Dear Colleagues, This year we did not participate in the SFD activities. The place or venue we wanted to use for demonstration purpose with hands on practice with the community was fully utilised by the owners. The community here understands better when a demonstration is been done. We are therefore asking for anyone in this community to donate some computers so that we can have our own place where the community can betaught with open source application programs. It seems a lot of people are used to the proprietary software. We want to make a difference in the community of Mufulira, Zambia. Looking forward to hearing from you soonest. Regards Misheck Mutuzana Email: mutuzana@yahoo.com, mutuzana@gmail.com http://wikieducator.org/User:Mutuzana Skype: misheckmutuzana Twitter: mutuzana +260 955-418926 /966-418926/977-418926 ________________________________ From: "sfd-discuss-request@sf-day.org" <sfd-discuss-request@sf-day.org> To: sfd-discuss@sf-day.org Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 2:00 PM Subject: SFD-discuss Digest, Vol 64, Issue 29 Send SFD-discuss mailing list submissions to sfd-discuss@sf-day.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to sfd-discuss-request@sf-day.org You can reach the person managing the list at sfd-discuss-owner@sf-day.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of SFD-discuss digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Montreal/Quebec city report (Canada) for SFD 2012 (Fabian Rodriguez) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:20:58 -0400 From: Fabian Rodriguez <magicfab@member.fsf.org> Subject: [SFD-discuss] Montreal/Quebec city report (Canada) for SFD 2012 To: sfd-discuss@sf-day.org Cc: libreplanet-ca-qc@libreplanet.org Message-ID: <505C69BA.7060200@member.fsf.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 (BCC: Gabriel Cossette, SFD 2012 organizer in Quebec city / CC: LibrePlanet QC mailing list) Hello, This year we had exceptionally low participation at SFD 2012 in Montreal and Quebec city. In Montreal we had a full day of activities on Friday Sept. 14: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Montreal/LPQC In Quebec we had a smaller event, "happy hour" in a bar on Saturday, Sept. 15: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Quebec/LinuQ I was leading the Montreal event while another free software activist here, Gabriel Cossette was leading the Quebec city event. This was advertised only a couple of weeks before the events, although it's not unusual in our context (lots of events in Quebec, last-minute volunteer organization). In Montreal very few showed up, two were presenters. One of them was a blind, long-time GNU/Linux user. Instead of following the schedule we made the best of our time, trying to liberate an Android phone, testing Trisquel for accessibility, testing new USB keys I had created with multisystem (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/) and generally talking about community reinforcement and advocacy ( a new local Mozilla community is coming up ). The venue for Montreal was graciously offered by the /Consulado General de la Rep?blica Bolivariana de Venezuela en Montreal//,/ they have a beautiful place equiped with multimedia equipment and Internet. While a bit disappointing in attendance, low numbers meant we had lots of time to discuss one-on-one and experiment / test / exchange. On the positive side, I reviewed past year's communications, updated a few wiki resources, and kept open that important contact for the venue - free (as in beer), "compatible" venues for free open source software events are not easily found. In Quebec city something similar happened. I am told by Gabriel their meetup there started at 6 PM and lasted until 11PM, lots of informal discussion and exchanges: few people showed up but a great time was had :) I blame the low turn out on lack of proper planning beforehand - but specifically on my choice of Friday for the main event. The venue we had available for Montreal on such short notice was only available on Friday so I took a bet (and lost). The Quebec event wasn't coordinated with Montreal's - although I know Gabriel well the usual cooperation didn't happen. We missed the deadline for registrations too so promo material wasn't available other than what I produced on my own. This serves as a reminder we can't improvise, and we also need to coordinate better events between different locations. Last year we had prepared for over a month and the event was on a Saturday, very different (great) results. Keeping all the above in mind, I hope I ( or anyone else doing this in Quebec province next year) can avoid such mistakes for next year. tldr; lack of preparation and coordination resulted in low turnout, hopefully we learn from this and nail it next year Happy Hacking, Fabi?n Rodr?guez http://fsf.magicfab.ca -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: PGP/Mime available upon request Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlBcabYACgkQfUcTXFrypNVjUgCg1UUfQB/fRHDL+ylwR3HZyiml y+AAoMjBXSSPtW6zU01jYEPXWZ95a5XK =zBhG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----