[GNUz] [Fwd: Software Freedom Day 2005 Round-up]
Richard Tindall
gnuz@inode.co.nz
Thu, 15 Sep 2005 14:10:02 +1200
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Hi Team Christchurch!
Great job Saturday. Thanks very much for your support of SFD. Especially
to Nick and Jim, whose morning/afternoon appearances I have added
together as an extra Team Member for our report (available online @sfd,
& subject to editing).
The stats seem important, are up on 2004, and can be targetted for
exponentialising in 2006 - if we start now. I was quite despondent in
the leadup up to SFD, due to the lack of LUG support nationwide. But
there is one remedy for that - SFD! I hope our new participants can now
share in this enthusiasm.
Recommitted, I am looking for a (24-hour + broadband) venue SFD can grow
into locally. My first thoughts are CPIT & UoC, although medium-sized
commercial premises would compete. Our team is specially placed - as the
first in the world to work through each day - to provide a live
video-mic point of contact helping other teams get started &/or
integrated into global FOSS.
We should offer to host an installfest for CLUG as part of the SFD, to
add to the action.
Attached is an SFI 'view from the top', FYI.
Notably, our media success stands out as a contribution. We have
harnessed some commercial sponsorship, and will remain forever grateful
to Avonmore Tertiary Academy & the Computer Broker for helping launch
Software Freedom Day in Christchurch. FOSS is the 'killer ap', waiting
for its market. Let us proceed to facilitate growth.
Cheers folks,
--
Richard Tindall, InfoHelp Services <http://www.infohelp.co.nz>
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Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:48:59 +0100
From: Henrik Nilsen Omma <henrik@softwarefreedomday.org>
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To: henrik@softwarefreedomday.org
Subject: Software Freedom Day 2005 Round-up
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Hello world!
First, I want to congratulate all the teams that put on a great line-up
of events for Software Freedom Day this year! I hope you have found the
materials and web-services we provided useful. I have been reading the
reports and looking at the pictures that have come in, and would like to
share some of my thoughts about the events and how we should proceed
forward.
In the process of organising SFD we have connected an amazing network of
teams and individuals around the world it would be great if we could
take full advantage of that to build a solid structure that can support
exciting new events in the future. This obviously includes SFD 2006, but
may also include other events at different times. We would like to
foster better communication between local teams so we can learn from
each other's experiences.
There is still a lot of energy out there is the SFD teams and so we have
every opportunity to grow. But as we grow the size and number of teams,
we should also improve the way we do things. We can take a more
professional approach to certain things, including communicating with
the press.
What follows is simply my impression of the 2005 events and how we
should organise ourselves to stage even more and better events in the
future. This is not official SFI policy, as I am only one of seven board
members. Feel free to forward this email to anyone, esp. your team members.
== Timing ==
We moved the day to a slightly later date this year so that more schools
and universities could participate. Was this generally successful? I
think we should avoid moving the day around too much if we can. The
current rule is 'the second Saturday in September'. If that generally
works, we should probably stick with that. That would make next year's
event Sept. 9th.
About the day of the week: How does the choice of Saturday work for
people? The idea is that organisers will be free from work to put on
events and visitors will have a chance to attend. As always though, we
are not especially insistent on this day and encourage local teams to
put on events a few days before or after if that is more suitable. We
realise that having a day on the weekend will interfere with religious
practices in some countries. That would also be a problem for Friday or
Sunday AFAICT.
== Event types ==
We have seen a range of events this year from seminars to talking to
people on the street. New teams starting out should be able to learn
from the experiences of others and some teams may want to restructure
for next year and think again about what sort of events they want to
focus on. This wiki page [1] has an overview of the different types of
events with pros and cons of each. Please take a moment to add your
experiences to that page (if the relevant points are not already covered).
Some teams reported that they might have organised things differently
for greater impact, while other teams only want to make minor
adjustments. The Copenhagen team had an extremely innovative event in
2004 in the centre of town, handing out CDs and balloons, wearing
printed T-shirts. It was so successful and interesting that we adopted
many of those ideas for SFD globally (in fact the co-organisers of the
Copenhagen event DKUUG, has provided generous funding for SFD which
allowed us to supply T-shirts and balloons to other teams. Thank you
DKUUG!). This year they had a similar and equally successful event, but
they now feel the need to innovate and want to do something new next
year. I look forward to seeing what they come up with :)
[1]
http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Types_of_events
== Good ideas ==
The following is a mixed collection things I saw teams do that seem like
a good idea.
* Name stickers for guests and organisers: The Manilla team had sticky
labels with 'Software Freedom Day 05' and space for a for the organisers
(and the guests?), so you can see who you're talking to. Cool!
* Guest book (in some form): The Nepal team asked the visitors to sign
what seemed like a table cloth. The result was a testament to the large
number of visitors they had.
* Eye catching devices: The team in Marl, Germany had some yellow tape
around their setup of computers in a shopping mall with the text
'Windows Free Zone' printed on it. While we make a point of not
demonising any proprietary software vendors, I think this prop is funny
and makes people stop and ask: 'So what's the alternative?' See:
http://www.msc-dorsten.de/gallery/sfd2005
* Balloon are esp. good in areas where people are streaming past because
they will carry the balloons off on all directions and this acts as
real-time advertising for your event so people who have a special
interest in the topic (software/computers generally perhaps) will seek
you out. The Copenhagen team reported great success with this again. So:
balloons work really well when you have enough to give out to people who
walk past. It will then act as a magnet attracting esp. families with kids.
The list is duplicated on this wiki page [2], so please add to it. I'm
sure that there are lots of great ideas that I have missed.
