The keynote speakers for OSCON 2004 embody open source's diversity and its adoption into the enterprise: Freeman, Esther, and George Dyson praise the concept of "open thinking"; AT&T Wireless' Robert Lefkowitz deconstructs the semasiology of open source; Milton Ngan of Weta Digital wraps up his LOTR keynote trilogy; Novell's Vice Chairman Chris Stone talks about making open source a mainstream reality; Bdale Garbee, Linux CTO of HP, delves into the continuing importance of community development; and Tim O'Reilly outlines new trends creeping onto his radar.

By day, other OSCON stalwarts such as Damian Conway, Guido van Rossum, Monty Widenius, Eric Raymond, Theodore Ts'o, and Mitchell Kapor lead convention sessions and panels focusing on Linux, PHP, Python, Perl, Apache, XML, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Security (new this year), Emerging Topics, Java, and Ruby. At night, event plans include:

- An SCO Moot Court, organized by UC Berkeley law professor Pam Samuelson and Groklaw founder Pamela Jones
- NASA's Jeff Norris sharing how open source software played a major role in operating the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers, illustrated with pictures and anecdotes
- Larry Wall's perennial "State of the Onion" address
- A talk by Paul Graham, author of the upcoming "Hackers & Painters"
- A sprinkling of award presentations, including the first-ever Open Source Awards presented by the Open Source Initiative and ZDNet
- Receptions with authors, both at the convention and at Portland's inimitable Powell's Books