Fabian Rodriguez

I’d like to share a few projects and organizations that I’d love to see reaching their goals this time of the year.

I want to stress how important it is to understand that donating even U$25 or U$5 or whatever you can is important. It’s also an easy decision for many people (I am not saying it is the case for everyone), to donate and make a difference, instead of spending that same money having lunch at the restaurant or taking a cab. You can also ask your employer to chip in – just ask! Your employer could donate to these projects, become a corporate member of the associations I mention, or pay your membership as part of mutual benefits (non-profit tax receipt + happy employee) Just ask. The worse that can happen is you get a “no, sorry”.

“OpenStreetMap‘s Operations Working Group, who have the important role of keeping core OSM services running smoothly, have planned to invest in a new server which will provide [them] with a database back-up. This improvement is at the very core of the OpenStreetMap infrastructure, giving services greater resilience. It means [they]’ll bounce back quicker and easier in the event of a hardware failure. In time the new server will also bring about some performance improvements.” – you can read more details about the fund drive and donate here. I am donating 50€ to this project.

The Debian Administrator’s Handbook was first written in French (and is a best-seller already) by two Debian developers who are translating it to English and possibly publishing it under a free license. The latter will only happen if the liberation fund reaches 25 K€. A physical book is a big helper when doing advocacy for free software. Imagine if instead of just showing the book to anyone interested, you could also show them how to search it electornically, cite it, use it, modify it, circulate it, share it at will ? I donated 100€ to this project.

Become a member of the Free Software Foundation and/or The Linux Foundation. I don’t always agree with everything that is said and done by the FSF, although I consider myself an active member and advocate – I certainly couldn’t do any of my advocacy work without all I’ve learned from the FSF and other fellow members. My membership at The Linux Foundation is a way to contribute to finance important projects (such as paying Linus Torvals’ salary). If you have a local free software advocacy group (such as FACIL or APELL in Quebec), consider joining as a full member or even making a donation – meeting space, flyers, CDs and food/drinks go a long way when networking locally. Becoming a member also increases the organization’s footprint, if nothing else. Numbers speak! This coming year I am sponsoring a student associate membership at the FSF.

• Linux Foundation membership benefits – Become a member
• Free Software Foundation membership benefits – Become a member (referred by me, member #3877)
• Free Software Foundation Europe fellowship form (including benefits)

Do you have any other ideas on where to donate cold, hard cash to further free, open technologies and software ? I’d love to hear them.

Update: I am helping putting together an accordingly “freedom geek” buying guide here, if anyone wants to peek or get inspiration for it.

I’d like to share a few projects and organizations that I’d love to see reaching their goals this time of the year. I want to stress how important it is...

Don’t miss it! À ne pas manquer!

This year I was able to bring two simultaneaous events together, in different locations.

Cette année j’ai pu programmer 2 événements différents, ça se passe demain, à deux endroits différents .

Les détails à / All details at: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2011/Canada/Montreal

See you there! À demain!

Don’t miss it! À ne pas manquer! This year I was able to bring two simultaneaous events together, in different locations. Cette année j’ai pu programmer 2 événements différents, ça...

Quel est votre suggestion pour un vélo usagé pas trop cher, de bonne qualité ?

Personellement je commence toujours ce genre de recherche dans mon quartier, À Outremont il y a d’Un Sport à l’autre, qui propose beaucoup de pièces à prix raisonnable, du service sur place immédiat et des amélioration “custom” sur demande pour de très bons prix. Deux employés (toujours les mêmes depuis 2 ans que je connais cette boutique), pas d’uniformes, un seul comptoir… autant de pistes qui indiquent tout de suite qu’il s’agît d’un magasin de quartier très près de ses clients.

Sur le Plateau / Mont-Royal c’est la bicycletterie JR qui me donne la même première impression, quoiqu’on y vende moins ou pas de matériel usagé.

Pour un vélo usagé de qualité la meilleure chose c’est souvent les sites d’annocnes comme lespac ou kijiji mais il faut s’y connaître et c’est long. Pour voir sur place je conseille ÉcoVélo:

Chaque ÉCOVÉLO recyclé dans notre usine est tout d’abord démonté en entier. Les composantes réutilisables selon nos standards de qualité sont ensuite sablées et repeintes. Nous avons développé depuis plusieurs années des processus de fabrication nous permettant d’offrir un vélo de qualité à un prix compétitif.

SOS VÉLO récupère plus de 4 500 vélos par année. Ces vélos proviennent en grande partie de la générosité du grand public qui supporte année après année notre mission sociale.

Attention, c’est pas nécessairement très bon marché mais certainement moins cher que neuf – et un choix de consommation plus intéressant qu’acheter du neuf. Il y a aussi parfois des ventes chez Canadian Tire (!), mais on finit souvent par remplacer les accessoires trop cheap.

Si on veut se procurer un vélo gratuitement, il y aussi les ventes de garage, le réseau Freecycle et les encans annuels qui sont maintenant de compétence de chaque arrondissement. Et pourquoi pas demander dans vos réseaux sociaux (Facebook, G+, etc.) ? Qui ne demande rien n’a rien!

Avez-vous d’autres tuyaux ?

Quel est votre suggestion pour un vélo usagé pas trop cher, de bonne qualité ? Personellement je commence toujours ce genre de recherche dans mon quartier, À Outremont il y...

631 BACKERS

$20,193 pledged of $25,000 goal

69 hours to go

I really like the ideas and work presented by Novacut, so I decided to help the project by pledging some money to it. You can do it too.

Here’s a fan video (by filmmakers, heh) that explains well why this project is important – Ubuntu logo included. If you haven’t read DoctorMo’s Letter to Creative Industry, take a look – then share it with anyone you may know in the film industry. You can also read about Novacut on the Yorba blog. Yorba makes Shotwell, the photo management app that replaced F-Sport in Ubuntu – and Lombard, a video editor for Gnome. Some heavy criticism also comes via Danny Piccirillo’s earlier post. Read the comments in Danny’s blog post, many people bring positive support to Novacut, which I agree with. I hope current FLOSS editors continue evolving and can hook into Novacut (or the other way around) and we can all have a huge mash up someday.

Oh, there is also a wiki page with most useful links to the project as it relates to Ubuntu.

631 BACKERS $20,193 pledged of $25,000 goal 69 hours to go I really like the ideas and work presented by Novacut, so I decided to help the project by pledging...

If you’re in Haiti or know anyone near Grand-Goave please let me know, I am here for a week and I’ll be training a few teachers on a new lab we’re putting together thanks to a donation via Micro Recyc Coopération.

The training will focus on free software and its origins / advantages, using LibreOffice, the GNU/Linux desktop and installing Debian, Ubuntu and Trisquel. Oh, and making CAT5e cables The goal is to have two full training days next week, Monday and Tuesday. Training is free and open to the public, but you need to contact me or add yourself to the wiki (see next paragraph).

I am also seeking help to work on the Ubuntu Haiti wiki. If you know any organizations using Ubuntu in Haiti, this would be a good time to add them there. I am susbcribed to it so I’ll get any updates as they happen.

Although my current Internet access is spotty, I can be reached by email, check my contact page.

If you’re in Haiti or know anyone near Grand-Goave please let me know, I am here for a week and I’ll be training a few teachers on a new lab...