Bibek Paudel’s weblog

The results of Software Freedom Day 2008 – competition were published yesterday. The Free/Open Source Software Community of Nepal (FOSS Nepal) is one of the 3 global winners for a second consecutive year ! Last year, Nepal, Beijing (China) and Nicaragua were the three winners of the competition. This is an appreciation of FOSS Nepal’s fight for freedom in our region. This year, the theme of FOSS Nepal’s Software Freedom Day celebration was “Create, Share, Collaborate.”

Software Freedom movement is a philosophical and social movement which values freedom, collaboration, community and transparency. It benefits the public good and ensures basic human freedoms are strengthened by technology, not hampered. Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual grass roots effort to educate the public on the virtues of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and also to encourage its use, to the benefit of the public. SFD is marked on the third Saturday of every September. The 2008 event took place on September 20 and was celebrated by over 500 teams in over 120 countries all around the world, all taking software freedom to the masses!

Highlights of our SFD 2008 celebration:

• Kathmandu Declaration signed by over 500 people including Honorable Minister for Science and Technology, Ganesh Shah
• Software Freedom Rally
• Candlelight Vigil
• A CD collection of Free Softwares for users of Microsoft Windows: Nirvikalpa
• Nepali subtitle of GNU’s short movie where Stephen Fry talks about Free Software
• Open Hardware and Robotics Workshop
• Massive Media Coverage
• Celebration in Sunsari (Dharan) and Chitwan (Bharatpur) by FOSS Nepal local chapters

Activities after SFD 08:

• The init magazine: Issue 1 (pdf), Issue 2(pdf)
• Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Release Party (pictures)
• Lobbying for the inclusion of FOSS in School Computer curriculum
• Lobbying (with the government) for a revision of the IT policy of Nepal to endorse Free Softwares, Standards and Practices.
• Orientation programs and Install Fests (Upcoming: Advanced Engg. College and Smart Club)
• Upcoming: workshop for leading Journalists of Nepal
• Upcoming: interaction with political parties and youth leaders to suggest them to adopt FOSS in their agenda/policy
• Upcoming: Fedora 10 “Cambridge” Release Party

Resources on SFD 08:

• Final Report on SFD 2008: html (withoug pictures), pdf (with pictures, 7.3MB)
• Press Releases
• Pictures from the events
• Sponsors of the events
• Ankur’s, Jwalanta’s and Jitendra’s blog entries on the victory
• Subir Pradhananga’s announcement of the victory in FOSS Nepal mailing list.

If you’re interested in FOSS Nepal: (or the philosophy of Free Softwares in general)

• FOSS Nepal website
• FOSS Nepal mailing list on Google Groups
• Get FOSS Nepal updates on twitter
• FOSS Nepal on Facebook
• Ubuntu Nepal website and aggregation of Nepali Ubunteros blogs at Planet Ubuntu-np
• Last week’s issue of Nepali Times had a nice article on Free/Open Source Softwares in Nepal

This is a proud moment for all of us in FOSS Nepal who were involved in SFD. Apart from that, special thanks to the sponsors and our friends in the media (in no particular order, including Keshav Koirala, Dipak Kharel, Saurav Dhakal, Pawan Neupane, Kunda and Kanak Mani Dixit from Himal Media, Bidur Khatiwada, Divesh Rana, Shikshya Gautam, Kedar Koirala, Anil Adhikari, ABC Television, Cyber Sanchaar magazine). Kudos to all the users and supporters of Free Softwares, standards and practices in Nepal and elsewhere. Of course, all this wouldn’t have been made possible without GNU (and Richard Stallman), Linux (and Linus Torvalds), Firefox etc. and all the free software hackers of the world.

Needless to say, our fight for freedom derives inspiration from the fighters of many diverse fields in Nepal and the world whose struggle for democracy, freedom, human rights and civil liberties make our work possible. We always remain grateful to you all !

To all Nepalese consumers of technology – FOSS Nepal needs more of your support and participation to make possible the ushering of a new age of freedom. Let us work together. Remember- in a digital world, our basic human rights, civil liberties and freedom are only as strong as the technology we use.