January 2008 - SFD-discuss - lists.mailman3.com

Planning for SFD 2008 - Your ideas and input!

by Pia Waugh

Hi all, The Software Freedom International team is starting planning for SFD 2008 with bigger and grander ideas! Software Freedom Day has almost doubled every year, and considering we had over 330 teams in 2007, this is an enormous goal for us all! Software Freedom Day really has become a regular yearly unifying force for taking software freedom and FOSS to the general population, and everyone one of you are contributing to that success. Thank you! Please make sure throughout the year you share your ideas and stories with the sfd-discuss mailing list so others can know about and learn from your successes. We will be releasing a report soon about the success of 2007 based on the hundreds of reports we received from teams. Thank you everyone! This report will help with media interest in SFD and also hopefully more support. As we are going through initial planning and in particular new ideas and brainstorming for 2008, I thought it would be great to invite responses from you guys, the Software Freedom Day community :) What would you like to see different in 2008? How could we better help you organise awesome events? How can we help you with marketing and such? We are a small team with limited resources and every year we do the best we can with what we have. Every year our support base and sponsorship is growing so some things we may be able to do this year, some things may be able to be planned towards in the coming years. Again, thank you all, and happy planning for SFD 2008! Cheers, Pia President Software Freedom International -- Software Freedom Day 2007 http://softwarefreedomday.org/

Jan. 15, 2008

Re: [SFD-discuss] SFD2007 in Bitola/Macedonia

by Pia Waugh

Hi Aleksander, <quote who="Aleksandar Balalovski"> > Our silly proposal :) would be that the next year more balloons are sent to > the teams, because they make great effect on the celebration aura in the city > where SFD is being celebrated, young people want balloons, babies want > balloons, mothers and fathers want balloons for their children, and thus, > everyone wants balloon, and people actually READ what is on the balloon :) Although this is a late response, we are in preprations for SFD 2008 (more to come soon!) and I've taking this on board. We will get more balloons to teams this year. Thanks for the feedback! Cheers, Pia -- Linux Australia http://linux.org.au/ "Women hold up half the sky." - Mao Tse Tung

Jan. 15, 2008

Re: [SFD-discuss] Was: FLOSS educational programmes

by Janet Hawtin

On Jan 16, 2008 6:31 AM, Pia Waugh <greebo(a)pipka.org> wrote: > Hi all, > > I was perusing through sfd-discuss and re-found this and I wanted to renew > the discussion. > > <quote who="Steve Olive"> > > > It is up to us, the Open Source and Free Software Communities, to > > encourage the use of qualifications that do not focus on a particular > > brand of software. I also believe that these qualifications should not > > be prohibitively priced, preventing students, who are often unemployed, > > from taking the tests. They are better served spending the money on > > computers and other hardware for use at home so they can better their > > skills and find employment. > > > > Is this something the Software Freedom Day should look into? Registering > > or certifying skills with software promoted on Software Freedom Day. > > Steve, what exactly do you have in mind here? We could certainly add > something to the registration process or there is also the possibility of > aligning with certifications and encouraging teams to do certification > workshops and exams as part of their Software Freedom Day celebrations which > would both draw attention to certifications and also get more qualified FOSS > practitioners into the workforce every year. What do you think? The ingots competencies are agnostic. http://theingots.org/ Robyn Manning and Kylie Willison currently use them in South Australia There is also someone doing training in Mount Gambier and Noven has done training with his network development in Copley.

Jan. 15, 2008

Was: FLOSS educational programmes

by Pia Waugh

Hi all, I was perusing through sfd-discuss and re-found this and I wanted to renew the discussion. <quote who="Steve Olive"> > It is up to us, the Open Source and Free Software Communities, to > encourage the use of qualifications that do not focus on a particular > brand of software. I also believe that these qualifications should not > be prohibitively priced, preventing students, who are often unemployed, > from taking the tests. They are better served spending the money on > computers and other hardware for use at home so they can better their > skills and find employment. > > Is this something the Software Freedom Day should look into? Registering > or certifying skills with software promoted on Software Freedom Day. Steve, what exactly do you have in mind here? We could certainly add something to the registration process or there is also the possibility of aligning with certifications and encouraging teams to do certification workshops and exams as part of their Software Freedom Day celebrations which would both draw attention to certifications and also get more qualified FOSS practitioners into the workforce every year. What do you think? Cheers, Pia -- Linux Australia http://linux.org.au/ "If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done." - Scott Adams

Jan. 15, 2008