Keynotes at LinuxWorld San Francisco To Focus On Emerging Industry Trends; Senior Executives from Stanford Law School, Nationwide, XenSource, Motorola and Intel to discuss virtualization, mobile linux, grid computing and more

Business Wire, June 8, 2006

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- IDG World Expo, the leading producer of world-class tradeshows, conferences and events for technology markets, today announced the keynote speaker line-up for this summer's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo(R), scheduled to take place August 14-17, 2006 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. During their keynote addresses, senior executives from Stanford Law School, Nationwide, XenSource, Motorola and Intel will deliver discussions focusing on key industry trends that have emerged as vital topics to the industry this year, including virtualization, mobile Linux, grid computing and IT reform.

"What's particularly enticing about this year's line-up of keynote addresses is that our speakers represent, and are focusing their discussions on, the very themes that are budding in the industry today," said Melinda Kendall, VP, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. "These are the people who are spearheading the future direction of Linux and open source and can provide real information to enterprise IT professionals who attend LinuxWorld."

Opening Keynoter and Visionary

Kicking things off on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 9:00 a.m., is Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, and founder and chair of Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. Lessig will present a keynote address entitled, "Free Culture: What We Need From You." In this presentation, Professor Lessig will describe the Free Culture movement and the support it needs from Free Software, the struggles and the threats that are largely parallel, and insight into potential solutions.

Lessig is considered a visionary and advocate for intellectual property reform. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications. He is the author of the best-selling book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace as well as Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. IT professionals will learn about the links between open source and free culture, and how the two are inexorably linked.

CIO Keynote

Guru Vasudeva, AVP & Enterprise Chief Architect, Enterprise OCTO, Nationwide, represents an IT executive's perspective, focusing on the emerging trend of virtualization and Linux using real-world deployment experiences in his keynote entitled, "How Nationwide Saved Millions and Simplified its IT Environment."

During 2005 Nationwide, a Fortune 100 insurance and financial services company, embarked on a journey to aggressively exploit virtualization and Linux to address the growing software and data center costs, to simplify the environment, and to significantly improve the provisioning process. Today www.nationwide.com and 10 other mission critical applications run on virtualized Linux environments contributing more than $15 million in savings over the next three years. Guru Vasudeva will share the approach, architecture, and lessons learned from this successful deployment on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 1:30 p.m.

Virtualization Keynotes

Peter Levine, CEO, XenSource, an innovative new software vendor in the virtualization technology market, will deliver a keynote focusing on the emerging trend of Linux and virtualization entitled, "Where Virtualization is Leading Your IT Department." Levine will describe where the market is now, where he sees it going and how XenSource is taking an open source approach in attempting to meet market demand. Hear their story as Levine describes the challenges of the virtualization marketplace, now and in the future. August 17, 2006 at 9:00 a.m.

Mobile Linux Keynote

Greg Besio, Corporate Vice President, Motorola, will deliver a keynote address entitled, "Creating 'Must-Have' Mobile Experiences With Linux," on August 15, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. "Consumers may buy phones because of the way they look, but they keep phones because of their software-driven user experience," said Besio. "And with the wireless value chain increasingly embracing Linux for mobile applications, the opportunities for Linux developers are extensive and steadily growing."

In this presentation, Greg Besio will offer a vision for how Linux developers can participate in, and continue driving next-generation mobile offerings. He will describe the advantages of developing mobile applications for Linux, including the promise of reduced development cycles, addressing ways in which the mobile industry can effectively and productively work with the development community to encourage widespread adoption and the development of mobile applications for Linux.

Grid Computing Keynote

Grid initiatives in open source have become all encompassing. Richard Wirt, General Manager, Software and Solutions Group, Intel, will deliver a keynote entitled, "Grid Computing In The Enterprise" on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. As Grid technology becomes more pervasive in everyday IT, this topic becomes a higher priority for all IT managers, CIO's, and staff. Richard will address current challenges and business solutions for grid computing with an eye towards current and future trends.