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OOoCon 2007 Call for Votes

Every year, the OpenOffice.org community gathers to meet old friends and make new ones from around the world at the international OpenOffice.org Conference (OOoCon).

The conference is open to anyone interested in OpenOffice.org: developers, translators, marketers, teachers, technical authors, artists, IT specialists, business people, public sector representatives, or just enthusiastic users. Share ideas, tips, code, technology, business plans; drink beer, eat great food, and learn how the most important open source project in the world is changing things for the better.

Following a public Call for Proposals in November, three proposals for OOoCon 2007 had been received by the closing date of 31st January.

• Barcelona, Spain
• Beijing, China
• Dehradun, India

Voting opened on 5th February and closed on 18th February. The results will be announced here shortly!

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The three Proposals for OOoCon 2007

Barcelona, Spain
Why is your location and the date you propose the best for OOoConf 2007? (400 words)
Airports (Barcelona, Reus, Girona) with easy access to international flights and with regular low cost flights. Nice Mediterranean weather and excellent food Strong localization community (based fully on voluntary work) Interest from the local government in free software More than 100 local companies working on free software services and products Lots of cultural activities: museums, modernist buildings Terrific night life Barcelona is one of the most dynamic and stylish cities in the world. It is always on the biting cutting edge of architecture, food, fashion, style, music and night life. The people, with their exuberance, their creative spirit, and their persistent egalitarianism, are an example of coexistence and integration of cultures. Barcelona today is a city prepared to receive thousands of visitors everyday. It is very well connected, and there is accommodation available to host the whole OpenOffice.org Community and many more. For instance, in addiction, flying to Barcelona from most European countries is very cheap when you book in advance with the appropriate low-cost companies. The Catalan Native Lang Project is one of the historic projects inside the OpenOffice.org Community. Although small and humble, it's been here since the very beginning of the OpenOffice.org project, much before the existence of the Native Lang Community. We worked together with Sun in 2000 to translate OpenOffice.org 1.0 into the Catalan language and since then we have continued our work on a volunteer basis for seven years. It is true that we are small team, but we have distributed more than 2 million copies of OpenOffice.org in Catalan for a population of approximately 10 million speakers around the world. Altogether, the Catalan, Spanish, Basque and Galician communities will work hard to make Barcelona the best place to hold an OpenOffice.org Conference. We hope to hear as many languages as possible here, especially the voices of all those small teams of translators that are the true treasure of the OpenOffice.org Community.
Mandatory items
Location (country, city, conference center/university)	Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). At the University of Barcelona in the city center.
Proposed Date(s)	3rd week of September 2007 19/20/21 of September 2007 could be a good date. The attendees could spend the following weekend visiting the city.
Team Lead (main contact person)	Jesús Corrius (Catalan Native Lang Project Leader / L10N)
Team Members (all members should be willing and able to commit at least 3 hours per day to planning the conference during the last two weeks before OOoConf 2007)	Jesús Corrius Ignasi Labastida, University of Barcelona Jordi Mas Ismael Fanlo Josep Gallart Tania De la Paz Toni Hermoso David Poblador Alberto Barrionuevo, abarrio at EstandaresAbiertos.org (for ODF promotion stuff -active in FFII, ODF Alliance and OpenDocument Fellowship-) Quim Perez i Noguer Quim Perelló i Miro Softcatalà (about 10 people, more if needed), Core team of the CA project (about 5 people), staff of the University of Barcelona.
Local events that are taking place in parallel (or right before/after)	11th of September is the National Day of Catalonia 19th - 22nd September: Drupalcon Barcelona 2007
Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations	We recommend that you ensure you remain legal while resident in Spain and do not try to enter the country without the required paperwork. There is a large population of illegal immigrants and this is a politically sensitive issue so there are efforts being made to prevent entry and to find and deport people living illegally in the country. Citizens of the European Union are not required to get a visa for Spain since they already have the right to residency. Non-EU citizens visiting Spain need a visa (visado) in order to enter and visit Spain, unless there exists a special agreement between Spain and your home country; these countries are those of North & South America in addition to: Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Gibraltar, Grenada, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia and Switzerland. If you are one of these nationalities, you can enter Spain without a visa and stay for up to 90 days in any 6-month period. Visas are managed by the Spanish Ministerio de Asuntos Extranjeros (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) through its consulates and embassies around the world. You apply for and obtain a visa through the Spanish consulate nearest to your residence before you travel. Honorary consuls generally cannot issue visas but may provide application forms. Since visas are never issued in Spain, you must apply for them before you leave your country of residency. Do not attempt to enter Spain without a visa if you need one. There is no emergency procedure, you can't bribe the police, your embassy in Spain can't help and you will probably be refused entry. Generally, you should apply for your visa about 8-12 weeks before the date of your arrival in Spain. You must first have a valid passport with at least three months until expiry in order to apply, so be sure to allow adequate time to obtain or renew both the passport and get the visa application processed. Don?t leave this to the last minute or you put your travel plans at risk. No Vaccination.
Optional items
Large local OpenOffice.org deployments (for user keynotes and success stories)	LinkAt. Catalan government GNU/Linux distribution for education. GnuLinEx is an initiative of the regional government of Extremadura, Spain. It is already used in all schools in Extremadura, as well as intended for official institutions based on 2006 motion of ODF adoption. It is actively promoted for business, society and home use as well. Guadalinex is an initiative of the regional government of Andalusia, biggest in Spain. It is already used in a big share of schools in Andalusia, as well as intended for official institutions. It is promoted for society at public info-centers (Guadalinfo) at all villages in Andalusia. Lliurex. Valencian government GNU/Linux distribution for education Molinux. Castillan-La Mancha, Spain, government GNU/Linux distribution for education and public health. Already running in all public first level health centers.
Names of local OpenOffice.org developers (for developer sessions)	OPS Consulting Jesús Corrius, Softcatalà (Catalan L10N) Iñaki Larrañaga (Basque L10N) Ruben Da Silva (Galician L10N)
Names of local OpenOffice.org vendors/partners (potential sponsors)	T-Systems Novell Barcelona Generalitat de Catalunya Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Rinho Sistemas OPENTIA EstándaresAbiertos.org (open standards promotion project). Ajuntament de Barcelona Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade
Travel costs (e.g. flight costs from the following cities: London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, New York, Hamburg, Dublin, San Francisco, Cape Town, Tokyo)	London 280 euros Paris 200 euros Beijing 770 euros Sydney 900 euros New York 510 euros Hamburg 230 euros Dublin 230 euros San Francisco 880 Euros South Africa 700 euros Tokyo 920 euros
Accomodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)	4 star hotels ABBA SANTS Numància, 32 08029 Barcelona Phone: +34 936003100 AC DIPLOMATIC Pau Claris, 122 08009 Barcelona Phone: +34 932723810 3 star hotels Holel ATLANTIS Pelai, 20 08001 Barcelona Hotel CONTINENTAL BARCELONA La Rambla, 138 08002 Barcelona Phone:+34 933012570 2 star hotels Hotel CATALUÑA Santa Anna, 24 08002 Barcelona Phone: +34 933019150 Hotel CONDAL Boqueria, 23 08002 Barcelona Telèfon: +34 933181882
Supplementary Information
Average meal costs	10 euros at lunch time, 15 euros at dinner time (these are the average prices of the city center)
Links	More up to date information and original proposal

