefane Fermigier, CEO, Nuxeo and Chairman, System@tic Open Source Group
FLOSS Communities Summit Director : Cédric Thomas, CEO, OW2
Open Competence Center Summit : Jan Ziesing, Fraunhofer FOKUS - François Elie, Chairman, Adullact