[Fsfe-ie] Invitation text...

Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran at member.fsf.org
Tue May 18 04:08:08 CEST 2004


(I spent ages writing a reply to this earlier, then the electricity died.
So here's a real rough reply.)


> I was speaking to a friend of mine today who works for the venture capital
> company HotOrigin. He is keen to attend RMS' talk, but due to commitments he
> will be out of the country.

would he like to send a representative?

> I ask if he knew Brian Caulfield and if he would
> suggest to him to go. He said, yes and no. Mr. Caulfield would be open to
> going, but it would be best to extend the invitation to him officially.

ok, will do.

> With that in mind, is there a text floating around that will form the basis
> of invitations to the talk?

not yet.

> 1. The recipient will not necessarily be
> familiar with the concept of free software,
> or even that there's a movement for same.

the talk isn't about free software or open source.  I think the topic is
mentioned in a total of two sentences.  So there's no need to mention it at
all.  It's about the right to develop software.

Also, as a rule, RMS doesn't allow for his talks to be promoted with the
words "open source" (or with the word "Linux" mis-used, and one'd need a
good excuse to use the term "intellectual property")

> 2. The recipient will not know of nor care
> about the distinction between free software
> and open source software, though the
> likelihood is that the recipient *will* be
> familiar with the term "open source
> software".

Here's the "open source" ban:

  So please make sure that all the publicity about the event (web site,
  email announcements, conference programs, direct mail, signs, etc), uses
  the term "free software", not "open source", when you refer to my work.
  This includes to the title and descriptions of my speech, of the session
  it is in, of the track it is part of, and of the event itself.


few things:
* is there a better term than "public lecture"?

* Can Trinity be called Trinity or TCD instead of "Dublin University"



===========
A chara,

I am writing to invite you to a public lecture on Monday the 24th of May on
the topic of "The Danger of Software Patents".  The speaker, Dr. Richard
Stallman is an American who has been writing computer software since 1970
and has first hand experience with the harm caused by patents in the field
of sofware.

The talk is scheduled to begin at 19:30 and the venue will be Trinity
College Dublins' MacNeill theatre, which is located in the Hamilton building
at the east end of Trinity (near Pearse St. dart station).  Dr. Stallman
will talk for 1 hour, and will then take questions from the audience.
[insert bit here about why the topic is topical, and that RMS is maybe the
worlds leading thinker of the no-patents side]

Dr. Stallman initiated the GNU project and the Free Software movement in
1983, and is the author of many popular software packages including the GNU
compiler Collection and GNU Emacs.  His is also the author of the popular
software license "The GPL", GNU General Public License.  Among numerous
other awards, he was awarded a Macarthur foundation fellowship in 1991, and
in 1996, 2001, and 2003 he was awarded honorary doctorates from Sweden,
Glasgow, and Brussels.

This talk is being organised by the Irish Free Software Organisation in
association with the Dublin University Internet Society.

If you will be able to attend, please contact us at info at ifso.ie or phone.
<phone_number_here>.

Yours sincerely,

<Representative name>
Irish Free Software Organisation.

Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO): http://ifso.ie
IFSO Event page: http://ifso.ie/news.html
Trinity College Dublin Internet Society: http://netsoc.tcd.ie/
==================



-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Irish Free Software Organisation: http://ifso.ie



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