- SFD-announce - lists.mailman3.com

SFD 2008 - competition deadline extended

by Robert Schumann

Hi SFD'ers, We have extended the deadline for competition entries by one week - the new deadline is 27 October 2008. A quick reminder: we have an event reporting webpage ( http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/event_report.html) where team leaders can tell us about their event, and by ticking a box you can enter your team report for consideration in our SFD competition. If your SFD event is judged to be one of the top events, we will send you a pair of OLPC laptops for your efforts! Remember, email reports sent to the mailing list don't count, you'll need to enter the information on the webpage. If you have any questions, please email us at info(a)sf-day.org. The information you submit with your competition entry will be used to help us work out how far Software Freedom Day has come since the first celebration in 2004, and to let our partners and team leaders know how we're performing. Thanks in anticipation of your reports, and good luck with your competition entries! Robert Vice President, Software Freedom International

Oct. 20, 2008

SFD is just around the corner!

by Robert Schumann

Attention all team leaders for SFD 2008: amongst all your preparations for Saturday, don't forget to make sure you've got your digital camera, and make sure you keep a rough count of the numbers of people you're interacting with! The camera will be particularly important for your SFD competition entry <http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2008>. Similar to last year, we have an event reporting webpage<http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/event_report.html>(which has gone live today) at which you'll be able to tell us about your event - some of the basic info like * how many team members contributed to the event * how many members of the public your event reached * how many CDs you gave away * how long your event lasted * in addition, this year we'd like to hear whether you got any local support, either from businesses or from (local or national) government. The event reporting form is also the method of submitting your entry to the SFD event competition. You'll have to tell us, by selecting from a drop-down box, whether you'd like your event to be considered for the SFD competition, and then point us to a URL with your event information (photos, reports, links to blogs and news articles, videos and anything else that tells us about your event). The prizes this year are three pairs of OLPC computers<http://laptop.org/>- make sure you showcase your event for the judges! Good luck with SFD, and we look forward to hearing about your events soon! Robert. Vice President, Software Freedom International Event reporting page: http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/event_report.html Competition information page: http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2008

Sept. 18, 2008

SFD08 shirts for sale!

by Pia Waugh

Hi all, please purchase your sfd08 shirts here: http://sfd.openfreeway.org/ Sales only open for another few days so get in soon! All proceeds go to supporting teams around the world with goodies for their events. Cheers, Pia -- Software Freedom Day 2007 http://softwarefreedomday.org/

Sept. 7, 2008

SFD08 shirts for sale!

by Pia Waugh

Hi all, please purchase your sfd08 shirts here: http://sfd.openfreeway.org/ Sales only open for another few days so get in soon! All proceeds go to supporting teams around the world with goodies for their events. Cheers, Pia -- Software Freedom Day 2007 http://softwarefreedomday.org/

Sept. 7, 2008

Re: [SFD-announce] [Info] Registration is open for Software Freedom Day 2008!

by Pia Waugh

Hi Paul, <quote who="Paul Bartell"> > Well I got responses form Ahmed and Fred Morris. Im looking forward to > doing something more than a table this year, and im thinking a public > education event would be a great way to reach out. Since the word Free > scares so many people, i think we should take the approach Mozilla > recently took, and call it Organic Software. I think this would go > over much easier if we put adds in the PCC paper or other seattle > progressive magazines etc. If you think im completely insane, please > say so. "Socially responsible software" is another option :) Cheers, Pia

June 19, 2008

Registration is open for Software Freedom Day 2008!

by Pia Waugh

Hi everyone, SFD2008 is around the corner - Saturday 20 September - and team registrations are now open! The first 300 teams registered before the 15th July will receive a SFD team pack including SFD 2008 tshirts, button pins, stickers and balloons, as well some useful resource CDs including some OpenEducation Discs (http://www.theopendisc.com/education/) a resource DVD with artwork, documentation, presentation templates and video material, and the option for some Ubuntu CDs. Additional T-shirts will also be available to purchase via our online store, which will be open soon. You can register by visiting our registration page but don't forget that you need to make your team page (or update your old page) *before* registering. There is more information about how to form a team and how to register on the teams page on our wiki: http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/register.html http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams Check out who has already registered on our new interactive world map! http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/map.shtml We wanted to change how people find teams so it was directly through the map rather than by continent and then country due to your excellent feedback last year, so teams can simply be softwarefreedomday.org/team rather than a really long url. If you already have a team page you can create a new page and shift all your data to the new page, or you can just link to your old events from your new page. We will also be ensuring team packages are sent much earlier this year so you get them on time. We had about 20 packages returned to us last year from teams who put the incorrect address or didn't pick up their packages so please ensure your address is 100% correct as we can't check it! Also try to ensure your address on the map is the actual address of your event so people can zoom in and go to it easily :) Good luck with your SFD 2008 preparations, and don't forget to pass the message around and get more teams involved! We had over 330 teams last year and are anticipating over 500 this year! Thank you all for helping take software freedom to the streets and make a better world for everyone! After all, freedom isn't just for us geeks :) Cheers and happy planning! Pia and the SFI team -- OLPC Australia http://olpc.org.au/ Linux Australia http://linux.org.au/ Open Source Industry Australia http://osia.net.au/ Software Freedom Day http://softwarefreedomday.org/ "Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains." - Jean Jacques Rosseau

