Kitchener-Waterloo Software Freedom Day

This event is being organized in part by The Working Centre and KWLUG

This year's festivities will be held on:

Saturday, 20 September 2014
10am-4pm
43 Queen Street South and 58 Queen Street South (Map)
Kitchener

All activities are free of charge unless you are purchasing computer equipment during the Installfest.

Schedule

To preregister for workshops or the installfest, email sfd at kwlug.org

Presentations will be held at the Queen Street Commons (43 Queen Street South). There is no need to preregister for the presentations; just show up and bring your enthusiasm. See below for additional presentation information.

Workshops will be held at the main Working Centre building (58/66 Queen Street South). We recommend that you preregister for workshops to ensure a spot (but dropins are welcome as well if there is sufficient space). Again, see below for additional workshop information.

The Installfest will be held at Computer Recycling (66 Queen Street South). The entrance is off of Charles Street beside the ceramic mural. We recommend you preregister if you are going to install a free software distribution (whether on a computer you bring in or one you get from us). Preregistration is not necessary if you want to install software on your existing operating system. See below for details about the "Build your own Linux system" offer.

The Film Festival has a location and schedule yet to be determined. Preregistration is not required. Keep watching this space for additional details.

Spread the word!

• Here is a poster you can use to advertise the event: sfdkw-poster.pdf

• Here is a brochure: sfdkw-brochure.pdf

• On Twitter, we are @sfdkw

• In the Fediverse we are @sfdkw@sn.jonkman.ca

• On Facebook we have a page SFDKW

• And here is a Facebook event which you can share with friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/841426132534331/

• Contact us at sfd at kwlug.org

Workshops

All workshops are free of charge, but space is limited. Dropins are welcome, but people who preregister get priority. Preregister by emailing sfd at kwlug.org

Programming with Scratch

time: 10:30am-12:30am (Note time change)

facilitators: Lloyd Carr, Sergiane Nascimento, Raul Suarez

Scratch is a programming language and online community designed to get children programming and sharing their interactive creations. It is a visual language that can be used with a web browser on as an offline app.

From sequential instructions to conditionals and loops in an event driven environment, the "programmer" gets instant gratification of watching things happening in the screen.

This workshop will introduce participants to programming in Scratch. You can bring your own computer or use one of our lab computers.

Children are welcome to participate in this workshop if accompanied by an adult. Adults are welcome to participate as well!

Space for this workshop is limited, so those who pre-register will get first priority for participation. To pre-register, please email sfd at kwlug.org .

As part of this workshops participants will create a Scratch account. Be prepared to make a password.

Privacy and Security Tools

time: 1:30pm-3:30pm (Note time change)

facilitators: Nick Guenther, Bob Jonkman

A year after Edward Snowden's whistleblowing of NSA activities, many people remain concerned about online privacy and surveillance. In this workshop, Bob and Nick will discuss and help you install some tools that can be helpful in increasing your privacy and security online. In particular, they will focus on the Tor Browser Bundle.

This workshop will be most effective if you bring your own computer. Laptops are preferred; if you wish to bring a desktop then please contact us at the address below.

In addition to bringing a computer you can bring a USB memory stick (1GB or larger) and install TOAST (Tor On A STick).

Space for this workshop is limited, so those who pre-register will get first priority for participation. To pre-register, please email sfd at theworkingcentre.org .

Presentations

Open Source for Fun and Profit: Making a Career out of FOSS

presenter: Khalid Baheyeldin (http://2bits.com)

time: 10:30-11:20am

Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) has seen steady growth for the last two decades. Yet it is not obvious how one would go about making a career of out FOSS.

In this presentation, Khalid will recount his own experiences from the trenches on how to to do just that. He will discuss various options available to individuals in the context of the Drupal project.

Open Access Publishing

presenter: Andrew McAlorum, University of Waterloo

time: 11:30am-12:20pm

Andrew will discuss open access publishing efforts at the University of Waterloo. Open Access publishing gives everybody (affiliated at a university or not) access to scholarly articles over the Internet.

Open Data in Kitchener and Waterloo Region

presenters: Mike Bolger, City of Kitchener and Oriana Sharp, Region of Waterloo

time: 12:30pm-1:20pm

Mike and Oriana will discuss Open Data initiatives at their levels of government, which provides government data in machine-readable forms. Others can access this data, analyse it, and mash it up with other data in interesting ways.

Photo Processing with RawTherapee

presenter: Stefan Chirila (http://www.stefanchirila.com/)

time: 1:30pm-2:20pm

Stefan is a professional photographer and a free software enthusiast. In this presentation, he will demonstrate how to use RawTherapee to process files generated by digital cameras.

Introduction to Inkscape

presenter: Kyle Murphy

time: 2:30pm-3:20pm

Learn how to use Inkscape for vector graphic design. Kyle's demonstration will cover a variety of techniques to create promotional materials, logos, art, and video game assets.

Installfest

Our installfest will be held all day. Bring your computer and get some assistance in configuring or installing free software on your system (Windows, Mac or Linux). We can also help you install a GNU/Linux distribution on your computer (Xubuntu 14.04 or Fedora 20 by default, but other distros are available).

If you do not have a computer (or do not have a computer to spare for a GNU/Linux distribution) then computers will be available onsite for you to build and take home. These computers will cost $20 with a monitor or $0 without. Here are the basic system specifications:

• HP dc7100 small form factor machine
• Pentium 4 processor running at 3GHz
• 40GB IDE hard drive
• 1GB DDR1 RAM (4 x 256MB sticks)
• Keyboard, mouse and power cables

We will help you put together your computer and install Xubuntu 14.04 or Fedora 20 on it (or other distros, depending on volunteer availability).

There will be some other components available for an additional charge, including:

• CD/DVD ROMs (no, we're not trying to be cheap. The dc7100 machines have only one molex connector, which is used for the IDE hard drive)
• More memory
• Bigger hard drives

Preregistration is not required for the installfest, but people who preregister are guaranteed spots/machines. Preregister by emailing sfd at kwlug.org

We do reserve the right to limit quantities, so do not get ridiculous. There is no warranty for these machines (and no post-event support through the Working Centre, although there are other places to turn for help).

Resources

• Here is the organizing page we are using: /TWCOrganizingPage

Other Software Freedom Days in Kitchener-Waterloo

CategoryTeam2014