The Software Freedom Day 2008 event at the Old Fire Station, Port of Spain on September 20th, 2008 was well attended with estimates between 200 and 300 persons attending. All 200 TTCS OSSWIN CDs and 150 Ubuntu CDs were given out. A detailed writeup is in the works but you can take a look at :
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS), will be celebrating Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2008 on Saturday September 20th, 2008 from 9am to 5pm at the Old Fire Station Building, National Library, Port of Spain. Everyone is welcome to attend this Software Freedom Day event.
We will be having scheduled presentations with giveaways and booths showing various aspects of free and open source software. Admission is free and while stocks last, attendees will receive free software CDs.
Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom as well as the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software. The non-profit company Software Freedom International (http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/) coordinates SFD at a global level. Volunteer teams from all over the world organise the localised SFD events for the third Saturday in September.
The Software Freedom Day event in 2007 hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society received a “highly commended” award out of 200 international teams from the Software Freedom Day organisation.
Additional information about the Trinidad and Tobago Software Freedom Day event in Port of Spain can be found at http://ttcsweb.org/
updated Abiword, GanttProject, WinMerge, Wikidpad, Tuxpaint, Portable Puzzle Collection, Sokoban Yasc, Freeciv, Paint.NET, Dia, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Filezilla, Miranda IM, XAMPP Lite, VirtualDub, VideoLAN, TrueCrypt, Launchy
For more details about the TTCS OSSWIN CD, including links to other download mirrors (including BitTorrent) can be found at https://www.ttcs.tt/osswin-cd/
Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2008 will be on September 20th, 2008 and the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/ ) needs your help.
What is Software Freedom Day?
Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the availability and benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Local teams around the world organise and have events
on the third Saturday in September.
Software Freedom Day is on September 20th, 2008. We need to plan now and
decide what to do
locate a suitable venue
promote the meeting once the venue and format of SFD 2008 is confirmed
Local Linux users, Windows users, Mac users, fans of open source software, everyone is welcome to assist with this project.
If you :
can help us with these tasks
have ideas and suggestions
would like to volunteer to help with planning SFD 2008 in Trinidad
would like to volunteer to help on the actual day(s)
please go to the planning page for further information and/or to add your contribution : the TTCS SFD 2008 wiki page at https://files.ttcs.tt/ttcs-wiki-sfd2008-planning.pdf and email admin at ttcsweb.org. Notes of meetings will be posted to the planning page with the first virtual one scheduled for July 27, 2008.
Further details will be posted to the SFD2008-planning page as well as via email to those persons interested in helping with SFD2008.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) is looking at what to do for a TTCS OSSWIN CD 2.0 release.
Does anything need to change?
One of the big problems encountered with the TTCS OSSWIN CD is the space for programs. Updated versions of programs unfortunately are larger in filesize than their predecessors. Recently, more and more programs had to be removed (see the TTCS OSSWIN CD changelog). So, YES, something needs to change.
Here are several options the TTCS has considered. Ideally, it will be good to have a version 2.0 of the TTCS OSSWIN CD done in time for Software Freedom Day 2008.
Develop a DVD version of the TTCS OSSWIN CD.
A DVD would solve (for now at least) the file size problem and allows for many more programs to be put on a DVD and more material about each program (such as larger screenshots, or short videos, even. There are several concerns, however :
whether to maintain the TTCS OSSWIN CD concurrently with a DVD version. This relates to the difficulty of maintaining two software collections – it could be done separately but then this introduces more maintainence headaches and I’ve learned that the more hassle something is, the less likely it will be done (data backups anyone?). So IMO, a system has be developed/designed to allow for updates to the CD and DVD versions to be done in one location (ie : updates to the information text and the program is done at one location).
the interface for a DVD version : the current interface for the CD will probably not work well with more software items in its menu. Already the Utilities section scrolls off the page on lower resolution displays (see screenshot below – there are three more items below Drempels yet on a 1280×1024 display, they are not seen). So a new webpage design needs to be also designed to cater for the many programs on such a DVD.
Drop the games from TTCS OSSWIN CD
With regards to the CD version, a possible option being explored is to drop the games section from the TTCS OSSWIN CD. This will allow space for more programs in the other categories in the short term. Also the easiest option to implement.
It has been suggested by some that the presence of the games might be turning off persons such as business users who may not take the OSS seriously for use in businesses, so the removal may make the CD more “friendly” to its use in businesses.
The downside of this option : no games! Life is no fun without games :-). A TTCS OSSWIN CD Games edition could be done…which leads to the third option :
Develop multiple editions of TTCS OSSWIN CD
It has been suggested that specific editions of OSSWIN CD be done to target different persons. Two examples : a TTCS OSSWIN CD (Business Edition) which takes out the games and a TTCS OSSWIN CD (Education Edition) which takes out games and adds a programming software category.
The idea would be that the targeting of different editions of the CD to the different users would result in increased usage among such targeted users. Similar to the ideas expressed in this TED Talk : “What we can learn from spaghetti sauce”.
Downsides?
The difficulty of maintaining multiple editions as mentioned earlier.
Microsoft Vista has multiple editions. Does that make it easier for users to decide which one is right for them?
However, it is possible that a single DVD version could do this type of end user targeting by having different menus for different users. So on startup (say), the screen could have menu options or ask the question :
Are you a Business User?
Are you a home user?
Are you a Teacher?
then a different software selection on the DVD would be given.
So, those are some of the considerations. Your thoughts about the current version of TTCS OSSWIN CD?
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a tech meeting on SATURDAY April 26th, 2008 from 1-5pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain (corner of Oxford and Edward Streets).At this meeting, we will be demonstrating the latest release of Ubuntu v8.04 LTS, a community developed operating system for desktops, laptops and servers.
Persons interested in computers and related technology are welcome to attend. While stocks last, attendees will receive a Ubuntu CD free of charge.
Contribution of $20 towards refreshments is expected. Copies of TTCS OSSWIN CD are available for $20TT.
