Software Freedom Day and its impact on our lives

In two days, the world will be celebrating Software Freedom Day, an annual event held on the third Saturday of every September.

What's the hype about software Freedom anyway?

Freedom in the software field can be roughly defined as the 'ability to study, modify and freely redistribute a software without any restrictions'. Most commercial software that we use, for example Microsoft Office Word are closed source proprietary software which means that the user has no access to the source code and is bound by the terms and conditions stipulated by the manufacturer. The user has no right over the software he/she pays money for.

Why is this bad? Because our lives are increasingly becoming dependent on software. Our governments are relying on software to manage our information. If we do not know how the software works internally or if we are bound by licenses that grant the software manufacturer illicit access to our private data without our knowledge, we are in danger of losing our privacy or information secretiveness. We are paying for software which does more harm to us than it does good. so it is necessary that we have the ability to study and understand the software that we use to ensure its correctness and to trust it with our valuable data. For this purpose, we have to have complete freedom over the software so that no one can deny us the 'right' to do what we please with the software that we use.

Software Freedom Day is the day that we celebrate our freedom over software. The inherent purpose of this event is to tell the world loudly that we value and demand the freedom associated with any piece of software. It is also to increase awareness among people who ignorantly fall victim to the proprietary software death trap. This awareness is important because convincing proprietary software money mongers to embrace freedom is much tougher and a complete waste of time than making regular people aware of the disadvantages and risks associated with shackled software.

So, on the verge of Software Freedom Day 2010, let us rally together and tell the world loudly and proudly that we value software that gives us freedom over it, that which is transparent and that we want all the software to be shackles free. That and that alone is our way forward to a future that will be shaped by software and technology.
For more information, read about Software Freedom

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First event of 2010: Fedora 12 installation.

Year 2010 came in with the new batch already in SLIIT. Talks for a 'FOSS introduction event for freshers' were there even before the dawn of the new year. And these talks grew up in to an actual event on 20th Wednesday.

Event brochure.(Design: Praneeth)

I went on stage with bit of a hesitation since I was away from public events for nearly three months. When I walk in the lecture hall 501 (Malabe), it was half full. I started off with 'a brief history of FOSS' and stepping towards Fedora 12 installation demo. Still the crowds were flowing in and after a short while I was addressing literally a houseful event.

(Photo: Hasaranga)

It was a great pleasure to see such a good turn up in the first FOSS event of the year. Such a pleasure won't be ours if not the great help from 1st/2nd year lecturers who informed students about the event and even one lecture canceled (that is so much of help). And also the help from the senior lecturer Mr. Nuwan Kodagoda is greatly appreciated.

With the motivation we received from the first event, we are in the process of planning few other events. Especially one for SLIIT Metro campus students, hopefully. Just stay tuned :) .

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SFC achieves a lot in SLIIT Achievers 2009.

This is a far too late post. But still it should be here just because it is special.
We, SLIIT FOSS Community, have finished a really successful event at SLIIT Achievers 2009 exhibition.

SFC took the ownership of the free stall offered to lug.lk/foss.lk (Thank you Ms. Shalinka ) and made it a flashing event among others, in my Humble Opinion.

Nalin demonstrating GNU/Linux to school students

(photo: Praneeth)

We gave out free CDs full of FOSS and other technology related stuff, thanks to the ICTA sponsorship (Thanks Ms.Karthiga of FOSS.lk for the arrangements). Our members did a great job doing introductions, demonstrations and even troubleshoots to help the nice people visited our stall. And we shouldn't forget the help of LUG and TLC members Kunchana, Shahi and Dileepa.

The stall had great feedback from the visitors as well as the community. We were so much excited to see the enthusiasm of the people who visited and we are more than proud to be the owners of such a great event.

Event crew in the stall.

(photo: Praneeth)

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who helped in many ways to make the event a success. And of course you, who visited the event and talked to us, encouraging the team to do more.

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FOSS introduction event in SLIIT.

After a short period of silence... OK let's face it, it was quite a long period... we are back in the process of making some noise about FOSS in SLIIT-sphere. It was in our TODO lists for quite some time, the need of a FOSS introduction event for the newcomers, yes the 2009 batch. After a lots of chit chats, arrangements & rearrangements here we are with a possible FOSS event again in SLIIT.

It'll happen on coming Wednesday (25th March 2009) from 10.45 A.M onwards at lecture hall no: 306, SLIIT Malabe campus. Mr.Suchetha Wijenayake, who has always been kindly in help with our past events, will address the event. Though I used the word "Address" there, it'll be more of a friendly talk which would make everyone feel good enough to ask any kind of a FOSS related question. I swear on my experiences.



There have been many newcomers looking for a way to join with SLIIT FOSS community. I hope this event will be a good chance to gather all the enthusiasts & keep the community going forward even stronger. Someone who want to get in conversation even before the event happens can use following resources to keep in touch with the community.

The SLIIT FOSS community forum.
The forum is based on SLIIT courseweb so Only the SLIIT students who have access to the courseweb can join the forum. Just go and checkout. Share your ideas or maybe questions.

Fossified email.
Yes we have an email and it is fossifed [at] gmail [dot] com. You won't get a lightening fast reply but this is a good way to contact us. And the best thing is anyone can use email :) .

The IRC channel.
Well.. this might sound new or may be goofy for some of you & at the same time some others will be excited. we have an IRC channel for SLIIT on freenode.net which is for now not very active but I hope things will soon change as more SLIIT folks get to know about this. The channel is #sliit any one can visit it on your browser through mibbit web client Freenode webchat (Just choose a nick an join).

Ok, enough said. You just keep us busy making emails, forum posts & chatting on IRC. And don't forget the event on wednesday.

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