Last Saturday, 15th of September 2007, the Philippines joined 90 countries around the world in celebrating Software Freedom Day 2007. The celebration was held in two places in the country, Manila and Davao. The Manila event was held in the Advanced Science and Technology Institute, where we were able to have live video feeds of simultaneous SFD events in Davao and Vietnam.

But what is Software Freedom Day? "Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business -- in short, everywhere!" softwarefreedomday.org. So it's really more of an advocacy event, although there were talks in the afternoon that were more technical, to show the practical applications of FOSS in development.

Our Lady of Lourdes College Foundation has followed the footsteps of Royal Roads University, Durham Academy, and Handsworth Grammar School by using Free and Open Source Software in their classroom. But this time, the school's administrators decided to take it one step further: eliminate all proprietary software from their computers and their courses and use FOSS exclusively. This move was seen as the most cost-effective solution for the Foundation while at the same time providing quality education that the students need.

About The Event:

FOSS Mi! celebrates the value of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Open Content (OC). Software developers and content authors around the world recognize the benefit of Free licenses such as the General Public License and Creative Commons license. Thanks to the Free Society, the internet have transformed into an effective information and entertainment media. FOSS Mi! 2007 brings FOSS and OC to the Mindanaoans, expanding talents and innovators in this brave new ecology.

Contacts:

For Sponsors:
Anne Generoso +(63) 9178296919 anne_g@surfshop.net.ph
Azaleo Abudok +(63) 9185527963 pixeleo@yahoo.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: This was written last Jan. 17, 2007, but somehow got stuck in moderation queue. Apologies to Emo so we're publishing this now and adding it in front.

It has been a few years since I started dabbling in the world of open source software particularly with Linux as an operating system. I previously recounted my experiments with the various "distros" of Linux in a now-defunct blog.

Having said that, among all Linux flavors that I have tested (Debian, Knoppix, DSL, Fedora, Suse, cAos, University, Puppy, Bayanihan, etc.), Ubuntu so far have met my expectations for a desktop OS (and I'm sure the server installation will perform with equally agreeable results). Its not to say that its conclusively the best among other Linux distributions I've cited. It simply means that coming from a "windowed" world of computing, it has a friendlier interface for people like myself who are transitioning from the MS experience. Some of the distros I previously encountered were difficult to install "out-of-the-box", others required a higher learning curve with much emphasis on the command-line shell, and still others just wouldn't work on my particular system. Ubuntu by comparison installed with just as much fuss as popular commercial software and has an amicable interface while still providing access to the powerful command-line.

Ubuntu Team Philippines (Ubuntu-PH) took part at the recently concluded FOSS Fiesta at the EDSA Shangri-La hotel last March 7 and 8. The FOSS Fiesta happened in parallel with the Philippine Conference on FOSS and E-Governance. The Ubuntu-PH booth wouldn't be complete without the free CDs, but as an added attraction, various Ubuntu-themed items were also put on sale such as t-shirts, stickers, pens, coffee mugs and more. Special edition black shirts with hand-painted logo of Ubuntu was made for the event, although the shirts were limited to the booth staff.

If you're looking for Ubuntu tutorials and other stories with a Pinoy touch, head over to Ubuntu Living. Dominique tells his story:

A little story about how I got started with Ubuntu.

Three years ago, I was travelling in Manila and the SuSE installation on my Thinkpad R50e flaked out on me. Far away from my installation CDs, what could I do? Fortunately, my friend Migs had just given me his spare media kit of Ubuntu 5.04.

I shrugged. "Okay, I'm an old hand at Linux, and I really need to get my Thinkpad running. How hard can it be?"

Answer: not hard at all. In fact, it was absolutely easy.

Conference on FOSS and E-Governance, FOSS Fiesta and Parallel Workshops on Joomla and Ubuntu, Manila, March 7-8, 2007

NOTE: Pls. Send an Email to yolynne at gmail dot com, so that Ubuntu-ph members will be registered as a batch. Deadline of for submitting your name, cellphone number, City is On February 23, 2007. Thank you very much!

Call for Participation: Philippine Conference on FOSS and E-
Governance, FOSS Fiesta and Parallel Workshops on Joomla and Ubuntu
+FOSS Migration

The Institute for Popular Democracy is inviting users, advocates and
developers of Free Software/Open Source Software (FOSS) who are

Interviewee : Jerome Gotangco

This is the first interview conducted thru email on the people behind Ubuntu-ph, the loco team of Ubuntu in the Philippines.

Jerome Gotangco, the initiator of Ubuntu-ph, is the first person assigned to be interviewed.

1. Could you introduce yourself and share to us how you ended up in the FOSS/UBUNTU world?

I am Jerome S. Gotangco, currently connected with the ABS-CBN Foundation as the IT Manager. Previously, I managed IT for Pycon Technology Philippines, Inc, a semiconductor services company, and Bugal Pty. Ltd., a mobile entertainment company based in Australia. I've been using FOSS-based solutions since 1999 mostly on servers, and got involved into development of some projects around 2000 until today.

The Management Information Team (MIT) of Surigao City together with the Research and Development Extension Program of the Surigao State College of Technology (SSCT)will conduct a three-day training also includes networking concepts and best practices using FOSS technologies dubbed "Linux Desktop Training with Networking Concepts and Best Practices".The Event will be on December 18-20,2006. According to the organizer they will be using the Ubuntu 6.06 on the event and be distributing some Cd's of Ubuntu.

For more information of the event click the link here.

Greetings everyone! Last December 1, the Ubuntu-PH LoCo team had a very productive meeting over at the #ubuntu-ph IRC channel. In attendance were yolynne, mangz74, rjian, jucato, otep, Adames, Alter-Ego, dannyubuntu, jsgotangco, ealden_, and schoolboy. The primary topic of discussion was how to achieve the 4 stated goals of the Ubuntu-PH LoCo teams. The goals are: 1) Spread GNU/Linux and FOSS in the Philippines using Ubuntu, 2) Translate Ubuntu to languages in the Philippines, 3) Document Ubuntu usage patterns in the Philippines and provide solutions and support thereof and lastly, 4) Work with other communities in the Philippines. Various ideas and solutions where suggested to help achieve these goals. This includes organizing events that would promote Ubuntu and FOSS, coordinating the translation work of Ubuntu to Filipino, writing and posting of updated or new articles on the Ubuntu-PH website and ways to help out in the community.