In a world of Google Mail, Facebook, Twitter and smartphones, your contact information, photos, e-mails and more are becoming more and more distributed. Proprietary formats and EULAs (end user license agreements) are no longer acceptable reasons not to own and control what is yours - namely, your data, says Juergen Geck, chief technology officer of German company Open-Xchange, a provider of business-class open source collaboration software.

Geck will be speaking Thursday, August 12 in Boston at the open source show LinuxCon.

"I want my addresses in my business life to be separate from the addresses of my family or my kids day care," says Geck. "But I need them to come together on my mobile phone. I want my calendar events defining when and where I am going to watch after my kids separated from appointments with business partners. But again, I want them to converge on my mobile phone, and on my computer."

Geck is responsible for continued development and communication of the company's technology strategies. He brings a distinguished background in open source and technology management to Open-Xchange. Before Geck joined Open-Xchange, he spent 10 years with SUSE Linux as vice president Technology Partners and CTO. He was instrumental in designing SUSE's flagship SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and its maintenance model, enabling the first enterprise Linux offering in the market. Geck is also one of the founders of Eclipse.org. He holds a masters degree in production engineering from the University of Erlangen, Germany.

About LinuxCon

LinuxCon is the industry's premiere Linux conference. It's North America's annual technical conference that provides an unmatched collaboration and education space for all matters Linux. LinuxCon brings together the best and brightest that the Linux community has to  offer, including core developers, administrators, end users, business executives and operations experts - the best technical talent and the decision makers and industry experts who are involved in the Linux community.

About Open-Xchange

Open-Xchange is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source e-mail and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions, and government authorities. The company provides on-premises versions called Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Appliance Edition, along with Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, which enables web hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is architected to integrate into a hosting provider's existing infrastructure, such as authentication, provisioning, billing, and e-mail storage and does not require that these systems be replaced. Open-Xchange AG is a privately-held company headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany with offices in Olpe, Germany and Tarrytown, N.Y. For more information, visit www.open-xchange.com.