[Fsuk-manchester] SFD09 Call For Volunteers

[Leslie I'Anson]

Hello everyone,

The venue for Software Freedom Day 2009 (SFD09) was announced at last
night's MFS talk. For those who did not attend, and for those who did
(I'd had a few), the venue is the University of Manchester's Tom
Kilburn building (i.e. the computer science department) on Oxford
Road. The date for the event this year is Saturday 19th September,
which ties in nicely with freshers week; hoorar! The SFD website that
Enrico very kindly demonstrated last night can be found at
softwarefreedomday.org <http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/>.

We also mentioned last night that we'd be making a call for volunteers
to help out with the celebrations. Therefore, following is an ad-hoc
event plan including descriptions of the roles and people we are
looking for:

Live demonstrations showcasing some of the best free software available.
Software demonstrations have been split into three main categories,
home, business and communication. For each category we have devised a
list of some of the software packages that we'd like to demonstrate to
visitors on the day. So in no particular order here's the list:-

Home
- Ubuntu Desktop
- Firefox
- Pidgin
- Rhythmbox
- GIMP
- OpenArena

Business
- Ubuntu Server/Debian/CentOS
- OpenOffice.org
- Evolution
- GNUCash
- KVM/Xen
- Wine

Communication
- Plone
- Alfresco
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Bongo
- Jabber
- IRC
- identi.ca

If you think we've missed something obvious then please feel free to
suggest it. As you can probably tell the “Communication” category is
purposely vague to accommodate the weirdest of suggestions; Emacs for
example... These demonstrations will obviously need some hardware to
run on so, if you have spare  machine or two that you think we will
find useful them loan them to us. Better still you could install a
demonstration and volunteer to support it throughout the day. OK, I
think you get what this is all about so I'll leave it at that.

Talks and advice from local free software experts.
We are dubbing the talks “Speakers Corner” (think Hyde Park).
Introducing free software and free culture, talks will be informal,
short and non-technical. If you would like to give a talk, turn up and
take to the stage. Also as part of the talks and advice, there will be
a tech-support and advice desk. This will basically consist of a geek,
a desk, some chairs and a sign with Guru written on it. If you like
sitting down and giving random people your advice then please feel
free to take your turn under the sign.

Workshops conducting computer recycling and GNU/Linux installations.
Blow the dust of an old desktop machine and install GNU/Linux with
someone. Helping out is simple, bring a usable old(ish) machine and a
Ubuntu CD/USB stick. Next!

Free software and other giveaways.
Shortly we will be receiving our SFD event packs that will include
some giveaway goodies, but I suspect not enough. So if you have the
time start buring and labeling some free software CDs. Some good
choices include Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu because everyone likes
Ubuntu but also consider gNewSense <http://www.gnewsense.org/> and
Open[Education]Disc <http://www.theopendisc.com/>, etc.

Free culture and free media exhibitions.
The famous Dan Lynch will be producing a “Best of Creative Commons”
mix CD to giveaway at the event. Therefore, it would be nice to
dedicate a stand to free culture and free media. So, if you are
familiar with Jamendo <http://www.jamendo.com/>, Magnatune
<http://www.magnatune.com/>, Blender movies
<http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/movies/> and the Creative
Commons licensing <http://creativecommons.org/>, etc. then maybe this
is the stall for you?

Refreshments, in the form of [fair-trade] beverages, biscuits and cake.
Janey of Marbella Café <http://www.marbellacupcakes.com/> will be
providing a fabulous assortment of light refreshments at modest prices
in our own SFD café.

FSF and free culture literature, and SFD 2009 merchandise on sale.
...courtesy of the SFI, FSF, MFS and anyone else with something
relevant to sell.

The local press will be invited to cover the event .
Hopefully the above is true. I believe a friend of a friend might know
someone who is a journalist for The Messenger but someone from the MEN
would be a real treat. So, if you know any tameable MEN journalists
then feel free to tip them off. Furthermore, we'd like to cover the
event for ourselves so, if we have any budding amateur photographers
or journalists amongst us then please request a press pass.

Aside from all of this there is going to be a general information desk
with meeters and greeters, etc. and we will need a couple of “shop
keepers”. Given the amount positive responses so far we should not
have a problem filling these positions but the offer is still open to
enthusiastic people.

There is loads more I could say but this email is already getting too
long and sadly I've got some “real work” to do. I'll finish by saying,
SFD09 in Manchester looks set to fantastic so put Saturday 19th
September on your calendar and invite all your family and friends,
etc. We expect the main event to be between the ours of 10:00-16:00
and will also be hosting a social gathering afterwards  to continue
the celebrations well into the small hours.

If you are interested in supporting us and joining in the worldwide
celebrations then please go to the SFD website
<http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/>, have a think about what you can
offer and get in touch. All contributions are welcome! Oh, and please
forward this to anyone who may find it interesting.

Thank you for your time and we hope to hear from you soon.

Best wishes,
MFS Team


BTW: Keep it on the lists and help encourage others to participate.
Thank you.


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