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Orvieto, Italy

Proposal for OOoCon 2008




Key Question

In 400 words or less, answer this question: Why is your location and the date you propose the best for OOoCon 2008?

The city of Orvieto, with its 21,000 inhabitants, is one of the most charming cities of art in Italy. Located in Umbria, in the heart of Italy, it's 100 km far from Rome and 140 km from Florence and easy to reach by plane, train and car.

It is a center for courses leading to university degrees (Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), post-graduate courses (Architecture, Health Psychology, Archaeology), as well as specialization courses of prestigious Italian universities.

The plateau with its tufa cliff walls defines the area of the historical center of Orvieto – a stupendous palimpsest of Etruscan, Medieval and Renaissance structures. The city is known for its efficient congress facilities and a qualified service network for hospitality. Restaurants, wine and champagne bars and pubs offer a variety of the fine wines and foods for which Orvieto is famous. These features together with the intact environment, pleasant climate and a system of alternative mobility make the city ideal for meetings, seminars and study days of all kinds.

Not by chance Orvieto, world capital of good living (“Cittaslow”), has hosted important national and international appointments: Slow Food World Congress, Hydrogencities foundation (with J. Rifkin) and it is site of prestigious cultural events during the year which include Umbria Jazz Winter, Barzini Award for the special correspondent (in collaboration with the Corriere della Sera), the International Award for Human Rights, outstanding Art exhibits, Conventions and post-graduate studies of American universities.

The political-administrative context is particularly favorable for the diffusion of open source culture. Umbria – the region in which Orvieto is located – was one of the first Italian regions to approve a law on “informatics pluralism” and to have instituted (L.R. n. 11 of 2006) a Center of Competence on Open Source that works to favor the introduction of open source software in the Public Administration and in the schools. This year 80 projects will be financed, 60 of which plan for the introduction of OpenOffice.org in the local institutions, 4 are projects from Orvieto.

The Municipal Administration totally supports the candidature of Orvieto as an OOoCon2008 center, already translated into precise commitments for logistic and organizational collaboration.

We would like to introduce some changes with the OOoCon2008. The most important is to hold an Italian session, in parallel with the normal international ones, in order to attract more people from our country and promote the OOo adoption.

Mandatory Information

Location (country, city, conference center/university)

Two structures are at disposal for the organization: The Palazzo del Popolo Conference Centre and the Palazzo dei Sette. They are both located in the heart of the city, within walking distance from the main hotels. They are all equipped with wireless-lan (for each participant), amplification systems, audiovisual systems for projection and recording, teleconferencing systems.

Every speech will be recorded in audio and video and a videostreaming service for the OOoCon will be setup.

Several rooms will be available for public and private group meetings.

Structures are close together and located in the city center where people can walk around and enjoy several pubs, restaurants and shops available.

Proposed Date(s)

October 1-2-3, 2008

Team Lead (main contact person)

Diego Frascati – OrvietoLUG and Davide Dozza (Associazione PLIO)

Team Members

Event Organisation Team

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

SMAU International Exhibition of Information & communication technology October 15-18

Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations

Italy is part of the Schengen Agreement. People traveling from outside of Schengen Area have to verify if they need a visa.

Optional Information

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

As the OOo adoption in Italy is a bottom-up process, the small organizations are the most active in OOo migrations. Anyway several regions are migrating to OOo (e.g. Regione Toscana, Regione Umbria) and many others smaller PA (municipalities).

Interesting experience is the Chamber of Deputies which are migrating to OOo and Desktop Linux.

Another interesting experience is the COSPA Project which director, prof. Succi, kept a presentation as keynote speaker at OooCon2005.

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

Paolo Mantovani and Giuseppe Castagno are the best known developers in Italian community. Anyway we don't exclude the participation of other people.

