FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2nd, 2007
Allen Gunn
Aspiration
415-216-7252
info@aspirationtech.org
www.aspirationtech.org
San Francisco, CA — Aspiration, PICnet and NOSI will host Penguin Day DC, a fun-filled and interactive gathering of nonprofit technology staff and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers. Penguin Day DC will allow nonprofit staff to discuss and explore FOSS, while both addressing the challenges of developing open source tools for nonprofits and celebrating the strengths and successes of FOSS in the nonprofit sector.
Allen Gunn, Executive Director of Aspiration, says, “Free and open source software offers tremendous potential for nonprofit organizations, and Penguin Day is a great place for them to discover what's available, hear success stories, discuss what's still missing, and build relationships with allies and practitioners.”
Penguin Day DC will offer sessions that explain the basics of Free and Open Source Software and address the relevance of these tools to nonprofit technology needs, as well as workshops for more advanced practitioners. Other sessions will cover online advocacy tools, applications for publishing nonprofit web sites, FOSS desktop applications, open content publishing, and business models for developers working in the nonprofit context.
Penguin Days also feature humorous "SpeedGeeks" (modeled after speed-dating) that bring programmers and organizations together in dialog about tools and needs. SpeedGeeking sessions provide an excellent showcase for the ever-growing circle of developers who are interested in making their projects and technical knowledge available for good causes.
Penguin Day DC is scheduled for Saturday, April 7th at the Josephine Butler Parks Center, 2437 Fifteenth Street, NW.
Complete registration information is available at www.penguinday.org.
Other upcoming Penguin Days are scheduled in Austin, Texas on April 28th and Lowell, Massachusetts on June 22nd. Since 2004, Penguin Days have been held in Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon; London, England; Toronto, Canada, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. Hundreds of nonprofit staff, programmers, and activists have attended Penguin Days.
The Penguin is the symbol adopted in the early days of the Linux operating system as the mascot of this growing software movement.
About Aspiration: Aspiration, www.aspirationtech.org, connects nonprofits to software solutions that help them more effectively meet their missions of positive global change. Aspiration connects and strengthen physical communities of nonprofit users and software developers by convening and facilitating innovative technology events. Aspiration connects and strengthens virtual communities of nonprofit users and developers through the Social Source Commons (www.socialsourcecommons.org), which maps out available software tools and related information resources. And Aspiration provides capacity building services, working with software developers to produce better tools for nonprofits, and with nonprofits to better leverage software tools.
About PICnet: PICnet, www.picnet.net, empowers the missions of non-profits through the use of unique open source software solutions. PICnet moves beyond the nuts and bolts of technology, rising to find new and effective ways to assist organizations in meeting their goals.
About NOSI: NOSI, www.nosi.net, was formed with three goals: to facilitate and encourage the use of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector, to bring nonprofit organizations together with free and open source developers and projects in ways that both can benefit, and to promote the understanding of the ways in which the fundamental values of each are similar.