[unclug] want to be in the DTH?

Douglas A. Whitfield whitdoug at email.unc.edu
Mon Sep 10 22:45:44 EDT 2007


LUGers,

The Carolina Open Source Initiative has an OpEd lined up with the DTH 
for Wednesday, but the problem is our guy who was supposed to write it 
is bailing.  I don't have time to write it as I've been doing COSI stuff 
non-stop all day and will be doing a fair share tomorrow too.  The old 
writer has written 450 words, but we need 650.  UNC is helping a bid for 
Wikimania to be in Atlanta, which I can talk to anyone about more, so a 
good mention of MediaWiki, PHP and MySQL might be good for such an 
article.  Given the circumstances, I really don't care what it says as 
long as it A) mentions the Wikimania bid and B) mentions software 
freedom day.  We'd prefer general open source to Linux, but this is a 
LUG after all, so I won't argue with it. :)

Here's what our old writer wrote:

<blockquote>

Here's a question - what's the most expensive item you own? For many 
students, it's a car, and the expense of a car doesn't stop at just 
ownership - you also have to pay for insurance, oil changes, gas and 
regular maintenance. These aren't cheap, but fortunately there are 
competitive markets for these services - and then you could save even 
more by fixing your own car or at least changing your own oil.

But what if you couldn't - what if your hood was welded shut and only a 
trip to the car's original dealership - paying whatever the dealer 
dictated - could fix whatever problems surfaced? Such is, in fact, the 
case for many other students' most expensive items: their computers. You 
might think you own your Lenovo, but you don't really own what makes it 
go: the software. You - the user, the owner of your computer - are not 
permitted to modify the way your computer functions, and must simply 
accept how, say, Microsoft dictates your experience should be. But there 
is a choice.

This Friday, September 14, the Carolina Open Source Initiative (COSI) 
will celebrate Software Freedom Day (SFD). SFD is a global, grassroots 
effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom 
and the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software 
(FOSS). What is Free and Open Source Software? Briefly, it's software 
that allows you - the user, the owner - real access to the functioning 
of your computer.

It's software that is fully readable, fully modifiable, and free. COSI, 
a group of which I'm a member, works to spread awareness and use of FOSS.

For instance, you probably are already familiar with at least one 
example of FOSS - Mozilla Firefox. There's a reason it runs quicker and 
crashes less often than Internet Explorer - an open approach to software 
development means that rather than one company trying to make everything 
work in every situation, there are also thousands of committed 
volunteers around the world who work to make the software better. But it 
doesn't stop at the browser - you can replace Windows with Fedora, a 
Linux-based operating system; you can replace your Microsoft Office 
suite with software from OpenOffice.org; you can replace Outlook with 
Thunderbird (also from Mozilla), which is far less susceptible to 
viruses. In fact, you can get a piece of Free and Open Source Software 
to do pretty much anything you want on your computer, and you can find 
the software online or stop by on Friday to pick up a CD packed with 
FOSS. Stick around for free food and a lineup of speakers, including 
Mark Finkle of Mozilla, along with Max Spevack from Red Hat, Amit 
Bhutani from DELL, Joseph Mack of AustinTek and Pam Sessoms from the 
University Library.

</blockquote>


Thanks for your time and helping us spread FOSS!


-- 
Douglas A. Whitfield

Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President
http://www.ibiblio.org/cosi
Group SFD site: http://tinyurl.com/2qmreb
Cell: 919-360-0306

Software Freedom Day
*Friday, September 14th*
UNC Student Union, Great Hall
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