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Press Release: February 21, 2006

Kapor and Shuttleworth to Speak at 2006 MySQL Users Conference

Sebastopol, CA--Two well-known software innovators with vastly different open source roots, Mitchell Kapor and Mark Shuttleworth, have been recently added to present keynotes at the 2006 MySQL Users Conference.

Mitchell Kapor is the president and chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded in 2001 to promote the development and acceptance of high-quality application software developed and distributed using open source methods and licenses. He is widely known as founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the "killer application" which made the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. He has been at the forefront of the information technology revolution for a generation as an entrepreneur, investor, social activist, and philanthropist.

For his keynote address at the conference, Kapor will present: "Beyond Open Source: The Future of Collaboration and the New Knowledge Commons." Kapor will call out Wikipedia and other collaborative sites that are creating a new information commons.

Mark Shuttleworth is an African entrepreneur with a love of technology, innovation, and space flight. Shuttleworth founded Thawte, a company specializing in digital certificates and internet privacy. He sold Thawte to VeriSign in 1999, and founded HBD Venture Capital and The Shuttleworth Foundation. In April 2002, Shuttleworth flew in space as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station. In early 2004 he founded the Ubuntu project, which aims to produce a free, high quality desktop OS for everybody. The project brings together the very best of the open source software stack, and has resulted in the creation of a number of unique tools for open source software developers, such as the Bzr revision control system and Launchpad.net. Sub-projects include specialized desktop environments for schools and for the needs of people in specific countries or industries, such as Edubuntu and Kubuntu.

In his conference keynote, Shuttleworth will discuss the goals and governance of the Ubuntu project. One of those goals is to increase the efficiency of collaboration between the hundreds of free software projects that define the GNU/Linux platform and upon which Ubuntu is based. Shuttleworth will explore the tools and emerging technologies that are accelerating the exchange of information between developers and contributors in the free software space.

As MySQL Users Conference program chair Arjen Lentz points out, "These men are software industry icons, and both are putting their energy and own money into furthering open source projects. We're looking forward to hearing them share their insights on the future of FOSS as it takes on traditional proprietary software."

Kapor and Shuttleworth join a growing list of speakers that illustrate MySQL's global reach. Fellow keynote speakers include Milton Ngan of Weta Digital, a New Zealand visual effects facility that won an Academy Award for "The Lord of the Rings"; Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media; and a number of MySQL open source and database experts.

MySQL AB is once again teaming up with O'Reilly Media to co-present the 2006 event. The theme for this year's conference is "Discover. Connect. Succeed. Scale Your Business with MySQL." The conference brings over 1,000 MySQL and open source enthusiasts together in Santa Clara, California on April 24-27. Early registration pricing is in effect until March 6.

The MySQL Users Conference features a wide range of tutorials and sessions, giving attendees new perspectives of the MySQL universe: from an overview of the latest business and product developments, to an in-depth examination of cost-effective database scale-out, performance optimization, high-availability, and other advanced uses of MySQL. Topics include: DBA and security; architecture and technology; business intelligence; Data Warehousing; LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python); Java, .NET/Mono, and MaxDB; migration; community projects; and much more.

In addition to informative and inspiring presentations, the conference will feature an expanded exhibit hall to showcase the latest MySQL-related technologies from sponsors such as Four J's, GoldenGate, Actuate, BusinessObjects, Continuent, Dolphin, JasperSoft, Novell, Pentaho, Rackspace, Red Hat, SugarCRM, Sun Microsystems, SCO, Zmanda, and vendors and open source projects. MySQL Certification will once again be an important component of the conference and attendees will have opportunities to become certified in several different core topics. Special evening events for attendees and speakers are also planned to foster networking and fun.

The annual MySQL Users Conference is an unmatched opportunity for developers, DBAs, users, and partners to gather together and learn the latest MySQL and open source technology from experts and visionaries who are successfully employing MySQL in the real world. The conference illustrates the product's wide-ranging appeal and capabilities, encouraging community members to help create the best database software, gain knowledge, develop tools, and build applications that help grow businesses and nurture individual skills. Celebrate the people, projects, and products that comprise the global MySQL ecosystem at the 2006 MySQL Users Conference.

Additional Resources:

  • Complete conference details
  • For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at O'Reilly conferences, contact Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or [email protected]

    To become a media sponsor, contact Yvonne Romaine at (707) 827-7198, or [email protected]

  • Details of the 2005 MySQL
  • News articles, blogs, announcements, and photos (available for use with attribution) from the 2005 conference
  • More information about O'Reilly conferences
  • About MySQL
    MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high performance, affordable database products -- including MySQL Network, a comprehensive set of certified software and premium support services. The company's flagship product is MySQL, the world's most popular open source database, with more than 8 million active installations. Many of the world's largest organizations, including Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and NASA are realizing significant cost savings by using MySQL to power high-volume Web sites, business-critical enterprise applications and packaged software.

    With headquarters in Sweden and the United States -- and operations around the world -- MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate customers' needs in a profitable, sustainable business. For more information about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com.

    About O’Reilly

    O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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