OpenCafePeople

I have started a new photo set to introduce the people that visit the cafe regularly as clients, students, artists. Click to meet them.

This year’s Aardklop was a success

This time we had a great spot so we got to chat with a lot of people about Linux related topics.

Click here to see some photos.

Today is OneWebDay

Read about it here. 

First time on the local Herald

Cheryl Botha from the local Herald wrote about our Software Freedom Day celebrations.

Click here to see the article.

Software Freedom Day around the world

Click here to visit the Icommons site and read SFD stories from around the world.

Software Freedom Day at the OpenCafe – our first barcamp

The team at the OpenCafe has been preparing for weeks and the day was a success – our first barcamp had about 60 visitors, registered around 15-20 geeks with the Geek Freedom League, listened to speakers on interesting topics around open source software, open content and the role of art and artists in todays’ communities.

This year the Geek Freedom League (www.freedomleague.org.za) funded all marketing materials and catering, we gave away lots of OpenCDs, Ubuntu CDs, and gave T-shirts and geek bags to our local geeks that registered with the GFL on the day.

Reedflute Software Solutions provided the venue and all equipment for the presentations.

We had a set program to follow which included more technical talks and installs in the morning. The first talk of the day by Eugene Coetzee was based on the questions our local geeks submitted to us in the past few weeks – Eugene focused on techniques for using the Internet to find answers to Linux-related questions. Later in the morning Bob Jolliffe of Freedom to Innovate South Africa (www.ftisa.org.za) gave a talk about patents in general and specifically focused on the negative impact of software patents on innovation.

Since one of our most important projects is ArtMarketOnline (www.artmarketonline.co.za) we devoted the afternoon to art, artists and how they can benefit from participating in online communities and open content projects. The afternoon was also a musical journey introducing us to the music and traditions of East and West Africa.

In the first talk of the afternoon Anna Dani introduced our local artists to Creative Commons projects and open licenses, talked about artists that participated in the Wired CD and ccMixter projects.

Following the talk we were treated to a poetry recital by the members of local group, Muse Poesy.

Later Peter Okeno On’gare – director of local percussion group Ngoma Vuma Afrika – talked about the significance of music and specifically percussion instruments in Kenyan society. Peter ended his talk explaining to artists about the skills he and his group learnt by participating in the ArtMarketOnline project.

After the talks and discussions we showed a documentary film about well-known Senegalese musician, Baaba Maal talking about the responsibilities of artists in Senegalese communities.

The day ended with percussion music by Ngoma Vuma Afrika – singing South African and Kenyan songs.

To see photos about the day visit :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opencafe/tags/sfd2006/

31 August – international blog day

I heard of this day from AJ who decided to take part in this initiative. If you take part all you need to do is – choose 5 interesting blogs you like and write a blog entry introducing them to your readers. Here is AJ’s Blogday entry.

These days are great – it gives everyone a reason to leave the routine and do something new for a change.

There are other great days like this, there is

• Software Freedom Day (16 September)
• BarCampEarth  (August 26-28)
• OneWebDay (22 September)

… actually you can make your own day as long as you make sure you let everyone know and take part in the fun.

Our Toaster is alive!

Thanks to Eugene’s hard work – the toaster is ready for action – new software loaded – ISOs uploaded so you are welcome to come & test it here at the cafe.

TV interview with Mark ‘Ubuntu’ Shuttleworth

Visit Google video to see the interview.

The many ways you can support the cafe’s projects

Our cafe is almost 2 years old – which is great – we are all looking forward to many more years of the OpenCafe experience.

Our Internet cafe and training projects are generating some income so that we can run all activities – however it is still not enough for running the cafe – we also depend on financial support from outside the cafe.

There are many ways you can support the cafe’s projects – we have set up a  support page – which has some details about all the tasks you can take part in – from event management to web development, software development, graphic design and marketing amongst others.

You can also make financial donations via our support page or visit our Cafepress store for some OpenCafe merchandize.

Since Software Freedom Day and Aardklop is coming up – we need quite a lot of support from OpenCafe fans – so that these events can be a great success – so please contact us if you are ready to help us with organizing the Barcamp and exhibition or if  you are up for spending some time at the OpenCafe stand during the festival and explain festival goers all about about Linux, Wikipedia and other projects.