Software Freedom Day is rapidly approaching. It's probably too late to organise your own team, but many people will have a local team they can get together with and
September 10th is Software Freedom Day, a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). With a series of global events we want to showcase the excellent range of FOSS now available and show how in can be used to save money and gain freedom in every sector of the information society.
Over 200 groups from over 60 countries will participate in this second annual Software Freedom Day, by organising local events ranging from simple meetings in the park to install-fests and 'SpeedGeeking' events. The non-profit organisation Software Freedom International provides guidance in organizing SFD and some material support, but the volunteer teams around the world have done the bulk of the work and will put a local spin on the day. For those who have not yet planned anything for SFD it's not too late. Local groups simply orginise their own events, though official materials have now been allocated.
FOSS is licensed in such a way that it gives you the end user the right to use it freely for private or commercial use. You also have the right to inspect and even modify the underlying source code. You can give away or even sell the original version you received or one with your modification (though you may be required to pass on the changes you have made). You are not required to pay royalties to previous developers.
FOSS is important even for those without interest in source code. The release of the source allows external observers to inspect the true functioning of the program, which means that you as the end user can be confident that the program treats your private data with respect. You (or someone else) can verify that your data is not being passed on without your knowledge and you can be sure that your data will always be accessible and not locked away in a proprietary format. Also, the release of source code has in some cases spawned large communities of volunteer developers who have in turn provided the world with highly useful, and entirely free software such as Linux, OpenOffice, and Mozilla. These communities can in turn foster local IT industries in developing regions without the need for large up-front investments. The freedom of software is important for everyone, not just software developers.
The actual event is basically a coordinated PR effort involving giving away as many copies as possible of TheOpenCD to people who wouldn't normally be exposed to free software or free software ideas. It's really hard to measure the impact of this kind of publicity, unfortunately, but OSS Watch distribute TheOpenCD too, and increasingly, if people haven't heard of the CD itself, they've heard of the software on it.
The version of TheOpenCD being distributed is version 3.0, which is nice (but not perfect), it contains a realm of open source software for Microsoft windows machines.
Software on the CD includes GIMP, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Audacity, Gaim, PDFCreator and much more.
