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Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Janet Hawtin

On 6/12/07, Rafael Carreras <rafael.carreras(a)gmail.com> wrote: > 2007/6/12, Janet Hawtin <lucychili(a)gmail.com>: > > On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > > > > > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! > > > > +2 on that thought from Adelaide. > > I'd be happy to pay for T-shirts too, but I understand that paying 10 > €/AU$ is quite difficult in many countries, it's something to keep in > mind. > > -1 on that thought from Barcelona. :-) > > -- > Rafael Carreras Guillén | gpg.id 2C1AF9C5 > http://rcarreras.blogspot.com dang fair point I guess we were thinking that the tshirts are not the core purpose of the event and if something had to go it would be better to make our own tshirts and still have the opencd to share. We are talking about what we can do locally. Will have a think.

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Rafael Carreras

2007/6/12, Janet Hawtin <lucychili(a)gmail.com>: > On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > > > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! > > +2 on that thought from Adelaide. I'd be happy to pay for T-shirts too, but I understand that paying 10 €/AU$ is quite difficult in many countries, it's something to keep in mind. -1 on that thought from Barcelona. :-) -- Rafael Carreras Guillén | gpg.id 2C1AF9C5 http://rcarreras.blogspot.com

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Janet Hawtin

On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! +2 on that thought from Adelaide.

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Ben Powell

Hi All, Just a few comments about the proposals for CDs. The idea of a set of open source documentaries and resources is great - maybe it is wise to burn them in such a way that they can be played on a dvd player (with menus, etc) so when we make copies we can give them to people to play in their dvdplayer as well (many people don't use their computer for this task). On the issue of the single master copy of the OpenCD, I don't think this is such a good idea. From my experience on the organising team for SFD Hobart for the last few years the main thing that we have discovered each year is that people are interested in free software much more than they are interested in Linux itself. People were very keen on the OpenCD which we've given away for the last couple of years (luckily we got hold of some professionally done openCDs last year from a surplus that Open Source Tasmania had after a conference they held), both during the SFD displays and the radio show that we do on the local ABC (statewide) radio. To me it is extremely important that we have professional looking OpenCDs to give away during SFD, much more than Ubuntu CDs. There reasons are as follows: People are very interested in FOSS that they can run on their computer - that often means a windows computer. Generally the people who come to our SFD (and I suspect SFDs elsewhere) are not techs, they don't really know what an OS is or what it does, they are not interested in changing OS (yet), but they are interested in Free software. First they are interested that its free as in beer but when you explain the free as in speech they are amazed and impressed (I've found it really is the hook into FOSS for most people!). This is why its really important that the cds look professional - it conveys that this is professional freely licensed software, not the equivalent of that copy of MS-Office they have from their nephew with the serial number written in black pen on the CD. Its very important to distinguish "free" as in pirated and free as in freely licensed and the professional look helps this. For SFD teams to produce professional looking CDs from a single master is expensive and time consuming - many of us are sinking quite a deal of time and cash into SFD already and more expenses makes a high barrier to entry for SFD teams. I know we are getting professional Ubuntu CDs but as I stated earlier - Linux is not the draw-card, if anything its OpenOffice that really catches people's attention as they often have a legit copy of windows (usually came with their computer) but a dodgy copy of MS-Office or the very frustrating MS-Works package (no excel or powerpoint). Having software that works on pretty much everyone's computers without too much hassle is the best way of promoting free s/w - the LiveCDs are great but they don't always work first time, they require people to understand what "booting off a cd" actually means (many don't) and if people either have problems or are too apprehensive about booting off a live cd or don't know how to do it, then another person doesn't experience FOSS. Most people know how to install software, so with an OpenCD they will install and try FOSS - which is the best way of promoting it. I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! This also does not create a barrier to entry for SFD teams - if they know they can get the give-aways for free then they can run a successful SFD (the give-aways are really important to get people along and make sure that they experience FOSS for themselves). The T-shirts are neither here nor there for the running of a successful SFD - you can use nametags, etc to distinguish organisers if need be. Anyhow that's my $AUD0.02 worth - sorry for the long post :) Cheers, Ben (organiser for Hobart SFD).

