Thursday, 30. November 2006, I found myself in the beautiful city of Soissons, France, as a jury member of the 3rd Trophées du Libre. The contest is organised by the Centre Européen de Transfert et de Recherche en Informatique Libre, the European Free Software Transfer and Research Centre, which is funded from public and private funds to promote Free Software and its commercial adoption.
This year’s patron was Michel Rocard, former French prime minister, current Member of the European Parliament, and one of the most important critics against the introduction of software patents in Europe. If you’re interested in who won, the official press release with the winners of 2006 is online as PDF here.
Personally I think this is a very important event. The Free Software community needs such awards to show appreciation and give support to important Free Software projects. I consider this a very important part of the feedback mechanism in our community, and I very much hope that for the next edition there will be many more applications from all over Europe and the rest of the world.
Some changes on the web page could probably help to make that happen, so could some more communication when the next edition is being started. I’ll keep you updated.
