OpenFest Initiative
Free Software Association - Bulgaria

PROJECT
OpenFest 2005

October 29-30, 2005

www.openfest.org

Sofia
2005

In 2003 the Open Fest initiative got the support of the President of Republic of Bulgaria and is carried out under his patronage.

Summary

OpenFest is an event, dedicated to free and open source software, to its admirers, creators, supporters and new fans. It is organized yearly by the Initiative committee of the Bulgarian Free Software Association and other organizations, foundations and companies which fully support the idea of such celebration. The organizers’ ambition is this event to become an annual international day of software freedom.

Idea

The concept of free software is much older than the software itself. It is not a technology – it is an ideology as well – humane, simple, and natural. It is an idea, a sense of freedom. The same pure freedom we are born with and continue to carry within ourselves throughout our lives. The freedom that guides our sense of humanity and justice.

Internet is also a child of this freedom. And free software is freedom’s expression. Freedom – in spite of its status of an utmost human right – has been constantly attacked by corporations, politicians, organizations or individuals, trying to transform it according to their own morals and concepts. Restricted freedom is not freedom at all! The best way to protect our freedom is to share it with everyone. To remind them they are carrying this freedom within, that they are able and have the opportunity to choose, and eventually join us.

OpenFest is an idea for a celebration that crosses borders, differences, and ways. To have a day each year during which free software followers can make everyone feel the freedom found on the Internet, the freedom of open source software, and the freedom of free software. On this day everyone could do something for somebody else – not just on the Internet, but also in person. People that already know and love free software can come out from behind their monitors and explain to others in plain words how free software could be used. To tell them about the ideology and philosophy, to organize lectures, meetings, exhibits, presentation seminars or install festivals.

OpenFest is an idea of Free Software Association - Bulgaria and it's supported by many other partners and friends. We don’t want this to remain our idea – we want to share it with others. OpenFest is a gift for everyone who has contributed to make this happen. Join us!

The idea is coordinated by Initiative Committee of individuals and organizations, which is constantly open to new members.

History

2003

During the first OpenFest, which took place on 14th September Bulgaria for first time became a host of an international free/open source forum. From historical point of view this event appears to be successor of the series of several Linux Install Fests around the country, provoked major interest to the project. The idea of OpenFest is to outgrow the local borders and to generalize multiple events and organizers’ efforts for the same cause – celebrating free software.

OpenFest 2003 took place in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Chepelare, North American city of Ocean City and Canadian city of Sherbrouk (Quebeck) where conference Festival Linux was organized.

OpenFest’s emblem represents a wide open and thirsty for knowledge and information human eye, whose eyelashes depict the rays of a rising sun. The sunrise is a symbol of a newly born freedom. Author of the idea and the graphic performance of the symbolism is the hacker-artist Zdravko Zdravkov.

Since its first organizing in 2003 the OpenFest’s idea got the approval and support of the Bulgarian President Mr. George Parvanov and is leaded under the President’s aegis.

OpenFest 2003 conference was organized and supported by the following organizations and sponsors:

Free Software Association, MySQL AB, Red House Center for debate and culture, Interspace Media Arts Center, UnixSolutions Ltd., OpenIntegra Ltd., Sofia Communications Ltd., Internet Society, Applied researches and communications Foundation, BG Debian Foundation, “Computer and Internet Law” project, “Linux for Bulgarians” project, “Bulgarian development community site” project, Internet Rights Bulgaria Foundation, Hebros Bank, Regional Cisco Academy – Plovdiv, Open Sociaty Club – Stara Zagora, Linux users group in Bulgaria, Briz-2 Hotel Complex – Varna, Helix Press, factor R design studio, Denev Engineering SmartPro Ltd. and BG Radio.

2004
In 2004 OpenFest took place in Sofia, Plovdiv and Pazardjik. In the capital the event lasted two consecutive days in two overcrowded halls of the specialized congress centre of InterExpo Centre, which also lodged the annual BSDcon conference of the BSD operating systems fans. Events in Plovdiv and Pazardjik lasted one day only.

