It is our pleasure to announce a conference keynote speech on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 7:30 PM by Mr. Richard M. Stallman, inventor of The Free Software License, a.k.a. the GPL, and  president of The Free Software Foundation.

Mr. Stallman, who is also known for the term "copyleft", will address the differences between Free and Open Source Software and why he thinks it is important for education to use only free software.  Today as businesses warm up to "open source", Mr. Stallman's views provide a critical perspective that must be considered by all who value individual rights.

Another reason members of the educational community should welcome Mr. Stallman is that he is represents that "smart kid" in your class who points out which rules are silly and which are not.  He works to remind us that "hacking" was originally not about hurting anyone, but rather was about clever fun.  He distinguishes hurtful "cracking" from playful "hacking":

It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value".

("On Hacking")

Mr. Stallman has agreed to come to the first Free and Open Source Software conference in Thailand to spread his message and also to help us to raise funds for the establishment of the Foundation for Sustainable, Free & Open Learning Technologies ( เทคโนโลยีการเรียนรู้เสรีที่ยั่งยืน ).

Confirmed conference attendees are invited to Mr. Stallman's speech.  A speech-only ticket is available.  Donations to support our cause and Mr. Stallman's travel and lodging will, of course, be gratefully accepted.

What better way to start off your Friday night by revisiting the concept of freedom and software? Come be free and open and learn from Richard Stallman! Contact Flossed.org for more information on Richard Stallman's talk.

Planned Keynote speaker, Les Richardson, author of Open Admin for Schools will not be able to come to the conference as he is getting down to the important things in life like time with his family and staying near home after retiring from teaching. We have high hopes that Les, our friend via the Net for a long time, will be able to come next year.

We are glad to say that Les will be working with us from Canada, as usual, however, to help those interested in a powerful, reliable and tested Free Software solution for a Student Information System, Open Admin for Schools.