[H-GEN] SFD Summary

[Russell Stuart]

Here is a short summary on how Software Freedom Day went, 
and ideas for next year.

This year Software Freedom Day was held at the "Sunday
Computer Market" (SCM).  And in summary it went well.
We had about 100 CD's pre-burnt to hand out - they
disappeared in short order.  Thanks in a large part to
Johann's posters there was more than enough interest
at the stand itself to keep two people occupied
answering questions from the public during the entire
session.

On the list some people expressed fears that the Sunday
Computer wasn't the right audience.  Looking back on it,
I now think those fears were unfounded.  I suspect that
trying to explain the importance of open source to 
someone who had no interest in computers would be rather
like trying to explain the importance of glasses to
someone who was blind from birth.  As it was, we had an
audience was at least capable of appreciating what we
had to offer.

The Sunday Computer Market also gave us an opportunity 
to promote Humbug - the aims of SFD and HUMBUG went
meshed _very_ well.  I was often asked questions that
would take too long to answer on the stand.  The I 
gave was "HUMBUG".  In other words, I said "look, I 
can't help you right now (with meaningful looks at the 
queue behind me), but HUMBUG can".  Many were startled 
to hear there was a community group they could go with
any open sources questions or problems they might
have - and it was free.  (To see why there were 
startled, compare that to the $150 your average 
computer store charges for fixing a Windows problem.)  
The HUMBUG flyer we had were useful here - I could 
circle the HUMBUG's URL and send them on their way.  
In other words, the Sunday Computer Market is a rich 
hunting ground for new Humbug members.

Sandra laid up and Johann printed a booklet explaining
how Open Source worked.  See: 
  http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FLOSS_Concept_Booklet
It is difficult to estimate how much effect this booklet
had.  The concepts and ideas the booklet deals with are
too complex to go into on the stand - it would take too
long.  There was one person who, with remarkable insight,
asked me why, if all this open source software was so
good, that it wasn't pinched by commercial organisations.
When I explained how the GPL worked her eyes lit up.
The GPL is difficult to explain on the stand of course, 
so I gave her the booklet and she went away vowing to 
read it from cover to cover.  We did give many other
copies out, but how many will be actually read is 
difficult to say.

It sounds hard to believe, but we had too many people
for the stand.  A single table can only really handle
4 people at most - and we had 7.  However, it happened
that the youngsters - Ted, Mark, Tyrone and the
not quite so young David turned up early.  Without 
them we would never of got the stand set up by opening 
time.  Without their computers on display the stand
would of looked fairly barren.  After setting up they
went off and handed out CD's to generate interest in 
the stand (a tactic that was very successful), and 
left us older fellows - Robert, Ewan and myself, to do 
the windbagging.

One aspect of this that seems to slip by most is that
the space at the market, and the table and power was
_donated_ by owner of the Sunday Computer Market,
Chris.  As a venue is a geek's paradise - and that 
brings us its main downfall.  Most of us bought stuff 
while we were there.  Anyway,  I would like to take 
this opportunity to publicly thank Chris.

That is the end of the report on the day.  What follows
is a list of things we can do better should we do this
again next year.  I am putting this down here because
by the time next year rolls around I will of almost
certainly forgotten most of this - and as Linus said
the best way to get your worked backed up is to publish
it on the web.  The items are not in any particular order.

1.  I didn't read the Market's Vendor Agreement closely
    enough.  We were supposed to have no more than two
    people on the stand.  We had more, obviously.  Chris
    left us get away with it this time.  Next time he
    may not be so generous.  In any case, the maximum
    number of people you need on the day is 4, and I
    think that applies to any venue like this.  The jobs
    break down like this:

    - 2 people to man the stand.
    - 2 people to circulate and hand out CD's to generate
      interest in the stand.

2.  Numbers of CD's.  We ran out.  If you just handed them
    out to people we showed interest in the stand, then 
    100 would be plenty.  But if you use them the way we
    did - as a means of generating interest in the stand,
    them 100 isn't enough.  200-300 is more like the
    number needed.

3.  Types of CD's.  The people we are trying to reach are
    people who don't know what open source is.  We had
    a number of visitors to the stand who had installed
    Linux before and happily went away with Ubuntu install 
    CD's.  As a way of prompting awareness of open source
    this seemed rather pointless to me - these people were
    obviously already very aware of open source.  However, 
    as a way of promoting HUMBUG it was great.  You could
    give them a CD and point out that if they had problems
    they could join in with HUMBUG.

    The remainder of the visitors to the stand, and the
    bulk of them thank goodness, didn't know much about
    open source.  There was absolutely NO chance of them
    installing any new OS, and of course the OS they had
    was windows.  For them TheOpenCd was very ideal.

