[wos] 16 Sep 06: Global Software Freedom Day (SFD)

[Volker Grassmuck]

just discovered this:

"Software Freedom Day 2006 will be on Saturday September the 16th. So 
start your preparations for the biggest Software Freedom Day yet!"
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/

"Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and 
Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to 
educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using high 
quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business -- 
in short, everywhere! The non-profit company Software Freedom 
International provides guidance in organizing SFD, but volunteer 
teams around the world organize their own SFD events to impact their 
own communities."
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/about

Apparently started in Copenhagen in 2004
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/gallery/2004

in 2005 it had already spread to  /Adelaide   /Atlanta   /Bundaberg   
/CIALUG   /Christchurch   /Coffs Harbour   /Copenhagen   /Fresno   
/GUL   /Go-opensource SA   /Hobart   /Lalitpur   /LinuXAccrA   
/LinuxCabal   /Melbourne   /Milford   /Nashua   /Peru   /Sarasota-
Bradenton   /Scotland   /SoftwareLivreVS.org   /Sydney   /Tampa   
/Tepic   /chennai  
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/gallery/2005

It seems to have UNESCO support.

"Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the 
public about the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source 
Software. This year, over 200 teams have been registered to celebrate 
it at schools, universities, parks, and other public places."
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=19862&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

And that of Ubuntu, TheOpenCD, DKUUG, FSF & IOSN.

The whole thing is completely decentral, with five "teams" in Germany 
at this point, the closest being the Linux User Group Potsdam.
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/teams/europe/germany

Seems that unknowingly we had a lucky hand with the wos dates. And 
if we manage to organise the three days roughly along the themes, 
authorship, work and tools of freedom, then we also have our theme 
for Saturday ,-)

Volker

-- 
   WOS 4. Information Freedom Rules
      14-16 Sept. 2006, Berlin, http://wizards-of-os.org
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   home:   http://waste.informatik.hu-berlin.de/Grassmuck