Hello Friends,

Software Freedom Day was a great event this year. We landed with 49 events on the map (and 18 more that were on the wiki but didn’t make it to the map)! In 2022 we had 33 events. For the first time since long, we had a growth again.

As you all know, in July a new board started at the Digital Freedom Foundation. Fred and Pockey did a huge job keeping all existing systems updated and secure and responding to every single request that was sent towards the foundation. We’re currently still handing over the last technical aspects. The new board has found a shelter inside the Earth Cause Charity (earthcause.org), which gives us some legal foundation. We started the board with a team of 5 people: Laura Michaels (USA), Ruwan Ranganath (Germany), Mostafa Ahangarha (Iran), Marcos Marado (Portugal), Jan Husar (Slowakia) and myself, Jurgen Gaeremyn (Belgium). We also had a lot of great help from Roadarchie, a freelance graphics artist who is dedicating a lot of his time and skills to the project. None of us knew each other prior to joining the board but we all have a firm conviction that our digital freedoms (Software Freedom, Hardware Freedom, Document Freedom, …) need to be celebrated worldwide and that today this is more important than ever.

The current websites were built in 2004 and gradually updated and upgraded. The workflow also dates from then - with a Joomla site as the public window to the event, including the world map, and a wiki as main documentation and event platform, with some custom integrations to merge the Joomla sites with Wiki pages. Entering an event was pretty complex and the wiki was the only part that couldn’t get nicely updated. Currently we’re working on building a new platform, ready for the next decade of celebrating digital freedoms.

This is a big task, and there’s only so much a pair of hands can do. That’s why we need your help to get things going. These are things you can do:

  1. Beta testers for a new and unified events platform. Are you planning to organize Hardware Freedom Day or Document Freedom Day? Or just an early bird who did Software Freedom Day? We’re looking for a group of people who can testdrive the new platform while the layout isn’t all there yet.
  2. Volunteers to transfer and update documentation from the SFD wiki to the new website. This is basically copy/pasting and slight editing. No technical skills required.
  3. Translators who are interested in setting up the website main content (menu items, main pages) to show up well in your native language.
  4. Looking for a frontend-developer with an understanding of Joomla to work together with RoadArchie and the board to help create a nice template for the site
  5. Help organize Hardware Freedom Day 2024 in your area: If we want this event to grow, we’ll need events going on all over the world.
  6. Help organize Document Freedom Day 2024 in your area: If we want this event to grow, we’ll need events going on all over the world.

If you feel like helping or have more questions, feel free to reply on the list or join us on the matrix channel. The board and a bunch of active members are always lurking on this channel…

Happy Freedoms!
And hopefully we meet on Hardware Freedom Day, Document Freedom Day... or upcoming Software Freedom Day!
Jurgen