[sclug] Richard Stallman - Oxford - Friday

[John Statham]

This from the oxlug list, forgive me if it has already been mentioned here.
 I've been away and am catching up but for those who may be interested:-

 Founder and president of the Free Software Foundation, Dr Richard Stallman, will be visiting the UK next week. As part of his visit, he'll be speaking in Oxford on Friday 4 November, at 3pm in the Martin Wood Lecture theatre, just off Parks Road. It will be a rare chance to hear him speak! This is a FREE PUBLIC MEETING. But space is limited so YOU MUST BOOK IN ADVANCE. To do so, you should email its3 at oucs.ox.ac.uk callgate-6.47.5.0/rms/6.47.5.0/mail/getBody?folderId=7&messageId=Nzg2MWIhF2dIRg8T63MwJbRIWtZvItRa&purpose=display&bodyType=html#  with your name and any organization you represent, and they'll add you manually to the university's system (university staff can book online at https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itss_booking  .) Richard's subject will be "For A Free Digital Society". Here's the abstract: 'Activities directed at "including'' more people in the use of digital technology are predicated on the assumption that such inclusion is invariably a good thing. It appears so, when judged solely by immediate practical convenience. However, if we also judge in terms of human rights, whether digital inclusion is good or bad depends on what kind of digital world we are to be included in. If we wish to work towards digital inclusion as a goal, it behooves us to make sure it is the good kind.' Richard Stallman launched the free software movement in 1983 and started the development of the GNU operating system (see www.gnu.org ) in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, with or without changes. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today. Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award, and the Takeda Award for Social/ Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.