Jono Bacon, an Ubuntu community manager, has written a book which offers a collection of his experiences and observations in building and growing communities.  It’s called “The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation“. The print edition which is published by O’Reilly is expected to cost about R400 from Amazon.com. However it is available as a free download from Jono’s site www.artofcommunityonline.org. Those who attended the Software Freedom Day event in Pretoria may find it a useful resource to go along with Stefan’s presentation on “Community”. Debian founder Ian Murdock is included among key Open Source community members recommending this book.

Saturday was Software Freedom Day and around the country fans got together to celebrate and promote free software. In Pretoria the department of science and technology played host again to celebrations which included a bug jam, a distro love station, talks and exhibitions. Pictures of the day’s celebration can be found here. Also in Gauteng, free software fans made their way out to shopping centres to catch the Saturday trade and hand out copies of Linux and share their knowledge. In Cape Town the Cape Linux User Group got their hands dirty to perform maintenance on the UCT Freedom Toaster as well as enjoying some (free) beer (pictures)

This Saturday is Software Freedom Day and around the world free software advocates and fans will celebrate the ability to share software with each other. In South Africa there are a number of events planned for the day including a Cape Linux User Group event at UCT, an event in Pretoria at the department of science and technology as well as a series of other events around Gauteng. Andre Coetzee, spokesman of SA Linux, says a number of events are planned throughout the country, manned by teams of volunteers whose aim will be to promote open source software to the general public.

On Saturday the SA Linux teams will gather at Cresta Centre, Benoni Lakeside Mall and East Rand Mall to distribute copies of Ubuntu and educate the public on the benefits of free and open source software.

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September 19 is Software Freedom Day, the day that free and open source fans celebrate their passion for free software. Across the globe, and across South Africa, FOSS advocates are planning day-long celebrations. In Cape Town the Cape Linux User Group (Clug) is planning a day of fixing up the UCT Freedom Toaster as well as having a party.

From the announcement:

Our plans are: Spend a day fixing up our Freedom Toaster and have a bit of a party. There are a whole pile of things that need to be done, so you don’t need any insane Linux-wrangling skills. We need people who can use power tools, people who can chat, and people who would like some help with some Linux problem, and people who’d like to develop front-end software for the toaster.

The aims of the day are:
* Have a party
* Replace the toaster extractor fan
* Replace the LCD
* Start writing some new software for it
* Re-install the software and horrible touch screen driver

For details of other Software Freedom Day celebrations across South Africa check out the Software Freedom Day wiki.