On 9 and 10 July, Plovdiv hosts for a third time the TuxCon conference that highlights open-source software and hardware technology. The topics that will be discussed during the event will be diverse, with part of them addressing professionals from the IT industry. Lectures for amateurs are planned too. However TuxCon will not be confined to theory. The conference's second day will offer a few workshops where participants are welcome to test their skills on a range of software and hardware products.

Stoyan Germanov, one of the organizers of TuxCon says more about the event's program:

 „We are going to open the conference with a brief presentation of the dynamic Java Robotics focused on Java code writing for robots. Jitsi Meet will be presented as well - it is an open-source technology for communication similar to Skype but created by a fully Bulgarian team. We are going to discuss security. Later during the event we have a British guest, Roland Burger, who has developed an educational project - it teaches children and pupils what hardware is and how computers operate. The conference offers a section about anti que computers made in Bulgaria, like Puldin that was created in Plovdiv in 1980s. Edmund Humenberger from Austria is going to talk about FPGA, a kind of processor technology. And there is something curious: using a mono camera we are going to look for 3D coordinates and will acquaint the audience with the OpenSCAD painting program. We shall also present the potential of the open source code in a corporate environment and the function of Аrduino to recognize voices. Finally there is some time left for the people who would like to present their ideas or apps. The second day is lined up with hardware workshops. The participants will see a mainboard with FPGA which will be launched soon on the Bulgarian market, plus a robotized hand.” 

The TuxCon conference is with free admission. It is organized by volunteers and is financed by sponsors and donations. Stoyan Germanov tells us how the project started:

„The idea to share knowledge and the will to develop open source technology was getting more and more popular. A few similar events were held in Plovdiv five or six years ago that inspired us. So we decided to start an event that would uniquely offer a strong accent on open source plus workshops on themes discussed. I think the event is getting better by the year. It is based on the voluntary principle. Anybody who wants to present something new and interesting on the topic is welcome. In a bid to have legal substance we set up an NGO last year and we can now benefit from financial support because there are companies who want this conference to develop in the years to come.” 

TuxCon has a YouTube channel where the lectures of speakers who have not been able to attend the conference are uploaded.

Recently legislation has been amended and as a result the contractors in public procurement are obligated to publish for free access the source codes of all programs paid for by the budget. According to experts in IT the step is correct because once taxpayers pay for them they are entitled to free access to source codes. This is a key tool to fight corruption in IT sector procurement tenders.

English Daniela Konstantinova