[Liverpool] Software Freedom Day (19th Sept)

Thu Aug 20 14:57:06 UTC 2009

Hello Guys and Girls of LivLUG,

As one of the MFS SFD09 event organisers, I thought I'd take the
opportunity to send you all the following information and call for
volunteers.

The venue for Software Freedom Day 2009 (SFD09) was recently announced
as the University of Manchester's Tom Kilburn building (i.e. the
school of computer science) on Oxford Road; appropriately the
birthplace of the world's fi:rst stored-program computer, the
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) nicknamed “Baby”.
The date for the event as you may well know is Saturday 19th
September, which ties in nicely with freshers week; hoorar!
Furthermore, we seem to be the only SFD event in the North West of
England <http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/2009/map.shtml> and we love
it if you could all visit Manchester and join in the celebrations with
us.

If you're on the MFS mailing list then no doubt you will have seen a
lot of activity regarding SFD09. For those who aren't on the list yet
I've taken the liberty of including an ad-hoc event plan detailing
descriptions of the roles and people we are looking for to help
support the event.

Live demonstrations showcasing some of the best free software available.
Software demonstrations have been split into three main categories,
home, business and communication. For each category we have devised a
list of some of the software packages that we'd like to demonstrate to
visitors on the day. So in no particular order here's the list:-

Home
- Ubuntu Desktop
- Firefox
- Pidgin
- Rhythmbox
- GIMP
- OpenArena

Business
- Ubuntu Server/Debian/CentOS
- OpenOffice.org
- Evolution
- GNUCash
- KVM/Xen
- Wine

Communication
- Plone
- Alfresco
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Bongo
- Jabber
- IRC
- identi.ca

If you think we've missed something obvious then please feel free to
suggest it. As you can probably tell the “Communication” category is
purposely vague to accommodate the weirdest of suggestions; Emacs for
example... These demonstrations will obviously need some hardware to
run on so, if you have a spare machine or two that you think we will
find useful them loan them to us. Better still you could install a
demonstration and volunteer to support it throughout the day.

Talks and advice from local free software experts.
We are dubbing the talks “Speakers Corner” (think Hyde Park).
Introducing free software and free culture, talks will be informal,
short and non-technical. If you would like to give a talk, turn up and
take to the stage. Also as part of the talks and advice, there will be
a tech-support and advice desk. This will basically consist of a geek,
a desk, some chairs and a sign with Guru written on it. If you like
sitting down and giving random people your advice then please feel
free to take your turn under the sign.

Workshops conducting computer recycling and GNU/Linux installations.
Blow the dust of an old desktop machine and install GNU/Linux with
someone. Helping out is simple, bring a usable old(ish) machine and a
Ubuntu CD/USB stick. Next!

Free software and other giveaways.
Shortly we will be receiving our SFD event packs that will include
some giveaway goodies, but I suspect not enough. So if you have the
time, start burning and labeling some free software CDs. Some good
choices include Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu because everyone likes
Ubuntu but also consider gNewSense <http://www.gnewsense.org/> and
Open[Education]Disc <http://www.theopendisc.com/>, etc.

Free culture and free media exhibitions.
The famous Liverpudlian, Dan Lynch will be producing a “Best of
Creative Commons” mix CD to giveaway at the event. Therefore, it would
be nice to dedicate a stand to free culture and free media. So, if you
are familiar with Jamendo <http://www.jamendo.com/>, Magnatune
<http://www.magnatune.com/>, Blender movies
<http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/movies/> and the Creative
Commons licensing <http://creativecommons.org/>, etc. then maybe this
is the stall for you?

Refreshments, in the form of [fair-trade] beverages, biscuits and cake.
Janey of Marbella Café <http://www.marbellacupcakes.com/> will be
providing a fabulous assortment of light refreshments at modest prices
in our very own SFD café (aka the Byte Café).

FSF and free culture literature, and SFD09 merchandise on sale.
...courtesy of the SFI, FSF, MFS and anyone else with something
relevant to sell.

The local press will be invited to cover the event.
Hopefully the above is true. I believe a friend of a friend might know
someone who is a journalist for The Messenger but someone from the MEN
would be a real treat. So, if you know any tameable MEN journalists
then feel free to tip them off. Furthermore, we'd like to cover the
event for ourselves so, if we have any budding amateur photographers
or journalists amongst us then please request a press pass.

Aside from all of this there is going to be a general information desk
with meeters and greeters, etc. and we will need a couple of “shop
keepers”. Given the amount positive responses so far we should not
have a problem filling these positions but the offer is still open to
enthusiastic people.

There is loads more I could say but this email is already getting too
long and sadly I've got some “real work” to do. I'll finish by saying,
SFD09 in Manchester looks set to fantastic so put Saturday 19th
September on your calendar and invite all your family and friends,
etc. We expect the main event to be between the ours of 10:00-16:00
and will also be hosting a social gathering afterwards to continue the
celebrations well into the small hours.

If you are interested in supporting us and joining in the worldwide
celebrations then please go to the SFD website
<http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/>, have a think about what you can
offer and get in touch. All contributions are welcome! Oh, and please
forward this to anyone who may find it interesting.

Thank you for your time and we hope to see you there.

Best wishes,
The MFS Team

> From: Andrew Williams <andy at tensixtyone.com>
> Date: 2009/8/20
> Subject: Re: [Liverpool] Software Freedom Day (19th Sept)
> To: liverpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 01:06:41PM +0100, Andrew Williams wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Our freedom loving brothers and sisters over in Manchester are
>> organising a event to run on Software Freedom Day, their idea is to run
>> an open session for new users to experience FOSS and raise FOSS
>> awareness, for those who have never heard of SFD then checkout the
>> website[1].
>>
>> I was wondering, would people be interested in organising a similar
>> event in Liverpool? I know its a little under a month away and maybe a
>> struggle but I think it would be a interesting event to hold. If not,
>> then maybe we could offer support to our Manchester friends?
>>
>
> Judging by the general feedback, I'd say its best to not do one this
> year and offer our help to MFS. Next year, its so on :)
>
> --
> Andrew Williams
> w: http://tensixtyone.com/
> e: andy at tensixtyone.com
>
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