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OOoCon 2007 proposal of Beijing, China
Why is your location and the date you propose the best for OOoConf 2007? (400 words)
China market has great influence on the promotion of OOo China boasts the broadest potential user market in the world: 137 million computer users in China; 100 million users of broadband Internet access. Choosing Beijing to host OOo annual conference 2007 shall be the best and the most direct means to enhance OOo’s popularity in China and allow OOo to play a more critical role throughout the world. OOo annual conference to be held in China will substantially increase loyal OOo users 10 million sets of OpenOffice.org software pre-installed in the computer along with linux. Only less than 5% of end users will use OO. Hence, OOo annual conference to be held in Beijing will showcase the power of the community and strengthen users’ understanding of open source software; according to our estimation, OOo annual conference in Beijing will turn over 25% of China users with pre-installed OO’s into loyal users. Beijing Municipality supports open source software campaign Since 2001, Beijing Municipality has actively promoted the application of open source software and in 2001 and 2002 a great deal of OO and Linux products were adopted for governmental procurement of Beijing. As the first local government adopting OO in China, Beijing has been always promoting OOo products and now there are over 200 local governments using OOo products in China. OOo annual conference in Beijing may facilitate the combination of China standard UOF with ODF Since early 2002, Beijing Municipality, together with other relevant enterprises, has been practicing the promotion and formulation of open document format standard. Currently, the promotion of incorporation of document format standard UOF, formulated by China, and ODF, is a course the Beijing Municipality and relevant enterprises (such as SUN, Redflag CH2000 Co.,Ltd and IBM, etc) are propelling. The year of 2007 is a year that decides whether a critical step can be taken in incorporation of two standards. In this case, OOo annual conference in Beijing will allow Chinese senior leaders to really accept that open document format is an unavoidable trend of global information technology. Preparatory committee of the conference will provide you with convenient service: Each participant is only requested to pay 200 Euro including following benefits: All accommodation expenses during 3-day conference Two days free travel For more information on arrangement of conference, please visit our website: http://www.OOoCon2007.cn.
Mandatory items
Location (country, city, conference center/university)	Beijing Conference Center The building of Beijing Conference Center was funded by Beijing Municipality and the Conference Center is in charge of holding all kinds of important conferences of the State and Beijing Municipality.
Proposed Date(s)	Conference time: Sept. 19, 20 and 21, 2007 Tour time: Sept. 22 and 23, 2007
Team Lead (main contact person)	Zhang Peng Wang Ying Peter Junge
Team Members (all members should be willing and able to commit at least 3 hours per day to planning the conference during the last two weeks before OOoConf 2007)	Beijing RedFlag Chinese 2000 Software Technology Co., Ltd. Changfeng Open Standards Platform Software Alliance Software College of Peking University
Local events that are taking place in parallel (or right before/after)	1. Conference of OpenOffice.org Global Users (the typical users of OOo in the world are invited to probe into the problems and development direction of OOo together) 2. Seminar on Promoting Development of OpenOffice.org in Asia (the key personnel of OOo and the technicians of OOo in Asia are invited to emphatically probe into the development and promotion of OOo in Asia)
Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations	The travel visa shall be applied at the Chinese embassy in your country (different countries have different conditions and requirements for the tour to China, please consult your local Chinese embassy: UK Germany France Austria Italy USA). No Vaccination.
Optional items
Large local OpenOffice.org deployments (for user keynotes and success stories)	OO has a lot users in China OO is one of the open source softwares achieved the greatest success in China in commercialization and promotion, it is broadly used in all regions and industries and has a lot users. Let's take RedOffice, the most popular OpenOffice.org product in Chinese market, for an example. RedOffice is the first product in China researched and development basing on OO, it was introduced in 2001 with the People's Government of Beijing Municipality as the first user, till now it has been applied in nearly two hundred local governments of different provinces and cities, such as Beijing and Guangdong, and more than a thousand enterprises and public institutions due to its excellent functions and ease of use, its users cover a lot industries such as government, education, water resources, electric power, tobacco, medicine, iron & steel and coal mining. To date, the amount of the relevant OOo products pre-installed in China has exceeded 10 million seats, the actual used amount of OOo products has exceeded 1 million seats, and the numbers are increasing all the time. (reply truncated for reasons of space)
Names of local OpenOffice.org developers (for developer sessions)	Huihoo community (www.huihoo.org) Lupa community (www.lupaworld.com)
Names of local OpenOffice.org vendors/partners (potential sponsors)	Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission Co-Create Software Branch of Chinese Software Industry Association ChinaSoftware & Integrated Circuit Promotion Center China Open Source Software Promotion Union Sun IBM Google Intel LENOVO
Travel costs (e.g. flight costs from the following cities: London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, New York, Hamburg, Dublin, San Francisco, Cape Town, Tokyo)	Travel expenses (in Euro) from European countries to Beijing Vancouver-Beijing, Single:283 Return:472 Los Angeles-Beijing, Single:274 Return:409 New York-Beijing, Single:314 Return:526 Chicago-Beijing, Single:498 Return:530 Sidney-Beijing, Single:413 Return:535 Frankfurt-Beijing, Single:336 Return:476 London-Beijing, Single:314 Return:584 Paris-Beijing, Single:287 Return:494 Vienna-Beijing Single:342 Return:504 Barcelona-Beijing single:351 Return:549 Note: the quotations above could be a reference only
Accomodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)
Supplementary Information
Fare of Beijing taxies	Flag-fall price 10 Chinese Yuan (about 1 Euro) incl. 5 Kilometers + 2.00 Chinese Yuan (about 0.2 Euro) per further Kilometers
Climate of Beijing	The daytime temperature of Beijing in September and October is 25~30 C and the temperature at night is 15~20 C.
Links	Beijing Municipality Preparatory Organization

