The Linux Foundation kicked off the 5th Annual Linux Collaboration Summit with four announcements: the formation of the new High Availability working group, the release of the Carrier Grade Linux 5.0 specification, Yocto Project Release 1.0 availability, and the 20th Anniversary Video Contest.

"Project Harmony is like Creative Commons for contributor agreements. We've set out to capture the best practices of free and open source software contributions, across a diverse array of project cultures, communities, and values." said Allison Randal, a community participant in Project Harmony. "The public review process for the Alpha versions of the documents launches today, and runs through May 6th. After a year of hard work by the original ~100 drafting volunteers, we're really looking forward to broader participation in this public review."

"In the face of constant change, both in software technology itself and in people's attitudes toward it, long-term software projects need to reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant. I'm encouraged to see the GNOME community taking up this challenge, responding to the evolving needs of users and questioning the status quo," says Matt Zimmerman, Canonical CTO.

The first Qt Contributors’ Summit is scheduled to be held at the ParkInn Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany on June 16-18, 2011.

The organizers of LinuxFest Northwest 2011 (LFNW) are busy making arrangements for attendees to experience outstanding open source presentations, exhibits, and fun with something for everyone on April 30 and May 1 at the Bellingham (WA) Technical College.

Red Hat today announced Sohaib Abbasi, chairman and SEO of Informatica Corporation will join its Board of Directors and Dr. Steve Albrecht, Professor of Accounting at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, will rejoin the Red Hat Board.

Now in its ninth year, the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) continues to gain ground as its popularity grows throughout the open source community.

The Linux Foundation, today announced the Top Five 2011 Linux.com Linux Gurus, including the Ultimate Linux Guru.