Final report for 2006

From my point of view, the event was a fantastic success, with everyone who came along or stumbling into one of the rooms from the local library, discovering something new and exciting.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who helped make the day the success that it was...

• Annie Payne - Who, as the person responsible for community development at the Mawson Centre, made the venue available for free. We would never been able to have the event without you.

also

• Bettong.Org - Janet and her fellow Bettongs; Kim, Tom, and Bruce
  
• Air-Stream - Robert, Chris, Chris, Kat, Kim, Paul, Ryan, Shawn and Simon

Both of these groups have produced reports of the days activities, which are available
on the Software Freedom Showcase website.

Thanks also to the following people

• Michael - working through a Ubuntu installation
• Kieran - gaming with Linux
  
• Kevin - showing us the electronic music software available for Linux; and
  
• Andrew - for explaining how to install Linux on an iPod
• Sue - from the Mawson Lakes Library, who out together the Free and Open Source book display.
• Ubuntu - for providing the CD's and stickers to give away

In addition, there was also entertainment provided by

• Swing Dancers SA - providing music and movement
  
• Chicago Show Bands - providing music and the BBQ

Photos!

Pictures from the event have now been posted! (Thanks to Janet and Kim for these.)

There is also a great report on the days events, posted by Air-Stream.

More SFD images from around the world.

A couple of other sets of images have been posted from the day..

• Christchurch, New Zealand are running a 2 day event, extending Saturday through to Sunday.
• Des Moines, IA USA - An event by CIALUG - with a good collection of Linux merchandise
• Team Scotland had a table at the Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre

Software Freedom Showcase over for 2006

Well it's over! and everything went really, really well. I didn't have time to grab any photos, but lots of people were making good use of their camera's , so the images should be arriving shortly (hear that everyone!).

It is still 'Software Freedom Day' though, and events are just starting in some places of the world. Pictures are arriving on the the official website gallery, and it looks like a lot of people had a lot of fun... and it's still going.

• In Hamilton, New Zealand, a friendly penguin staked out a shopping mall. Excellent display! Look out for those orange t-shirts, there everywhere.
• The LCUzb (Uzbekistan Linux User Group) had a Party
• The southern group in Adelaide, (Software Freedom Day Expo) has a good setup. There are those orange t-shirts again!
• In Canberra, Australia, a stall was manned at the Kingston Computer Market. Even more orange t-shirts.
• Sydney, Australia has some photos on their information page.. lots of balloons at their event, and a well organised program.
  

Well done everyone.

Only one sleep to go...

Tomorrow is Software Freedom Day.. lets all celebrate this magnificent day, and I might see you there. I'll be the one jumping up and down with excitement.

Less than a week to go..

and this time next week Software Freedom Day will be all over.

It's just about to turn 11pm here on Sunday, September 10th. Adelaide is at +930 hours, which means that everyone has ticked over.

Hopefully we will have internet access on the day during our event (still working on that), but afterwards I will be watching closely to see what happens at the other Software Freedom Day events. If there is an IRC channel, I'll be there...

Cheers, everyone..

Snookered..

This week we had some disappointing news about some of the resources at our venue.

The Mawson Centre, in Mawson Lakes, is a joint project between the University of South Australia, The South Australian Education Department (Department of Education and Childrens Services) and the City of Salisbury. This is generally excellent. The Univerisity gets another building to use during the day, the local school get some much needed office space, and the Council has a readly made location for the public library.

The building is managed by the University, and it allows people from these three community serving areas to interact in ways that they normally wouldn't.

So what's the problem? In a couple of words, University beauocracy and proprietory software.

Part of the resources provided by the University are the buildings computers and network and we were hoping to make use of these during the event. Unfortunately, these systems have been setup with propietory software and locked down.

The systems themselves allow for the three types of users, Univerisity, School and Library to have separate sets of software programs available (selected when you log in) but the actual process for how this software is selected has been hidden. A system does exist for makingn changes, which involves signoffs, testing and evaluation, but the impression that has been given (and I have no facts about it) is that it is highly beaurocratic and will take a long time.

Community use of the Mawson Centre is not going to go away, and neither is Software Freedom Day. There are some very simple things that can be done here which could make the situation better for everyone.

I'm already looking forward to Software Freedom Day 2007!

8 days to go..

Over the last couple of days, I have been mailing out brochures to people who may be interested in attending the event, or who might be able to further promote the Software Freedom Showcase.

• City of Salisbury and City of Playford Libraries
• City of Salisbury Community development and PR people
• South Australian ABC Television - State Line
• South Australian Parliament Representative - Mr Kevin Foley, MP
• The Advertiser - Local Newspaper
• The News Review - Local Salisbury, Playford, Gawler Newspaper
• The Independent Weekly - Local independent newspaper
• PBA FM - Local, Saliabury based, Radio Station
• South Australian computer associations and branches
• Some appropriate State government organisations