Hello, Am Mittwoch, 30. November 2016, 16:03:09 CET schrieb Russell Coker: wrote: I don't know anything about the SFD in Australia but in Germany the SFD and LPD are nothing alike. We had the "Why not use the SFD for this?" discussion when planning the first LPD. Here in Germany the SFD has collapsed to a very small event. Last year there was only one big SFD event in this 82 mil people country. In addition there were three small ones (inclluding Berlin). In our experience the SFD never attracts non-Linux users. And that is not surprising considering the event name and its agenda. It's a day for the community to celebrate itself. And that is OK. We have choosen a different date for the autumn LPD so that the community does not lose "their own" event. The media do not cover the SFD (not even the big event) because hardly anyone knows what "free software" is. Many people are familiar with the term "open source" but if a journalist doesn't understand the headline then he doesn't ask. It doesn't make sense to be politically correct and talk about "free software" if the target audience doesn't understand it. "Linux" is the strong brand. That is the (only) term journalists and the target audience react upon. Thus we use Linux in order to spread the idea of free software whereas the SFD (in our impression) completely fails in doing that the other way round. There is no need for participating in both events. In Italy there is a huge Linux event in October so noone participates in the autumn LPD. Some of the German hosting organizations have decided to have just one event per year. The only big SFD event in Germany simply integrates the LPD although the date does not really fit. They have just added one day. In general the LPD is just opportunity, not obligation. And there may be other organizations in your area which are not interested in the SFD but might participate in the autumn LPD. We expect that one location per (large) city will not be enough as soon as the (nationwide) media start really covering the LPD. In Germany we have as hosting organizations: Linux user groups, other non-commercial associations (mainly hackerspaces), adult education centres, companies, universities, and schools. And: After getting used to it (i.e. the second or third event) organizing the LPD can be *extremely* simple. We have spent about *one hour* each for preparing the last two BeLUG LPD events. We just learnt the rather surprising fact that it is not more expensive to send stuff to Australia from here than sending it to France... Thus we would send you some posters, stickers, and the like free of charge. CU Hauke -- http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/ International phone contact for the Linux Presentation Day: tel:+49-30-55579620 (13:00–23:00, German and English) XMPP (Chat with OTR): linux-presentation-day(a)jabber.ccc.de OTR: 91626899 1C06F2BD 75EC2441 35C696CE 38F75997