FSF40/meetups
We're inviting local free software supporters like you to organize an in-person community meetup in your area to bring people all over the world together and celebrate forty years of commitment to software freedom. We're setting up a small fund for these local gatherings *and* you can invite an FSF staff member to give a talk or workshop during your event *and* of course, we'll help promote it.
Create an opportunity to share your favorite moments in the free software movement with each other, debate the biggest challenges to software freedom and how to cope with them, or discuss, how can we best promote free software at universities, colleges, in government institutions, or among our friends. These are just some ideas. In the end, the agenda, date, and location are entirely up to you. The only requirement is that all meetups stick to the Safe Space Policy. By listing or attending any of the meetups below you agree to follow the Safe Space Policy. To align the meetup with LibrePlanet and FSF's goals, we recommend that you keep the program focused on computer-user freedom; e.g. please use the term "free software" rather than "open source". Members of the free software community usually appreciate this.
For more ideas, tips and tricks how to organize a community meetup, and ways how FSF can support your event, see the meetup guide.
If you or a few fellow activists are ready to organize a get-together in your area please list your meetup below. Feel free to email us at campaigns@fsf.org with any questions you may have.
For those attending any of the meetups listed below, please note that these events are organized by volunteers. The Free Software Foundation hopes that these gatherings will be a great place for the free software community to meet up and wants to help make these events a success but can't be held accountable for anything happening during these events.
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City and country:
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Registration (if any):
Organizer(s) (optional):
Blurb (What is your meetup about? Why do you think people should come?):
The FSF looks forward to promoting your meetup!
Community meetups in May 2025
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City and country:
Date and time:
Exact location:
Registration (if any):
Organizer(s) (optional):
Blurb (What is your meetup about? Why do you think people should come?): City and country: Kinshasa, The democratic republic of Congo
Date and time: February 24-25, 2025 09:00 AM – 05:00 PM
Exact location: Bueno Vista, Avenue Kabila 43, Sebo, Commune de Mont Ngafula
Registration: Contact Narcisse Mbunzama at mbunzama@gmail.com or Tel : +243 84 27 74 438
Organizer: DRC Developer Association & Digital Security Group
Blurb: Talk about free software and participate in first ever free software workshops and hackathons in the democratic republic of Congo.
City and country: Livermore, California
Date and time: Saturday, May 10, 2025, 10:00 am - 4:45 pm Pacific Time
Exact location: Livermore Public Library, Community Room A
Registration: RSVP if you wish to help the organizer estimate how much food to bring.
Organizer: Joe (contact page: https://aspisdata.com)
Blurb: Talk about free software and participate in free software workshops.
City and country: LE BLANC, France
Date and time: 17/05/2025 - 10:00-17:00
Exact location: 14 quai Aubépin, Le Blanc, Centre-Val-de-Loire, France
Registration: Ouvert à tous⋅tes tout au long de la journée
Organizer(s): Atelier "Linux au Blanc" de l'association RéparLab
Contact: linuxaublanc@reparlab.com
Blurb: Portes ouvertes avec animations, conférences, diagnostics, démonstrations toute la journée
City and country: Zurich, Switzerland
Date and time May 17, 2025, 11:00-17:00 CEST
Exact location: Bitwäscherei, Neue Hard 12, CH-8005 Zürich
Registration: RSVP to campaigns@fsf.org is optional but if you shoot us an email before May 14 we can make sure that we have enough snacks and refreshments.
Organizer(s) (optional): Andreas and RevampIT
Blurb: Meet other free software enthusiasts, learn more about the Free Software Foundation and its campaigns and try a GNU/Linux system on the occasion of the GNU/Linux Presentation Day.
City and country: Beijing, China
Date and time 2025/05/01, TBD
Exact location: META SPACE Coffee&Bar, Dong Sheng Yuan Gong Yu, Heqing St., Haidian District, Beijing. (META SPACE 咖啡酒吧, 东升园公寓, 荷清路, 海淀区, 北京)
Route (Public Transport): Beijing Metro Line 13 Wudaokou Station, take the Exit B, then head south for approx. 500m. (北京地铁 13 号线五道口站 B 口, 南行约 500m)
Registration: RSVP (Optional)
Organizer(s): William Goodspeed (Gong Zhile)
Contact: wgoodspeed@fsfans.club
Blurb: Meet up with local free software advocates and talk about the state of free software movement in China, how we form stronger communities and participate in free software movement locally.
City and country: Harbin, China
Date and time: October 4th, 9:00 AM CST (provisionally)
Exact location: Starbucks at Capitaland, No.1-1 Xuefu Road, Nangang District (provisionally)
Registration: Not required, you just come here
Organizer(s): Carter Zhang (czl92783719@autistici.org, https://czl92783719.codeberg.page)
Blurb: Have a causal chat about free software and exchange experiences about using and moving to free software. And just have fun!
City and country: Shanghai, China
Date and time: Every Thursday, 19:00 pm - 22:00 pm Beijing Time
Exact location: JAcafe 花园咖啡, 静安区南京西路1649号静安公园内(近静安公园), 地铁2号线静安寺站，5号口出来，下沉式广场东边上来，直走即可
Registration: send email to shlug@googlegroups.com.
Organizer: shlug
Blurb: Talk about free software and participate in free software workshops if planned.
