GROTON, Mass — December 13, 2011 — GUADEC, the primary GNOME User and Developer European Conference (www.guadec.org), will be held in A Coruña, Spain from July 26 to 29, 2012, with hackfests and other meetings to be held on July 30 through August 1. The conference is expected to draw hundreds of attendees from the GNOME development and user community who will discuss and direct the future of the GNOME project. Many participants from the overall free and open source software community, local organizations and software companies will also attend.
Due to its excellent facilities, strong local organizational team and affodable local accommodations, A Coruña, Spain, was chosen out of the several excellent locations proposed for the 2012 event. The conference will be held at the University of A Coruña’s Faculty of Computer Science, which has shown a longstanding commitment to free and open source software.
Alberto Valderruten, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of A Coruña said, “This year we are celebrating our 25th aniversary of the Faculty of Computer Science, and are really proud to host GUADEC, one of the most important events for the Free Software Community. The organization of GUADEC 2012 in Coruña will support an increase in our students’ involvement in the Free Software culture.”
The core organizing team for GUADEC 2012 will consists of members from GHANDALF, a nonprofit association that promotes and spreads Free Software in Spain, GNOME HISPANO, an organization dedicated to GNOME for Spanish speakers, GPUL, a GNU/Linux Users and Developers Group, Igalia and the University of A Coruña. All of the core team members are dedicated to free and open source software, and are active in a number of free software organizations in Spain.
“We are really happy to invite one of the most awesome communities of free software developers to Coruña!” said Francisco Javier Tsao Santín of GPUL, and a member of the GUADEC 2012 local team
“We expect that the organization of GUADEC in Coruña will help to boost the development of the GNOME project with new ideas and contributions.” added José María Casanova of Igalia, and also a member of the GUADEC 2012 local team
GUADEC 2012 follows a successful 2011 Desktop Summit held in Berlin, a joint conference by the GNOME and KDE communities. As planned at GUADEC 2010, the 2012 conference will return its specific focus to GNOME, though future joint events may be planned again.
Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, said, “The Desktop Summit in Berlin was a great conference. Both the GNOME and KDE Communities reported successful meetings and are focused for the year. 2012 will be my first GUADEC as Executive Director and will also be the first GUADEC since the release of GNOME 3. I think it is well-timed to be a productive gathering in beautiful A Coruña.”
A call for GUADEC 2012 conference papers will be issued early in 2012. Other announcements will also be made at that time with details about the CFP and session tracks.
