Robert Schumann wrote:

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.

So the version of TheOpenCD would be the 2005 version or would it be the current one?

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.

Why not have an option for teams to cover the shipping if they still want a batch? It would still be cheaper than buying them elsewhere? I for one would take this option if it were offered.

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 <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 <mailto: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? ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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-- Sincerely Melissa Draper http://www.meldraweb.com Phone: 0404 595 395 (intl): +61 404 595 395 P.O Box 1412 Lavington, NSW 2641

2007/6/11, Robert Schumann:

[...]

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 This new option I like it very much.

2. A single copy of The Open CD, which can be replicated by teams if they wish to distribute this software This is the way we usually do it: each person that wants a particular software (a distro, a packages mirror copy, Free Software for another OS, etc) brings the CDs or DVDs necesaries to make the number of copies that they want. For us it turn out to be very efective and simple. But also, someone brings CDs or DVDs to give them away.

[...]

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. No problem in using a DVD, but it would be nice if it then could be split in to CDs by us.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Robert.

PS - Three months left to go before SFD! How are your preparations going? We are at the beginning phase. Waiting the confirmation of the location for the SFD, so we can start the promotion.

Saludos, Julio -- www.kwort.org Kwort Linux Distribution www.lugro.org.ar GNU/Linux User Group Rosario, Argentina Registered GNU/Linux User #358886

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

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).