Events

Software Freedom Day: From Software to Everywhere

It's an exciting time. The values that have been championed for decades by the free software movement — values of sharing, participation, and freedom — have over the past several years spread well beyond the confines of computer software and are permeating everything from the arts to government.

By Ben Fried

9:51 PM EDT on September 17, 2009

It’s an exciting time. The values that have been championed for decades by the free software movement — values of sharing, participation, and freedom — have over the past several years spread well beyond the confines of computer software and are permeating everything from the arts to government.

That’s why the Software Freedom Law Center, TOPP, LimeLabs and Open Kulture are joining together to celebrate Software Freedom Day in style with a roofdeck party. But unlike previous years, this celebration isn’t solely for free software hackers. It’s also for free culture supporters, new media activists, artists, musicians, government transparency advocates, and all others who are helping to spread the values of the free software movement.

And this isn’t just a one-time party. It’s also the start of something even more exciting. As James Vasile of SFLC writes,

In New York City, Software Freedom Day will mark the launch of a series of quarterly Open Source / Open Culture events designed to engage free software hackers, creative commons artists, open government activists, and open science innovators. We want to bring together the diverse members of free and open source culture and provide a platform and an audience with which to collaborate and create.
The event on September 19th will feature lightning talks by a range of speakers (including Debian Developer Micah Andersen, Bkrpr’s Ian Sullivan, Figment’s Kevin Balktick MakerBot’s Bre Pettis and Sita Sings the Blues auteur Nina Paley) designed to address the multifaceted efforts of open culture in New York. These speakers will cover a variety of topics, but all share one theme: currently active projects that are going to change the world. The idea is “From Software to Everywhere.” Each talk is an invitation to participate.

Ben Fried

Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.

Events

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