June 1, 2008

Can you help us out with the SFD website?

by Robert Schumann

Hi SFD'ers, We're looking for a volunteer to help overhaul the look-and-feel of the Software Freedom Day website <http://softwarefreedomday.org/>. The website is looking a little dated (yes, I know, the date still says 2007 for reasons beyond our control at the moment) but we're hoping to change that in the very near future, to coincide with the launch of registrations this year (currently scheduled for sometime in the first half of May). The person we're looking for will have one or more of the following - familiarity with Moin wiki, and particularly with designing themes for Moin - skill with CSS, including making pages that are standards-compliant, internationalised, accessible and (if that wasn't enough) cross-browser - enough time to complete this task within the next ten days Note that we are not aiming to re-invent the wheel; our first task will be to identify an existing Moin theme that we can adapt to our purposes (but still make it look distinctive). We already have someone who can produce whatever size or shape logos and related SFD graphics you require - your remit will be the CSS (plus a little python/HTML). And your reward will be fame within the community of Software Freedom Day! Feel free to reply on- or off-list (depending on the relevance of your reply to the rest of the world). Thanks, Robert.

April 28, 2008

Software Freedom Day 2008!

by Pia Waugh

Hi everyone! The time has come to start planning your Software Freedom Day event for 2008! We will be opening registrations in mid May and increasing the number of team packs (shirts, CDs, balloons and such) to 300, so make sure you keep an eye out and register as soon as you can! We have a new board with new members (details at http://softwarefreedomday.org/sfi) A warm welcome to Fred and Peter! This years event will be September 20th, 2008 (please ignore the header of the website, it will be changed as soon as possible). Last years event ================ Last year we had an amazing event, with over 330 teams from over 90 countries. There were around 3000 participants reaching over 40,000 members of the public. Around 40,000 FOSS CDs were handed out, including Ubuntu, the Open CD, Mandriva, Fedora, Kubuntu, Debian, Suse, Knoppix, and more! The SFD events including installations of FOSS, demonstrations, conferences, presentations, radio, courses, some even used the day to collect food for disadvantaged families! The three events that won "best 2007 SFD event" were FOSS Nepal Community, SFD Nicaragua 2007 Team & Beijing Software Freedom Day (China). Congratulations all! Their event reports can be found here http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners. Last year a lot of universities participated, however some schools also got involved, which was great to see. Loads of user groups always get involved to help get the word out about Software Freedom. There was excellent media coverage from many teams in many languages so great job everyone! Planning ======== The Software Freedom International team have been getting everything on track for Software Freedom Day 2008. Firstly thank you to you all for your great ideas and feedback from last year. It has helped us create a plan for this year which should see Software Freedom Day grow even more, particularly in the education sector. We will be providing more resources to teams, including a DVD with video and presentation content that teams can use or mashup on the day. We'll also be providing the OpenDisc (the new Open CD project) and more resources to teams such as artwork, templates and other useful resources. We hope that you all put stuff on the wiki to share with other teams and start emailing the list with your ideas and lessons learnt. We are hoping to have over 500 teams participate in Software Freedom Day 2008, and we should all try to reach a grand total of 100,000 members of the public! Start thinking about what is the most appropriate way to take Software Freedom to your community. Perhaps it is a stall at a festival, perhaps a computer literacy course using FOSS, perhaps some presentations at a local school or university. Get ideas for your SFD event planning from the Start Guide here http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide. As per an email late last year, we are keen to get more translations of SFD content and information. We are in the process of setting up some infrastructure to facilitate this so stay tuned for more information about translations. New infrastructure ================== We are in the process of setting up new infrastructure as we migrate to a new hosting environment donated by Linode (http://linode.com/) This will increase our control over the SFD website and mailing lists such that we can avoid downtime, and also add new functionality. In the short term we will be doing a site redesign, a moin moin upgrade (the wiki), and some mailing list migration. We'll make sure this is as seamless as possible for you all. We are going to make reporting and registering much easier this year, with a few changes including a world map as the mechanism to find events rather than a list by continent. This will mean team pages will be http://softwarefreedomday.org/<teamname> rather than a really long URL as has been the case in the past. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions on this! We'll also be adding a "planet" to SFD, to aggregate blogs from our community, a new online shop and more to be announced soon. Thanks ====== Thank you to last years sponsors, to the rest of the SFI board, and finally, thank you to you all for helping take Software Freedom to the world! We are looking forward to seeing what teams come up with for next year, and we will be supporting you all as much as we can! Cheers, Pia -- Software Freedom Day 2007 http://softwarefreedomday.org/

