The 2002 Independent Software Developers Forum's (ISDEF) annual conference will be held in the Research Center of Russian Academy of Sciences Chernogolovka.

Chernogolovka, a small, cozy, picturesque town located 30 miles northest of Moscow, is the site of one of the most well-known centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The scientific center of the Academy of Sciences began to develop in the mid-fifties, unifying various institutes. The idea of locating several mutually complementary scientific research institutions together outside of a big city stemmed from the very character of development of modern science, which is complex and requires the unified efforts of teams of scientists, engineers, and technicians with different specializations.

The scientific center in Chernogolovka was not originally planned as a unified urban development. Appearing in 1956 as a suburban experimental branch of the Moscow Institute of Chemical Physics, the scientific center was joined by other institutes. Now it is a complex of scientific establishments of the Russian Academy of Sciences; these are mainly physical and physicochemical institutes with a well-equipped experimental base.

The reduction in government support of science and the development of market-style relationships in Russia in the late eighties and early nineties have stimulated Chernogolovka's private sector and pushed the academic institutions to reorganize in order to accelerate the movement of scientific developments into production.

There are already more than 300 different associations, stock- issuing companies, and individual private enterprises in town; a few enterprises have been formed with the participation of foreign capital. Branches of commercial banks, insurance companies, and investment funds all operate here. More than 100 firms aggressively operate here, turning over more than a billion rubles per month. Scientific and technological research has been partially commercialized, dozens of commercial and consulting enterprises of a scientific-technical character have been formed, and contacts have been established with foreign firms. At the present time, a series of joint companies based on unique technological developments and methods have been formed with western firms.

The greatest potential for making this town prosperous lies in high technology, and production based on it is the key to the town's future. The physical location of the scientific center, its intellectual potential, social composition, and features of the system for administering public property make Chernogolovka one of the most promising places for realizing a modern model of organization, that is, an economical mechanism for driving innovative processes. The main problem of the present period is preserving and putting to commercial use the intellectual potential of the scientific center, as well as creating a powerful technological team in Chernogolovka.

Solution of this problem assumes the formation of specialized financial, consulting, and informational institutions. These include scientific and venture funds in combination with expert advice, banks, investment and insurance companies, licensing companies, a reliable system of telecommunications, legal and consulting firms for the support of entrepreneurial activities, and a system of modern hotel service.