Software Freedom Day held at UP
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Manila Times, Yehey.com
More than a hundred computer enthusiasts and users braved the morning rain shower Saturday, September 15, to meet at the ASTI Building inside the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines to celebrate this year’s Software Freedom Day.
The participants were advocates of the use of free and open source software (FOSS), or computer programs freely distributed and used without requiring expensive licensing or users’ fees.
“Open source software is a viable alternative to proprietary operating systems and applications. There is high quality free software available to run your computer for office and home use. There are even well-polished games for the gaming enthusiastâ€, said Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), one of the main organizers spearheading the Philippine celebration of Software Freedom Day 2007.
“Here is a world where no users are pirates and software sharing is legal. FOSS is the affordable software alternative, especially for a Third World country like the Philippinesâ€, he added.
Rep. Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna partylist updated the participants on the status of the FOSS Bill in the Philippine Congress. He filed the FOSS bill last year, generating mixed reactions from the industry and local FOSS groups.
The Charge d’Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Manuel Perez Iturbe shared his country’s FOSS policies. The Bolivian government requires its agencies to use only FOSS to save on costs.
“The government will continue to be dependent to proprietary and foreign software technologies unless it actively supports FOSS initiatives and give preference to the use of FOSS in institutions. However, it will take a strong political will for countries to be independent in software technologies using FOSS. The case of Venezuela should be noted,†Bahague added.
Computer users from local software developers, academics, gaming enthusiasts and even children attended the celebration. A video link, provided by ASTI, to Davao FOSS enthusiasts and SFD celebrations in Vietnam gave a live view of celebrations elsewhere.
Booths featuring the use of FOSS for programmers, ordinary users and NGOs were also set up. Kits were distributed to early participants and the media to introduce them to excellent softwares without the usual restrictions in the stiff licensing fees of proprietary software.
Software Freedom Day is a global event organized by more than 133 FOSS groups spread in more than 90 countries. The local celebration is participated by more than 10 groups, including UP Linux Users’ Group, UP ACM, International Open Source Network, local Linux users’ groups and peoples’ organizations supported by local companies like Stratpoint Technologies, Q-linux Labs, Morphlabs, and Promethost.com. The Advance Science and Technology Institute provided facilities for video streaming of the event and video casts of the Davao celebrations.
The Computer Professionals’ Union is a group of volunteers advocating information technology for the people. CPU has developed free software for use of different people’s organization. It has recently released the human rights monitoring system it developed, which can be accessed at code.google.com.
