FOSSED 2009 Registration is OPEN!

Go here to register! More information coming soon!

Call for presentations for FOSSED 2009!

Do you love Free and Open Source software? Are you an educator who is using FOSS or Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom? Are you a techie who utilizes FOSS in the server closet or around your school or organization? If so, we'd love to have you share your knowledge and expertise at FOSSED 2009. Fill in the form below to help us out!

Software Freedom Day Worth Celebrating

Software Freedom Day Worth Celebrating | Fanatic Attack

No, this is not a day when you free yourself of all your software addictions. Rather, Software Freedom Day is an annual grass roots effort to educate the public on the virtues of free and open source software. The 2008 event takes place on September 20 and will be celebrated in 65 countries across the globe. So exactly what is this open source movement and why are people celebrating it? Moreover, why should you care?

Open source software is available for free, to everyone and unlike for example, Windows or Mac operating systems, it is non-proprietary - meaning it is available for others to share, build upon, change, and redistribute either in its modified or unmodified form.The source code is transparent and allows rights to users which would otherwise be prohibited by copyright. Since the source code is transparent, bugs or security flaws can quickly be discovered and patched. In a proprietary system, the software is closed and typically you are reliant on the company’s “word” that security glitches will be or have been fixed.

Just as Sunshine Laws are invaluable tools to keep the public informed of elected official’s meetings in the public interest, open source provides such user benefits in software as increased control, enhanced security, free or reduced cost and higher quality due to constant peer review of the code.Some excellent examples of open source software include Mozilla Firefox internet browser, Ubuntu operating system, OpenOffice.org, a software suite similar to Microsoft Office, GIMP image editing software and the list goes on and on from there.

So if you’re new to open source, Software Freedom Day celebrates a philosophical movement which values collaboration, community and transparency. It benefits the public good and ensures basic human freedoms are strengthened by technology, not hampered.

One Participant's Impressions

FOSSED 2008 is an amazing adventure. If you missed it, you might be interested in my take on sessions that I attended. I hope it inspires you to register for FOSSED 2009!

FOSSED Evaluation

FOSSED 2008 attendees! Please take a moment to fill out the evaluation and provide us with some feedback on the conference. Your answers are confidential and your input truly helps to shape the future of FOSSED. We want to thank you for coming and hope you had a great experience! Hope to see you again next year!

Click here to go to the online evaluation

David and Bryant

How to get a Windows Tax Refund

If you buy a computer, you often pay for Microsoft Windows even if you
didn't ask for it and aren't going to use it. This article shows you
how to return your unused Windows license and get your money back,
freeing yourself from the Windows tax.

Linux.com :: How to get a Windows tax refund

Posting on the fly from IMified

I recently read a post on Twitter about a new service called IMified which allows you to post to many Web 2.0 services right from your IM client. I use IM quite a bit to stay in touch with others during the day so I figured "what the heck"? So here I am posting to my FOSSED blog using Pidgin (my IM client of choice on my Ubuntu laptop). We'll see in a second if this posts. Check out IMified here: http://www.imified.com