Proposta OOoCon

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Invitation

Dear OpenOffice.org Community,

I would like to officially propose Barcelona as the place to hold the OpenOffice.org Conference 2007.

Barcelona is one of the most dynamic and stylish cities in the world. It is always on the biting cutting edge of architecture, food, fashion, style, music and night life. The people, with their exuberance, their creative spirit, and their persistent egalitarianism, are an example of coexistence and integration of cultures. Barcelona today is a city prepared to receive thousands of visitors everyday. It is very well connected, and there is accommodation available to host the whole OpenOffice.org Community and many more. For instance, in addiction, flying to Barcelona from most European countries is very cheap when you book in advance with the appropriate low-cost companies.

The Catalan Native Lang Project is one of the historic projects inside the OpenOffice.org Community. Although small and humble, it’s been here since the very beginning of the OpenOffice.org project, much before the existence of the Native Lang Community. We worked together with Sun in 2000 to translate OpenOffice.org 1.0 into the Catalan language and since then we have continued our work on a volunteer basis for seven years. It is true that we are small team, but we have distributed more than 2 million copies of OpenOffice.org in Catalan for a population of approximately 10 million speakers around the world.

Altogether, the Catalan, Spanish, Basque and Galician communities will work hard to make Barcelona the best place to hold an OpenOffice.org Conference. We hope to hear as many languages as possible here, especially the voices of all those small teams of translators that are the true treasure of the OpenOffice.org Community.

Yours sincerely,

Jesús Corrius

Catalan Native Lang Project Leader

Key Question. Why is your location and the date you propose the best for OOoCon 2007?

  • Location
    • Airports (Barcelona, Reus, Girona) with easy access to international flights and with regular low cost flights.
    • Nice Mediterranean weather and excellent food
    • Strong localization community (based fully on voluntary work)
    • Interest from the local government in free software
    • More than 100 local companies working on free software services and products
    • Lots of cultural activities: museums, modernist buildings.
    • Terrific night life
  • Dates

Location (country, city, conference center/university)

Barcelona, Catalonia(Spain).

At the University of Barcelona in the city center.

Proposed Date(s)

3rd week of September 2007

19/20/21 of September 2007 could be a good date. The attendants could spend the following weekend visiting the city.

NOTE: 11th September is the National Day of Catalonia and the University, as well as most places in the city, is closed.

Team Lead (main contact person)

  • Jesús Corrius (Catalan Native Lang Project Leader / L10N), jesus at softcatala.org

Team Members (all members should be willing and able to commit at least 3 hours per day to planning the conference during the last two weeks before OOoCon 2007)

  • Jesús Corrius, jesus at softcatala.org
  • Ignasi Labastida, University of Barcelona
  • Jordi Mas, jmas at softcatala.org
  • Ismael Fanlo, ifanlo at superalumnos.net
  • Josep Gallart, josepgallart gmail.com
  • Tania De la Paz
  • Toni Hermoso, tonirher at softcatala.org
  • David Poblador, david at nirvanis.org
  • Alberto Barrionuevo, abarrio at EstandaresAbiertos.org (for ODF promotion stuff -active in FFII, ODF Alliance and OpenDocument Fellowship-)
  • Quim Perez i Noguer, noguer at gmail.com
  • Quim Perelló i Miro, quim at gracianet.cat

(Please, add your e-mail address also. We need it to contact you)

Softcatalà (about 10 people, more if needed), Core team of the CA project (about 5 people), staff of the University of Barcelona.

Local events taking place in parallel (or right before/after)

Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations

We recommend that you ensure you remain legal while resident in Spain and do not try to enter the country without the required paperwork. There is a large population of illegal immigrants and this is a politically sensitive issue so there are efforts being made to prevent entry and to find and deport people living illegally in the country.

Visa

Citizens of the European Union are not required to get a visa for Spain since they already have the right to residency.

