Freedom – the rallying cry for revolution, is the absence of restraint of various forms. Freedom of expression , or the ability to seek, receive and impart information or ideas, through various media, is a characteristic of a free society.
Free your documents
Documents play a key role in the construction of social reality (Searle, 1996) . Throughout centuries, documents were seen as valuable sources of information that shape our understanding of the evolution of human society and culture. For example, cave drawings, hieroglyphics, scrolls of sheepskin, sheets of papyrus, ink on paper, magnetic tape and electronic files are all documents that provide historians , researchers and academics with valuable clues as to how our ancestors lived their lives.
The social aspects of documents arise from their historically unchanging character, or its immutability with respect to oral forms of communication.
Documents store records that will be considered authoritative in the future, particularly with respect to government. For example, receipts, titles, and deeds provide proof of ownership, while passports or driver’s licenses serve as proof of identity.
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, in 1964 declared , “The medium is the message.” It means that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a “symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived, creating subtle change over time”. The written word, such as a document, is a form of media that impart the principles of uniformity, continuity, and linearity. He explains that a medium is “any extension of ourselves”, or more broadly, “any new technology”. Thus, the document, as an extension of ourselves, deserves to be free.
Liberate your country
“Document Freedom Day (DFD) is the global day for document liberation. It will be a day of grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general”, according to the Document Freedom website.
The first celebration of Document Freedom Day happens on the last Wednesday in March, 2008. It focuses on facilitating community action , promotion and adoption of free document formats and open standards, and making a global network.
The event complements the Software Freedom Day, an annual worldwide celebration of free/open-source software that aims to educate the public on the virtues of free/open-source software and encourages its use.
DFD is a collaborative and volunteer driven effort that goes back to discussions between various participants in the ODF Alliance. The following groups have declared their support for Document Freedom Day: Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma , Free Software Foundation Europe, Google, IBM , Nlnet , ODF Alliance, Open Forum Europe, OSL , iMatix , Red Hat , Sun and The Open Learning Centre.
Organizers are seeking local teams from all over the world to organize events. Interested parties can register at http://www.documentfreedom.org/.