World Document Freedom Day

by smudged papyrus head - (iosaf admit it must i so as not andrew to insult) Wed Mar 26, 2008 15:03

Roughly 200 teams from 60 countries are taking part in today's free t-shirt promotion & public awareness exercise. I'm not on the Irish team, but you've got me to thank none the less for having your awareness raised.

This is all done through "the Free Software Foundation Europe". The FSFE was launched on 10 March 2001 and supports all European aspects of Free Software; especially the GNU Project. They are actively supporting development of Free Software and furthering GNU-based Operating Systems such as GNU/Linux. Also, they provide an assistance centre for politicians, lawyers and journalists in order to secure the legal, political and social future of Free Software. You can access their english language pages through this link-
http://www.spain.fsfeurope.org/index.en.html

You could also get involved in"The Freedom Task Force" (which despite its military name will not expect much more from you but a weekend in Amsterdam). The FTF "is a legal infrastructure project that helps individuals, projects and businesses understand Free Software and the opportunities that it presents. The FTF is primarily focused on Free Software licensing issues and managing FSFE's legal affairs. Our goal is to educate people in the proper use of Free Software".

What they Do:

* They answer common questions that people may have regarding Free Software and the licences used throughout the community
* They offer training and consultancy on topics ranging from introducing Free Software licensing through to describing the strategic implementation of Free Software in business.
* They resolve licensing issues in partnership with gpl-violations.org for the long-term benefit of Free Software.
* They help projects consolidate copyright under their own administrative umbrella. (you see I told you about there were umbrellas!!!!!)
* They act as the legal guardian of Free Software projects.
urrent Events:

FSFE's Freedom Task Force has announced the first European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software will be held on Friday the 11th of April in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The venue for this meeting is the InterContinental Amstel Hotel. Learn more about this event here http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2008q....html

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& now less talk of umbrellas & GNU's & t-shirts, let us get to the real point of the day.
The Olympiad connection.

As we all know. last year people with disabilities represented Ireland from the 2nd to the 11th of October at the World Special Olympics in Shanghai, Red China. & many of them (you know how many) brought home Gold Medals. Public awareness of this event was quite low because neither McDonalds nor CocaCola push their marketing strategy that way. But it was the largest global event to date which used Open Software. Likewise the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing will use Open Software options for the massive process of co-ordinating scores, timetables, & blaa blaa organisation stuff.
This means Microsoft won't get a stock rise out of the Olympics even if Mc Donalds sells more burgers.

on top of my subject am I.

not just today but everyday.

by smudged papyrus head Wed Mar 26, 2008 14:30

I really admire how you managed to tell us all that with less than eleven hours of "document free day" to go & most importantly not feel the need to bring the 2008 Olympiad into it. All the same, I'll will be lobbying against your college hosting the OocCon2008 event. I feel that ye could have shared the lollipops, t-shirts, umbrellas & so on so forth with us before now.

Indymedia ireland is the most visited open source website in Ireland which is primarily maintained by people with or without souls attached in the Irish state. It is second only to Wikipedia for open source hits, but naturally both lag far behind Mozilla firefox for use. Though you don't actually visit Mozilla firefox every time you use it, do you?

on top of my subject am I.
speak like Yoda do I.
enjoy your t-shirts & remember to tell us about the next day.

by Andrew Clarke - Dundalk Institute of Technology Wed Mar 26, 2008 13:55

It's great to see that the meaning of Document Freedom Day is being reported on. I've checked and the Indymedia Ireland website system is designed using Open Source software which protects users by supporting Open Standards and formats.

For anyone who's not aware, ask yourself:

Do you use Microsoft Office?
Have you upgraded to Office 2007?
Will you upgrade to Office 2010??
Will you upgrade to Office 2015????
...
Do you know there is a free alternative?

Go to http://www.openoffice.org and download the OpenOffice.org software. This is a FREE drop in replacement for Office that has all of the same features and more (save as PDF) but without the cost and without any other restrictions. Install the software and then give the disk to all your friends and tell them to do the same (legally).

Taking this small step will protect you from locking your own documents into formats that you must pay for software just to read your own documents. The software can also open OASIS file formats which are Internationally recognised document formats, so you're future proofed.

Give it a go. Spread the word. Don't pay for restrictive Office software.