There were 205 registered DFD Teams that organised multiple events and activities. These ranged from taking Document Freedom to the streets in Switzerland [1] over mini-conferences in Brazil [2] or Nepal [3], a prize for the German Federal Foreign Ministry [4] to participation of Senator Kate Lundy in Australia [5]. On the DFD front page [6] we keep adding flags for all the countries with links to the many activities as the reports keep coming in. [7]

“We are very happy about the success of this first Document Freedom Day,” says Ivan Jelic, DFD Coordinator. “This has been a collaborative effort by many people around the world and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed. Working with all of you has been a true pleasure!”

Graham Taylor Director of OpenForum Europe: “The support for DFD was quite remarkable and emphasises yet again just how important the topic is to governments, business and the citizen. OpenForum Europe welcomes the announcement of DFD’09. One thing we can be sure is the interest won’t die down.”

After the DFD is before the DFD. Preparations for DFD ‘09 are going to begin very soon. Mark your calendars: March 25th 2009 is going to be yet another great day for Document Freedom!

[1] http://download.fsfeurope.org/pictures/DFD08-ZRH
[2] http://dfd.espiritolivre.org
[3] http://documentfreedom.org/FOSS_Nepal_Community
[4] http://documentfreedom.org/2008/Germany/Berlin
[5] http://documentfreedomdaysydney.googlepages.com/
[6] http://documentfreedom.org
[7] http://documentfreedom.org/2008

How you can get active

The Document Freedom Day is a collaborative effort.

You can make a difference by linking to http://documentfreedom.org, generate your own artworks or use the ones available at http://documentfreedom.org/Artwork.

You could also print out some of the DFD leaflets at http://www.documentfreedom.org/2008/DFD_Starter_Pack#Leaflet and give them to your co-workers, family or friends. And if you feel creative, consider taking pictures or small video testimonials that show the world what Document Freedom means to you!

Join us by registering a DFD team and inform us about our activities, or let us know if your organisation or company want to support us.

About Document Freedom Day

The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general.

Document Freedom Day is supported by a large group of organisations and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, Google, NLnet, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares Abiertos.

The list of DFD supporting groups can be found

http://documentfreedom.org/Who

The list of DFD Teams is available at

http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams

On 26 March 2008, the Document Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document Liberation and Open Standards. It will literally give teams around the world the chance to “hoist the flag”:

A “DFD Starter Pack” containing a flag, t-shirt, leaflets and stickers is in preparation and is planned to be sent out in the first weeks of March to the first 100 teams that sign up. Sixteen teams already signed up during the preparation phase of the DFD prior to this release. Sign your team up now!

“We’re proud to support this global effort to encourage open and inclusive information exchange,” said Marino Marcich, Managing Director, OpenDocument Format Alliance. “Document freedom means creating, exchanging, and preserving your electronic documents without having to buy software from a particular vendor.”

“Data lock-in and subsequent vendor lock-in are some of the most severe issues users are facing today,” says FSFE president Georg Greve. “Yet most people only realise this connection when it is too late and they have effectively lost control over their own data. We are supporting the Document Freedom Day to help raise awareness for this issue by starting with something that affects pretty much all users of computers: text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.”

“Free document formats and open standards are important elements in the continued expansion of the global open source community,” said Tom Rabon, executive vice president, Corporate Affairs at Red Hat. “Red Hat strongly supports Document Freedom Day and encourages participation by all who look forward to the day when documents are controlled by those who own them, not necessarily by those who create the technology to access those documents.”

Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems stated, “As I explained in my paper “Freedom to Leave“, it’s fundamental in the emerging market for people to be free to use any software they desire to handle their data. I fully support the goals of Document Freedom.”

Alexandre Oliva of the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA) comments: “When you save your documents using a Free Open Standard format such as ODF, you’re also saving your own future, ensuring your continued ability to access, decode and convert their contents.”

Graham Taylor Director of OpenForum Europe: “OpenForum Europe applauds the announcement of Document Freedom Day. The whole essence of ‘openness’ is captured by the right of users, citizens, governments… to be able to freely access and exchange documents today and in the future. Nothing gives greater meaning to the prevalent danger of lock-in to proprietary solutions, and for the need for Government to act now.”

About the Document Freedom Day

The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general. The DFD is supported by a large group of organisations and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, NLnet, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares Abiertos.

The list of DFD supporting groups can be found http://documentfreedom.org/Who

The list of DFD teams is available at http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams

Further information

http://documentfreedom.org

Contact

 contact - AT - documentfreedom.org

 Graham Taylor      graham - AT - openforumeurope.org
 Ivan Jelic         jelic - AT - fsfeurope.org
 Kerri Catallozzi   kcatallo - AT - redhat.com
 Marino Marcich     mmarcich - AT - odfalliance.org
 Marko Milenovic    milenovic - AT - fsfeurope.org
 Terri Molini       terri.molini - AT - sun.com
 FSFLA		     info -  AT - fsfla.org