The organisers of Software Freedom Day have been discussing making some
changes to the supplies we will be making available to SFD teams this year.
Last year we helped Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, send shipments of
Ubuntu CDs to teams, and teams once again have the opportunity to request
Ubuntu CDs when they register this year. We have also been intending this
year to ship copies of The Open CD ( http://theopencd.org/), which was
supplied to teams in 2005 - and when teams register this year, they are
offered the opportunity to specify how many of The Open CD they would like
to receive.
However, for various reasons we would like to avoid shipping The Open CD
this year. The major reason is cost: although the cost per team might only
be US$10 or US$15, when you have hundreds of teams registered that becomes a
lot of money. Software Freedom International (the organisation behind SFD)
has very limited funds and we believe this is not an effective use of those
funds.
What we are proposing instead is to send teams
1. One CD or DVD containing open source documentaries, interviews, music and
any other open resources we can get hold of
2. A single copy of The Open CD, which can be replicated by teams if they
wish to distribute this software
3. ...as well as the usual T-shirts and a few other little items!
Another part of the reason for this proposed change is to make available to
teams (including teams in parts of the world where internet connectivity is
not great) a set of resources that can be used to convey the message of
software freedom (for example, interviews with some leaders in the FLOSS
world). These resources could then also be used to put together your own
documentary or shown at other software freedom events you may plan ( e.g.
for a campus fair at your college, or an IT exhibition).
Before making this change, we wanted to hear feedback from you, the team
leaders and FLOSS enthusiasts from around the world. So please do get in
touch with us to let us know what you think (about this change, and about
our proposed team supplies) and ask any questions you may have. You can
either chat with other SFD participants on the SFD-discuss mailing list (you
need to be a member: join at
http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss) or you can send your
comments/questions direct to the SFI board at info(a)sf-day.org. We are
specifically interested in
1. suggestions for resources to be put on the CD/DVD (which must be under an
open license).
2. whether your team would have a problem using a DVD and you'd prefer a CD.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Robert.
PS - Three months left to go before SFD! How are your preparations going?
