Programme Co-Chairs:

David Jacovkis (Free Knowledge Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Dragoslava Pefeva (Internet Society Bulgaria)

Submissions closed.

The Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference (FKFT) is the first international event which will centre on the production and sharing of educational and training materials in the field of Free Software and Open Standards. The FKFT 2008 Conference will bring together around 500 people from different continents including government representatives, school and university teachers, IT companies, publishers, and NGO's. By gathering together people from all these groups, we aim to stimulate both present and future collaboration between diverse disciplines, sectors and countries, through the medium of free software programs and the sharing of successful experiences related to free software and free technologies.

The Free Knowledge Institute and the SELF Consortium (Internet Society Netherlands, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Free Software Foundation Europe, Goteburg University, Internet Society Bulgaria, Fundacion Via Libre and Tata Institute for Fundamental Research) are preparing the conference and aim to build strong relationships between attendees. The conference partners recognise the vital importance of the collaborative creation and sharing of free educational and training materials on Free Software and Open Standards. Our conference host is the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Topics

Original papers, surveys, and presentations on all aspects of Free Software and Education are invited. Submissions must have a strong and visible bearing on the main topics, but can be interdisciplinary in nature and need not be exclusively concerned with Free Software. We welcome full academic papers, opinion pieces, review pieces, artistic, and audio-visual submissions. Possible topics for submission to the various sessions include, but are not limited to:

1. Free Software and Free Technologies in society:

• Social implications of Free Knowledge and Free Technologies
• Who creates Free Knowledge?
• Quality assessment in collaborative authoring systems
• Legal issues of Free Knowledge
• The economy of Free Knowledge and Free Technologies

2. Free Knowledge and Free Technologies in public bodies

3. Educating in Freedom:

• Technological aspects of e-learning
• Introducing the SELF Platform
• Training Free Technologies advocates

4. Showcase educational materials in one of the following topics:

• Introduction to Free Software and Open Standards
• Operating systems
• Office tools
• Educational tools
• ERP
• VoIP

Participants are encouraged to prepare Workshops and Train-the-trainer practical sessions introduced by a short talk in any of these topics. For oral communications, case studies and success stories will be favored for acceptance.

Submission Instructions

Proposals must be submitted before April 30 2008. They will consist on a short abstract of the work, no longer than 1.000 words. Acceptance of the proposals will be communicated to authors not later than 15 May 2008.

On acceptance of the proposal, authors will be required to submit a communication before June 15 2008. Oral communication proposals will be between 1.500 and 3.500 words, while Workshops and Train-the-trainer sessions will have a shorter introduction (between 500 and 1.500 words) and can be accompanied by slides or other visual material.

Accepted formats are Open Document, PDF and plain text. Communications must be presented in English.

Submission Preparation Checklist

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another conference for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Director).
2. The submission is in Open Document, PDF or plain text format.
3. All URL addresses in the text (e.g., http://www.fkft.eu/) are activated and ready to click.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

Hand in your proposal

Proposals must be submitted by e-mail to submissions[AT]fkft.eu with the following subject line:

Proposal: title_of_your_proposal 

Please include the following in the body your message:

• Name
• Affiliation
• Country
• Abstract (maximum 1.000 words)

Programme Committee:

Beatriz Busaniche, Fundacion Via Libre, Argentina
Shane M. Couglan, Freedom Task Force, FSFE
Susan D'Antoni (pending confirmation), UNESCO-IIEP
Steven Downes, National Research Counsil, Institute for Information Technology, Canada
Nagarjuna G., Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, India
Georg Greve, Free Software Foundation Europe
Federico Heinz, Fundacion Via Libre, Argentina
Masayuki Ida, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
Mathias Klang, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Rafael Macau, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain

Contact & additional information

Conference information
Organising team
For Papers
For Registration
For Sponsorship

Contact General co-Chairs:

David Megias, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Tel: (+34) 933 263 735
Fax: (+34) 933 568 822
dmegias[AT]uoc.edu

Wouter Tebbens, Free Knowledge Institute
Tel: (+31) 20 8910 319
Fax: (+31) 877 844 107
wouter[at]freeknowledge.eu

Submissions closed.