Software Freedom
This page was designed to be a starting place to collect resources and discuss issues related to Software Freedom, especially the planned Software Freedom Day, and Software Freedom Season. A new initiative is now being set up at: ![[WWW]](/wiki/classic/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
SoftwareFreedomDay.org
Two days to celebrate:
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August 28
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March 4
Proposal
The Software Freedom Season will officially begin on Software Freedom Day, either March 4th or August 28. There is no specific end date to the season, but fades into the following Software Freedom Season.
This day and season are meant to be an annual, international celebration of free software (sometimes referred to as open source software). This season is meant to be a time of outreach to show what can be accomplished by the spirit of the programming community. But this season is also a time to celebrate this spirit, and recognize our friends in this endeavor.
Why March 4th? Any day of the Software Freedom Season would do (which means any day of the year). But, as Jim Thomas suggested, this day cries out to march forth in celebration of Software Freedom 
Why August 28? Good time of year, especially for colleges.
Activities
What can I do to help?
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Organize a show-and-tell of free/open source software in local schools, libraries, etc.
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Burn some CDs containing free software for students or schools
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Send an e-mail to the mailing lists/authors of your favorite 3 packages
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Host an "Open Source Users Group" meeting
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Hug an open source programmer
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Meet fellow Software Freedom Fighters for tea, or other beaverages
Resources
The following links are provided for public use. Please do not link material that is not available under an Open Content License.
Presentations
If you have a slide show (say, in HTML, OpenOffice, or PowerPoint) please list it here. If at all possible, please provide links to the presentation data files (eg, .PPT, .SXI files) so that others can improve and alter their presentations for their own uses.
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WhyIUseOpenSourceAndHow - some notes on free software
Software and Projects
Software, projects, or compiled lists that could be useful for those interested in finding free and open software.
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http://wikipedia.org/ - a community created encyclopedia
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GIMP, the popular GNU Image Manipulation Program
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OpenOffice.org, a complete and completely free office suite
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Mozilla, all that you can ask of a web browser
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VNC, Virtual Network Computing - a free remote display system for various platforms
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GNU Win II - Free software package for Windows (in 4 languages)
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Audio Applications for Linux, many of which are Free Software
Organizations
The following are links to organizations related to the Freedom of Software.
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Affero.com - Bringing Patronage to the Free Exchange of Information and Support on the Internet
Regional Organisations:
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Asia
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India
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Europe
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Free Software Foundation Europe
Czeck Republic
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Czech Free Software Foundation
France
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Association Pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre
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Portugal
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Associação Nacional para o Software Livre
Spain
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United Kingdom
China
News
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http://www.slashdot.org/ - News that often centers around open source and misspellings
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http://linuxtoday.com/ - A leading Linux magazine
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http://www.linuxjournal.com/ - A leading Linux magazine
Related Conferences
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http://babelfish.altavista.com/urltrurl?url=http://osdn.org.ua/meetings/2002/0928/&lp=ru_en&tt=url - Russian Open Source Conference
