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Free Software Day Around The World
depechemodem writes "In a follow-up to Microsoft Leaves U.N. Standards Group, it appears that it may have been in reaction to the UN's sponsorship of the 1st annual Software Freedom Day in which its International Open Source Network (IOSN) will educate Asian users on the benefits
of Free and Open source Software (FOSS). FOSS promotes several high-profile applications including OpenOffice, Mozilla, MySQL, and Apache." An anonymous reader says of the U.N. effort, "Events will be organised in Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam on Saturday, August 28th." According to another anonymous reader, "Go Open Source, funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation and HP, expects up to 10,000 visitors at the various Linux install-fests around South Africa this Saturday, says the Mail & Guardian."
Yes, the article has it wrong. It's taking place in over 30 counties. See the list here.
Hm. Perhaps I should link properly.
The 'proper' word for 'first annual' is 'inaugural.' I don't know whether it guarantees a second one like 'first annual' does though.
Dudes, no! That article is in error and the people in charge of IOSN have been desperately trying to correct them before it got into really wide circulation. They are giving publicity to Software Freedom Day which is the brainchild of someone else and can be found here:
www.softwarefreedomday.org
Note that there are no interviews with the staff of the IOSN or the UN in the article. No direct quotes. Some reporter just looked at the web site and jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Don't believe me? Email the IOSN people. They can be reached at sunil [at] iosn.net or khairil [at] iosn.net. They are the current torch bearers at the IOSN.
The UN is not "sponsoring" this. That implies far too much and is too dangerous a position to take. You can't imagine the UN would take such a controversial stance would you? However, the Free and Open Source Software section of the UN can widely publicize FOSS so long as they do not claim it is the UN's official position.
Novell (Suse Linux) India (Including other counties like Hong Kong and Australia), recently announces latest strategic and technical information seminar on Open Source and Linux technologies for enterprise computing.IBM also sponsors this seminar. What's more participants can win latest Linux based Motorola A760 mobile phone :)
The important thing is not to stop questioning --Albert Einstein.
The story is wrong, wrong, wrong and needs corrections.
I know the founder of Software Freedom Day, it is not the IOSN, they are simply supporting and organizing several teams. The correct site for Software Freedom Day is here:
www.softwarefreedomday.org
Also, please provide a source for the speculation that Microsoft withdrew because of this or retract the article. I think it is simply unhealthy speculation.
However,
In fact, they have, for long. For one thing you have the FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory, and UNESCO has had a Free Software Portal, AFAIK for many years. Full with gnus and penguins. There are many people who really Get It in UNESCO, who realize that Free Software is all about promotion of Education, Science and Culture, and proprietary software is not.Furthermore, they (I think it was the UNESCO, couldn't find the link), issued a very critical report on DRM, exposing it for the pending cultural disaster it is.
Unfortunately, this understanding doesn't penetrate throughout the UN. On the other extreme, you have WIPO, which is completely dominated by a *cough*superpower*cough*, takes their orders from entities like USPTO, is not open to debate and works tirelessly to strip away the rights you thought you had to participate in the cultural and scientific advancements of society.
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