June 12, 2007

Re: [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Robert Schumann

Sometimes, people would just like to listen to music - particularly members of the public who are frequently the target audience of SFD events. And if you can tell a member of the public that the music is "open" in the sense that the music can be distributed, sampled and mixed with the artists' blessing, it does bring home in a much more direct manner what software freedom is all about. Plus, we like music :-) (although not necessarily Sex Pistols and death metal, which we will try to avoid) Robert. On 11/06/07, Douglas A. Whitfield <whitdoug(a)email.unc.edu> wrote: > > What exactly is the point of the music? I can see videos and such being > educational/useful, but are the Sex Pistols going to do their rendition of > "God Save Microsoft"? Don't get me wrong, some death metal grunting about > FOSS would float my boat, but I fail to see the value in this when it comes > to SFD. I could see examples of music created in open source software being > useful, but that kind of seems like a niche. Plus, just having the music > doesn't tell the individual how hard/easy it was to create the piece in the > software. > > > > Douglas A. Whitfield > > > > IT Student Assistant > > Mon, Wed, Thurs 9-5 until July 30th > > Development Office > > 208 West Franklin Street, CB# 6100 > > The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill > > Office (Server Room): 919-84*3-3226* > > Cell: 919-360-0306 > > > > Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President > > Carolina-opensource(a)listserv.unc.edu > > http://softwarefreedomday.org/ > > http://www.ibiblio.org/cosi > ------------------------------ > > *From:* sfd-discuss-bounces(a)sf-day.org [mailto: > sfd-discuss-bounces(a)sf-day.org] *On Behalf Of *Robert Schumann > *Sent:* Monday, June 11, 2007 5:05 PM > *To:* Fabian Rodriguez > *Cc:* Team discussions about SFD > *Subject:* [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be > dispatched to SFD teams > > > > To be clear, the suggestion is that the CD we send doesn't contain any > software: it will likely contain only music and video footage. > > Thanks everybody for your suggestions - keep them coming. It is very > helpful for us to get an idea of what teams are looking for from us. > > Robert. > > > > _______________________________________________ > SFD-discuss mailing list > SFD-discuss(a)sf-day.org > http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss > >

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Bruce Kingsbury

> I'd have some misgivings about giving away home-made distro CDs to > newbies. The last thing you want is to have someone's first experience > of a free OS being a borked install process caused by dodgy media. It's > not so essential for something like the OpenCD to be bit-perfect. home-made CD's are just fine, as long as you don't use the cheapest possible blanks and burn them at 52x! Get a decent brand disk and burn them at about 12x (less if you can stand it) because some (usually older) drives can't boot or read them reliably otherwise. > Books > > * Three Novels by Cory Doctorow > * Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software > by Sam Williams > * We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People > by Dan Gillmor > * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock > Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig > * Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing > * Free Software Magazine - Issues 0-6 > > Audio > > * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock > Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig (and friends) > * LugRadio - 2 episodes I'm not sure this is a first impression we want to make :) > * The Dangers of Software Patents by Richard Stallman > * Copyright vs Community in the age of computer Networks by Richard > Stallman > > Video > From the Creative Commons Project > > * Creative Commons - Get Creative > * Creative Commons - Remix Culture > * Building on the Past > * CC Brazil > > From archive.org > > * Richard Stallman - Rome - Interview (4-1-2003) > > Some great ideas here; I think we need some software promo videos like the one for Tremulous too.. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tremulous/tremulous-promo-II.avi?download Anybody know if there are more like this?

