[GNU/FSF Press] Turtles all the way down to the source code: FSF's Boston Software Freedom Day event to feature Walter Bender

[Deborah Nicholson]

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 -- On
Saturday, September 19th, Boston's casual free software users and the
technologically curious will gather together for a Software Freedom
Day event hosted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Software Freedom Day is the international holiday dedicated to
recognizing and promoting software that respects computer users'
freedom. While the FSF is hosting its day-long public gathering in
Boston, other teams all over the globe will be celebrating in their own
cities, towns and villages as well. 

Saturday's event schedule includes workshops, demonstrations,
lightning talks by attendees, and hands-on free software activism. In
addition, Walter Bender, the founder and executive director of Sugar
Labs, will be the morning's featured speaker. He'll be talking about
"Turtle Art," which is a fun and creative educational free software
activity for kids that runs in the Sugar environment on platforms like
the One Laptop Per Child project's XO. In the afternoon, Richard M.
Stallman, founder of the GNU Project and president of the FSF, will
speak to participants about how and why to make the move to free
software.

"It's usually a relaxed affair, attracting both new and experienced
users from the community, getting together in the same space and
sharing tips and tricks," said Matt Lee, FSF campaigns manager. This
is the FSF's third year hosting a Software Freedom Day event in
Boston.

The event will take place on September 19th from 10am-5pm, and
participation is open to the public at no charge. More info about the
schedule is available at
<http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Boston_Software_Freedom_Day>, and RSVPs to
<address@hidden> are appreciated. The location is in Chinatown at
the Encuentro 5 Community Center (<http://www.encuentro5.org/>), 33
Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111.

More information about other Software Freedom Day events around the
world can be found at <http://www.softwarefreedomday.org>.

### About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
<http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.


### Media Contacts  

Matt Lee  
Campaigns Manager  
Free Software Foundation  
+1 (617) 542 5942  
<address@hidden>   

John Sullivan  
Operations Manager  
Free Software Foundation  
+1 (617) 542 5942  
<address@hidden>