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

Travel costs

By plane

Low cost flights landing at Roma Fiumicino and Roma Ciampino are also available. International Airport Leonardo da Vinci (Rome Fiumicino) is about 130 km far from Orvieto. From Fiumicino Airport, Trains “Leonardo Express” run every day, every 30 minutes from 6:37 a.m. to 11:37 p.m. and take you directly to the Roma Termini Train Station in 35 minutes. Ciampino Airport is about 150 km from Orvieto. From the airport buses take you directly to the Roma Ciampino train station. From here take a train to Roma Termini.

Orvieto is very easy to reach by train from Rome. For more information, please visit the website http://www.adr.it.

To facilitate SUN's OpenOffice.org developers and other groups: Bus transfers from meeting points (i.e. Fiumicino airport and Ciampino airport) to Orvieto will be organized.

Flight rates (in Euros): London – Rome - London: From 117,15; Paris – Rome - Paris: From 135,98; Hamburg – Rome - Hamburg: From 173,90; Beijing – Rome - Beijing: From 760,23; Sydney – Rome - Sydney: From 1368,04; New York – Rome – New York: From 625,79; Dublin – Rome - Dublin: From 173,90; San Francisco – Rome – San Francisco: From 822,91; Cape Town – Rome – Cape Town: From 648,64; Tokyo – Rome – Tokyo: From 1076,81.

By Train

From Roma Termini Station (direction Florence) a train each hour.
Trip duration: around 1 hour.
From Florence (direction Rome) a train each hour.
Trip duration: around 1 hour and half, two hours.
For more information and for the train schedules please visit the website http://www.trenitalia.com.

By car

Orvieto is located quite at the same distance from Florence and Rome on the the A1 Highway. From South, take the A1 highway Florence direction and from North, take the A1 Highway Rome Direction. Orvieto exit is about 4 km from the city centre.

Accomodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)

Hotel and B&B accommodation: from 25 to 70 euros (special prices for the participants).

Special conditions and discounts, for all the participants are available for various types of services.

Supplementary Information

The Call for Location states: user feedback from previous conferences suggest that the ideal location will:

  • have a strong local OpenOffice.org community
  • attract strong sponsor support
  • have a low-cost/free conference centre with conference venues close together
  • have facilities where people can pass the time, socialise, and mingle with other conference delegates close to the conference building(s)
  • have a range of low-cost accomodation with easy/cheap transport to the conference location
  • attract the largest number of community contributers
  • facilitate the attendance of a large number of Sun's OpenOffice.org developers (who are in Hamburg, Germany)
  • be accessible by cheap flight and train tickets
  • be aligned with a large IT event (e.g. CeBIT, Systems, Comdex)
  • provide low-cost broadband Internet access (e.g. wireless LAN in the rooms)
  • allow for video and audio streaming (e.g. via the support of a company)

Conference Rooms

Palazzo del Popolo (Centro Congressi)


Palazzo dei sette

  • seats up to 100 people

  • size 13 x 9 mt

  • seats up to 100 people

  • size 12,5 x 10 mt

  • seats up to 120 people

  • size 16 x 7 mt

  • loc. Second floor

Conference Fee

Both the structure (Palazzo del Popolo – 1700 Euro / day, Palazzo dei Sette – 1500 Euro / day) will be placed at the Conference disposal by the Comune of Orvieto (City Hall) for free.

The participation will be free (as in freedom) and free (as in beer).

Local Organization

Local OOo Community

The local OOo Community is structured as a registered, non-profit organization that allows to receive contributions both from private and public entities. Volunteers are involved in several activities for the Italian OOo community from support to evangelization. The community organizes an annual conference on OOo in Italian, and participates in dozens of events around the country. Only in 2007 we had about 1.8 million of downloads.

Free time activities

Some events will be arranged during the conference:

More Info

As for OOoCon 2005, parts of funds left after the conference will be donated to associations arranging the conference and the rest will be donated to the next OOoCon organizers.

Attachments

A copy of the proposal in ODF

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