Two-day lectures and seminars were visited by over 2000 registered visitors and unknown number of unregistered guests. All presentations were broadcasted through Internet with video and sound. Lectures had conception and technical purpose, including presentations of commercial products, based on open source software. The lectures level of difficulty covered the whole variety from totally beginners to highly advanced users.

Basic sponsors of the event were UnixSolutions, SpecterNet, Jimmy’s and OBS, and media partners - HiComm, PC Magazine, Linux for Bulgarians, portal.bg, kaldata.com, bgdev.org, WebDev magazine, php-bg.org, arttoday.org.

Special guests and lecturers

2003

The international guests of OpenFest in Sofia in 2003 were:

Zak Greant – incredibly popular figure in the PHP developers’ community, author of several books. Right now he is a member of MySQL AB team. Except a famous intercessor of the open source community around PHP/MySQL, he is also one of the young defenders and ideologists of the software freedom movement and defines himself as an evangelist.

Harald Welte – one of the basic 5 developers of netfilter/iptables, and right now is the person, responsible for firewalling functionality of the Linux 2.4.x kernel. He began to use computers at the age of 9, studied Basic for Commodore64 and continued with Pascal and x86, and x86 assemblers. Afterwards he developed shareware programs for DOS and finally discovers Linux and the free software movement in 1995. It became his hobby in his spare time. He starts his professional career as a communication engineer, but soon starts his own consulting business.

Krzysztof Zaraska is one of the basic developers of Prelude IDS. He is responsible for the Prelude Database library and for FreeBSD port of the system. He is a student in the Telecommunications Department in the Krakow University of Mines and Geology.

2004

Lectures at the OpenFest 2004 were also performed by respected representatives of the Bulgarian free/open source community over different subjects dedicated to the new outcomes in this field of the IT industry. MySQL AB, Biotronica and Linux Business Solutions performed their products; other presentations of free products were performed by the representatives of the Free Software Association UnixSolutions, OpenIntegra Ltd., Serdica Software, ISECA, WebDev magazine.

Internet Sociaty’s project “Support for the electron government through free and open source software in South-eastern Europe”, financed by the UN Development program was officially performed.

For the first time in OpenFest’s history in 2004 politicians and statesmen shared their point of view on the topic of free software. Lectures on OpenFest 2004 were performed by Dr. Stoycho Katzarov, a deputy from “Democrats for strong Bulgaria” party, Nayden Nikolov – principal expert in the administration of the President of Republic of Bulgaria, George Parvanov; and George Nikolov – deputy-president of the Bulgarian Socialyst Youth.

Special guests of OpenFest 2004 were representatives of the Macedonian “Free Software - Macedonia” organization, similar to the Free Software Association – Bulgaria.

Project tasks

Choosing proper hall for the conference and preparing the program, lectures and other events.

Renting the hall and the presentation equipment for the conference.

Designing, making and printing all the advertising materials, brochures, posters and flayers. Designing the new project website www.openfest.org for this year event. Preparing all radio, television, print and internet advertisements.

Taking part in radio and television broadcasts aiming PR of the project. Giving interview for Bulgarian newspapers and magazines.

Reserving hotels and meeting our guests.

Carrying out all the OpenFest’s events and conferences in Sofia and other cities.

OpenFest 2005

On 29th and 30th October the third release of OpenFest will take place in Sofia. The initiative will be held in several other Bulgarian cities – Varna, Plovdiv, Dobrich, Pazadjik and Ruse. The festival program includes lectures, presenting particular free or open source software products. It also includes concept discussions about free and open source software, business based on such technologies, public and political aspects of its development, using and popularization. There will be several displays of different products based on free and open source software.

One of the OpenFest 2005 events in Sofia will be the second release of BSDcon – the technical conference for users and developers of BSD based operating systems.

