Boston Software Freedom Day
Celebrate Software Freedom Day in Boston!
Save the date!
On the afternoon of September 15, 2007, the Free Software Foundation (http://fsf.org), BinaryFreedom (http://binaryfreedom.info) and Boston Free Culture (http://freeculture.org) are hosting a Software Freedom Day (http://softwarefreedomday.org) event in downtown Boston.
Please bring your friends and join us for talks, activities and outreach in support of software freedom. We'll be one node in a network of over 290 events worldwide, and it's not often we get the chance to make that kind of splash. It'll be a great chance to meet other hackers and activists in the area and to make plans for how we can work for software freedom on a concrete, local level.
Let us know that you can come by emailing info@fsf.org, and keep up-to-date or even help us plan the schedule at http://groups.fsf.org/index.php/Boston_Software_Freedom_Day.
Date: Saturday, September 15, 2007 Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
We'll have some refreshments and there is no charge to attend.
Bring your computers and portable music players for help installing and configuring free software on them, and for playing along with the hands-on demos!
Location
In Boston's Chinatown:
Encuentro 5 33 Harrison Avenue, 5th floor Boston, MA 02111
Here's a map.
You can take either the Orange Line to Chinatown or the Green Line to Boylston Street, both stations are pictured on the above map, marked with an "M" for MBTA. If you park at Alewife, (map, $5 for the whole day) you can take the red line to Park Street and either walk down Tremont Street with traffic to the Boylston stop or transfer to the Green Line for one stop to Boylston.
September 15th also happens to be the day that NORML's having their big pot rally on the Boston Common. If you can avoid driving into Chinatown, you will be a much happier person. The extra car traffic plus herds of stoners will not make your driving experience a pleasant one. I also wouldn't be surprised if the parking lot under the Boston Common were full by 1pm. If you are driving, your best bet for parking will probably be at CityPlace,(map and rates) or at the Hyatt,(map and rates.)
33 Harrison is also sometimes referred to as "The Unite Building" since it's owned by the textile union. There's an asian cookware shop on the first floor to the left of front door -- come on in and take the elevator up to the 5th floor.
Activities
Some of what we have planned so far:
- GIMP tutorial and demo
- Drupal tutorial and demo (Agaric and ?)
- OLPC demo and presentation
- OpenOffice.org demo and tutorial
- Bring your laptop for help with installing and configuring free software
- Bring your portable music player and install Rockbox
- Get a free gNewSense CD
- Network with other free software and free culture activists, including the Ubuntu Massachusetts Team
Organizing Software Freedom Day 2007
Schedule
The event will go from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. This is subject to change, please check back for updates, or subscribe to this page.
| 13:00 - 13:30 | Registration, refreshments, meet people, free culture music and video, sign up to give lightning talks |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Introduction to free software and Software Freedom Day (Joshua Gay and John Sullivan from the FSF) |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Drupal for nonprofits workshop / Free Culture presentation |
| 14:30 - 14:40 | Break, music, video |
| 14:40 - 15:10 | GIMP demo (Ari Pollak, Debian GIMP maintainer) / OLPC Demo |
| 15:10 - 15:20 | Break, music, video |
| 15:20 - 15:50 | Benjamin "Mako" Hill (FSF board of directors) / OpenOffice demo |
| 15:50 - 16:20 | Six, 5-minute lightning talks |
| 16:20 - 17:00 | Free software installation and assistance (including Rockbox for your portable music player), music, video, & keysigning. |
