[Cialug] FWD: SFD Roundup

[Kevin C. Smith]

Hello world!

First, I want to congratulate all the teams that put on a great line-up 
of events for Software Freedom Day this year! I hope you have found the 
materials and web-services we provided useful. I have been reading the 
reports and looking at the pictures that have come in, and would like
to 
share some of my thoughts about the events and how we should proceed 
forward.

In the process of organising SFD we have connected an amazing network
of 
teams and individuals around the world it would be great if we could 
take full advantage of that to build a solid structure that can support 
exciting new events in the future. This obviously includes SFD 2006,
but 
may also include other events at different times. We would like to 
foster better communication between local teams so we can learn from 
each other's experiences.

There is still a lot of energy out there is the SFD teams and so we
have 
every opportunity to grow. But as we grow the size and number of teams, 
we should also improve the way we do things. We can take a more 
professional approach to certain things, including communicating with 
the press.

What follows is simply my impression of the 2005 events and how we 
should organise ourselves to stage even more and better events in the 
future. This is not official SFI policy, as I am only one of seven
board 
members.  Feel free to forward this email to anyone, esp. your team
members.

== Timing ==

We moved the day to a slightly later date this year so that more
schools 
and universities could participate. Was this generally successful? I 
think we should avoid moving the day around too much if we can. The 
current rule is 'the second Saturday in September'. If that generally 
works, we should probably stick with that. That would make next year's 
event Sept. 9th.

About the day of the week: How does the choice of Saturday work for 
people? The idea is that organisers will be free from work to put on 
events and visitors will have a chance to attend. As always though, we 
are not especially insistent on this day and encourage local teams to 
put on events a few days before or after if that is more suitable. We 
realise that having a day on the weekend will interfere with religious 
practices in some countries. That would also be a problem for Friday or 
Sunday AFAICT.

== Event types ==

We have seen a range of events this year from seminars to talking to 
people on the street. New teams starting out should be able to learn 
from the experiences of others and some teams may want to restructure 
for next year and think again about what sort of events they want to 
focus on. This wiki page [1] has an overview of the different types of 
events with pros and cons of each. Please take a moment to add your 
experiences to that page (if the relevant points are not already
covered).

Some teams reported that they might have organised things differently 
for greater impact, while other teams only want to make minor 
adjustments. The Copenhagen team had an extremely innovative event in 
2004 in the centre of town, handing out CDs and balloons, wearing 
printed T-shirts. It was so successful and interesting that we adopted 
many of those ideas for SFD globally (in fact the co-organisers of the 
Copenhagen event DKUUG, has provided generous funding for SFD which 
allowed us to supply T-shirts and balloons to other teams. Thank you 
DKUUG!). This year they had a similar and equally successful event, but 
they now feel the need to innovate  and want to do something new next 
year. I look forward to seeing what they come up with  :)

[1] 
http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Types_of_events


== Good ideas ==

The following is a mixed collection things I saw teams do that seem
like 
a good idea.

* Name stickers for guests and organisers: The Manilla team had sticky 
labels with 'Software Freedom Day 05' and space for a for the
organisers 
(and the guests?), so you can see who you're talking to. Cool!
* Guest book (in some form): The Nepal team asked the visitors to sign 
what seemed like a table cloth. The result was a testament to the large 
number of visitors they had.
* Eye catching devices: The team in Marl, Germany had some yellow tape 
around their setup of computers in a shopping mall with the text 
'Windows Free Zone' printed on it. While we make a point of not 
demonising any proprietary software vendors, I think this prop is funny 
and makes people stop and ask: 'So what's the alternative?' See: 
http://www.msc-dorsten.de/gallery/sfd2005
* Balloon are esp. good in areas where people are streaming past
because 
they will carry the balloons off on all directions and this acts as 
real-time advertising for your event so people who have a special 
interest in the topic (software/computers generally perhaps) will seek 
you out. The Copenhagen team reported great success with this again.
So: 
balloons work really well when you have enough to give out to people
who 
walk past. It will then act as a magnet attracting esp. families with
kids.

The list is duplicated on this wiki page [2], so please add to it. I'm 
sure that there are lots of great ideas that I have missed.

[2] 
http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Good_Event_ideas

== Structure and Governance ==

SFD is currently organised by a non-profit organisation called
'Software 
Freedom International' which was set up specifically for this purpose 
after last year's event. The advantage of having such an organisation
is 
that we can have a bank account that is independent of any one 
individual, that we can take donations and that we have some limitation 
on personal liability.

This organisation is currently governed by a group of 7 members, 
consisting of founders, active FOSS community members and prominent SFD 
team leaders. Our meetings have generally been conducted via email (as 
we are spread all over the globe). It has been suggested that we should 
conduct regular meeting on IRC (monthly or bi-weekly). The feasibility 
of this may depend on the connectivity level of the different board 
members, our time zones and schedules.

If it is feasible to arrange such meetings I would suggest that they be 
open so that SFD team members could attend as well and participate in 
the discussions. We might also hold some closed sessions in conjunction 
with these to deal with more sensitive matters such as sponsorship 
deals. But anything relating to the community, such as planning or 
organisation should be kept in the open IMO.


