Are you excited about fisl 10th edition? We are! The International Free Software Forum happens every year in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Celebrating a decade of the event, this year will be particularly special. For those who still don’t know, fisl is the oldest free software event in Latin America, happening this year between June 24-27. Registrations are open already and the earlier you do it the less you will pay! Applications for presentations/talks are open until April 26th and the results will be announced on May 25th.

The organizers just published on their blog the 14 international attractions confirmed so far (international from the Brazilian point of view). One of the most important names is Peter Sunde, co-founder of Pirate Bay. Their trial is related to the Azeredo internet law (1, 2) and the on-going discussion in Brazil about internet laws and ‘cultura livre’, which means ‘free culture’ (free as in freedom). And, yes, Stallman is going too.

The founder of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project), Jim McQuillan and Scott Balneaves who develops LTSP packages for Ubuntu will participate as well. LTSP is pretty much the base for digital inclusion and computer recycling in Brazil for programs like GESAC and Cultura Digital which have created over three thousand computers labs around the country.

Another international attraction is John “Maddog” Hall, who says that fisl is the biggest community event for free software on the planet. Other names in the list are: Seth Schoen - a technologist from EFF who has been directly involved in the discussion about copyright law and encryption since 1990; Daniel Baumann - from Debian; Leslie Hawthorn - responsible for Summer of Code and Google Open Source blog. And this is all just the international attractions part of fisl, there are also workshops, a showroom, local attractions, meeting FOSS community folks from all around the world and lots of parties! This will surely be just the first of a number of news items we’ll post about fisl10 … thinking about a trip to Brazil and participating in 10 years of celebration with fisl? Yeah, we are, too!