City and country: Shiraz, Iran
Date and time: May 8-9, 2025
Exact location: TBA
Registration: TBA
Organizer(s): Iran Free Software Activists ( delta.shahinpoor@iau.ir )
Blurb: Join us for the first-ever LibrePlanet meetup in Iran! This event brings together free software supporters, developers, and activists to discuss the history of FSF and LibrePlanet, the importance of software freedom, and how we can contribute to and promote the movement in our communities. We welcome volunteers and speakers to participate. Let's build a stronger free software community in Iran!
City and country: Shiraz, Iran
Date and time: May 8-9, 2025
Exact location: TBA
Registration: TBA
Organizer(s): Iran Free Software Activists
Blurb: This is the first-ever LibrePlanet meetup in Iran! We invite free software supporters, developers, activists, and enthusiasts to join us in Shiraz for two days of discussions, workshops, and networking.
We will cover topics such as:
The history of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and LibrePlanet What is software freedom, and why is it important? Why and how should we contribute to the free software movement? How to promote free software in universities, government institutions, and local communities
We are also looking for speakers and volunteers to help organize the event. If you're interested, please reach out!
City and country: Turkey
Date and time: May 5, 2025, 20:00 Istanbul Timezone
Exact location: Online
Registration: N/A
Organizer(s): Masscollabs Services and contributors
Blurb: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-programs-should-be-shared.html
City and country: Chennai, India
Date and time: TBA
Exact location: TBA
Registration: N/A
Organizer(s): FOSS United Foundation
Contact: chennai@fossunited.org
Blurb: Discuss about the state and adoption of free software in India with local free software advocates
City and country: Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Islas Canarias - España
Date and time: 10 de Mayo de 2025 a las 16:00
Exact location: Cervecería Leffe Bulevar - Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Registration: El registro es libre y gratuito. Visita la página oficial https://librecan.com
Organizer(s): LibreCan Comunidad de Software Libre y Cultura Libre de Canarias - Lucio Albenga
Blurb: Encuentro de mentes curiosas sobre software libre, cultura libre, derechos digitales y tecnología ética en Canarias
LibreCan es el primer meetup de software libre y cultura libre en Canarias. Es un encuentro informal para personas que tienen curiosidad e interés por la cultura libre, el software libre, los derechos digitales, las redes sociales descentralizadas, el derecho a reparar, el libre acceso a la información y otros temas afines. Si te interesa o tienes curiosidad por alguno de estos temas este es tu evento. Es un meetup sin ponencias, sin formalidades, solo ideas y buena compañía. Conecta con gente con tus mismas inquietudes en la primera LibreCan y participa en el foro ¡Esta comunidad también es tuya!
Visita la web oficial para obtener toda la información: https://librecan.com
City and country: Lviv, Ukraine
Title: Free Software Conference Ukraine
Date and time: May 4th, 2025
Exact location: TBA, Loft in a City Centre
Registration: Click
Organizer: Relvecorp, AOPRobotics, FSF, FOSS, Kirill Sorudeykin
Blurb: Meet, Discuss, Work together, Plan Activities, Co-Operate
City and country: Θεσσαλονίκη, Ελλάδα / Thessaloniki, Greece
Date and time: 23 Μαΐου 2025 / May 23, 2025 - 18.00 - 20.00 EEST
Exact location: Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας / University of Macedonia
Registration: Δεν απαιτείται / N.A
Organizer(s): Ελεύθερος Πλανήτης / Libreplanet Greece ΕΛΛΑΚ / ELLAK Ελληνική Ένωση Φίλων Ελεύθερου Λογισμικού / GreekLUG Κοινότητα Ανοιχτού Λογισμικού Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας /
Blurb: Γιορτάζουμε τα 40 χρόνια του FSF - συζητάμε και συνδεόμαστε για το ελεύθερο λογισμικό! / We are celebrating FSF 40 and we connect - discuss about software freedom!
Program : Αναμένεται / TBA
City and country: Αθήνα, Ελλάδα / Athens, Greece
Date and time: 17 Μαΐου 2025 / May 17, 2025 - 11.00 EEST
Exact location: Μουσείο Πληροφορικής / Hellenic IT Museum
Registration: Δεν απαιτείται / N.A
Organizer(s): Ελεύθερος Πλανήτης / Libreplanet Greece ΕΛΛΑΚ / ELLAK Ένωση Χρηστών και Φίλων Linux Ελλάδας / HELLUG.
Blurb : Γιορτάζουμε τα 40 χρόνια του FSF - συζητάμε και συνδεόμαστε για το ελεύθερο λογισμικό! / We are celebrating FSF 40 and we connect - discuss about software freedom!
Program : Αναμένεται / TBA
City and country: Toronto, Canada
Date and time: May 12th, 2025, 6 PM and onwards
Exact location: Victory Cafe, 440 Bloor St. W.
Registration: Not required, but feel free to RSVP at https://lu.ma/sb4ks8qp
Organizer: richard@mondays.pizza
Blurb: Come for the pizza, stay for the free and open source hardware and software demos! All fediverse friends are welcome!
I'm looking for fellow activists to organize a meetup together
If you're looking for fellow activists to organize a meetup together you can add your contact information and the city you'd like to organize the meetup in below. If you don't want to provide contact information here you can email campaigns@fsf.org and we will connect you to people who are interested in organizing a meetup together with you.
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City in which the meetup shall take place:
Your name (optional):
Your contact information (or email campaigns@fsf.org):
City in which the meetup shall take place: Turkey, Online
Your name (optional): Masscollabs Services and contributors
Your contact information (or email campaigns@fsf.org): mertgor@masscollabs.xyz and my GPG Key ID is 0x03E547D043AB6C8F
