As announced at the openSUSE Conference 2013, this years openSUSE conference will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This beautiful city will welcome us Geekos from the 24th to the 28th of April. The team has been hard at work to prepare things and below they start by giving you a taste of the city, the venue and themselves!

The openSUSE Conference

The openSUSE Conference is the annual gathering of the openSUSE Community and other Free and Open Source contributors and enthusiasts. This year will be the 6th event where the talks, workshops and discussions provide the framework to exchange knowledge, collaborate and create lasting connections and incredible memories. Last year our event took place in Greece - read reports on day one, day two and day three. Before we’ve had a smashing time in Prague and in a old factory hall in Nüremberg.

The theme this year

The openSUSE conference traditionally has a theme. This year, the theme is: “The Strength to Change”.

Change has been a constant in Free Software. With the rise of mobile devices and the associated operating systems like Android and Chromebooks, we have to adopt as a project. We discussed strategy again on our mailing lists and by the time of the conference, we can hopefully all talk together and come to some conclusions. Change is never easy, but it is important!

Subjects and conference schedule

Like always, we will cover a wide range of subjects at the event. This year, there will be the following tracks:

End user track

Business track

Community and Project

Technology & Development

More details are coming in the Call for Papers on the 20th of January, with proposals starting to get accepted February 14. The submission period will end on February 28.

Croatia and Dubrovnik

Republic of Croatia is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic at the crossroads of Central Europe, Balkans, and the Mediterranean. It joined the EU on 1st of July 2013, and it is best known for it’s sunny beaches, islands and warm adriatic sea as it is a summer vacation destination for many Europeans.

Dubrovnik is the southernmost city in Croatia, a gorgeous former city state which joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979. The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik was historically based on maritime trade. As the capital of the Republic of Ragusa, a maritime republic, the city achieved a high level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Dubrovnik became notable for its wealth and skilled diplomacy. The Republic was an early adopter of what are now regarded as modern laws and institutions and Dubrovnik became a cradle of Croatian literature. The city successfully balanced its sovereignty between the interests of Venice and the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

(Gorgeous picture on the right Creative Commons photo from Trishhartmann)

Local Community

The openSUSE conference proposal came from a team from the Croatian Association for Open Systems and Internet (HrOpen) and the Croatian Linux Users’ Association (HULK). The team has support from the UNIDU (which is where the event will take place) and is also backed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of University of Zagreb.

The leadership of the core team:

Svebor PrstaÍiÇ, president of HrOpen

Tomo Sjekavica, assistant professor at UNIDU

Ivan Guštin, president of HULK

Darko Grabar, vice president of HrOpen

The conference venue

The conference venue is provided by the University of Dubrovnik, (UNIDU). The University of Dubrovnik is the ‘youngest’ university in Croatia. It was established in 2003 on the foundations of a very long tradition which goes back to the 17th century, but also on decades of modern higher education. In terms of program, organization and technical equipment, the University of Dubrovnik stands among the most modern of educational institutions.

The venue, called the New Campus, is situated just 5 minutes walk from the Dubrovnik old town, and is in walking distance of many hotels and private apartments that offer affordable accommodation deals. It was originally built as a hospital, then renewed and repurposed for the University in 2012. From the outside it displays the soul of Dubrovnik, but from the inside it is a very sleek and modern design.

Find it on Google Maps here and see some more pictures here.

If you want to get to know the university in advance of joining us, check out this great walk-around video on youtube!

(Pictures provided by the university)

What’s next

Next up is setting up the conference website and opening the Call for Papers and registration. This is all planned to take place later this month - keep an eye on this site! We will let you know when conference.opensuse.org is updated. You can already join our visitors’ mailing list (subscribe).

Want to help with oSC14?

Awesome! Please join our team mailing list (subscribe)and our regular IRC meetings. We can use every helping hand to work the program, the promotion and the local organization. Tasks range from keeping our news outlets up to date over designing artwork to lay cables at the venue. There is so much to do, we need you!

Article written by Svebor and the openSUSE conference team