The Green IT theme has its definite place at CeBIT 2009, with a true defender. The BITKOM German industry association is launching the Green IT World forum on Tuesday, March 3, in Hannover.

Finally there's a free alternative to the proprietary Flash on the web. Unfortunately, it implements Microsoft technology whose software patents might render the free Moonlight license useless.

The seventh annual Southern California Linux Expo, held February 20-22, included a wide variety of talks on open source projects, system administration, and software development from luminaries in the open source community. This year’s conference was larger than ever and included keynotes from Bradley Kuhn, President of Software Freedom Conservancy, and Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, openSUSE's Community Manager. Kuhn talked about concerns with Software as a Service (a.k.a. the cloud), and Brockmeier discussed ways to improve the reach of an open source project.

Linux.conf.au came to a close Friday after dozens of excellent talks, great social events, and the unexpected shaving of Bdale Garbee for the Tasmanian Devil.

For FOSS fans, there's no better place to be this week than Hobart, state capitol of the Australian state Tasmania. That's where Linux.conf.au 2009 is being held through Saturday, January 24.

Today the One Laptop per Child Project announced that they will be reducing their team by about 50 percent and the remaining 32 team members will have salary reductions.

The open source community doesn't have a fleet of attorneys and PR consultants. When it is time to make the case for free software, you might just have to be the advocate.