Melbourne and Hobart in the running for LCA 2008

Melbourne and Hobart have been unveiled as possible host cities for the 2008 Free and Open Source Software conference, linux.conf.au (LCA).

Although interest had been received from other cities, only Melbourne and Hobart submitted their bids by the June 30 deadline, said Linux Australia president, Jon Oxer.

Oxer said linux.conf.au was a great opportunity for cities to showcase local Linux skills.

"Because linux.conf.au is run by a different team each year in a different city, it means there's a lot of scope for injecting a local flavour on the conference," he said. "We don't want a cookie cutter conference that keeps going year after year unchanged; we want flair and enthusiasm."

Oxer said both bids were vying head to head, but added Hobart's small size could lower attendee numbers.

"Even though it's a factor in our decision process, we expect Hobart to attract people in a different way because it's a desirable destination that will attract international and interstate travellers," he said.

The successful applicant will be decided by the Linux Australia Committee on July 31, but Oxer said he wanted as much input from the Linux community as possible to ratify the final decision.

More info can be found at http://linux.org.au/conf/.