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Proposal from Chairperson, All India Council of Mayors
Why is your location and the date you propose the best for OOoConf 2007? (400 words)
India is poised to become the largest deployment ground for OpenOffice.org. The developer community in India is both diverse and united, and development is taking place in the areas of localization and extensions to suit the Indian needs. The Openoffice.org developer community in India is coordinated by the BharateeyaOO.o group and is supported by various other developmental groups like PunLinux, Utkarsh, FSF India, Ind Linux etc. The development is also supported by the globalization divisions of organizations like Red Hat India, IBM etc. Along with it the group also gets active support from the National Resource Center for FOSS (NRCFOSS) at CDAC Chennai. In the past couple of years we have seen massive distributions and deployments of OpenOffice.org in India and OpenOffice.org has been in the limelight constantly in the government and political circles as well as the development community. This makes India a perfect venue for OOoCon2007. Having OOoCon2007 in India would attract a large number of decision makers, policy makers and OEM vendors apart from developers. Having the conference in India will also give an opportunity to the OOo enthusiasts from the eastern hemisphere and CJK to participate and profit and will do a world of good to the 'global software' image to OpenOffice.org We plan to make OOoCon2007 the biggest event ever. Dehradun is a most suitable venue to host this conference. Dehradun is the capital of the newly formed State, Uttarakhand, the gateway to the Stepping Stone and Foundation to High Quality Education & future leader. It is nature's wonderland, a fascinating destination for discerning tourists. Dehradun has also emerged as a centre for Adventure Tourism and an ideal place for adventure sports like river rafting, aero sports and skiing. Dehradun, one of the most alluring picturesque valleys in Asia, which nestles in the arms of Himalayas blessed with salubrious climate, extends a cordial invitation to inquisitive and dauntless tourists. It is in close proximity to capital of India and is just 230 Kms from New Delhi and well connected to Air, Train & Road Transportation. There are more than 100 Central Govt. and autonomous Institutions, Research centers, housing more than 30 Headquarters of Central Govt establishments. Is known as an education hub having some of the best schools of India. It has Universities, Medical Colleges, Engineering Colleges, and is just 1.5 Hrs run away from IITRoorkee, a premier Engineering College in India. (proposal truncated at 400 words)
Mandatory items
Location (country, city, conference center/university)	India, Dehradun, A.M.N. Ghosh Auditorium O.N.G.C., Dehradun
Proposed Date(s)	13th to 15th October 2007
Team Lead (main contact person)	1.Mr.Sharad Kukreti 2.RKVS Raman 3.Dr.Jagmohan Rana
Team Members (all members should be willing and able to commit at least 3 hours per day to planning the conference during the last two weeks before OOoConf 2007)	RKVS Raman - Project Coordinator - BharateeyaOO.o Group CDAC Bangalore Vijay Kumar - Indic Native Lang Group Coordinator Shikha Pillai - OpenOffice.org Native Lang Coordinator - Hindi Kartik Mistry - Utkarsh Group AmanPreet Singh Alam - Punlinux Group Volunteer Groups Mr. Sankarshan Mukhopadyay, RedHat Mr. Sudhir Gandotra, CEO, OpenLx Linux Dr. Harish Sharma, Scientist, FRI Dr. Navneet Gupta, IIT, Roorkee Mr. Baijnath, GM, ONGC Mr. Rajesh Thapa, System Manager, Wildlife Institute of India Mr. Sharad Kukreti, Founder President, SGERS BharateeyaOO.o Group- 7 members National Resource Centre for FOSS - CDAC Chennai - 5 members Utkarsh Group PunLinux Group
Local events that are taking place in parallel (or right before/after)	Local sight seeing will be provided at the end of the conference
Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations
Optional items
Large local OpenOffice.org deployments (for user keynotes and success stories)
Names of local OpenOffice.org developers (for developer sessions)
Names of local OpenOffice.org vendors/partners (potential sponsors)	1.ONGC 2.Ministry of Information Technology (GOI) 3.Ministry of IT (Uttarakhand) 4.CDAC 5.NRCFOSS 6.Sun Microsystems 7.Red Hat India 8.IBM India 9.Google India 10.Local Sponsors (Selected only)
Travel costs (e.g. flight costs from the following cities: London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, New York, Hamburg, Dublin, San Francisco, Cape Town, Tokyo)	To & fro Economy class Airfare will be provided to selected attendees approved by Open Office Community, Co-ordination Group & AICM Sterling Committee
Accomodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)	Free Accommodation will be providedat the following:- 1.Guest Houses (Central & State Govt / Colleges) 2.Hotel 3.Youth Hostel 4.Hostel (Colleges) All three meals (breakfast /Lunch/dinner) will be providedbyAICM
Supplementary Information
Inaugural & Concluding Speech By:-	State Governor/Chief Minister/Chairperson, AICM /IT Minister etc.
Event Management	Event Management task will be handled by a Professional Event Management Company
Cultural Programme	May be handled by event management company or by the state govt agency

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Note: all the information on this page has been submitted by the proposers for each location