Non-EU citizens visiting Spain need a visa (visado) in order to enter and visit Spain, unless there exists a special agreement between Spain and your home country; these countries are those of North & South America in addition to:

Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Gibraltar, Grenada, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia and Switzerland.

If you are one of these nationalities, you can enter Spain without a visa and stay for up to 90 days in any 6-month period.

Getting a visa

Visas are managed by the Spanish Ministerio de Asuntos Extranjeros (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) through its consulates and embassies around the world.

You apply for and obtain a visa through the Spanish consulate nearest to your residence before you travel. Honorary consuls generally cannot issue visas but may provide application forms.

Since visas are never issued in Spain, you must apply for them before you leave your country of residency. Do not attempt to enter Spain without a visa if you need one. There is no emergency procedure, you can’t bribe the police, your embassy in Spain can’t help and you will probably be refused entry.

Generally, you should apply for your visa about 8-12 weeks before the date of your arrival in Spain. You must first have a valid passport with at least three months until expiry in order to apply, so be sure to allow adequate time to obtain or renew both the passport and get the visa application processed. Don?t leave this to the last minute or you put your travel plans at risk.

Vaccinations

No vaccinations.

Large local OpenOffice.org deployments (for user keynotes and success stories)

  • LinkAt. Catalan government GNU/Linux distribution for education.
  • GnuLinEx is an initiative of the regional government of Extremadura, Spain. It is already used in all schools in Extremadura, as well as intended for official institutions based on 2006 motion of ODF adoption. It is actively promoted for business, society and home use as well.
  • Guadalinex is an initiative of the regional government of Andalusia, biggest in Spain. It is already used in a big share of schools in Andalusia, as well as intended for official institutions. It is promoted for society at public info-centers (Guadalinfo) at all villages in Andalusia.
  • Lliurex. Valencian government GNU/Linux distribution for education
  • Molinux. Castillan-La Mancha, Spain, government GNU/Linux distribution for education and public health. Already running in all public first level health centers.

Names of local OpenOffice.org developers (for developer sessions)

  • OPS Consulting
  • Jesús Corrius, Softcatalà (Catalan L10N)
  • Iñaki Larrañaga (Basque L10N)
  • Ruben Da Silva (Galician L10N)

Names of local OpenOffice.org vendors/partners (potential sponsors)

Travel costs (e.g. flight costs from the following cities: London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, New York, Hamburg, Dublin, San Francisco, South Africa, Tokyo)

Destination Cost
London 280 euros
Paris 200 euros
Beijing 770 euros
Sydney 900 euros
New York 510 euros
Hamburg 230 euros
Dublin 230 euros
San Francisco 880 Euros
South Africa 700 euros
Tokyo 920 euros

Source: Travelocity

Accommodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)

Here there is a list of diferent accommodation options. All the hotels are near the University where the conference will take place.

Youth hostel

The complete list of youth hostel in Barcelona is available at Youth Hostels in Barcelona

4 stars hotels

ABBA SANTS
Numància, 32
08029 Barcelona
Phone: +34 936003100
http://www.abbahotels.com

AC DIPLOMATIC
Pau Claris, 122
08009 Barcelona
Phone: +34 932723810
http://www.ac-hotels.com

3 stars hotels

Holel ATLANTIS
Pelai, 20
08001 Barcelona
http://www.hotelatlantis-bcn.com

Holel CONTINENTAL BARCELONA
La Rambla, 138
08002 Barcelona
Phone:+34 933012570
http://www.hotelcontinental.com

2 stars hotels

Hotel CATALUÑA
Santa Anna, 24
08002 Barcelona
Phone: +34 933019150

Hotel CONDAL
Boqueria, 23
08002 Barcelona
Telèfon: +34 933181882

Average meal costs

10 euros at lunch time, 15 euros at dinner time (these are the average prices of the city center)

NOTE: The deadline for submissions is 2007-01-31 23:59 UTC.