Register now to ensure your admission at LibrePlanet 2017: The Roots of Freedom. As always, FSF members and students attend gratis.

Need a little more convincing before you register? The LibrePlanet program is now available for your perusal.

Read on for more information about volunteering, the program, the LibrePlanet email discussion list, or engaging with the conference if you can't make it to Cambridge.

Volunteering (get gratis admission!)

We can't say it enough: LibrePlanet would be impossible without the help of dozens of volunteers. The free software enthusiasts who give their time and energy to LibrePlanet, both before and during the conference, are crucial to its success. Volunteering is a great way to meet fellow community members and give back to the free software movement. There are even ways to help if you can't attend in person! If you are interested in helping out with LibrePlanet 2017 email resources@fsf.org. We show our appreciation for our volunteers by offering gratis conference admission and lunch, plus a LibrePlanet t-shirt.

Program

This year, the LibrePlanet program will include more than 50 speakers, an array of practical workshops, the opportunity for any attendee to give a lightning talk, and for the first time, Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions, informal conversations based around shared interests—another great way for anybody at LibrePlanet to explore ideas important to free software, whether they're something not already on the program, or a deeper conversation jumping off of a LibrePlanet talk.

Want more LibrePlanet? Take it to the mailing list

Looking to coordinate travel with other LibrePlanet attendees? Brainstorm ideas for lightning talks? Organize a get-together after the conference? Join the libreplanet-discuss email list and the #libreplanet IRC channel on Freenode to connect with other LibrePlanet attendees. The list and channel are active year-round as part of the libreplanet.org community.

LibreLuna: LibrePlanet 2017 comes to you

We know not everybody can get to Cambridge to participate in LibrePlanet. So the FSF works hard to make conference proceedings available to the global free software movement. We will livestream all keynotes and most other sessions—the link will be available on the conference homepage during LibrePlanet. And we're bringing back LibreLuna—self-organized LibrePlanet satellite events hosted by free software fans across the planet. You can register your LibreLuna event now and we'll help promote your gathering.

LibrePlanet 2017 is produced in partnership by the Free Software Foundation with the Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) at MIT.

Explore the roots of freedom with us. Register for LibrePlanet 2017 today!

Participate in supporting the FSD by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the FSD contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

We are continuing our focus on adding new entries to the FSD. Over the last few weeks, we have chiseled away at the new entries waiting for approval. There are still quite a few programs looking to be added to the FSD. This Friday we will further whittle down the queue and expand the FSD.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the FSD today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

Sacha Chua

The FSF loves GNU emacs. Its extensibility and customizability are unparalleled. We also know that there's a need for high quality documentation at all levels, especially introductions for people coming from a variety of technical and nontechnical backgrounds.

That's where Sacha Chua comes in.

A self-professed "emacs geek," Sacha, in her own words, "really, really like[s] the Emacs text editor." She's written extensively on emacs, and has combined her love of art with her love of this GNU Project by creating these nifty hand-drawn guides on How to Learn Emacs and emacs keyboard shortcuts. Of course, these are available for use and reuse under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license.

Sumana Harihareswara

It almost feels like cheating to talk about Sumana Harihareswara and all the work she has done for free software. Harihareswara will be delivering the closing keynote at LibrePlanet 2017 and I couldn't be happier to have the conference ending on such a note. She helped the volunteer and engineering communities of the Wikimedia Project reach new heights between 2011 and 2014, and has since become a stellar developer in her own right, contributing to a number of projects including GNU Mailman.

Shari Steele

After fifteen years as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Shari Steele became the executive director of the Tor Project. The FSF has a lot of admiration for the Tor Project and the work they do. (The Library Freedom Project won the 2015 Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit for their outstanding work bringing Tor to libraries.)

Steele brings to Tor—a project using free software licenses—a skill set rarely talked about when we talk about contributors to free software projects. Directing a nonprofit, working with a board of directors, and managing the wide range of operations is a more than full-time job.

Jessica Tallon

Jessica Tallon became involved with GNU MediaGoblin as an Outreachy intern. Federation has been a major goal for GNU MediaGoblin for several years. In order to push their federation efforts further, the team offered an internship to Tallon and later hired her full time. Tallon joined the W3C Social Working Group, drafting recommendations for the standards that will define aspects of how the Web works. I know she's there representing the values of free software and working hard to make sure the future of the Web is free.

WOCInTechChat

One of my favorite projects that has come out in support of women in technology is #WOCINTECHCHAT, or Women of Color in Tech Chat. One of their efforts was to create this beautiful, high quality photo set. They took over 500 photos representing women of color in technical settings, around offices, and using some great pieces of free software. (Click through to see a photo of GPL project Audacity in action.) One of the great things about this photo set is their use of a free [Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution license][20].

More resources

It would be impossible to mention all the women who work hard for free software and serve as inspirations for people both in and outside of the community. We use GNU Social and twitter, so message us, because we'll have opportunities to highlight them and their work in the future!

In the past, the FSF has celebrated Ada Lovelace Day with posts on other great women in free software.

• Marina Zhurakhinskaya and Outreachy
• Lisa Maginnis
• Audrey Tang
• Karen Sandler

Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished at the Friday, March 3, 2017 meeting.

This week we returned to clearing the backlog of approved entries. During the meeting we were joined by a developer looking to discuss the licensing of their software developed under contract with an institution of higher learning. The issue of license compatibility came up and we talked about how GPLv2 or later can upgrade to GPLv3. All the while we plugged away at the backlog getting it to drop somewhat over the course of the meeting.

If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST (17:00 to 20:00 UTC).

Participate in supporting the FSD by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the FSD contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the FSD has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

We are continuing our focus on adding new entries to the FSD. Over the last few weeks, we have chiseled away at the new entires waiting for approval. There are still quite a few programs looking to be added to the FSD. This Friday we will further whittle down the queue and expand the FSD.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the FSD today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.