Hello Open Minds: Vienna is celebrating Open Source

Publication date: September 14, 2017

By Nico Grienauer, Austrian CodeEU Ambassador, Drupal-Austria Deputy Chairman, Founder acolono GmbH

Austrian Open Communities are joining forces to award projects and create a new public stage for technology, collaboration and innovation.

An Open Source award, during an Open Source conference, at an Open Source Ball: on September 26th the Mumok Hofstallung Vienna will be hosting the first Open Minds Award ceremony.

Open Source is an economic big player, driving innovation and as technological site, Austria has a vivid Open Source community. Started by Austria’s Open Source associations, the OMA is an Austrian Open Source award for contributions to Open Software, Open Hardware and Open Data. It is meant to bring Open Source projects and those who created or contributed to them into the limelight.

Many developers work on innovative products, publishing them under an open source license and thus creating added value for the general public. Despite often being well known and appreciated internationally and in their own community, the people behind Open Source and their contributions often remain unknown to the Austrian public. The OMA, which is to be awarded yearly from now on, seeks to change that. Nominees can win an OMA for Open Software, Open Hardware and Open Data.

Moreover, there are three special categories.

Open Source subsists by inspiring young minds, so the special Youth OMA will be awarded to a project by a developer under 19 years old. The Diversity OMA will go to a project that encourages and fosters diversity. Last but not least, the third special OMA will go to a Drupal project.

Following the award ceremony, the open source communities are invited to the first open source ball under the motto „Alles Open – Alles Walzer“. Complete with red (actually, blue) carpet, Ballspende (traditional gift received at the beginning of a ball), and midnight Quadrille, the ball is an opportunity for the open communities to intermingle, network and celebrate together. At the same time it serves as the official Community party for DrupalCon, the open source php framework Drupal’s big, yearly European event. More than 2000 people from over 200 countries are expected to attend Drupalcon Vienna.