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Matthew Davidson

Robert Schumann wrote: > 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! All sounds good to me. I hastily put together some CDs of music and video for SFD2005 along those lines - all terribly dated now of course. I vote for including some video of Eben Moglen - he's awesomely inspiring. I'd have some misgivings about giving away home-made distro CDs to newbies. The last thing you want is to have someone's first experience of a free OS being a borked install process caused by dodgy media. It's not so essential for something like the OpenCD to be bit-perfect. Be careful where you source your music from. There are a distressing number of businesses (like Magnatune - http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/11/16/1458249) who slap a Creative Commons button on their site for the karma it brings, while doing their best to ensure that users can't exercise the rights granted by the licenses that they are notionally using. Some sites even only distribute their "free" music streamed via Flash plugins, to prevent people copying and reproducing ostensibly freely redistributable works. I don't think we should be supporting people who believe in "free as in shareware". I can wholeheartedly recommend Jamendo (http://www.jamendo.com/, try these albums for starters: http://www.jamendo.com/en/user/mjdsawtell/albums/) who not only offer CC-licensed music (mostly by-nc-sa), but also embrace Ogg Vorbis and BitTorrent. Wish they would smoke less AJAX crack, though. Here's what was in the CD I put together in 2005 (I also had some music from Magnatune, which I wouldn't include now): Books * Three Novels by Cory Doctorow * Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Sam Williams * We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People by Dan Gillmor * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig * Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing * Free Software Magazine - Issues 0-6 Audio * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig (and friends) * LugRadio - 2 episodes * The Dangers of Software Patents by Richard Stallman * Copyright vs Community in the age of computer Networks by Richard Stallman Video From the Creative Commons Project * Creative Commons - Get Creative * Creative Commons - Remix Culture * Building on the Past * CC Brazil From archive.org * Richard Stallman - Rome - Interview (4-1-2003) Matthew. -- Alma Technology - The future is free and open http://www.almatech.net.au ... (02) 6658 1607 ... 0419 242 316 -- http://computerclub.cex.com.au http://www.clublinux.org.au -- "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me." - Thomas Jefferson http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Nathaniel Jayme

I agree on the new proposal. The visions and interviews from FLOSS leaders would be an effective way to diseminate this Culture of Freedom. I have also been downloading Redhat Summit keynote speeches of Eben Moglen and others to compile it to CD, for distribution in one of the major events we are organizing http://www.minfoss.info/ The event/conference will happen weeks after the Software Freedom Day Celebration. I would suggest that if there is a local branch of the sponsor in a certain country that they coordinate with each other, since this is an international celebration. That way, they can help local SFD teams in reproducing DVD/CD. This can somehow, ease the burden of SFD headquarters of spending shipping, and focus on areas where there is problem in internet connectivity. I am from the philippines and would be happy to know of a branch office of one of the sponsors who can help us out in reproducing the CD/DVD. We plan to not only distribute it to students but also to school administrators, city leaders, corporate managers, and Non-Goverment Organizations. I have also created a small booklet and would be happy for comments and additional contents. I am planning it to just be a concise booklet so people can easily digest the need for FLOSS and other Free licenses. http://www.minfoss.info/FOSSOC2007_Booklet.pdf NBJayme --- Robert Schumann <robert(a)softwarefreedomday.org> wrote: > > 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). > 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 for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/

June 11, 2007

RE: [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Douglas A. Whitfield

What exactly is the point of the music? I can see videos and such being educational/useful, but are the Sex Pistols going to do their rendition of "God Save Microsoft"? Don't get me wrong, some death metal grunting about FOSS would float my boat, but I fail to see the value in this when it comes to SFD. I could see examples of music created in open source software being useful, but that kind of seems like a niche. Plus, just having the music doesn't tell the individual how hard/easy it was to create the piece in the software. Douglas A. Whitfield IT Student Assistant Mon, Wed, Thurs 9-5 until July 30th Development Office 208 West Franklin Street, CB# 6100 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office (Server Room): 919-843-3226 Cell: 919-360-0306 Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President Carolina-opensource(a)listserv.unc.edu http://softwarefreedomday.org/ http://www.ibiblio.org/cosi _____ From: sfd-discuss-bounces(a)sf-day.org [mailto:sfd-discuss-bounces@sf-day.org] On Behalf Of Robert Schumann Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 5:05 PM To: Fabian Rodriguez Cc: Team discussions about SFD Subject: [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams To be clear, the suggestion is that the CD we send doesn't contain any software: it will likely contain only music and video footage. Thanks everybody for your suggestions - keep them coming. It is very helpful for us to get an idea of what teams are looking for from us. Robert.

June 11, 2007

Any SFD enthusiasts in Buenos Aires?

by Robert Schumann

I'm going to be in Buenos Aires this weekend and was wondering if I could persuade any local software freedom supporters on this list to let me buy them a drink. As a board member of Software Freedom International I'm involved with the behind-the-scenes organisation for SFD, which means I can tell you all you ever wanted to know about where we get our T-shirts and what our plans for the future are, and how SFD all got started. I can also take your feedback to our board meetings. If you're in or near Buenos Aires on Saturday, feel free to respond either to directly to me or via this mailing list. And if you know of other FLOSS supporters in BA, you're welcome to pass on this email to them. Looking forward to meeting you! Robert.

June 11, 2007