Re: New GNOME.Asia Summit website launched

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    While I think you have a strong point about the missing message about 
    GNOME and free software I believe a lot of people outside of the US (at 
    least) use the expression 'Open Source' as a synonym of Free Software.

People who think they are synonymous have misunderstood the substance
of either free software or open source.  In my experience, most often
they have misunderstood the substance of free software.  They have
heard the idea labeled "open source" and they think that "free
software" is the same idea.

Teaching them the truth about this is a high priority for us.  We want
them to know what "free software" really stands for.  First we have to
show them it is not the same as "opensource".

     I 
    prefer to unite the potentially "2 communities" (assuming they are 
    split).

They aren't "two communities" -- they are two philosophical camps
within one community.  Sometimes they can work together, but they can't
unite unless people change their views.  We might wish to convince all
open source supporters to change their views, but realistically speaking
it is not likely they will.

Please set up your site to help educate viewers about free software
and what it stands for.

    I would be happy to 
    hear how you would advertise in 4/5 words the session where we're trying 
    to encourage local IT services companies to embrace free software and 
    show them that they can run a business around it?

How about...

Run Your Business on Freedom
Your Business deserves Freedom too

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org
Skype: Don't use Skype, it's proprietary software!