== Task-Oriented Groups ==

I'd like to propose a few different global working groups that could 
specialise in certain areas and help the global SFD community improve 
their events. These group categories are just preliminary suggestions. 
New types of groups can be formed and currently suggested ones will be 
dropped if there isn't enough support for them. Global groups might be
a 
good way for individual to participate from areas where there may not
be 
a strong local team. (note: I've used the term 'group' here to avoid 
confusion with the local 'teams', but other terms such as committee or 
crew might be better)

This list has been duplicated on this wiki page. Please make
suggestions 
there or sign up for a group. Most of the tasks described here have 
traditionally been done by members of the board and a few volunteers, 
but there is a limit to how well we will scale :) So please help out if 
you can and lets build an active and global community around SFD!

=== Press group ===

We had some great events this year, but many noted the lack of press 
coverage. There was some coverage as the result of press releases
before 
the events, and some events did get some coverage, but generally this 
aspect could have been much better. We need to understand the press 
better, including what makes a good story for them, what materials they 
need and when they need it.

We should also seek allies in the press who can provide such insight
and 
who can get stories published. A part of future preparations might be
to 
prepare physical press-packs with CDs and fliers that we can send to
the 
local press in good time before the next event. For maximum effect,
such 
press-packs should probably be hand-delivered.

Once we get press coverage, the press team should also be responsible 
for tracking down this coverage on the web and presenting it on our
website.

=== Graphics group ===

We always need cool graphics! We had some good graphics this year, 
including a logo created by Alan at Free Software Magazine and a poster 
by lucychili in AU. These made their way around the web, but not in an 
organised way. We should set up an artwork group and use the wiki as a 
central repository for great artwork licensed in suitable ways that can 
be used for our official materials and independently by teams around
the 
world.

We need graphics for: T-shirts, balloons, flyers, posters, etc. We need 
colour and B/W versions. We need web-based graphics like banners and 
link buttons and skins for our website front-ends.

=== Web infrastructure group ===

With a global collaboration project such as ours, the net-based 
infrastructure is crucially important. This year we used a Mambo CMS
for 
the main site and Media Wiki. We will continue with these but probably 
upgrade them to new versions and try to tie them better together. We 
would also like to introduce some exciting new tools, such as a 
blog-planet where participants can blog about their preparations and 
re-introduce global and local mailing lists.

We should also consider providing web-based multimedia content for the 
next event. We could set up web-cams or streams linking the different 
events or allow visitors to leave video-greeting to visitors in other 
parts of the world (see also multimedia group).

=== Marketing research group ===

We have several advantages in that our product is free (gratis), is of 
high quality (less viruses, not advertising noise) and ethically 
pleasant. Most of our marketing is currently conducted through 
word-of-mouth, which is generally considered as very effective in that 
the listener will tend to trust the message, but is also slow and may 
have difficulty in gaining critical mass before the product is out of
date.

However, even though we already have some good advantages and even 
though what we are trying to market is slightly different to
traditional 
products, it seems likely that we could still learn a great deal from 
traditional marketing theory. People have developed these ides over 
decades of detailed study and we should attempt to identify elements of 
that knowledge that might be relevant to us. (see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marketing_topics for a start)

=== Fund-raising group ===

In 2005 we had just over $2000 in donated funds (in addition to the CDs 
which were produced and shipped by our primary sponsor). This was great 
because we were able to produce T-shirts and balloons and ship them 
around the world. However, we would like to step up this effort a few 
notches for next year! We expect still more teams and would like to 
supply them even better with more gear.

This obviously requires more funds. Hopefully we can draw this from the 
community of FOSS-friendly companies, organisations and individuals. We 
should write letters, run a donations drive and possibly provide 
merchandise for sale from the website.

=== Wiki maintenance group ===

The wiki is an increasingly important tool for our project. We should 
set up a group that can look after and restructure the content to make 
sure it stays relevant and well formatted. Many people are already
doing 
this, which is great. Creating a group for it would give those people 
some more recognition and would also provide an easy way to contribute 
for those who are not directly connected with a local team.

=== Multimedia group ===

Several teams used video materials as part of their presentations. 
AFAICT, this was often the film RevolutionOS. We might be able to
strike 
a deal with the makers of RevolutionOS to provide it to us at a reduced 
cost so we can provide it to several teams. Alternatively we could look 
at some of the material that is already available under open license 
such as 'go_open' and various short films at creative commons. The 
Multimedia Group could compile a CD or DVD with such footage and also 
include video footage from the 2005 events. We should also consider
live 
multimedia features such as video links between teams.

=== Logistics group ===

As you can imagine, there is a great deal of logistics involved in 
organising this kind of event. This involves planning the steps and
time 
lines involved in getting supplies to the teams and also dealing with 
suppliers and shipping companies. It involves fascinating things like 
planning a complex production and distribution network and mundane 
things like making sure addresses are in the right spreadsheet format 
and ordering envelopes and taking stuff to the post office.

http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/Working_Groups


Best wishes,

 Henrik Nilsen Omma
 Software Freedom International

-- 
Kevin C. Smith