[compsoc-announce] Software Freedom Day meeting on Saturday

[Will Thompson]

HELLO DEAR MEMBERS,

I am a muppet and totally forgot to pass on this announcement that flew
past on the OxLUG[0] mailing list in my earlier email (which scored a
pitiful 0.3 points on the Oxmail spam filter (which came from my use of
the words "unique business proposal".  Oops, there it goes again)).
Those of you who like Free Software may well be interested.  Those of
you who do not may want to hit their delete button now.

[0] http://www.oxlug.org/


The coordinators of Software Freedom Day are meeting in Oxford, UK, on 3 
March this year - and supporters of FOSS are invited to come chat with 
us about software freedom in general and SFD in particular.

* DATE: Saturday 3 March 2007
* TIME: 1330 UTC onwards (till late afternoon)
* VENUE: Freud's Bar, Walton Street, Oxford (walking distance from bus 
and train stations)
* Maps and information about venue at the end of this email.[1], [2]

Please drop an email to info at sf-day.org if you're planning to come - so 
that we can work out (approximate) numbers.

== Background ==

Software Freedom Day is getting a professional makeover this year as 
Software Freedom International (SFI), the organisation behind this 
annual event, holds their first ever face-to-face board meeting.

The coordination of SFD in previous years has been undertaken by the 
board [3], consisting of members in Australia, Pakistan, Nigeria, UK, 
Denmark and USA, using IRC and email as their primary means of 
communication. Their coordination has supported teams all over the world 
in staging their own local events, which vary from giving away FOSS CDs 
to staging seminars to demonstrating FOSS to their communities.

After the overwhelming positive response for SFD 2006 (with close to 200 
teams from all over the world registered) and the late delivery of 
support to some teams, the board has decided to shake things up and 
sharpen their strategy for bringing software freedom to the streets. 
Part of this has involved restructuring the board to enhance contact 
with teams, but we've also decided to sit down together and make some 
serious plans to grow SFD and further promote the spread of free software.

The SFI board will be meeting in Oxford from 1 to 3 March, and on our 
last day of meetings we wanted to invite members of the local FOSS 
communities - or even those just curious about SFD - to come for a few 
drinks, some food, and to share your thoughts with us. Please do come 
along if you're anywhere near Oxford, and find out about our new ideas 
for Software Freedom Day!

Our face-to-face meeting could not take place without the assistance of 
OSS Watch [4], the open source advisory service based at the University 
of Oxford. Many thanks to them, to our other sponsors, and to the teams 
that make SFD worthwhile.

Make sure you have Saturday 15 September in your diaries for Software 
Freedom Day 2007, and we hope to see you in person, in Oxford!

[1] Freud's website: 
http://www.freudliving.co.uk/cgi-bin/shop/page.cgi?user_id=526&file=bars.html 
[2] Google map to Freud's: http://tinyurl.com/2cenps
[3] SFI board: http://softwarefreedomday.org/sfi
[4] OSS Watch: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/

--
Will Thompson, Oxford University Computer Society President
Jabber: <resiak at feayn.org>;  Mobile: +44 (0)7771 77 40 70
<http://www.ox.compsoc.net>