Hi all,
I'm the Team Contact for this year's Software Freedom Day event in Coffs
Harbour. This is the third year we've organised a day-long informal
seminar-type event for Software Freedom Day, featuring presentations,
demonstrations, conversations, and coffee and bikkies.
Last year (see http://computerclub.cex.com.au/sfd) we had awesomely fun
day with a range of presenters from in and around Coffs Harbour who use
free software at home, in business, and in their educational or
community organisations. We had an attendance of over fifty people over
the course of the day, which may not sound like much, but relative to
population that's like getting 3,000 people to an event in Sydney. This
year we've got a larger venue and the target is to at least double last
year's attendance. In order to achieve this, we want to shake up the
program a bit by inviting people from further afield (ie. spamming all
the LUG lists) to help us out.
We're looking for people willing to give short (< 30mins) presentations
on free software-related topics, while enjoying a pleasant little break
in one of the nicest parts of the country (with the exception it must be
said of Coffs CBD, which stands as a starkly offensive monument to
laissez-faire town planning). We can guarantee you free-as-in-beer sofa
or spare room style accommodation, but if your tastes are a bit more
up-market there's no shortage of accommodation here, and it's relatively
inexpensive in the off-season. On our wishlist is sponsorship from a
local resort/hotel/B&B, but we haven't begun enquiries there yet.
We have a couple of local businesses specialising in free software based
services, and an increasing number of businesses and other organisations
in the area catching on to the benefits of freedom, so if you're in
business and looking for customers or partners you may find the trip
well worth making. We also have a growing geek community here with
people of various levels of expertise looking for cool projects to work on.
We don't want to poach/detract from anybody else's event in any way, but
I know from experience there are diminishing returns in talking to the
same crowd over and over. So if you're doing something with free
software that you think the wider world should know about, we encourage
you to step out from the comfort zone of your local LUG and come to
Coffs Harbour to spread the word. If Coffs is too far away, consider
offering your services to any SFD event closer to home outside of a
major metropolitan area.
Please email me at the above address (with 'SFD' in the title) if you're
interested in contributing. This month I'll be traveling through
Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, Albury, and Melbourne once or twice each,
so I'm even available for a face to face chat in those places.
Matthew Davidson.
--
Alma Technology - The future is free and open
http://www.almatech.net.au ... (02) 6658 1607
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http://computerclub.cex.com.au http://www.clublinux.org.au
--
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself
without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine,
receives light without darkening me."
- Thomas Jefferson
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html
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