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>> Our next talk is starting now if anyone wants to join us.
There is, it's a bad omen for appreciation talk that nobody's here.
>> I was alright.
>> Maybe we can run around and tell people to come appreciate.
Dario, come here and listen to the talk.
Okay. I am introducing you nevertheless,
and I hope that more people join us in the course of next 15 minutes.
This is Bonnie from the Free Software Foundation Europe.
She's talking about sharing the power of appreciation. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Hi. Thank you.
I'm here today to talk to you about sharing the power for appreciation,
and of course, the I Love Free Software Day.
First of all, I would like to say that this is one of my favorite, most favorites.
My English is not always perfect,
but it's like the initiative that I like the most because
there are several reasons for it which I will go
through with you in the next 10-15 minutes.
Those reasons are, first of all,
I will talk to you about what it is that makes the Free Software Day,
and that's the power behind this day.
Then what is actually happening on this day?
What are we supposed to do?
How can we share our appreciation?
How can we reach out to others and let them know that we are a positive and welcoming community?
Why do we need something like the I Love Free Software Day?
Of course, nevertheless, how do we celebrate it actually?
Those are the points that I would like to introduce to you.
First of all, I take you back on a journey.
It's like a quick time travel back to 2010.
It's like 13 years ago,
and it was a very small initiative at the beginning.
It was an idea that popped up in the FSFE
about how can we make the Free Software communities more positive?
How can we share appreciation for free software?
How can we reach out to those people who are contributing to free software,
make them seen by others so that others know,
"Oh my God, it's not only developers who are doing something for free software.
There are so many people in it."
For this, we chose the Valentine's Day.
I know it's several months before the Valentine's Day,
and I know that the feeling for Valentine's Day is not yet there,
and that it will pop up in February or early February.
But still, it's a nice setting,
and we are already in this mood for sharing our love,
sharing appreciation for those people that we like and love.
Why couldn't we do that for free software as well?
Why couldn't we do it for something that we care so deeply about?
Because free software is not only a software that we use,
but it's something that empowers us,
that gives us the power to use, study, share, and improve.
So it's something that we thought might be a very good day for this.
And that's how it all started 13 years ago.
So what is this all about?
Each year on the 14th of February, we share our love, appreciation,
and gratitude for all those people contributing to free software.
So as I said, it's not only developers, it's translators as well.
It's those who do this design.
So there are so many people involved in free software projects,
and it's nice to highlight them and to say thank you,
and to reach out to them and let them be seen by others.
How do you do that?
You can do this on social networks, of course,
and highlight free software projects or contribute to those.
And you can, of course, also do offline actions,
with sending postcards, organizing events or meetups.
And most importantly, you can donate money to them.
Free software projects are worth something,
and they are not only worth our time, they are also worth some money.
And it's nice to think about free software
as something that we can participate in
and that we have the power to be part of.
So that's what's happening on this day.
That's why I think this day is very important.
And now to the point, why do I think it's so important?
Everybody appreciates a thank you.
It's not only me who appreciates a thank you,
it's everybody in this room here as well.
It's like a nice thing to say thank you once a time.
And also, as you probably know, in free software communities,
we do not always have the nicest tone.
We are sometimes like, "Why do you create this issue?
Look up the doku."
And it's not always very easy to take part in free software projects
and to feel like the work that you're contributing to those projects
is actually valued.
So we should create a more positive and welcoming communities.
And I do think that by saying thank you, we start something.
We can motivate others to contribute, to keep doing this.
Because if I say thank you to you, it's not like I'm just saying,
"Hi, and good that you do that," whatever, continue.
It's like, "I'm really appreciating what you're doing."
So it's motivating.
It also acknowledges the work that we are doing for this project.
And it should be more than just some words.
It should be very nice and...
Now I'm thrown off at the time, I'm sorry.
It should be nice and it should be valuing those people who are contributing.
So we do raise awareness with the say as well,
because a lot is happening on the social media networks with this.
And people do see free software communities, free software projects
that they might not have heard of before.
So it's like we are also reaching out to other free software communities
that we have not been in contact with before.
For example, we had one of those I Love Free Software days about free software games.
I'm not a big gamer and I never hear anything about
all those things that are needed for free software games.
It was a nice opportunity for us to connect more free software projects
with each other and to create a welcoming and nice community.
So this is also what we are doing with this day.
We are raising awareness for the various free software communities out there,
for free software itself.
We can talk to other people, we can organize events,
we can contact people that might be in the hack space,
but have not yet heard so much about free software and say,
"Hey, come on this day, let's share our knowledge,
let's share our appreciation for free."
free software.
