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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."
Join us now and share the software;
You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
x2
Hoarders may get piles of money,
That is true, hackers, that is true.
But they cannot help their neighbors;
That's not good, hackers, that's not good.
When we have enough free software
At our call, hackers, at our call,
We'll throw out those dirty licenses
Ever more, hackers, ever more.
Join us now and share the software;
You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
x2
Sorry... early morning thought.
What would happen if other things in the world were free? What if budding designers and contractors demostrated their skills by building free pubic buildings?
Musicians and artists already use the free model to start their careers.
AC
Yes, the article has it wrong. It's taking place in over 30 counties. See the list here.
One name is especially missing - Singapore, the country with the second fastest technological adaptation in the world, close seconds to the United States and Japan.
And that's the problem - everything in Singapore runs on Microsoft (our "world's first" automated train system [blue screen...!], traffic surveillance, etc etc). Nobody has a plausible explanation, but as a citizen I'm sorely disappointed.
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.
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.