SFD – Page 3 – Inspiration is food for every soul!

SFD2013@ Shantou University

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Pockey Lam

Group photos with the STU Linux Association members. — Group photo with the STU Linux Association members.

After organizing the SFD event in Hong Kong in PolyU, Fred and I were invited to join another SFD event hosted by the Linux Association from Shantou University (STU). We had the pleasure to meet an associate professor of the Computer Science Department, Mr. Liao who is actually a Free Software user himself. The three of us gave presentations about different topics related to software freedom: Fred began with introducing what is Free Software and why it is important, he gave an overview on how the audience could benefit from using and contributing to any Free Software project, including GSoC for next summer. Then I talked about who and what makes Free Software, I started with a quick history review of Free Software and followed by how the audience could get involved and contribute to the community (I reused the slides created by Mathieu for SFD Hong Kong 2013). Mr. Liao presented his experience with Free Software and GNU/Linux as well as introduced a lot of great Free Software projects to the audience.

The event ended up with local desserts and lots of great discussions about how to strengthen the Shantou Linux Association. We also agreed to follow up with core members meetings and mailing list in the following weeks. From what we learnt, they are having a meeting today to kick-start the discussion! By having a professor involved in the process, I believe it can definitely help to build awareness of Free Software in STU. We are definitely looking forward to our next meeting together and committed to help them grow stronger and bigger.

SFD Hong Kong, we had so much fun!

Posted on September 25, 2013September 25, 2013 by Pockey Lam

I have been helping to organize a lot of SFD events in mainland China for almost a decade now. Being born and raised in Hong Kong, I was indeed very exited to organize my first SFD in my home town. It was a half day event starting at 13:15, we arrived at the venue at 11:00 to set it up and did some last minute promotion. As for myself I hosted a BoF about building communities in Hong Kong. Since I was told it lacks strong FLOSS communities locally we are considering to start one. Nick Jones from Network Box offered us a venue while Michael Iannini offered to run meetings in Wan-chai (different area so we still need to bridge the two proposals). There are still a few details to be ironed out but it’s a very positive start. Besides, from Naruhiko’s presentation, we learnt that the LibreOffice Japanese team is made of 50 people, so not so much in proportion to the project.

Below you can find snapshots of the great moments, please enjoy!

A huge thank you go to our sponsors, our speakers, our workshop hosts, our exhibitors and especially our volunteers, they are Graham, Michael, Mathieu, Jacqueline, Oi-to, Amity, Ray, See-ming, Messy, Cameron, Guo-feng, Hu-zhou, Xi-lin, etc. Right after the event, I received a lot of thank you notes from our speakers and volunteers for organizing the event and having them to participate. In fact without YOU it would have been impossible to have such a wonderful event! THANK YOU!

There were seven booths including LibreOffice, Stroke5, Blender, GNOME, Fedora, LinuxPilot and HKLUG. — Our exhibitions included LibreOffice, Stroke5, Blender, GNOME, Fedora, DFF, LinuxPilot and HKLUG.

Fedora 20 with GNOME 3.1 was demonstrated in our SFD HK 2013 event. — Fedora 20 with GNOME 3.10 was demonstrated in our SFD HK 2013 event.

An old friend from Beijing, Michael who is the BLUG founder. He was good in bringing the atmosphere up. — An old friend from Beijing and the BLUG founder, Michael was good in bringing up the atmosphere!

Graham from PolyU and DimSumlab, helped us in getting the venue for free and gave an introduction speech to kick start our event. — Graham from PolyU / DimSumLabs, helped us in getting the venue and gave an intro-speech to kick start the event.

Naruhiko Ogasawara, LibreOffice Japan team, came all the way to share with us their project and community in Japan. — Naruhiko from the LibreOffice Japan team, shared with us the project and community in Japan.

TK Kang talked about OLPC and announced his upcoming OLPC BaseCamp event in Malacca on 16-18 November 2013. — TK Kang talked about OLPC and announced the OLPC BaseCamp event in Malacca on 16-18 November 2013.

Nick Jones introduced us how NetworkBox Corporation is profiting from Free and OpenSource software. — Nick Jones explained how Network Box Corporation is profiting from FLOSS.

Fred introduced the Google Summer of Code program to some students during the event. — Fred introduced the Google Summer of Code program to students to join.

A BoF was hosted to discuss about building a stronger FLOSS community in Hong Kong — A BoF was hosted to discuss about building a stronger FLOSS community in HK.

We finished the event with beer and local food in Tsim Tsha Tsui East and heading home at 2am with big smile on our face. — We finished the event with beer and local food in Tsim Sha Tsui East and left at 1am with big smiles on our faces.

GNOME booth in SFD HK 2013

Posted on September 3, 2013September 3, 2013 by Pockey Lam

As a GNOME user and fan, knowing that the next major version GNOME 3.10 will be released two days after Software Freedom Day on 23rd September, we are happy to have a booth to showcase GNOME 3.10 on Fedora 20 at our Hong Kong SFD event which will be hosted at PolyU on 21st September, meanwhile I encourage every SFD team to celebrate the new release as well!

While I am still running Fedora 19 with GNOME 3.8.2 I can’t wait to check out the latest version myself with the new features such as maps and music applications, thanks for all the hard works by the GNOME developers, thanks Mathieu for running the booth and of course I will upgrade mine soon! How about you?

SFD Hong Kong getting in shape!

Posted on August 27, 2013September 3, 2013 by Pockey Lam

It is with great pleasure that we are opening an optional registration for our Software Freedom Day event in Hong Kong on September 21 at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It means that first the schedule is positively progressing, while knowing how many of you will attend will allow us to plan accordingly. We are aiming to target both the university audience and the young workforce, on top of presentations and workshops, we (assisted by various communities) will be holding booths (e.g. Fedora, LibreOffice, Blender, Stroke 5, Greenboard) to allow for more individuals discussions. All in all it’s been a joy working on this event, allowing us to talk and plan resources with people from the US, Netherlands, France and Japan, not to mention discovering a great bunch of passionate FOSS people like us in our backyard.

Still, almost 4 weeks to go and plenty of time to get great surprises! If you happen to be in Hong Kong on 21 September, please do register and drop by!

SFD Hong Kong 2013

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Pockey Lam

Thanks Henry Lawford for the nice picture

21 September 2013 Saturday (1:30pm to 6pm)
Lim Por Yen Lecture Theatre N002, N114, N115
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

We are organizing a Software Freedom Day event in Hong Kong which will be hosted by the nice people at the Polytechnic University! We have just confirmed the location and there will be presentations, exhibitions and workshops during the half day event. We are already in touch with different FOSS oriented companies and communities in Hong Kong to participate.

Considering the great news we have added a special section in our Hong Kong website where we will continue to provide more details. In the meantime if you are in town you can already start reading and get ready to come and join us! A big thank you goes to PolyU for the energy and the venue!