Software Freedom Day is an annually celebrated event for Free and Open Source Software. This years SFD is on September 19 and will be held at UIC Davao. (in Davao) But is also celebrated in other places in the world.

It is that time of the year again when Free and Open Source Software advocates gather around and talk about various open source projects that they could benefit from. Davao City is no exception to this kind of celebration, nor is Davao new to something like this. It’s the Software Freedom Day 2009 that I’m talking about, an event that is simultaneously hosted worldwide.

This years SFD – Davao host is the University of the Immaculate Conception (Bankerohan) and will be this coming 19th of September which is a Saturday. Coincidentally, it is also the same date as WordCamp Philippines that will be held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. I’m glad to be part of the FOSS advocates here in Davao City, and to be able to share my few words and views about free and open source blogging with WordPress, and yes, I’ll be there talking about blogging in an open source world yet again.

Unlike last year, I look forward not to debate with other bloggers about which blogging platform / service is best for you, but rather introduce WordPress from the very start so that everyone can understand the software better and find it more easier to use. I’m not sure if I can give away prizes this time around. My slides are almost done, and I’ll be sharing them on my Personal Blog later on. Basta, expect some input about WordPress and Blogging Basics and probably SEO as well. :p

Here’s the list of the talks that you can expect to hear about:
Keynote Speaker: Hon. Councilor Pete Lavina

Teaching Open Source in the University – Dominique Gerald M. Cimafranca
For the past year, Dominique Cimafranca has been teaching Open Source Technologies, Information Security, and Operating Systems as subjects in Ateneo de Davao University. He talks about the challenges he faced, the strategies he used, and the response of the students.

Free Software and Issue Advocacy – Victor Sapar

Vic Sapar, a well known advocate for the use of FOSS among NGO’s will be presenting his experiences in promoting FOSS to NGOs. He will tackle issues that hinder the mass adoption of FOSS and suggest ways to mitigate such problems.

Laptops for Education:  The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project
Last Year, DabaweGNU won in the best event competition together with 2 other organizations.  The prize was a pair of OLPC laptops.  The educational theory and features of the OLPC will be presented  during SFD 2009.

Blogging in an Open Source World – Kevin Paquet
His talk in last years SFD 2008 was one of the memorable ones. He was still a high school student then. More mature and with more bullets this time, he will be presenting the latest updates and features of his favorite Blogging platform, WordPress.

Software Freedom Day 2009

Business Intelligence – Evamay dela Rosa
Computer applications and systems are often used to manage operations.  Only a few are being used for business intelligence and decision making.  Evamay will present the importance of business intelligence and available FOSS tools for its implementation.

IdeaCamp: Open Sourcing Ideas – Mark Maglana
IdeaCamp is an unconference of ideas initiated by Mark Magalana.  In this presentation, Mark will talk about the rational of the project and share his experience in organizing an Ideacamp.  He will also share best practices on how to setup your own ideacamps.

Network Booting and Virtualization – Holden Hao
This will be a demo presentation. Holden will present the FOSS technologies that are currently deployed at the DabaweGNU laboratory. This includes network booting (no hard drives required!) and virtualization. The platform has proven to be an affordable and easy to manage setup for a computer laboratory. And Yes, the platform supports Windows too! 😉

Lightning Talks
Lightning talks are mini presentations that are open to anyone who would like to share anything about FOSS philosophy, technology, community and issues.  The participants to SFD 2009 is highly encouraged to share their knowledge and skills.

For more information, feel free to visit Dabawegnu.Org