Sfd Post Event Report

Menoufia University
Faculty of Computers and Information
MUFIX Community
2009 - 2010

Software Freedom Day at
Menoufia University
17 October 2009
Festivals Hall – Faculty of Law

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www.sfd.mufix.org

Software Freedom Day at Menoufia University
MUFIX Community
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About

SOFTWARE FREEDOM DAY:
Software Freedom Day, or SFD for short, is an annual event organized by open-source enthusiasts
around the world. The non-profit organization Software Freedom International (SFI) coordinates the
event at a global level, providing support, giveaways, and a point of collaboration. However,
volunteer teams around the world organize the local SFD events to impact their own communities.

SFD aims to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality free open source
software everywhere, as well as supporting the users’ right to enjoy software freedom. That is, the
freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software, also known as the GNU
(GNU’s Not Unix) rights.

For the very first time, SFD was held at Menoufia University. A student community known as MUFIX
Community was among the 200 teams chosen by Software Freedom International to organize the event
in 2009.

MUFIX COMMUNITY:
MUFIX Community is a student community based at the Faculty of Computers and Information at
Menoufia University. MUFIX is considered to be the fastest growing community at Menoufia University;
having become one of only three Sun Microsystems certified Java User Groups (JUG) in Egypt as well as
a Sun Microsystems Open Source University Meetup (OSUM) Century Club- an OSUM group with more
than 100 members- after less than five years of the community’s foundation in 2004.

MUFIX is also known to be the first to introduce the concepts of open source development to the
faculty via the weekly sessions delivered to students all academic year long.

With a reputation and achievements like that, MUFIX team was the most suitable to represent SFI at
Menoufia University.

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Organizing the Event:

THE DATE:
Every year, Software Freedom International announces a date for the event- usually late in September-
and the organizing teams have to hold the event on that day’s week. This year it was September 19th.
We tried to hold the event on that day and started to massively publicize it. We even created an event
page on Facebook. However, all our efforts were in vain. No one was interested in attending. The event
page had no more than 20 guests who RSVPed as “attending”.

The reason for that was simple; it was the Islamic month of Ramadan. No one wanted to wake up early
in the morning- including even some of the organizers!- in Egypt’s hot summer while fasting in order to
hear about software freedom or open source- or any other thing for that matter! We knew we had to
postpone the event to after Ramadan, and perhaps to some date by the beginning of the academic
year.

THE VENUE AND THE DATE:
Also, while planning for the event, we knew that the small lecture room located in our faculty- it
accommodates 200 people max- will not be sufficient for the expected number of the event guests. We
had to find a venue that would be suitable for the event stature.

Luckily, our faculty had reserved the official Menoufia University festivals hall- located at the Faculty of
Law- for the 2009 class graduation ceremony on October 17. This hall accommodates up to 800 people
with suitable facilities. We realized that this hall would be more than perfect for the event. We
contacted the officials responsible for the hall to book the hall for the event on a day other than
October 17 in order not for any of the two events to clash with the other. However, they made it clear
that they will not be willing to book the hall for two different days for the same faculty at the same
semester.

Eventually, after running out of options, we decided to hold the event on the same day of the
graduation ceremony (October 17) and coordinated with our faculty administration to have an hour
separating the two events. Software Freedom Day would begin at 10:00 AM and end at 2:00 PM, while
the graduation ceremony would begin at 3:00 PM (Cairo Local Time).

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Establishing the Agenda:

MUFIX + SFD:
Among our activities as a student community is a free weekly session delivered to the students of our
faculty during the course of the academic year, in which we talk about the new technologies in the IT
world as well as tips and tricks to help the students in their future careers. It became a tradition to make
the very first session of the year an “Opening Ceremony”, where we introduce ourselves and what we
do to the new faculty students.

Having not begun our sixth season activities yet, we thought; why not start the sixth year big and
include our community’s opening ceremony in Menoufia’s first Software Freedom Day? This way, more
people will know about MUFIX, and we would save a weekly session’s time for the much needed
technical information.

So, we made the call. The SFD first session would be “MUFIX Sixth Season Opening Ceremony”, with
Mostafa Abdel Naser, the new MUFIX chairman, as the speaker.

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REFLECTING SOFTWARE FREEDOM DAY:
To achieve the targets of Software Freedom Day, we knew we had to compile a set of sessions that
speaks nothing but open source development, and at the same time has something for everyone- the
newcomers, the enthusiasts, and the veterans. So we came up with the following agenda for the event:

AN INEVITABLE CHANGE:
Despite creating a solid agenda, we made a big mistake. We set up the agenda and agreed on the
sessions without contacting any speaker. As a result, we couldn’t find someone who was willing to come
from Cairo or Alexandria to Menoufia to give the “Introduction to Open Source” session. To overcome
that, we decided to merge the sessions “Introduction to Open Source” and “Open Source Operating
Systems” into one session called “Open Source Concepts and Operating Systems” delivered in two
parts.

