“You, the reader, are hereby invited to participate in a
celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) on August 28th
this year. On that day we will stage public events to inform the
general public about the virtues of FOSS. We invite you to form
local teams and set up tables in town centers, shopping malls, or
wherever there are likely to be lots of people on a Saturday.“Average computer users are not aware of FOSS, and at this point
there is no reason they would be. Even worse, certain proprietary
software companies, unwittingly aided by the press, have spread
disinformation about FOSS. Recent coverage has been especially
disappointing, with spurious connections being made between
programmers and virus writers; this shows a clear lack of knowledge
in the mainstream press. In order to counter this trend, FOSS users
and enthusiasts must make more positive contributions to the
mainstream debate. We should provide positive stories to write
about, not simply respond to the latest FUD. A global day of FOSS
celebration will give us an opportunity to present our case to the
media and directly to the public…”
Related Story:
PR:
Portland LUG: Software Freedom Day – July 4th(Jul 01, 2002)