International Software Freedom Day 2010

So let's chop up International Software Freedom Day a bit:

• International = this is happening ALL over the world
• Software = the stuff that makes your boxes, wires an touchscreens actually do stuff
• Freedom = aha, the nub
• Day = a focus but not to be taken literally eh Christchurch :-)

Freedom, that's the key.

Freedom from what? Freedom to do what?

Users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

You can read more about the four freedoms on the GNU website.

Open source software is a part of what is known as FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and I can guarantee you are using a piece of FOSS software right now. It might not be the application as a whole but deep inside there will be a little piece of something that has come from the FOSS world. That's right, someone somewhere has allowed others to build upon their work - amazingly awesome eh. And yes, Microsoft do use FOSS software and even have a whole team based around open source.

If you are interested in free software, would like to install Ubuntu onto your computer or are just interested in free giveaways then join us around the NZ and celebrate International Software Freedom Day along with groups in over 60 countries around the globe.

Wellington

I will be popping in to talk Ubuntu / OpenOffice to anyone that wants to hear my experience AND help get it installed on your machine - bring it along and you'll have a room full of techies clutching CDs of free software for you to try.

• Date: Sunday 19th September 2010
• Time: 10am - 5pm
• Cost: Free! But you need to Register! (if your kids are coming, make sure you register them separately!)
• Location: Victoria University Pipitea Campus

Check out the packed programme of events ...

Auckland

We want to celebrate Software Freedom Day so much that we have two events running this year! Register here

• Date: Friday 17th September 2010
• Time: 4pm - 6pm
• Cost: Free!
• Location: Albany Senior High School

• Date: Saturday 18th September 2010
• Time: 10am - 4pm
• Cost: Free!
• Location: Orion Cafe, Cnr Mary & Enfield Streets, Mt Eden, Auckland

Tauranga

On Sunday 19 September we will be promoting and demonstrating free software and free software concepts to home, education and business users. Register here

• Date: Sunday 19th September 2010, 11am-3pm
• Location: St Mary's School, Tauranga
• URL: http://www.boplug.co.nz/sfd

Otago

Learn about software freedom, how to install free operating systems, how to use free applications, how to wiki, how to use email and the internet and much much more.

• Date: Thursday 16 September 2010
• Time: 9am - 9pm
• Cost: Free!
• Location: Warrington Primary School, Ferguson Street, Warrington 9449

Christchurch

In Christchurch, celebrating for just one day is not enough.

The first days celebrations will be taking place this Saturday 11AM - 3PM (18th September - Christchurch Central City Library).

The second days celebration will be taking place on Sunday 10AM - 4PM (19th September - South Central Christchurch Library).

Hamilton

This year Hamilton will celebrate Software Freedom Day with an event to be held at the Centre Place Mall on 18 September 2010. Register here
Contact: John Billings - john (at) nimhq dot net

And finally, if you can't get along to the events then show your support and follow via:

• Twitter: @sfdnz
• identi.ca (the FOSS 'version' of Twitter)
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Wordpress

Public Attitudes to the Sharing of Personal Information in the Course of Electronic Public Service Provision

We can all assume that openess is "good", that the government should share and that we "know" NZ citizens are happy to provide personal information to the Government ... but is that actually what people think?

Professor Miriam Lips, Dr Elizabeth Eppel, Amanda Cunningham and Virginia Hopkins-Burns from Victoria University of Wellington have recently published their findings of their research paper entitled, "Public Attitudes to the Sharing of Personal Information in the Course of Electronic Public Service Provision".

The summary (view on web | PDF) states:

Our research findings demonstrate that the majority of participants had a benign view of information sharing intentions and practice in the New Zealand public sector. Generally, the participants in this study had a high trust in the New Zealand government and its agencies and thought that they are working in the best interests of citizens. Exceptions could be found among participants with a high dependency on social services; Māori; Pasifika; and self-employed participants.

That's probably how I'd feel about it - yeah, share away if it helps reduce the costs, mean I don't have to enter the same info twice (thrice, many+) and generally gets me a "better" service.

I was fascinated by the line "participants showed limited knowledge about the sharing - or non-sharing - of information between agencies." though and suspect it is a reflection of the wider perception a lot of us web-types have of the general populace which is, "They don't really get what the web companies are doing with their information". Of course a lot of you know how I am against using Facebook because of the ever changing default privacy settings of "share this" not being widely understood by their users. People just don't seem to understand that data flows.

I whole heartedly support those that expressed an "unease" with sharing private information (whatever that actually is) when the context was unclear - in a nutshell, what are you going to do with this? A simple question that, when data flows, can be a very difficult one to answer especially in this era of "once the data is set free who knows what amazing uses it can be put to" and I'm not suggesting it is set free from the boundaries of the Government but merely within and between the agencies.

Openness, when it comes down to it is a matter of trust. This is not new and applies to every interaction we have when we "set free" a piece of information be that by telling something in confidence, sending an email to a colleague or passing over something to a Government agency. The trust is that the value, to me, of passing the information to you is higher than the risk, perceived by me, that it will be misused.

And when it comes down to it that trust judgement being made is binary - I either trust you, or I don't.

The question then comes, how can I make that judgement for the future value of the information.

What I value today might be worthless, tomorrow might suddenly be worth a lot more. What's the decision to be made ... ?

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Read the full report online (using Google Docs viewer) or download the PDF.

And for those that care (you ALL should) how they performed the research:

The research methods used in this project were a review of available international and national

research in the field, semi-structured interviews with IR staff about the conditions and future directions of online integrated public service provision, and ten intensive focus group meetings with different members of the general public and across New Zealand, in May – June 2010. In total, 63 individuals participated in the focus groups. The focus group meetings were prepared and conducted in partnership with Colmar Brunton. For further information on the research design including the limitations of this research, the analytical framework developed for this project, and characteristics of the focus group participants and discussions, please see chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the full report. A detailed description of the research findings can be found in chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the full report.