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Tom Brough wrote: > > As we haven't done anything as a group to mark software Freedom day > (16/09/2006), I just thought I would wish you all a happy software > freedom day 2006. > Well, no, we haven't done anything "as a group" but individually lots (all?) of DCGLUG members are contributing to free software and software freedom in one way or another. Which is more important - contributing to the goal or contributing to a banner that promotes the goal? I've never quite grasped what SFD was trying to achieve. Hundreds of charities and organisations declare certain days/weeks as "Save foo week" or "Foo awareness week" but these events are all just one sided promotional gimmicks. Anyone can declare a day/week as whatever they feel like but unless others accept it as such, it's pointless and meaningless. I get dozens of notifications like that at work - a week for asthma, or diabetes, whatever. Those involved do what they can and the rest of the globe just "moves on by". Even when an event does catch the wider public mood, the moment is gone all too soon - nothing attracts less coverage than "old news". SFD is a good idea and worth supporting when it coincides with other events or issues but on it's own, it isn't effective. The goal is more important than the day - the easiest things to promote are those that "Just Do The Right Thing". Fixing the bugs in free software will, in the end, give everyone a system that promotes itself. The only reasons commercial entities need to advertise are: 1. The product is genuinely ground-breaking. 2. The product is struggling and/or the company is desperate for cash. That's it. :-) Case 1 doesn't happen often (and doesn't need to last beyond the initial announcements if the product is any good - the global media circus will take care of the rest). The most successful "products" are those that don't need to be advertised, they promote themselves just by doing TheRightThing. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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