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Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Thursday's Talk


From: Lucy
Subject: Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Thursday's Talk
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:43:18 +0100

On 28 Apr 2008 20:23:58 +0100, address@hidden <address@hidden> wrote:
>  On the subject of promotion, I have been trying to get the student unions
> communications officer to attend the talk. He seems interested but I'm not
> the best person for explaining these things, so if anyone can volunteer a
> short paragraph explaining why free software is an important issue,
> especially in education, I'll pass it on to him asap. He's a very liberal
> guy and takes his post next year. With a small push I think he would raise
> awareness of free software around campus considerably. He was responsible
> for the "Reclaim the Uni" demonstration that happened last week, so any
> connection to free education and opposition to unis as a business would be a
> big bonus. I seem to remember watching a stallman talk about FS in education
> a while back but with a deadline looming I'm in no position for doing this
> kind of research. Any help would be appreciated.. I definatly think that
> getting someone like this onboard would be a big boost.


Okay, I've written up a few quick paragraphs below. If anyone can
improve on them that would be great. All of the information has been
reused (i.e copied, in some cases directly) from
www.gnu.org/philosophy, in particular
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html and
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

==========

Free software gives all users the freedom to run, copy, distribute,
study, change and improve the software.

There are general reasons why all computer users should insist on free
software. It gives users the freedom to control their own
computers—with proprietary software, the computer does what the
software owner wants it to do, not what the software user wants it to
do. Free software also gives users the freedom to cooperate with each
other and to share useful programs without restrictions on the number
of times it can be copied.

In education, the use of free software is particularly important.
Firstly, it can save money; there's no need to pay costly license fees
and no need to have to keep track of a huge number of different
licenses. It also means that students are able to use the same
software at home without having to pay hundreds of pounds for the
privilege.

Free software is not about the cost though. Free software benefits
society as a whole. Universities should promote the use of free
software just as they promote recycling. If universities teach
students free software, then the students will use free software after
they graduate. This will help society as a whole escape from being
dominated (and gouged) by megacorporations. Those corporations offer
free samples to schools and universities for the same reason tobacco
companies distribute free cigarettes: to get people addicted. They
will not give discounts to these students once they grow up and
graduate.

Free software is about sharing and about helping your neighbour. It
gives students the opportunity to learn about and improve the software
they use. This doesn't just benefit computer science students, it can
benefit everyone.

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