For the first time in OpenFest's history the OpenArtCon will take place in Sofia. This conference will present free culture and different licences for culture works. All the visitors will be able to meet several Bulgarian authors who have put some of their works under free licence, so they will have the opportunity to get to know why these authors have chosen such licences and why they think that's the better choice. The OpenArtCon conference aims to show that the art and culture are expressions of authors' imagination, knowledge, talent and freedom of thought and that the freedom to choose their works' licence is not only a right but a chance to express themselves even better. Actually such licences are authors' legal way to share their work with others without making them feel closed in dogmas and limitations in thought, imagination and freedom to be creators.

Expected sources of financial aid

The expected sources of financial aid are:

Companies and organizations, which production is based on free and open source software. Such companies are MySQL AB, IBM, Novell, HP, Fujitsu-Siemens, Oracle, SAP, IBS, Linux Business Solutions, UnixSolutions, OpenIntegra, Sciant, Tumbleweed

Telecommunication companies such as Orbitel AD, BTC NET, Mtel AD, SpectrumNet, ITD, OBS, etc.

Due to the fact that beer is the prefered drink of the free and open source software community, there may be interest by any of the Bulgarian brewery – Kamenitza AD, Zagorka AD, Shumensko beer AD, Pirinsko beer AD.

Each sponsor of the OpenFest 2005 will be named at each public announce of the project. His logo and name will be placed on each print and advertisement material of the festival. Each sponsor is given the right to place advertisement posters and/or blinds in the conference halls and to lead advertisement activities.

Appentix 1

Planned Budget for OpenFest 2005

	Expenses:	Price:	Total:
1	Office and other expenses		250 BGN
	- office materials, photo copies, etc.	50 BGN	
	- phone and fax expenses	200 BGN	
2	Rent for halls and presentation equipment		7000 BGN
	- rent for halls and furniture	3200 BGN/daily	
	- rent for presentation equipment	300 BGN/daily	
3	Advertising materials		4000 BGN
	- posters and calendars		
	- brochures/conferences' program		
	- CDs with Linux, FreeBSD, free software		
	- CDs for the Install/BurnFest		
	- T-shirts		
	- mousepads		
	- pens, badges		
4	Press conference	120 BGN	120 BGN
5	Transport to the halls	125 BGN/daily	250 BGN
6	Guests		
	- airplane tickets	4000 BGN	4360 BGN
	- lodging (two for 3 nights)	360 BGN	
	- interpreter	80 BGN	
7	Other		
ОБЩО:	15980 BGN

Appendix 2

Free Software Association - Bulgaria

Free Software Association – Bulgaria is a non-marketing non-government organization, founded by specialists, supporters and users of free and open source software.

All the members of FSA are people, who appreciate, use and promote the freedom in information technologies.

Our modern digitalised society needs information that is practically available to all its citizens, like computer programs that could be freely used, fixed and adapted to certain needs. It needs the freedom to use the information without the feel that this is criminal act as theft or piracy. Moreover, this society needs to encourage the spirit of a joint voluntary cooperation among its citizens. Cooperation is more important than copyright. But underground mutual cooperation is harmful for the good society we are aiming to build, in which people live honestly and loyally. In such society people need the freedom to use and share any information in the most practicable way.

The mission of Bulgarian Free Software Association is to polularize and promote free software in Bulgaria. Free software is one, that can be used, copied, distributed, studied, adapted and improved for anybody's needs. The Association collaborates with lawyers, journalists, businessmen and politicians in order to guarantee the legal, political and social future of the free software. The Free Software Association will keep society acquaint with the ethical, politial and technical issues regarding the use of software.

Our values:

Freedom – Free Software Association – Bulgaria is an organization of free people, who express themselves without any cultural, racial, sexual or social limits. We highly esteem our and others' freedom and we put limits only to those activities, which censor or contradict it as an universal value.

Sociability – We are open to each other and to everyone else, who is interested in us both as personalities and organization. Our meetings, forums and events are open to anybody's opinion or evaluation, nevertheless he is a member of FSA or not.