April 13, 2008

Document Freedom Day: 26 March 2008

by Robert Schumann

Hi all SFD enthusiasts, Below is a press release from the organisers of Document Freedom Day, which is happening on 26 March. DFD is organised by a different organisation from SFD, but we're happy to support their message and encourage people to get out on the streets in support of open information exchange! Robert. ------------------------------------------------------------------- [ http://documentfreedom.org/News/20080220 ] Introducing Document Freedom Day 26 March: A global day for document liberation Sign up your DFD team today! The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation with grassroots action for promotion of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general. The DFD was initiated and is supported by a group of organisations and companies, including, but not limited to, the Free Software Foundation Europe, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, Inc. On 26 March 2008, the Document Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document Liberation and Open Standards. It will literally give teams around the world the chance to "hoist the flag": A "DFD Starter Pack" containing a flag, t-shirt, leaflets and stickers is in preparation and is planned to be sent out in the first weeks of March to the first 100 teams that sign up. Sixteen teams already signed up during the preparation phase of the DFD prior to this release. Sign your team up now! "We're proud to support this global effort to encourage open and inclusive information exchange," said Marino Marcich, Managing Director, Open Document Format Alliance. "Document freedom means creating, exchanging, and preserving your electronic documents without having to buy software from a particular vendor." "Data lock-in and subsequent vendor lock-in are some of the most severe issues users are facing today," says FSFE president Georg Greve. "Yet most people only realise this connection when it is too late and they have effectively lost control over their own data. We are supporting the Document Freedom Day to help raise awareness for this issue by starting with something that affects pretty much all users of computers: text documents, spreadsheets and presentations." "Free document formats and open standards are important elements in the continued expansion of the global open source community," said Tom Rabon, executive vice president, Corporate Affairs at Red Hat. "Red Hat strongly supports Document Freedom Day and encourages participation by all who look forward to the day when documents are controlled by those who own them, not necessarily by those who create the technology to access those documents." Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems stated, "As I explained in my paper "Freedom to Leave<http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhb29vwq_3dzb2cs>", it's fundamental in the emerging market for people to be free to use any software they desire tohandle their data. I fully support the goals of Document Freedom ." Alexandre Oliva of the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA) comments: "When you save your documents using a Free Open Standard format such as ODF, you're also saving your own future, ensuring your continued ability to access, decode and convert their contents." Graham Taylor Director of OpenForum Europe: "OpenForum Europe applauds the announcement of Document Freedom Day. The whole essence of 'openness' is captured by the right of users, citizens, governments... to be able to freely access and exchange documents todayand in the future. Nothing gives greater meaning to the prevalent danger of lock-in to proprietary solutions, and for the need for Government to act now." About Document Freedom Day: The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general. The DFD is supported by a large group of organisations and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, NLnet, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares Abiertos. The list of DFD supporting groups can be found at http://documentfreedom.org/Who The list of DFD teams is available at http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams Further information: http://documentfreedom.org Contact: contact(a)documentfreedom.org Graham Taylor graham(a)openforumeurope.org Ivan Jelic jelic(a)fsfeurope.org Kerri Catallozzi kcatallo(a)redhat.com Marino Marcich mmarcich(a)odfalliance.org Marko Milenovic milenovic(a)fsfeurope.org Terri Molini terri.molini(a)sun.com FSFLA info(a)fsfla.org

March 8, 2008

SFD 2007 Competition Winners!

by Robert Schumann

Hi all, We are very pleased to announce the results of the SFD Competition 2007! Many thanks to all the entrants, we saw some excellent examples of how to take software freedom to local communities, and we were inspired, as you all will be to see some of the outcomes and reports. http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners We have three winners, who will each receive an OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) computer. All winners, highly commended and entries of note will also receive a certificate for their excellent submissions. I want to extend a warm congratulations in particular to the three winners (in no particular order): - FOSS Nepal Community - SFD Nicaragua 2007 Team - Beijing Software Freedom Day (China) And the two highly commended entries: - Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society - SFD Tunisia Read more about the entries along with their reports at the website above. Cheers, Robert (on behalf of Pia Waugh, SFI President)

Dec. 1, 2007