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."

Comments

Re:Around the world?

[HenrikOxUK]

Yes, the article has it wrong. It's taking place in over 30 counties. See the list here.

Re:The main site is ...

[HenrikOxUK]

Hm. Perhaps I should link properly.

Re:Tradition

[Nermal6693]

The 'proper' word for 'first annual' is 'inaugural.' I don't know whether it guarantees a second one like 'first annual' does though.

It is not UN sponsored!

[helarno]

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.

Re:It is not UN sponsored!

[golisoda]

Please see clarification from the author and UNDP

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: David_Legard AT idg.com
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:50:30 +1000
Headline and first 2 pars altered as requested.

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: khairil [at] apdip.net
Please correct the title and the lead.
We are not organizing Software Freedom Day.
It is organized by SoftwareFreedomDay.org team, and the events
throughout the world are organized by Free and Open Source Software
advocates in their respective countries. This is a grassroots movement.
The International Open Source Network, in line with it's support of
wider Free/Open Source Software usage in the Asia Pacific region is
simply promoting the event and giving it coverage.

Please correct the story

[kanaka]

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.