    There was a small number of people who had heard of
    Linux and wondered what it was like.  For these people
    a live CD (Knoppix, Ubuntu) was ideal.  They could
    see Linux run without fear it would damage their hard
    disk.

    So, a break down of disk numbers might be:
      Windows Software:  70% .. 80% of CD's.
      Linux Install:     10% .. 20% of CD's.
      Live CD:            5% .. 10% of CD's.

    There is _no_ point in having more than one of each type
    of CD.  People will just take one of each, making the
    whole exercise more expensive to run.  The idea the
    stand is not to give away CD's, it is to promote open
    source.  Giving away CD's is just a means to that end.

3.  It would of made life easier on the day if we all had
    similar attire - a tee shirt perhaps, that said what we 
    were about, and what were going to say to them (ie - we 
    are going to give you a free CD, so it is worth your 
    while to pause and hear what you are going to say.)  
    Tee shirts are really easy to produce - all you need 
    is a white tee shirt, an ink-jet printer and some iron 
    on paper.  Not that you need anything special - a
    HUMBUG tee shirt would be fine.

4.  Stand layout.  You need posters - without Johann's
    posters the stand would of looked very dull indeed.
    At a pinch any posters would do, but the laminated
    A0 posters Johann provided gave the stand a very
    professional look.  I am not sure where the graphics
    on the posters came from, but the fact that they
    were obviously done by a professional artist certainly
    helped.

    With regards to content, we had two kinds of posters -
    one that prompted SFD and one that prompted HUMBUG.
    Both we necessary.  We need one more that said what 
    people can expect to find at the stand.  We made our 
    own up.  It said "Free CD's".  I am not sure that was 
    the best thing to say, but we were in a rush. Perhaps 
    something along the lines of:

      Find out about Open Source
      and get a FREE Open Source CD.

    would of been better, possible with a list of what
    software they were getting in a smaller fond at the
    bottom.

5.  Flyers and pamphlets.  We had two - the FLOSS booklet
    and an introduction to HUMBUG.  The FLOSS booklet
    was ideal.  You don't need many, but they are the
    perfect way to answer to someone who actually wants to
    know how open source could possibly work.

    The HUMBUG pamphlet was also absolutely necessary - I
    handed them out to people who I thought might potentially
    take an interest and join the club.  That said, in the 
    rush the HUMBUG pamphlet was just lifted from front page 
    of the web site.  It was a very dry, formal document that 
    generated about as must excitement as a sock draw.  What
    was needed was a pamphlet that described why people might
    like to join Humbug.  It is not like HUMBUG doesn't have
    a lot to offer.  It is a collection of people who are
    interested in computers and actually enjoy helping others
    solve computer problems (although it must be said only
    Open Source computer problems).  Some of them people are
    experts in their field.  The fact that such a resource is
    available is simply amazing - which is why so many
    people had trouble accepting it.  Oddly, many people found
    the fact that Humbug, while not broke, has no money to 
    speak of very re-assuring.   Apparently that is a sign of
    a well run community organisation.

    The other thing that needs to be pointed out is the Humbug
    is both a real and a a virtual organisation.  Which is to
    say that if they find the idea of travelling through the 
    city twice a month to attend meetings a bit daunting 
    they can still participate in, and get benefit from Humbug 
    by just joining the mailing list.  I guess I should not of
    been surprised, but many people I spoke to found that
    concept hard to understand.  They only started to look
    like they might believed me when I said I and only been
    to one meeting this year and had organised the day via
    mailing lists, and whats more had not met most of the
    people on the list until that morning.

    So what the pamphlet need information on what Humbug can
    help them with, and how they join the lists.

    One pamphlet that would of been nice to have was a
    "what is available on the stand" pamphlet.  We could of
    handed this out with the CD's.  A few URL's on there
    that they could use to find out more would not of
    gone astray either - perhaps on the back.

    A for numbers of pamphlets:

      What is available:    number of CD's + 20%
      Humbug:               number of CD's.
      FLOSS:                20 .. 40.

6. Venue.  The Sunday Computer Market worked well, obviously.
   And Chris has invited us back next year.  There is no
   reason we could not have two days - one on Sunday and
   one on Saturday, if we have the level of participation we
   had this year.  However, organising the Venues has to be
   done at least a month in advance, preferably two.

7. Other promotion.  With a bit more organisation I am sure
   we could get some media coverage.  Radio's would be happy
   to announce a group like us is handing out free CD's.  All
   you would have to do is ring them - preferably a few weeks
   in advance with reminder calls later.

8. Burning CD's on the site.  We did this, and we would of
   been stuck if we didn't.  But it is less than ideal, and
   it would be impossible if Chris had of enforced the 2
   people per stand restriction.  With a bit better 
   organisation pre-burnt CD's should be possible.  The
   manufactured ones given to us by Linux Australia are by
   far the best way to go - even if we have to pay for them.