20 years Software Freedom Day - and the future
Dear Friends of Digital Freedoms, (if nothing else, please read the last paragraph with a practical question) Over the last 20 years, many people have stepped up to make Software Freedom Day big. Under the leadership of Frederic Muller, Patrick Sinz, Pockey Lam and Julien Forgeat - the celebration of Software Freedom Day grew further to an international event with celebrations in every continent, gathering thousands of people. Read more about the history on https://www.digitalfreedomfoundation.org/index.php/about On May 27th 2019, Patrick died in a traffic accident. He contributed very much to the French speaking Open Source community, was a friend to many and was also a loving father and spouse. The other board members were struck hard by this blow. This loss, with consequently the COVID pandemic and personal health issues, have lead the board into being less and less active the last few years. Recently it was announced on the mailing list that the complete board of the Digital Freedom Foundation have resigned and are looking for people to take over the task. Despite multinational companies growing into bigger and bigger closed source eco systems, great projects like Linux, LibreOffice, NextCloud, Inkscape and Moodle succeed in setting an example in an economical viable way, while still setting new standards for Open Source Software. It is more important than ever to give voice to the many great projects out there that choose to be available to every person on the globe, giving them the freedom to use, study, modify and pass on this software. Putting Free and Libre software front and center, is a core challenge of the Digital Freedom Foundation. Over the years, we gradually grew bigger and next to Software Freedom Day (SFD, since 2004) also added the Document Freedom Day (DFD, since 2008), the Hardware Freedom Day (HFD, since 2013) and the Education Freedom Day (EFD, since 2013) to their calendar. With the 20^th edition of SFD up the horizon, we need to look who is willing to step up and put in a helping hand for the Digital Freedom Foundation (DFF), who is willing to put their shoulders under respectively SFD, DFD, HFD and EFD? Are you willing and able to help think about shaping the Digital Freedom Foundation and help organize their events? Please fill out this Framadate page <https://framadate.org/OJEn7rqio6NX37LN> so we can pick a time slot for an online meeting. Greetings, Jurgen
Dear Comrades for Digital Free Society Peace be upon you all. Myself Shazedur Rahim Joardar, nickname Ring (in Bengali- রিং). I am from Bangladesh located in South East Asia. I am volunteering with Software Freedom advocacy since 2002. Got to know about this "Software Freedom, GNU and more" while started running GNU/Linux on my system in 2001. In 2006 I got Cerebrovascular Disease, right side of my body got paralyzed, speech impaired. By the blessings of my parents and the Creator I have got 80%-85% recovered by 2008 and got back to daily life. In 2011 with a team of 21 volunteers founded FOSS Bangladesh and started the advocacy to spread out more and more in organized way. Till 2016, FOSS Bangladesh had organized each SFD, HFD, EFD and CFD along with DADRM, LinuxDay, GNU/Linux installation Fest and 83 local events in various schools and universities here in Bangladesh to spread out about "Digital Freedom" and it's urgency among the next generation people. In 2014 on my invitation Mr. Stallman (RMS, Founder of FSF) visited in Bangladesh. In 2014-2016 I was an Adjunct Faculty member in the software engineering department of a reputed university in Bangladesh. In December 2016 my health condition got worse again and I had just got home bounded. Later on survived from CoVid-19 in 2021 and Pancreatitis in 2022. But as I am alive and active again, I believe that, I have many more left to do for the society with my software and hardware knowledge and activities to achieve the true "Free Digital Society". In 2022 after the Corona pandemic FOSS Bangladesh had organized a public event in an university and me restarted with my public speeches. FOSS Bangladesh also getting strengthened with it's 88+ volunteers and planning for public events like SFD in 2023. I am freelancer for my living with a little knowledge in C, C++ and Python. I am very much fond of Open or Free software and not in just any Freeware or just the Open Source codes. To ensure my digital freedom, I demand for proper commented code, proper documentation to make use of the code along with the freedom to modify and distribute the modified copy to all. While in freelancing I also deliver the same to my clients with the same digital freedom philosophy. Me also volunteer with Mozilla and LibreOffice and few others local communities and groups and on online forum sites as I love to provide User Support/Help on using GNU/Linux distros and Free Software. বুধ, ২৮ জুন, ২০২৩ তারিখে ২:১৮ AM টায় তারিখে Jurgen Gaeremyn < jurgen@gaeremyn.be> লিখেছেন:
Dear Friends of Digital Freedoms, With the 20th edition of SFD up the horizon, we need to look who is willing to step up and put in a helping hand for the Digital Freedom Foundation (DFF), who is willing to put their shoulders under respectively SFD, DFD, HFD and EFD?
I will try my best to work with you people.
Are you willing and able to help think about shaping the Digital Freedom Foundation and help organize their events? Please fill out this Framadate page <https://framadate.org/OJEn7rqio6NX37LN> so we can pick a time slot for an online meeting.
I suggest to do this meeting in a [https://meet.jit.si/] session. My 2nd preference is [Telegram Group Voice/Video Chat]. In Telegram you can find me -- [https://t.me/toshazed] with regards -- রিং/ring মহাসচিব/General Secretary এফওএসএস বাংলাদেশ/FOSS Bangladesh মোজিলিয়ান/Mozillian সদস্য, লিনাক্স মিন্ট বাংলাদেশ/Member, LinuxMint Bangladesh
participants (2)
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Jurgen Gaeremyn -
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