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Community Resources

by Free Software Foundation Contributions — Published on Oct 30, 2017 05:24 PM
Free software is only as successful as the communities that create, use, support, and advocate for it. Free software activists and enthusiasts live all over the world, and you can join them locally or remotely.

Read this article in Spanish.

FSF initiatives

A group of hackers sitting around a table, talking with one another.

We help maintain the LibrePlanet community. LibrePlanet is a global network of local groups, known as teams, that work within their geographic communities. For example, Free Software Melbourne meets monthly to talk about free software, and LibrePlanet Algeria focuses on providing access to free software.

Find your team!

LibrePlanet is also the name of the annual FSF conference, which takes place every spring in or near Boston, MA.

There are also a number of mailing lists managed by the FSF.

FSF staff maintain a community blog. If you're interested in writing for the community blog, contact us.

FSF also maintains several IRC channels on Libera.Chat. Join us on the #fsf channel to interact with FSF staff and other free software supporters, participate in Free Software Directory meetings on Fridays at 16:00-19:00 UTC, and give your feedback in planned meetings on FSF initiatives. Other FSF channels include #libreplanet and #dbd.

Other free software organizations and projects

Two women sitting on a couch. They both have laptops on their laps. The one on the right is wearing a green hat and an orange and black jacket. She is pointing to something on the other's laptop. The woman on the left is wearing a black and white striped sweater. She is laughing.

Free software is for everyone, from the most hardcore Linux kernel hacker to the person installing their first piece of free software on an otherwise proprietary system. There are a myriad of ways to get started with the free software community.

Pieces of free software are made by individuals and communities of contributors. As part of the Working Together Campaign, we have a curated list of free software projects and interviewed community members about why free software matters to them.

Want to learn even more about what kinds of free software are out there? The Free Software Directory is regularly updated by community members and FSF staff.

There are people dedicated to user freedom all around the world. You can watch videos from past LibrePlanet conferences. These talks are given on a range of topics, introducing you to just a few people from the worldwide free software community and the wide variety of things they do.

Social media and what's happening elsewhere

A woman (on the right) and a man (on the left) sitting at a table in a banuet hall. They are both wearing black shirts. The woman is speaking, with a smile and a hand gesturing forward while the man is looking off into the distance, a thoughtful look on his face.

We maintain social media accounts on GNU social, Mastodon, and Twitter. On these we share the latest in news related to free software and the greater space of digital rights.

Curious as to why we use Twitter, even though we find Twitter problematic? Read more about our reasons. Even though we are using Twitter, you still won't find us on Facebook or on LinkedIn, which we object to because of its use and promotion of nonfree software, though on any such site, you may find free software supporters congregating in unofficial groups.

Photo credits
Francois Schnell, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Lisa Brewster, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0

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