And of course, as I said before, I can't say it more often because it's very important
for me to create a positive and welcoming community that appreciates the work that's
done for free software projects and not only focusing on the negative but also on the positive.
So how do we celebrate Dialogue Free Software Day?
I have already given some examples, like the one with the free software games events that
we organised, but there are more.
So a few years ago, quite some years ago, we did, for example, send a lot of roses
to every member of the German parliament attached with an open letter to, well, how
to put it nicely, to basically make them aware of free software and to give the hint that
it might be a cool thing to also do some more work for or to focus on free software and
politics as well.
So this was done by the Free Software Foundation in Europe.
It was a lot of work because, as you can imagine, there are a lot of people in the German parliament,
but it was worth our time because you get in contact with them, they are happy that
you sent them a rose, like it's a very nice thing, and they also get some information
about free software attached with the rose.
So this was one of the events that has happened on the Dialogue Free Software Day.
But also others are contributing to the state.
This is Salando organising a panel for the Dialogue Free Software Day in 2019.
Salando is doing a lot of work for open source, but this is not the point.
They are also, like there are a lot of people out there, it's not only the Free Software
Foundation Europe who are participating in the Dialogue Free Software Day, also companies.
And some more recent examples, we have also made it easier for you by creating a share
pick generator that you can use to share your love for free software very easily.
So this was also done by one of our volunteers who wanted to make the Dialogue Free Software
Day more accessible and more easy to attach a nice picture, a message by sharing a share
pick on your favourite social media.
And of course, we also sent a lot of postcards to a lot of free software projects that we
liked or that we appreciated in the team.
And yeah, say it, thank you to them.
So it was quite a nice action, but it was a lot of writing, and I do think it was great
fun in the office.
So yeah.
And of course others are also participating.
As I said before, it's also other organisations.
This is for example from this year's I Love Free Software Day and the share pick generator
idea picked up quite good.
So others are doing this now as well, different designs of course.
And also participating.
There's also a lot of other organisations who participate in this day very constantly
every year.
So it's something that's already quite established, but I still notice that a lot of people have
not yet heard so much about it or thought about why they should participate personally.
And of course we also organised meet ups and make it possible, especially after all those
times where we had to stay apart.
And it was quite a nice thing to meet people who are contributing to free software.
This can also be a good thing to actually start projects again or to keep working on
them because maybe you have also noticed not sitting in the hack space or not meeting up
with your peers can be demotivating sometimes for programming, so this day can also be an
option for you to restart something and to continue working on it.
So what are we going to do for the next I Love Free Software Day?
The next one will be focusing on organising workshops, meet ups in our local library,
youth clubs, etc.
So it's more about going outside of our realm and reaching out to other people who are not
yet contributing to free software projects or who are not yet part of the free software
communities and letting them know about free software.
This day is supposed to be a day where we share our love for free software, where we
share our appreciation and where we also raise awareness for free software projects.
So that's the idea for the next I Love Free Software Day.
As I said before, it's an initiative that lives by other people, so we can't do this on our
own.
We need you to participate in this day because if we only say thank you, then it's very nice
and others are happy about this, yes, of course, but it's also nice to hear thank you from
others as well and it's also nice if more people participate and share their appreciation
and love for free software and create welcoming communities.
So it's about spreading the word for free software, showing your love for free software,
and being part of the I Love Free Software Day and the free software movement.
And of course, most importantly, say thank you to other free software projects.
So I think I put it all in there and I'm happy to take your questions if you have some.
Contribute, spread the word, donate with time or money and yeah, we are over there at FSFE
booth so you can also visit us there if you want.
Thank you, Borne, for the talk.
Are there any questions?
How many of the members of the German Parliament replied and how?
This is so many years ago that I can't tell you anymore.
I'm so sorry.
I will try to find out and I will look it up, okay?
Are there any more questions?
I mean it was pretty straightforward.
I do think so as well.
As I said before, it's an important initiative for me.
I think it's a very nice thing.
I also think it's something that we should not only do once a year but keep doing and
it's something that we should keep in mind the whole time when we are communicating with
other people who are contributing to free software projects.
Maybe you want to say something about the stickers and the postcards which are down
there.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
We have some stickers, postcards and yeah, you can use them to share your love for free
software.
You can also send those postcards to other free software contributors and don't forget
there's the cows post.
So you can even send them on the camp here and reach out to your favorite free software
project here and let them know that you really appreciate them and that you think they are
doing great work and say thank you.
Good idea.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
[Applause]
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