Who is SFI?

SFI is run by a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors meets every other week for half the year and every week in the lead up to Software Freedom Day with an IRC conference to discuss various topics pertaining to the regular activities of Software Freedom International and Software Freedom Day. The minutes to these meetings are posted publicly on the website.



The Board has up to 9 elected members, and every year 3 team representatives are invited to also sit on the board in order to keep it fresh, responsive to teams and to encourage team participation in the running of Software Freedom Day internationally.

 

The Board can be contacted through our contact form.



You can find more about the structure and the running of SFI in the links below:

• Policies (not yet finalised)
• Current SFI Board members
• Previous SFI Board members

How did SFI (and SFD) begin?

Sometime in January of 2004, Matt Oquist concluded that

1. Free Software had improved to the point of being suitable for public use, and
2. public ignorance was one of the primary roadblocks to public acceptance.

He remembers driving past a retail store that he knew had piles of AOL CDs lying around, and he thought to himself that a CD filled with software such as Open Office, Firefox, and the GIMP would be of vastly greater value to the public. He planned to burn such CDs and try to get permission to distribute them at the retail store in question.



After contacting his local LUG regarding this idea he was referred to TheOpenCD project, which maintains a CD of high-quality Free Software for Windows that matched Matt's (so far vague) vision. Matt proposed the idea of an international day of handing out Free Software CDs in TheOpenCD forums, and project leader Henrik Omma and project contributor Phil Harper both shared this vision and began collaborating immediately.

 

After considering several proposals of dates, names, and logistics, Henrik, Phil, and Matt agreed on "Software Freedom Day" because they believed that ultimately, everyone without a vested interest in proprietary software can unite to educate the worldwide public about the ideals of Software Freedom and the practical benefits of Free Software. August 28th, 2004, was the first annual Software Freedom Day.



Henrik, Phil, and Matt recruited Fred Noronha and Jules Sidenburg to have the required total of five board members to found a non-profit corporation in the state of New Hampshire, USA.



Since that time the board has been pleased to welcome Sidsel Jensen, Joe O.A Olutuase, Benjamin Mako Hill, Robert Schumann, Pia Waugh and many more who bring a wealth of energy and experience to the organization.