[sf-lug] expanding Europe's Linux Presentation Day to the US (Hauke Laging)

[Hauke Laging]

Hello,

Am Samstag, 10. Dezember 2016, 19:24:08 CET schrieb aaronco36:

> "new" type of event??

obviously.


> I rather see several important similarities between LPD and
> the _previously_ established international Software Freedom
> Day (SFD); see [01].

Maybe in your opinion something similar cannot be new. I do not agree with 
that.

We have discussed the pros and cons of merging the LPD with the SFD. I don't 
know what the SFD looks like abroad but in Germany SFD and LPD are quite 
different. Here the SFD visitors are part of the FOSS community and the SFD 
does not really gain new FOSS users. I am not aware of any media coverage of 
the SFD and that is not surprising at all because outside the FOSS community 
noone has heard about "free software". "Linux" is the strong brand. That's 
what you (can) get media coverage for.

For 16 years there has been a "Linux" event in Italy and a "free software" 
event in France. Both are backed by large FOSS organizations. The Italian 
event is on TV and covered by nationwide newspapers. The French event does not 
even have an entry in the French Wikipedia.


> Software Freedom Day was established in 2004 and was first
> observed on 28 August of that year. About 12 teams
> participated in the first Software Freedom Day. Since that
> time it has grown in popularity and every year we have more
> than 300 events organized by over 100 cities from the world.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is hard for me to believe that you are interested in an honest discussion 
if you omit the relevant number. After 12 years the SFD has dropped to 128 
locations. Despite the organizational power of the FSF(E).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Freedom_Day#Past_Events

There is not a single country in Europe which participated in the LPD already 
and where the SFD has more locations than the LPD. We are talking about Europe 
and North America but the SFD "success" you use as an argument is limited to 
Asia and Central / South America.

In Europe's largest country (where the FSFE has its headquarters) the SFD is 
virtually non-existent. So after many years the SFD has as many locations as I 
alone(!) have gained over 1,5 years. And I get this location number with 15 
countries compared to the 51 SFD countries. What will these numbers look like 
in two years? What does that tell us about the interest of the community in 
both events? The LPD is a big success. Given the amount of financial and 
organizational resouces (nearly none) it is a huge success. It is more than 
strange that you try to create a different impression.


> While there were no registered events in Hauke Laging's
> Berlin itself for Software Freedom Day 2016, however there
> _were_ SFD events in the far-distant German cities of
> Offenburg and Kiel; see [04] and [05] respectively.

BeLUG has participated in the SFD and the DFD for many years. Due to an 
organizational failure this year's SFD event had to be cancelled on short 
notice:

http://www.belug.de/aktivitaeten-kalender/software-freedom-day-487.html

The fun part is that the by far biggest SFD event in Germany, the one in Kiel, 
has changed their 2-day event to a 3-day event and the new day is the LPD in 
Kiel. That does not really support your impression that there was no need for 
the LPD because there is an SFD. And FSFE members are involved in several LPD 
events in Germany.


> You all may also wish to compare the 'aims'[06] and
> 'concept'[07] sections of LPD's international web site [08]
> with that of SFD's 'About' page [09].
> IMHO, they seem more alike than different.

You mix up theory and practice. Your theory does not stop the event shrinking. 
In practice the SFD is failing in several aspects. Practice is also: Although 
probably everyone in the FOSS community is aware of the SFD hardly anyone of 
the many people I contact uses the SFD as an argument against the LPD. That 
obviously means that most people do not believe that the SFD can reach the LPD 
goals.

I do not advise anyone not to do an SFD event. BeLUG is even one of the FSFE 
sponsors as you can see here:

https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus-2016.de.html

There is no need to participate in both LPD events each year. If an 
organization wants to do an SFD event then it is completely fine if they 
participate in the spring LPD only. So even if the LPD was virtually the same 
as the SFD it would make sense to have a second event per year because most of 
the hosting organizations are fine with two events.


> FWIW, I myself am a little bit surprised that the 'similar
> events' section[10] _doesn't_ list the annual worldwide
> celebration of Software Freedom Day -- as SFD _has_ been
> around for a longer period of time than LPD :/

Noone has mentioned that before which may show that the LPD community does not 
consider the SFD a similar event. But this is a fair point; I have added the 
SFD to that list.


It's not important for the LPD discussion but I am curious: I just had a look 
at the SFD map and seen that the US SFD is even more embarassing than the 
German one. So what are you going to do about that or what would you advise 
about that? I count four US SFD locations. Within a few days I have gained 
nearly 20 US LPD locations.

What is the purpose of your arguing? Do you think that spreading the LPD will 
/ might shrink the SFD? Do you think there will be an SFD next year in your 
area if you convince your LUG members that the LPD is a bad idea? Shall I 
cancel the LPD and try to convice (how, BTW?) people to do SFD events because 
that has worked out so well? I assume that the LPD success will help the SFD 
because it will increase the (relevant part of the) FOSS user base.


CU

Hauke
-- 
http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/

International phone contact for the Linux Presentation Day:
     tel:+49-30-55579620 (13:00–23:00, German and English)

XMPP (Chat with OTR): linux-presentation-day at jabber.ccc.de
   OTR: 91626899 1C06F2BD 75EC2441 35C696CE 38F75997