*Free and Open Source Software* has come a long way since its inception
and while we're celebrating *SFD for the twelth time*, the FSF
<http://www.fsf.org> is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Every software
company now tends to use Free and Open Source Software but unfortunately
that has just set the Software more as a commodity with very little
benefit for advocacy, education or awareness. And so, in a world with
Free Software used almost everywhere very few people notice or even care.
Software Freedom Day <http://www.softwarefreedomday.org> is here to tell
people why we need to remind ourselves of the importance of Software
Freedom and to *get all the communities together to celebrate* and
introduce their philosophy to newcomers. Probably more than ever we need
to go out and demonstrate the great many things that *Free Software has
done and enables everyone to do*.
As usual events are listed on the SFD Map
<http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/map/index.php?year=2015> and should
there be no event in your area you can always get together and run one
in the upcoming few weeks. On top of all the good things Free Software
brings we would also like to remind people that a good way to get
started can be through Outreachy, a remote internships in Free and Open
Source Software <http://www.outreachy.org> open to everyone regardless
of their origins or differences. The *next round of internships is from
December 7 to March 7* with applications *deadline on November 2*. This
is of course ideal for students in the south hemisphere as the program
requires you to be available 40 hours a week but also for anyone either
looking for a career change or applies what he/she has learned in a real
software environment.
With all these years of experience we are sure your events will shine.
And if you're a little short of ideas you can always refer to our
resources. <http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Resources> One of note
could be the latest Blender movie released end of August
<https://gooseberry.blender.org/> maybe followed by a discussion of how
the Blender Foundation has been so successful over the years.
Finally we would like to *thank all the people making SFD possible* and
that is *our sponsors* like the Google Open Source Programs Office
<https://developers.google.com/open-source/>, Linode
<http://www.linode.com>, the Free Software Foundation
<http://www.fsf.org> and our various *supporters in the media and
community arena*. But of course *more importantly all the various Free
Software communities* from Google Developer Groups to Free Software
Groups, GNU/Linux User Groups and the various universities interested in
Free Software among them.
So, *Happy Software Freedom Day to all of you!
*
*Digital Freedom Foundation.
*
