Hi team leaders and other SFD enthusiasts,
I hope you all had a good Software Freedom Day, and managed to spread the
message. After months of navigating towards 15 September via my computer
screen and a few telephone calls, it felt really good to be out on the
street, talking to people and telling them about how software freedom
affects them. And we had a lovely sunny day in Cambridge too!
We'd like to hear about how your SFD 2007 event went, in particular with
respect to
* (approximately) how many members of the public were reached through your
event
* how many team members were involved in running your event - both
beforehand and on the day
* how many hours your event lasted
* how many Ubuntu CDs you handed out
Head over to http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/event_report.html and fill in
a few little pieces of information. You'll need to fill in the same email
address that you originally used to register your SFD team. Thanks for
taking the time to help us out with this - and don't forget that, aside from
the information we're looking for here, you're also welcome to write a bit
more about your event and post some photos on your team's wiki page.
By visiting our reporting page, you will also get the chance to let us have
any feedback regarding how you think SFD has gone, and what could be done to
make it even bigger and better next year.
Don't forget that there are also some "One Laptop Per Child" laptops
available to win in our competition [1] - so don't forget to gather any news
reports about your event and put together a good set of photos for us to
look at! More details about the competition will be in a later email.
Thanks to all the teams for making SFD 2007 the biggest yet!
Robert
Software Freedom International
[1] Note that information submitted for our reporting purposes will not used
in judging the competition.
Dear SFD teams,
Software Freedom Day 2007 is almost upon us, and there's just enough time
for us to get in a last "Thank you!" and "Good luck!". From all of us here
at SFI central, we hope you have a great day and reach out with the message
of software freedom to as many people as you can.
In order to achieve a measure of the global impact of Software Freedom Day,
we'd very much appreciate if you could try to keep track of the following
data for your event:
* (approximately) how many members of the public were reached through your
event
* how many team members were involved in running your event - both
beforehand and on the day
* how many hours your event lasted
* how many Ubuntu and Open CDs you handed out
We'll publish details of how to submit this information within the next few
days.
Thanks to the efforts and participation of all our teams, we've had an
unprecedented response to Software Freedom Day this year:
* new sponsors Google, MindTouch, Zenoss and the Free Software Foundation
have joined our long-standing supporters, Canonical/Ubuntu and the Danish
Unix User Group
* we currently have 320 teams registered, up from just under 200 last year
* we've had a full-page advert in the Linux Magazine
* with help from ZacWare we were able to operate an online shop for CDs and
SFD T-shirts this year
* the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has come on board by offering
"$100 laptops" as prizes for our competition
* IOSN, a UN-affiliated project, has supported our activities in Asia
* we've been listed on digg.com [1] and slashdot.org [2]
* ...and as a result of all this, we're now receiving over 3000 hits on our
website every day
And one last reminder, to turn all of these positives into a great SFD:
please take a look at the Code of Conduct [3], and make your team members
aware of this code - this helps us to set the ground rules and present a
positive image of Software Freedom to the public. Also keep in mind some of
the Dos and Don'ts listed in our Start Guide:
# DO present the capabilities and practical benefits of FOSS.
# DO NOT pretend that FOSS is perfect for everyone or everything.
# DO have the ability to present FOSS ideology clearly and concisely to
interested people.
# DO NOT beat uninterested people over the head with ideology; this will
confuse and intimidate them. Instead...
# DO let the quality of the software speak for itself and its ideology.
# DO have demo machines present if possible.
# DO your best to connect people with a local FOSS community.
# DO provide contact information for your SFD team so people can
subsequently contact you for more information.
# DO get contact information from interested and willing people, so you can
proactively follow-up with them later.
# DO proactively follow-up with people who attend your SFD event.
# DO find and cooperate with other SFD teams in your area.
# DO start other SFD teams in your area - this is cooperation, not
competition!
# DO NOT -- seriously -- DO NOT bash Microsoft or SCO or any other false
Great Satan. Software Freedom Day is not about any individual companies or
people; Software Freedom Day is a positive community celebration of Software
Freedom.
Lastly, we'd just like to let those teams that registered in time to receive
team supplies know about the status of their supplies. Many of you have
already received (in separate shipments) your Ubuntu and Open CDs, SFD
T-shirts, and a small pack of stickers and balloons. We have been made aware
of some problems outside our control with shirt and CD shipments (notably
customs duties: the nine CD shipments for which payment was requested from
us totalled almost US$1000 in taxes!), as well as a few addresses that were
incorrect and thus could not be delivered. The vast majority of shipments
have however reached their destinations in time. If your team is one of
those that has not received your supplies, we hope that you will still have
a great Software Freedom Day!
Good luck, and thanks for making SFD2007 our biggest and best event yet.
Robert.
Board member, Software Freedom International
[1] http://digg.com/linux_unix/15_September_is_Software_Freedom_Day
[2] http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=286933
[3] http://softwarefreedomday.org/CodeOfConduct