Activity – The organization was founded to popularize and promote free software, to contribute to other organizations and individuals, to encourage and assist them to realize their ideas and projects. Our ambition is attaining perfection and each carried out event makes us more experienced and more professional in our work.

Hackers' culture – In his essay “How to become a hacker” Eric Raymond describes clearly the fundamental ethical principals and values of the hacker's concept. Unfortunately the media forces the negative meaning of this concept upon the society. That is serious misunderstanding and it shoud be corrected.

Benevolence – We believe that creativity and creators themselves shoud be free. We try to prevent others' work from destruction and piracy, but we don't encourage working in limitations. We don't minimize one's mistakes, but we don't deny them as well. We have respect for contructive criticism and we always work with our partners in benevolent relations.

Keeping our principals pure – For that we have entire disposal of all the experience and ideas of our adherents all over the world. Each case can be consulted throughout our knowledge and experience as well as throughout those of others who have already gained success in it. The freedom to share gives us such rights.

Free Software – We promote the following four freedoms of software:

The freedom to run the program for any purpose.

The freedom to study how the program works and adapt it to your needs.

The freedom to redistribute copies of the program.

The freedom to improve the program and release the improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Free documentation – We consider that a documentation is free only if anyone is given the following rights without the necessity to contact its author or other institution:

to copy or redistribute documentation either freely or charging a price.

to modify the content of the documentation, including notice of the first author name and of all the modifications.

Free Software Association – Bulgaria express in a simple way all aspects of tree software. The promotion of free software is done through discussions and dialogues with politicians and medias. This all is put into practice not only locally in our country, but globally due to cooperations with Free Software Foundation and other organizations.

Free Software Association – Bulgaria helps commercial companies to follow business plans based on free software and tries encourage such plans in many ways. The association does its best to extend the free software market stake. The association also helps and coordinates development and translation of free software programs in Bulgarian.

Our activities:
The main activity of Free Softwar Association – Bulgaria is participating in initiatives and events – organized either by us or by other foundations – which are based on our aims, laws and principles. We:

organize meetings, seminars, focus and discussions groups;

promote the advantages of using and developing free software;

distribute free software manuals and other free documentation, as well as encourage their translation;

promote free software projects;

help our partners in projects based on our laws and principles;

consults the authorities regarding all matters of freedom, security and simplicity of free software.

Our activities are carried out by working groups open to anybody, who share our aims and principles. Participating in such group is voluntary and it is coordinated by the rules of the group only if these rules do not contradict to the philosophy of free software, universal principles and law.

Our aims:

To popularize the ideas of free software. To explicate its essence and this of free documentation. For that purposes we keep contacts with NGOs, schools and universities, medias, public organizations, which support free software and free documentation in our country and abroad.

To encourage discussions about advantages of free software.

To promote free software projects. To support any projects aiming to present a free software program or system, to spread around the ideas of innovations, any facts and security messeges about free software products.

To consult different institutions for the importance and the ways to apply free software in their work, as well as for such experience in other countries.

To assist the contacts between companies and individuals, who are interested in or working on free software.

By-Laws of Free Software Association - Bulgaria :
http://fsa-bg.org/bin/view.cgi/Fsasite/ByLaws

Appendix 3

Bank information and contacts:

Bank information of Free Software Association - Bulgaria :
First Investment Bank – branch Varna

Bank code: 15071082
Account No (BGN): 1001182508

SWIFT code: FINVBGSF

Contacts:

Initiative organization committee OpenFest 2005

http://www.openfest.org

e-mail: info@openfest.org

Marian Marinov, coordinatior,

phone: 088 666 0270,

e-mail: mm@yuhu.biz

Free Software Association - Bulgaria

http://www.fsa-bg.org

Georgi Chorbadzhiyski, member of the Board,

phone: 088 840 3391,

e-mail: board@fsa-bg.org

2005-09-07T13:29:33