Welcome!

Linux Bangalore/2004 is the fourth in this remarkably successful series of Free & Open Source Software conferences to be held in India.

When we organised the first one, back in 2001, it was meant to be a logical follow-up to the FOSS community's participation in various IT events, such as Bangalore IT.COM, where we particpated under the motto "Seeing is Believing".

We were very concerned back then. We knew what a big task we had taken on, and executing something that big - especially given that this was a completely non-commercial, community driven event.

After the stupendous success of LB/2001 we had even more reason to worry - how on earth were we ever going to follow up on such a big act?

Year after year, and much to our surprise and delight, we have been able to follow up very nicely indeed - each year's Linux Bangalore conference has been bigger and better than the one before it, with more speakers, more delegates, more "big names", more community participation, more features, more fun, more learning, more everything.

And we grew from a small regional enthusiast event to become one of Asia's largest professional technology conferences, with participation not only from India but from across the world.

This has been possible for several excellent reasons - the support of sponsors, the hard work of the volunteers and managers, the enthusiasm of the delegates and the excellence of the speakers.

And our success can be measured by another factor as well: when we first started, the mention of a FOSS conference in India often met with disbelief and sometimes even laughter. Four years down the line, not only has the disbelief disappeared, but other conferences have begun springing up in India as well!

This year, we are doing the biggest Linux Bangalore conference yet, widening our scope from FOSS users and developers to include FOSS user and developer businesses. We are changing conference formats to ensure greater depth, we are increasing the size of the exhibition to showcase more FOSS projects and Linux and FOSS User Groups (LUGs), we are bringing in more speakers from India and abroad, and we are gearing up to cater to many more delegates than the approximately 3000 who attended LB/2003.

To do this, we need your help. We can't do this alone.

There are many ways in which you can help make this conference a reality. No effort is too small, and every helping hand is welcomed.

The most basic of ways that you can help us is, of course, by talking to us. Join the mailing list, and read what others are saying, respond with your own suggestions and comments, and let us know what you would like to see at the event.

In the two weeks before the event, we will be putting out a call for volunteers. Volunteers are the people who make sure that everything at LB/2004 happens as planned.

Then there are of course the speakers, the very core of the event. This year we have changed the format of the conference drastically, so make sure that you check out the paper presentation guidelines.

And of course, we need to pay for all the things we are doing, so that's where the sponsors come into the picture. This year, we have decided to make it easier for a lot more sponsors to get involved, apart from the Big Ones (i.e. the Platinum and Gold sponsors) - you can now also sponsor just a track, or sponsor some facilities at the event (such as speaker travel and accommodation, internet connectivity, etc.).

The FOSS expo is where companies can exhibit their FOSS-related products and services, reaching a large and focussed technically-savvy audience. The proceeds of this FOSS expo are used to create the huge showcase of FOSS projects and Linux/FOSS User Groups

And finally there are, of course, the audiences - the thousands of delegates for whom Linux Bangalore is organised. You can participate as a delegate, and learn from the many, many excellent speakers who will be bringing their knowledge to the event and sharing it with you.

On behalf of the Free & Open Source Community of India, as well as the Managers of Linux Bangalore/2004, I warmly invite you to be part of this remarkable event.

See you in Bangalore!

Atul Chitnis
Conference Chair
Linux Bangalore/2004