[clug] Open Source business breakfast with Mark Shuttleworth

[Pia Waugh]

Hi all,

I would like to invite you and any others you think would be interested to
meet with Mark Shuttleworth on the 30th January for business breakfast.
Apologies for the delay in coming through to this list but it was only
agreed upon to have a business breakfast recently, and I thought someone
else was sending the info to the list. I've also been offline for most of
the past 4 days. Anyway this is a business development tour that Canonical
are doing throughout Asia, and they are specifically interested in talking
to PC manfacturers, systems integrators, companies interesting in using Open
Source, Government & Universities so I thought it would be useful to you.

Mark Shuttleworth is the CEO of Canonical. Canonical make one of the worlds
most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu (http://ubuntulinux.org/). Mark is a
fascinating character who has built several highly successful businesses
based on Open Source technologies and strategies. Mark is also the worlds
second space tourist, and generally an interesting person to talk to about
business and Open Source. He is involved in many philanthropic activities in
South Africa which is driving a better standard of education through the use
of Open Source technologies.

The basic agenda for the meeting would be as follows:

- Introduction to Canonical and Ubuntu
- Canonical business model
- Ubuntu in the International Community
- Language support and internationalisation of Ubuntu
- Discussion of specific examples of countries using OSS in government and
  education
- Overview of Ubuntu technical and release schedules
- Q & A

He will be in Canberra on the 30th January, and I am organising both
individual meetings with several Government representatives as well as a
business breakfast with local companies and education institutes. The
business breakfast will be from 8am - 10am at the Hyatt with a light
breakfast and refreshments served. Please let me know how many seats you
would like reserved. If you know any companies or other institutes you feel
would be interested in attending please let them know.

As a side note, an event coming up that may be of interest to you is the
Business Days and Government Day events at Linuxworld Australia. Linuxworld
is a global event running in over 15 countries. It is a purely business and
Government focused event, and on March 28-30 it comes to Australia for the
first time. The Business Days schedule is currently on the website
(http://www.linuxworldexpo.com.au) and the Government Day will be announced
in the coming week. Government Day already has confirmed senior
representatives from Government agencies right around Australia and also
from Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Nations and of course China. It
should prove to be an eye-opener to the Open Source opportunity for
Government as well as the broader benefits Open Source brings entire
nations, from local industry development to reducing trade deficits. With
such a huge percentage of our own trade deficit being ICT related, we
certainly have our own incentives to be understanding what other Governments
are finding out about Open Source.

Unfortunately we don't have time for beers but it'll be great to catch up
with you all :)

Cheers,
Pia

-- 
Linux Australia                                         http://linux.org.au/
 
   "He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire."
                                 - Lao-tzu