8/9/04

Civil society organisations (CSO) and individuals involved in the WSIS process continue their advocacy for free and open source software (FOSS) with the celebration of the first Software Freedom Day.

CSOs see FOSS as one alternative with the greatest potential for enhancing the information society. Due to its democratic nature of coding, distribution and non-profit-oriented goal, FOSS has been rejected by the private sector whose stand is to support market-based technologies. Thus, these two stakeholders of the WSIS process have been continuously debating to get the support of the third stakeholder on this issue - the governments.

Organisations advocating for FOSS will be celebrating the first annual Software Freedom Day on 28 August 2004. The goal of the celebration is to make the world aware of the virtues of free and open source software and encourage its widespread use. A global grassroots marketing campaign is being set up for this day, and volunteers from around the world are invited to participate. This campaign will involve setting up stations in public places to give away informational fliers and CDs with selected FOSS, including The Open CD and a Linux Live CD. However, it is up to the volunteers to choose how they will organise their local efforts and to add other activities. Organisers of the Software Freedom Day will assist with the bulk production of supplies.

For more information about this celebration, please visit their website at http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/index.html#sfd.