Hello Ubuntu UK, As one of the MFS SFD09 event organisers, I thought I'd take the opportunity to send you all the following information and call for volunteers.
The venue for Software Freedom Day 2009 (SFD09) was recently announced as the University of Manchester's Tom Kilburn building (i.e. the school of computer science) on Oxford Road; appropriately the birthplace of the world's first stored-program computer, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) nicknamed “Baby”. The date for the event as you may well know is Saturday 19th September, which ties in nicely with freshers week; hoorar! Furthermore, we seem to be the only SFD event in the North West of England <http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/2009/map.shtml> and we love it if you could all visit Manchester and join in the celebrations with us. If you're on the MFS mailing list then no doubt you will have seen a lot of activity regarding SFD09. For those who aren't on the list yet I've taken the liberty of including an ad-hoc event plan detailing descriptions of the roles and people we are looking for to help support the event. Live demonstrations showcasing some of the best free software available. Software demonstrations have been split into three main categories, home, business and communication. For each category we have devised a list of some of the software packages that we'd like to demonstrate to visitors on the day. So in no particular order here's the list:- Home - Ubuntu Desktop - Firefox - Pidgin - Rhythmbox - GIMP - OpenArena Business - Ubuntu Server/Debian/CentOS - OpenOffice.org - Evolution - GNUCash - KVM/Xen - Wine Communication - Plone - Alfresco - Joomla - Drupal - Bongo - Jabber - IRC - identi.ca If you think we've missed something obvious then please feel free to suggest it. As you can probably tell the “Communication” category is purposely vague to accommodate the weirdest of suggestions; Emacs for example... These demonstrations will obviously need some hardware to run on so, if you have a spare machine or two that you think we will find useful them loan them to us. Better still you could install a demonstration and volunteer to support it throughout the day. Talks and advice from local free software experts. We are dubbing the talks “Speakers Corner” (think Hyde Park). Introducing free software and free culture, talks will be informal, short and non-technical. If you would like to give a talk, turn up and take to the stage. Also as part of the talks and advice, there will be a tech-support and advice desk. This will basically consist of a geek, a desk, some chairs and a sign with Guru written on it. If you like sitting down and giving random people your advice then please feel free to take your turn under the sign. Workshops conducting computer recycling and GNU/Linux installations. Blow the dust of an old desktop machine and install GNU/Linux with someone. Helping out is simple, bring a usable old(ish) machine and a Ubuntu CD/USB stick. Next! Free software and other giveaways. Shortly we will be receiving our SFD event packs that will include some giveaway goodies, but I suspect not enough. So if you have the time, start burning and labeling some free software CDs. Some good choices include Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu because everyone likes Ubuntu but also consider gNewSense <http://www.gnewsense.org/> and Open[Education]Disc <http://www.theopendisc.com/>, etc. Free culture and free media exhibitions. Podcaster, Dan Lynch will be producing a “Best of Creative Commons” mix CD to giveaway at the event. Therefore, it would be nice to dedicate a stand to free culture and free media. So, if you are familiar with Jamendo <http://www.jamendo.com/>, Magnatune <http://www.magnatune.com/>, Blender movies <http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/movies/> and the Creative Commons licensing <http://creativecommons.org/>, etc. then maybe this is the stall for you? Refreshments, in the form of [fair-trade] beverages, biscuits and cake. Janey of Marbella Café <http://www.marbellacupcakes.com/> will be providing a fabulous assortment of light refreshments at modest prices in our very own SFD café (aka the Byte Café). FSF and free culture literature, and SFD09 merchandise on sale. ...courtesy of the SFI, FSF, MFS, Canonical and anyone else with something relevant to sell. The local press will be invited to cover the event. Hopefully the above is true. I believe a friend of a friend might know someone who is a journalist for The Messenger but someone from the MEN would be a real treat. So, if you know any tameable MEN journalists then feel free to tip them off. Furthermore, we'd like to cover the event for ourselves so, if we have any budding amateur photographers or journalists amongst us then please request a press pass. Aside from all of this there is going to be a general information desk with meeters and greeters, etc. and we will need a couple of “shop keepers”. Given the amount positive responses so far we should not have a problem filling these positions but the offer is still open to enthusiastic people. There is loads more I could say but this email is already getting too long and sadly I've got some “real work” to do. I'll finish by saying, SFD09 in Manchester looks set to fantastic so put Saturday 19th September on your calendar and invite all your family and friends, etc. We expect the main event to be between the ours of 10:00-16:00 and will also be hosting a social gathering afterwards to continue the celebrations well into the small hours. If you are interested in supporting us and joining in the worldwide celebrations then please go to the SFD website <http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/>, have a think about what you can offer and get in touch. All contributions are welcome! Oh, and please forward this to anyone who may find it interesting. Thank you for your time and we hope to see you there. Best wishes, The MFS Team -- http://www.fsf.org/ Support Freedom! -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
