Wow, what a day! The Sydney SFD team had an amazing day, with three teams of four handing out close to 600 cds in the Sydney CBD (in three very different locations), and the installfest attracted a few newbies, a few geeks, and a few geeks who were newbies to the community, which was awesome! Welcome aboard dudes! We had over 20 people from SLUG turn up to help out, and the day was really a lot of fun for everyone. The cd’s found an interesting audience, and in some cases got to some really open-minded people really interested not only in “free” stuff but in “freedom” stuff and software that is “socially responsible” as Jeff put it. We had mums and dads, kids, young adults and even older people interested. There was some fun hardware at the installfest, and some talks given. Also Andrea from CSIRO came along to video the entire day, and the people involved, so as soon as she is able to get that out we’ll have an Aussie video for the day! The plan is to take the photos and video from around Australia and make a big post-event press article to celebrate the Aussie SFD effort and success! I’ve already heard from the Melbourne and Townsville teams who also had great days. I’m looking forward to seeing everyones photos!
The really important thing about handing out Free Software is the wonderful and inspiring conversations you can have. The ability to translate to someone outside the community about the values we all hold dear, regardless of our FS of preference. I had amazing discussions today, talking about freedom, and opportunities, about our community and about why it matters. I think Sydney did this really well, and the pamphlets we handed out really gave the people somewhere to get info, and a feeling of participation.
We gave out pamphlets with Janet’s What does Software Mean to You information, which is completely awesome, easy to understand as well as relavant to the average person, rock on Janet! Then we had a list of URLs on the other side with links to SLUG, Distrowatch, LA, and loads more useful information, including the very well written FLOSS Concept Booklet on wikipedia.
Many thanks to the Software Freedom International team, particularly Matt and Henrik who got us enough foo to give out around Australia and support us to rock out! Many thanks to all the SLUGgers for making our local event awesome! Many thanks to all the teams around Australia, I’m looking forward to hearing how everyone went! Lastly, many thanks to Linux Australia for being so supportive in making this a success! LA agreed to a bunch of things (obviously with my pestering 😉 including to cover the public liability insurance for all the teams in Australia, to fund some tshirts and postage of foo to teams, to fund some of the team expensives (on request), and for helping pimp the day! Rock on Australia!
Happy Software Freedom Day everyone!