<DIV>Hello,</DIV>
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<DIV>Mark September 10th 2005 on your calendar! It is the second annual Software Freedom Day. We will be staging a range of events around the world to raise public awareness of Free and Open Source Software. This is a global grassroots effort, and we invite the Free and Open<BR>Source Software community around the world to join in the celebration and help spread the word! Over 70 teams joined the celebration in 2004, organising a range of events at schools, universities and public places. This year, we have every opportunity to grow and make an even greater impact on community awareness.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>What will happen?<BR>-----------------</DIV>
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<DIV>You may celebrate the day locally however you would like, but we encourage you to engage in some sort of outreach activity to spread the FOSS message in your community. For example, you could organise a seminar or an installfest or simply invite people to meet up in the <BR>park for a picnic. If you want to participate, please stop by the SFD website [1] and register a team so that others in your area can find you and hook up. Our website and wiki have pictures and reports from some of the SFD2004 events, so you can get an idea of what worked well. If you participated last year, please join us again, and please share your experiences with<BR>the new teams.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>How does it work?<BR>-----------------</DIV>
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<DIV>As last year, we will prepare special promotional materials for distribution by the SFD teams. In 2004 this included ISO images of a custom version of TheOpenCD and a custom version of Knoppix along with some printed materials. Due to our budget constraints we were only able<BR>to produce CD covers while the local teams did a great job of burning their own CDs and copying materials. This year we will create a single CD containing both a Live Linux image<BR>and some Windows-FOSS for this purpose. We have funding from our primary<BR>sponsor for up to 15.000 of our custom CDs shipped out to 150 teams world-wide! We In addition, other supplies (such as t-shirts and balloons) will be available, but the quantities and distribution process of these items is not yet determined (depends in part on the<BR>availability of additional funding).</DIV>
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<DIV>By June 15th we will provide a simple supply request form where established teams can request CDs and possibly other materials for SFD. Be sure to get in your application for supplies before the July 1st deadline so we can get the supplies produced and distributed in time for the event.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>What can I do?<BR>--------------</DIV>
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<DIV>The best way to participate is to start forming a SFD team and start planning local celebrations. Make sure you register as an official team [1] so you can apply for sponsorship of materials. We also need help with lots of things on the global level:</DIV>
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<DIV>Writing: We would appreciate well-written articles about SFD or about FOSS in general that can be submitted to local media or distributed on the day. Form letters that can be sent to schools, businesses government organisation, etc. will also be useful.</DIV>
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<DIV>Material Design: We have some artwork already, but we need designs for the SFD 2005 CD labels and covers, as well as T-shirts, balloons, stickers, or even temporary tattoos! If you or your friends have some artistic inclinations feel free to pop into the SFD Forums to share <BR>your ideas and your work.</DIV>
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<DIV>Donations: SFD funds cover the costs of material and logistics support that we provide. The more funds we have available, the more material and logistical support we can provide for teams world-wide. So don't feels shy about donating :) Any surplus funds can be used for advertising in the week before the event. Donations can be made online at the SFD website.</DIV>
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<DIV>Getting in touch<BR>------------------</DIV>
<DIV>Please stop by our forum or join #sfd on freenode IRC. We have set up a temporary mailing list here [2] where people can hook up, but we will provide more regional lists as the needs arise.</DIV>
<DIV>Best wishes and happy Software Freedom Day 2005!</DIV>
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<DIV> - The SFD Team</DIV>
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<DIV>[1] <A href="http://softwarefreedomday.org/">http://softwarefreedomday.org/</A><BR>[2] <A href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/theopencd-sfd2005">https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/theopencd-sfd2005</A></DIV><p>
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