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<p>Hi Magnus,</p>
<p>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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.digitalfreedomfoundation.org/index.php/about">about-page
here</a>, 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).<br>
<br>
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".</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://matrix.to/#/#SoftwareFreedomDay:matrix.org">join
us on the Matrix channel</a> :D</p>
<p>Grtz,<br>
Jurgen<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/08/2023 15:14, Lars-Magnus Skog
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:56B9D6F4-9169-413A-96EE-046BEE166575@riseup.net">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="auto">Hi Jurgen!<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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?<br>
<br>
Will register a swedish team in my city and we'll see what
happens.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
Magnus / rtn / ralphtheninja </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="auto">Jurgen Gaeremyn <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jurgen@gaeremyn.be"><jurgen@gaeremyn.be></a>
skrev: (1 augusti 2023 08:35:51 UTC)</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt
0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);
padding-left: 1ex;">
<p>Heya all,</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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...<br>
</p>
<p>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)...</p>
<h2>Why?</h2>
<ol>
<li>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)?</li>
<li>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.<br>
</li>
<li>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.<br>
</li>
</ol>
<h2>How?</h2>
<p>Meh... I'd say: KISS. Whatever you like to do. Just a few
ideas...<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Workshops on how to use free software</li>
<li>Talks, debates, ... on how to switch to NextCloud,
OpenStreetmap, LibreOffice, Inkscape, ...</li>
<li>Linux Install Party<br>
</li>
<li>How to set up a Pi-hole in your home.</li>
<li>Online streaming of a rant or tutorial</li>
<li>Barbecue with free software and affordable beers</li>
<li>Organize a little layman's CTF (Juice shop) and own the
hacker cliché<br>
</li>
<li>...<br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>You could have a look at the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide">Software
Freedom Wiki</a> to get some inspiration. If you <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.softwarefreedomday.org/cgi-bin/register.py">register
your event</a>, 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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://matrix.to/#/#SoftwareFreedomDay:matrix.org">Matrix
channel</a>!<br>
</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>Hope to hear from you all!<br>
Greetings,<br>
Jurgen<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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</div>
<div dir="auto">
<div class="k9mail-signature">-- <br>
Skickat från min Android-enhet med K-9 Mail. Ursäkta min
fåordighet.</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
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