Hi Magnus,
Thanks for taking a look (and your critical eye). There's a long
history here. In the period 2004-2010, internet wasn't prevalent
at all (let alone broadband internet). Handing out CD's with a
bunch of FOSS software was a main motivator to organize these
events. At the bottom of the about-page
here, you can find some history about TheOpenCD project that
was part of the inception. Indeed, around 2008 there were close to
600 groups organizing Software Freedom Day. Bejing LUG did a hell
of job back then making packages with swag that got sent around
the world. These contained some T-shirts, a banner, a bunch of
balloons and stickers and also a stack of CD's (I still remember
getting an Ubuntu Ship-it CD for 14.04 back in the days).
So there are practical changes (availability software through
online channels, no more swag), but I also see ideological
changes. Talking for Belgium - I saw a big shift from "Open
Source" to "Open Standards" (which is an important downgrade imo)
and from innocuous (aka viral) licenses to permissive licenses...
serving the developers (and companies) rather than the users. Big
tech companies successfully succeeded marketing FOSS as being
irrelevant because "less free" and using negative terminology like
"viral licensing".
Now we're with a new team of volunteers putting our shoulders under SFD (and the Digital Freedom Foundation in general, which also has Hardware Freedom Day, Document Freedom Day and Education Freedom Day). For this year the focus is on getting up and running again. Going onwards, we're look to streamline our tools and legal structures again. I like to dream big, and hope that one day we'll be able to actually support local groups with (physical and/or virtual) swag to empower groups. Also reaching out to companies engaged in FOSS software and ask them for prizes for teams winning in a given category.
So the positive is: it's easier to grow again. The team that had to take over the previous board, had a way much bigger challenge: they had to fill some really big shoes. If you like to help think about reshaping Software Freedom Day (and the other events), don't hesitate to join us on the Matrix channel :D
Grtz,
Jurgen
Hi Jurgen!
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I didn't know about this day until now. I looked at the wiki and was trying to find any swedish team from the previous years but had to go back to 2011-2015 to find any.
It looks like there were a lot of interest in the first half of 2010s (70-90 countries or so) and then dropped off from there quite a bit. I'm guessing covid had a lot to do with this but it started dropping even before 2019-2020. Any idea why that is?
Will register a swedish team in my city and we'll see what happens.
Cheers
Magnus / rtn / ralphtheninja
Jurgen Gaeremyn <jurgen@gaeremyn.be> skrev: (1 augusti 2023 08:35:51 UTC)Heya all,
Hackerspaces in my experience have been about a lot of things (friendship, technology, society, sharing knowledge, ...). I firmly believe that a sustainable hackerspace should hide in its little bubble, but needs to interact with society. A lot of us are convinced that the four freedoms of Free, Libre and Open Source have bettered society in many ways. We also see walled gardens popping up more and more eating away our freedoms.
A few years ago, we had SFD on hundreds of locations all over the world. The last few years, COVID has eaten all these activities...
Today I would like to challenge you all to celebrate Software Freedom Day in September. I'll elaborate on the Why and the How down here (just my opinions - not dogma)...
Why?
- Technical people already use (FL)OSS more than they are often aware of. I'm thinking of free tools, but certainly also free libraries that other technology is built on. Often liberal licenses like MIT end up becoming invisible (but that's the choice of the licensor so who am I to discuss it)?
- Given that more and more applications nowadays have a cloud component, it will become increasingly important to educate a wider audience of the choices and tradeoffs they make. Where the typical hacker congresses (CCC & the likes) will focus on unveiling hidden connections and how they (inter)act, Software Freedom Day will be less technical but can also touch the same conclusions.
- It's a great opportunity to get in touch with other like minded groups in your area (I'm thinking LUG's, JUGs, Python groups, OpenStreetmap groups, Repair cafés, ...) to team up and build a network around your physical area. You might be surprised what's already out there.
How?
Meh... I'd say: KISS. Whatever you like to do. Just a few ideas...
- Workshops on how to use free software
- Talks, debates, ... on how to switch to NextCloud, OpenStreetmap, LibreOffice, Inkscape, ...
- Linux Install Party
- How to set up a Pi-hole in your home.
- Online streaming of a rant or tutorial
- Barbecue with free software and affordable beers
- Organize a little layman's CTF (Juice shop) and own the hacker cliché
- ...
You could have a look at the Software Freedom Wiki to get some inspiration. If you register your event, it will appear on the website too, and we'll be promoting it a bit more actively through other social media channels. We're also reaching out to sponsors in the open source community and will be handing out prizes to teams who are exceptional on a specific field (e.g. MuseScore will be giving a year subscription to their online platform that complements their FOSS software). If you have any questions (or want to help organize the global event), don't hesitate to pop in to our Matrix channel!
Full disclosure, I'm part of the team organizing Software Freedom Day globally and would like to spark a new fire to the event (I'm not paid or professionally connected in any way though).
Hope to hear from you all!
Greetings,
Jurgen
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