Inside Europe's LinuxTag 2008 Open Source Soiree

Ries and Georgi are founders of open Bicycle Computer, or oBiCo, a Linux-based bicycle computer to be used for long bicycle tours. The software calculates speed, distance, altitude, temperature, acceleration, and includes a GPS tracker. "We're here to make contacts with software developers and look for feedback," says Ries, who is fine-tuning the software and organized the booth at LinuxTag. SugarCRM co-founder Clint Oram delivers his speech, "CRM For an Open World, accentuating the necessity of Web services for customer support while touting the latest features of Sugar 5.0, such as improved charts and graphing capabilities.

Oram said the Internet allows news ways of determining how to structure CRM parameters, and flexibility and stability are key components of any CRM software. "The Web is evolving the customer relationship, and you need to be ahead of it, not behind it," he said. Frederik Ramm of the OpenStreetMap project explains the program's GPS functionality to two attendees. Unlike the United States, where the Freedom of Information Act gives individuals the power to retrieve geographic information, all geospatial information in Europe is proprietary. The OpenStreetMap project represents an effort to change that through community involvement.

Frank Mohr, a member of OpenStreetMap, says they expect to have all of Germany and most of the U.K. mapped by the end of the year. "We're like a Wikipedia for maps," he said. "We're here to get more people to join OpenStreetMap." Members of the Berlin chapter of the Fellowship of Free Software Foundation Europe sell T-shirts, buttons, and try to add members to their group, which helps promote and protect free software.

Christot Thim (third from left), a member of the Berlin chapter, called the International Standards Organization's (ISO) recent decision to accept Microsoft's OOXML document format as a recognized standard "disappointing" but vowed the fight for document freedom would continue. "We will not run like a chicken from a snake," he said. "People are up to the fight, and I think it rallies the community even more." Dr. Jochen Friedrich, program manager of standards and open source for technical relations in Europe for IBM Deutschland GmbH, explains the complexity of the standards process. His lecture, "Innovation, Flexibility, Freedom: The Value of Open Standards," stressed the importance of transparency and genuine interoperability when crafting standards, which he likened to blueprints.

"My software needs to talk to your software," he said. "And in the globally networked economy, it's ridiculous to think that any one software provider will provide all the pieces."Sun Microsystem's director of Solaris product marketing Charlie Boyle explains how OpenSolaris, an open source project based on Sun's Solaris operating system technology, works inside Windows. "What we're doing is trying to lower the barrier so everyone has access to open source," he said. "This is a core part of Sun's business now -- this is not our toe in the water. It's about participation. We want people to know the technology is accessible, the community is vibrant, and we want people to be successful."Tarent employee Fabian Kster uses a Nintendo Wii-mote to control one of the company's Freedroidz -- small, open source software-controlled robots that run on a Java stack for Linux devices. They can do anything from pick up cans to play a (miniature) piano.

"This project is just meant as a showcase for the Java stack," he said, although Tarent, an open source software company based in Bonn, Germany, is working to implement the program freedroidz@school. The program will help teach computer science students the basics of robotics, all using open source technology. Dirk Hohndel, Intel's chief Linux and open source technologist, delivers the International Keynote, "What do Major Corporations do for Open Source?" "A lot of people consider the Linux and open source community a grassroots organization, but the reality is that corporations are paying most people who actually write open source code," he said.

Corporations can and should reach out to open source developers as a way to drive innovation and create new markets. The interests of the open source community and large corporations are in many ways similar, he said, and open source-averse companies should take note. "There are companies who think open source developers are out to get them," he said, referencing Microsoft. "Well guess what? We are!"It wasn't all business at this year's LinuxTag, but as always the emphasis was on community and collaboration. JackLab Audio Distribution (JAD) is an openSUSE-based Linux operating system designed for musicians working in a Linux environment. It is a member of the linuxaudio.org consortium and comes with a collection of free, open source multimedia software for audio and visual content creation.

Here, JackLab member Timo Ploog (right) strums an electric guitar while fellow member Michael Bohle tests out a microphone reverb.