[GNUz] Free Software GNUru visits Christchurch

[Rik Tindall]

Kia ora taatou,

Kim Hill listeners on Canterbury Public Issues Forum (CPIF) may have 
heard yesterday's Richard Stallman interview:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20080809-0845-Richard_Stallman_Freedom.ogg

Computer users who value telecommunications independence know who this 
gentleman is, through his historic achievement - the GNU/Linux operating 
system - aided and abetted by a cast of thousands of computer 
programmers around the world. This real-time, borderless, perhaps 
futurist online community offers one of the best examples available as 
to what "sustainability" actually is, keeping alive as it does the 
sharing principle (beyond 'intellectual property') without which 
computing could never have developed. The message, networks, and 
interoperability are important - fundamental even - to human survival in 
the face of emerging global crisis.

Other examples of the level of influence held by the international 
innovation stable out of which GNU/Linux comes, are: the Internet 
itself; Apple Mac OSX (BSD); Wikipedia (based on GNU copyleft 
licensing); Mozilla Firefox web browser (open-source); Google search 
engine (GNU/Linux-based); and OnlineGroups.Net <http://onlinegroups.net> 
(the E-Democracy.Org <http://e-democracy.org> platform). So, it is with 
great and sincere appreciation that this card-carrying netizen can 
announce the Christchurch speaking details for Richard M Stallman 
('RMS'), thanks to the University of Canterbury's Computer Science & 
Software Engineering <http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> department, and 
their Free Culture Club <http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/freeculture/>.

Date: Saturday 16 August
Time: 2:00-4:30pm
Place: Lecture Theatre Arts 1 - A1, east of James Hight Library - 
University of Canterbury
Topic: /Computers, GNU and Free Culture.

/A1 has capacity for 320 persons, and expect it to be packed.

Looking forward to seeing CPIF members, the General Public, and our 
License initiator - RMS / GPL - there.

Regards, Rik