= Document Freedom Day 2010 =
== Liberate your documents! ==
[Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100331-01.en.html ]
31 March 2010, 11:00, Berlin, Germany -- Today is Document Freedom Day
2010. For the third time, groups all over the world are celebrating open
document formats and Open Standards. They are raising awareness for how
a technical issue impacts our day-to-day lives.
Activities are taking place in many countries. In Germany and Austria,
radio stations are receiving awards for offering streams in the open Ogg
Vorbis format. In Slovenia, the country's highest court is commended for
its use of the ODF format for text documents.
In Romania, activists have been busy pointing out to public
administrations that "I can't read your documents". In Johannesburg,
South Africa, the Department of Arts and Culture will hold a celebration
to mark DFD. In the Brazilian city of Vitoria, the group Espirito Livre
is organising a conference on Free Software and Open Standards.
Document Freedom Day coordinator Fernanda Weiden says: "It is great to
see so many volunteers with a passion for freedom in technology. These
people care deeply about the way that software and standards affect
their lives, and they are taking the initiative to make sure that others
can enjoy the same freedoms as them."
Computer users, companies and public administrations are storing huge
amounts of information in electronic form. If this happens in a format
that can only be read by software from a single vendor, the information
will eventually be lost.
Open Standards, such as ODF for office documents or Ogg Vorbis for
music, can be read and written with many different applications. They
give users freedom of choice, since they work on any application on any
platform or operating system. "Open document formats make sure that your
valuable information doesn't turn into digital toxic waste with your
next upgrade to a new software", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the
Free Software Foundation Europe.
"Whether it's your personal emails or your pension records in a
government agency, it's important to think ahead. Will the software
you're using now still be around in ten years' time? If the answer is
no, make sure that your data is saved according to Open Standards." The
DFD team will gather information and reports from this year's
activities, organise them and publish them on the DFD web pages.
Document Freedom Day campaign page
http://www.documentfreedom.org/
List of participating groups (constantly updated):
http://www.documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams
German, Austrian Radio stations honoured for their use of Ogg Vorbis
http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100324-01.en.html
Document Freedom Day 2010 is coordinated by Free Software Foundation
Europe. Participation is open to everyone, and groups are organising
events independently.
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org
Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298
Fernanda Weiden, Document Freedom Day Coordinator
+41-764-021866
http://www.fsfe.org/contact/
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-
governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issue
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org
== Document Freedom Day 2010 ==
== Free your documents, save your information! ==
[Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100302-01.en.html]
02 March 2010, 14:30, Berlin, Germany
Will you be able to read your documents 20 years from now? Every day,
millions of computer users like you edit text and spreadsheets, take
pictures and record audio and video. What if you couldn't read your
private letters anymore, or even open that album with pictures from your
honeymoon? What if you couldn't exchange those files with friends,
because the software used by each one of you can't talk to each other?
To help you make your documents future-proof, we celebrate Document
Freedom Day on March 31.
Any person or software can save documents in open document formats, which
are based on Open Standards, and be sure that people will be able to read
those files, independently of the software they use. Anyone can build
applications that read and write files in these formats. The Internet was
built upon Open Standards, and that's why you see so much innovation
online.
On Document Freedom Day, we will raise awareness for Open Document
Formats and Open Standards by organizing activities all over the world
together with partner organizations and volunteers.
During the whole month of March, we will spread the word on open document
formats and Open Standards. We will publish information, talk to the
press, tell our friends about it, and spread the DFD logo all over the
Internet.
There are many ways to take part on this campaign, so pick one and join
us:
* Put a banner in your website, linking to DFD website. You
can find banners in our Artwork Website [1].
* Publish a blog post on Document Freedom Day, or Open
Standards, and spread the word about the campaign. Send us
a link, and we'll include it in the DFD website.
* Use your microblog to spread DFD news and articles! Tag them
using !dfd or #dfd2010
* Organize an activity in your city on March 31st. For ideas
on activities, check the Document Freedom Day website.
* Donate money to DFD [2]. Your contribution
makes Document Freedom Day possible!
* Become a partner organization. Contact our Campaign Team [3] on
how to do that.
Want to find out more about Open Standards [4]?
Document Freedom Day is about helping you to really own your data. You
shouldn't be tied to particular applications for living your life in the
digital world, and you shouldn't have to use any specific software to
deal with your government, your school or anyone else.
For more information on Document Freedom Day, visit our website:
www.documentfreedom.org
[1] http://documentfreedom.org/Artwork
[2] http://documentfreedom.org/Support
[3] http://documentfreedom.org/About#Coordination_Team
[4] http://documentfreedom.org/Open_Standards
== Contact ==
Fernanda Weiden
DFD Campaign Coordinator
Email: weiden(a)fsfeurope.org
Tel: +41 76 4021866
http://fsfe.org/contact
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these
issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central
issues of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org