Some people may wonder why we choose to hold the OpenNMS Users Conference in Europe, specifically Germany. One of the reasons is that we’ve found that folks in Europe tend to both understand free and open source software, as well as appreciating its value.

This is not to say that we don’t love our users in the US, we do, but can anyone see the US government awarding, say, Richard Stallman the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Well, Georg Greve, the founder of the Free Software Foundation Europe, wrote on his blog today that he has been awarded the Cross of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany. It is in recognition of his work toward increasing freedom and independence, and specifically for his work for “Free Software and Open Standards”.

Amazing, huh?

Congratulations to Georg and may this just be a beginning.