[2]
http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Good_Event_ideas
== Structure and Governance ==
SFD is currently organised by a non-profit organisation called 'Software
Freedom International' which was set up specifically for this purpose
after last year's event. The advantage of having such an organisation is
that we can have a bank account that is independent of any one
individual, that we can take donations and that we have some limitation
on personal liability.
This organisation is currently governed by a group of 7 members,
consisting of founders, active FOSS community members and prominent SFD
team leaders. Our meetings have generally been conducted via email (as
we are spread all over the globe). It has been suggested that we should
conduct regular meeting on IRC (monthly or bi-weekly). The feasibility
of this may depend on the connectivity level of the different board
members, our time zones and schedules.
If it is feasible to arrange such meetings I would suggest that they be
open so that SFD team members could attend as well and participate in
the discussions. We might also hold some closed sessions in conjunction
with these to deal with more sensitive matters such as sponsorship
deals. But anything relating to the community, such as planning or
organisation should be kept in the open IMO.
== Task-Oriented Groups ==
I'd like to propose a few different global working groups that could
specialise in certain areas and help the global SFD community improve
their events. These group categories are just preliminary suggestions.
New types of groups can be formed and currently suggested ones will be
dropped if there isn't enough support for them. Global groups might be a
good way for individual to participate from areas where there may not be
a strong local team. (note: I've used the term 'group' here to avoid
confusion with the local 'teams', but other terms such as committee or
crew might be better)
This list has been duplicated on this wiki page. Please make suggestions
there or sign up for a group. Most of the tasks described here have
traditionally been done by members of the board and a few volunteers,
but there is a limit to how well we will scale :) So please help out if
you can and lets build an active and global community around SFD!
=== Press group ===
We had some great events this year, but many noted the lack of press
coverage. There was some coverage as the result of press releases before
the events, and some events did get some coverage, but generally this
aspect could have been much better. We need to understand the press
better, including what makes a good story for them, what materials they
need and when they need it.
We should also seek allies in the press who can provide such insight and
who can get stories published. A part of future preparations might be to
prepare physical press-packs with CDs and fliers that we can send to the
local press in good time before the next event. For maximum effect, such
press-packs should probably be hand-delivered.
Once we get press coverage, the press team should also be responsible
for tracking down this coverage on the web and presenting it on our website.
=== Graphics group ===
We always need cool graphics! We had some good graphics this year,
including a logo created by Alan at Free Software Magazine and a poster
by lucychili in AU. These made their way around the web, but not in an
organised way. We should set up an artwork group and use the wiki as a
central repository for great artwork licensed in suitable ways that can
be used for our official materials and independently by teams around the
world.
We need graphics for: T-shirts, balloons, flyers, posters, etc. We need
colour and B/W versions. We need web-based graphics like banners and
link buttons and skins for our website front-ends.
=== Web infrastructure group ===
With a global collaboration project such as ours, the net-based
infrastructure is crucially important. This year we used a Mambo CMS for
the main site and Media Wiki. We will continue with these but probably
upgrade them to new versions and try to tie them better together. We
would also like to introduce some exciting new tools, such as a
blog-planet where participants can blog about their preparations and
re-introduce global and local mailing lists.
We should also consider providing web-based multimedia content for the
next event. We could set up web-cams or streams linking the different
events or allow visitors to leave video-greeting to visitors in other
parts of the world (see also multimedia group).
=== Marketing research group ===
We have several advantages in that our product is free (gratis), is of
high quality (less viruses, not advertising noise) and ethically
pleasant. Most of our marketing is currently conducted through
word-of-mouth, which is generally considered as very effective in that
the listener will tend to trust the message, but is also slow and may
have difficulty in gaining critical mass before the product is out of date.
However, even though we already have some good advantages and even
though what we are trying to market is slightly different to traditional
products, it seems likely that we could still learn a great deal from
traditional marketing theory. People have developed these ides over
decades of detailed study and we should attempt to identify elements of
that knowledge that might be relevant to us. (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marketing_topics for a start)
=== Fund-raising group ===
In 2005 we had just over $2000 in donated funds (in addition to the CDs
which were produced and shipped by our primary sponsor). This was great
because we were able to produce T-shirts and balloons and ship them
around the world. However, we would like to step up this effort a few
notches for next year! We expect still more teams and would like to
supply them even better with more gear.
This obviously requires more funds. Hopefully we can draw this from the
community of FOSS-friendly companies, organisations and individuals. We
should write letters, run a donations drive and possibly provide
merchandise for sale from the website.
=== Wiki maintenance group ===
The wiki is an increasingly important tool for our project. We should
set up a group that can look after and restructure the content to make
sure it stays relevant and well formatted. Many people are already doing
this, which is great. Creating a group for it would give those people
some more recognition and would also provide an easy way to contribute
for those who are not directly connected with a local team.
=== Multimedia group ===
Several teams used video materials as part of their presentations.
AFAICT, this was often the film RevolutionOS. We might be able to strike
a deal with the makers of RevolutionOS to provide it to us at a reduced
cost so we can provide it to several teams. Alternatively we could look
at some of the material that is already available under open license
such as 'go_open' and various short films at creative commons. The
Multimedia Group could compile a CD or DVD with such footage and also
include video footage from the 2005 events. We should also consider live
multimedia features such as video links between teams.
=== Logistics group ===
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of logistics involved in
organising this kind of event. This involves planning the steps and time
lines involved in getting supplies to the teams and also dealing with
suppliers and shipping companies. It involves fascinating things like
planning a complex production and distribution network and mundane
things like making sure addresses are in the right spreadsheet format
and ordering envelopes and taking stuff to the post office.
http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Working_Groups
Best wishes,
Henrik Nilsen Omma
Software Freedom International
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