Document Freedom Day is the international day of Open Standards and happens
every year on the last Wednesday of March. It is a day to come together and
raise attention towards the ever growing importance of Open Standards for
all aspects of our digital communication and information accessibility.
DFD is all about compatibility
<https://documentfreedom.org/artwork/promopics/poster-robots-a2-web-promo.png>Remember
when you were sent an important file that your computer couldn't read
properly? Remember having to buy or download a new application just so you
could open an attachment that you needed for work? The same thing happens
tens of thousands of times each day. Can you imagine how much knowledge
exchange doesn’t happen just because sender and receiver (intentionally or
not) are using different data formats? Incompatibilities like this are
usually caused by ways of storing information that are secret ('closed'),
and privately owned ('proprietary'). They cause huge problems for people,
companies, and governments, and cost society an awful lot in creativity,
productivity, and efficiency. Incompatible standards are used to manipulate
markets and allow companies to charge people huge fees simply for the
privilege of accessing their own data. Closed standards are also the basis
of the worlds worst technology monopolies. Can you imagine how much
knowledge future generations will lose if we keep on using proprietary,
closed data formats that one day no one will ever be able to open because
the company behind it had business secrets and patents on it but then went
bankrupt? Or the company behind decides to switch to a new format and to
not support or implement the older one anymore?
That's why Open Standards are so important. Only openly implementable,
usable and documented standards can guarantee their compatibility
throughout any software on any devices today and in the future. Data
formats and standards should be open during transmission as well as
storage, including interfaces and protocols.
Document Freedom is more than documents
Document Freedom adresses much more than just essays and spreadsheets, it
is about control of any kind of a digital data - including artwork, sheet
and recorded music, emails, and statistics. These can be stored in ways
which empower users, but they can also be stored in formats which constrain
and manipulate us at enormous cost. Documents that aren't free are locked
to some particular software or company. The author cannot choose how to use
them because they are controlled by technical restrictions. Just like a
powerful car that is artificially restricted to 30 km/ph.
Open Standards, instead, are formats and protocols which everybody can use
free of charge and restriction. They come with compatibility "built-in" -
the way they work is shared publicly and any organisation can use them in
their products and services without asking for permission. Open Standards
are the foundation of cooperation and modern society: train tracks, power
sockets, and natural language are all examples of specifications that we
all rely on and take for granted. Imagine if speaking English required
permission and a license fee - society would be backward and chaotic.
Hence, documents that are free can be used in any way that the author
intends and without restrictions. They can be read, transmitted, edited,
and transformed using a variety of tools. Read more about Open Standards
<https://documentfreedom.org/openstandards.en.html> and what defines them.
Source: https://documentfreedom.org/about.en.html
Thanks,
--
Danishka Navin
http://danishkanavin.blogspot.comhttp://twitter.com/danishkanavinhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/danishkanavin/
Hi Sirko,
Can you help us with logo for Fedora Singapore community?
Qi Yang already filed a ticket [1].
https://fedorahosted.org/design-team/ticket/345
Thanks,
Danishka
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Qi Yang Er <erqiyang(a)gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: Fedora.SG Logo Draft
To: Jason Benedict Low <jasonbenedict(a)fedoraproject.org>
Cc: Harish Pillay <harish.pillay(a)gmail.com>, Roy Ong <
royong(a)fedoraproject.org>, Danishka Navin <danishka(a)gmail.com>, Heherson
Pagcaliwagan <azneita(a)fedoraproject.org>
Hi guys,
Not sure why the activity has suddenly turned cold. :-(
I just got some reply from the design team w.r.t logo use.
Apparently, the ".sg" addition to logo requires approval from the Fedora
Council.
Appending "Singapore" is apparently fine though.
I'm not for doing extra work for now, so seems like we can use the approved
design and when we have the time and effort, try and get approval for the
".sg" design?
Also, seems they are not keen to release a svg format for it.
https://fedorahosted.org/design-team/ticket/345
What are your thoughts?
Regards,
Qiyang
