Grant Matters: Inaugural Mount Gambier Software Freedom Day a great success

The inaugural Mount Gambier Software Freedom Day event held at Grant High School was one of 331 team events from more than 90 countries across the globe. This is a significant increase from 2006 with over 200 teams registered in that year. This year there were 27 teams from Australia and New Zealand with five of those teams coming from South Australia.

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business.

Free open source software is available at no cost and can be modified and customised because the original human readable program code is available for use.

The Mount Gambier team comprised staff and students of Grant High School, Penola High School, local businesses including SECNET and Green Triangle Workplace Training, as well as Linux SA.

Peter Ruwoldt, SFD event coordinator and ICT Coordinator of Grant High School said “I couldn't be happier with the way that the event panned out. It was a great opportunity to show our local community how free open source software can contribute to our students being able to continue with their learning outside of school without financial burden or feeling the need to pirate software.”

Robert Farrar and Mike Lampard in a joint statement said “We are extremely happy with the turnout on the day, it was higher than expected and showed that the people of Mt Gambier & the surrounding areas are committed to learning and implementing Free and Open Source Software in their homes and businesses. We are impressed that our local teachers are so enthusiastic about these free alternatives, which are the equal of any commercial applications.”

The organising group intends to collaborate on future events. SFD is held in September each year.