The organisers of Software Freedom Day have been discussing making some changes to the supplies we will be making available to SFD teams this year.

Last year we helped Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, send shipments of Ubuntu CDs to teams, and teams once again have the opportunity to request Ubuntu CDs when they register this year. We have also been intending this year to ship copies of The Open CD ( http://theopencd.org/), which was supplied to teams in 2005 - and when teams register this year, they are offered the opportunity to specify how many of The Open CD they would like to receive.

However, for various reasons we would like to avoid shipping The Open CD this year. The major reason is cost: although the cost per team might only be US$10 or US$15, when you have hundreds of teams registered that becomes a lot of money. Software Freedom International (the organisation behind SFD) has very limited funds and we believe this is not an effective use of those funds.

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).

Before making this change, we wanted to hear feedback from you, the team leaders and FLOSS enthusiasts from around the world. So please do get in touch with us to let us know what you think (about this change, and about our proposed team supplies) and ask any questions you may have. You can either chat with other SFD participants on the SFD-discuss mailing list (you need to be a member: join at http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss ) or you can send your comments/questions direct to the SFI board at info@sf-day.org. We are specifically interested in
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 forward to hearing from you,
Robert.

PS - Three months left to go before SFD! How are your preparations going?