Document Freedom Day (DFD official site) is a global day for document liberation. Its main purpose is to raise awareness about document freedom and spreading the word about the importance of open documents and the workable open standards that ensure access to your documents now and in the future.
The digital environment is increasingly showing the need to develop and apply technologies and standards that enable smooth exchange and use of content, as well as the freedom of information and expression. When we save a document we need to be sure that the information in it will be accessible in the future. How and where we choose to access our documents shouldn’t make a difference. The only guarantee of long-term access to data is independence of formats and application which are used.
Open Standards are essential for interoperability and freedom of choice based on the merits of different software application. They enable choice of any operating system or application and still be able to read and edit all your old document and collaboration with others regardless of which software they are using. They also lead to more competition in software, resulting in better pricing and service, increased competition in hardware and this means more flexible, innovative and cost-effective solution. Moreover free software can be developed without thinking about commercial pressure that often degrades the quality of the software.
Open Source is also important for education. Software produced and marketed with restrictions on its use, is never really owned by the organizations that use it. For example, schools cannot give their students software they use at school, and students cannot copy proprietary software to share with friends. Why should be use of proprietary software taught in schools when students have to purchase for home use? Free software has become the foundation for society where we want to share our knowledge.
Document liberation is really an important issue for our future and we can join efforts of many teams around the world with support, spreading the word about it and also with participation. In Slovenia there will be numerous events occurred on this topic. Here is list of some events.
Document liberation is really an important issue for our future and we can join efforts of many teams around the world with support, spreading the word about it and also with participation. In Slovenia there will be numerous events occurred on this topic. Here is list of some events.
This is a great post and I don't know why I didn't notice it earlier :/
OdgovoriIzbrišiI think you captured the point behind the software “war” brilliantly by saying: “Software produced and marketed with restrictions on its use, is never really owned by the organizations that use it.” I couldn't agree more! For example: At the faculty we used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator at one class and although it is great to have the opportunity to experience these programs, it puts you in the position where unless you get an illegal copy (download it), you cannot work on your project at home, because the licenses are extremely expensive. So students have limited, if any, options to practice outside the faculty.
Personally, I am a big OSS fan and I think it's great that there are accessible alternatives to proliferation of Microsoft and (also) Apple products. What strikes me is that these corporations made the use of their products so common that when talking about computers a lot of people are genuinely surprised when mentioning that I do not use Microsoft Office and think that I must know a lot about computers if I use OpenOffice!
Document liberation really is an important issue for the future, but as long as people's preferences remain unchanged and the OSS “prejudice” remains present, it will take a lot of OSS initiatives to be able to really see a change for the better.