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THE SESSIONS:
 Open Source Concepts and Operating Systems:
What “Open Source Software” really means, the licenses that govern open source development, and
examples of the most common open source software applications. As well as the results of merging the
words “open source” and “operating system”.

 Enterprise Open Source:
The solutions that open source concepts provide for enterprises, using companies working with ERP and
CRM systems as examples.

 Open Source Software Development:
Software development is the field mostly affected by open source concepts. Most of the popular
programming languages, such as Java, PHP, Ruby, and Python, are open source.

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THE SPEAKERS:

 Eng. Abbas Adel:

The first we contacted was engineer Abbas Adel, a Faculty of Computers and Information alumni and
one of the founders of MUFIX Community. Engineer Abbas is a software developer at Asset Technology
Group, an IEEE Gold Egypt member, an International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) Egypt
alumni member, and an open source enthusiast. He showed great interest in giving the “Enterprise
Open Source” session and also attending the opening ceremony of MUFIX’s sixth season.

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 Eng. Diaa Radwan:

For the “Open Source Concepts and Operating Systems” session, we decided that the best speaker
would be one of the established Linux Fedora Ambassadors in Egypt. One of our team members, Ahmed
Daoud, is a newly designated Fedora Ambassador. So, Ahmed contacted engineer Diaa Radwan, one of
the most famous Fedora Ambassadors in Egypt. Engineer Diaa is a senior system engineer at TE Data, a
GNU/Linux administrator, an administrator for the Egyptian GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG) website,
and a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE). Despite his busy schedule, he was more than welcome to
participate in the first Menoufia University Software Freedom Day.

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 Dr./Eng. Mostafa Ibrahim:

Despite not being one of the famous open source gurus in Egypt or having a degree related to IT- he is a
Medical major- Mostafa Ibrahim is an accomplished web developer with a 6-year experience in working
with open source technologies such as PHP and Joomla!. Mostafa is also a 2008 and 2009 Google
Summer of Code (GSoC) alumni and a promoter for open source development in Egypt. We contacted
him to give the “Open Source Software Development” session, for which he was very excited and
confirmed his participation.

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Publicity:

Knowing too well that the thing that makes any event successful, we decided to not just make an
announcement on our official website (www.mufix.org) and Facebook group like what we did with the
events we organized in the past. Instead, we set up an independent website (www.sfd.mufix.org),
containing all the information related to the event, a registration page, and a blog for news and
updates. We also created a page for the event on our MUFIX Community group on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150842372654&ref=mf) and announced it on our Twitter page
(www.twitter.com/Mufix_Community).

In addition to Internet publicity, we put OpenSolaris posters on the walls of every floor in our faculty’s
building, as well as the official MUFIX Community SFD poster at the main entrance door.

Also, we personally informed all the students with the event by sending our people to their lectures and
inform them with the event details and how to register to attend it.

Sponsorship:

… OR THE LACK OF IT:
Apart from 75 OpenSolaris CDs, 5 posters, 3 t-shirts, and balloons (provided by Sun Microsystems and
Software Freedom International) we received no sponsorship deals for the event from any organization.
We contacted almost all of the software companies in Egypt, none of them showed any interest in
sponsoring the event by any means.

OUR FACULTY TO THE RESCUE:
Thankfully, our faculty administration was glad to provide us with approximately half of the expenses
required for the event. The other half was fully paid by the members of MUFIX Community, especially
Dr. Osama Abdel Ra’oof, our community leader, who contributed greatly to the event from his own
pocket.

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The Big Day:

T-48 HOURS:
We were first granted access to the hall on Thursday 15 October, and were asked to make it quick
because the hall was to be cleaned on that day. We were unable to do all the preparations we had in
mind; all we managed to do was just a quick rehearsal on the presentation and establishing each team
member role. We planned to do the rest early on the event day.

T-2 HOURS:
We arrived at the hall at 8:00 AM with too much to do. We had to set up the registration desk, test the
hall microphones and speakers, set up the slideshow projector and screen, make a quick rehearsal on
the presentation and MUFIX word, and organize entry to the hall and coffee break preparations.
Everything went very smoothly and the atmosphere was filled with optimism. The only problem was
that the ones responsible for the hall said that there was a problem with the air conditions and they will
not work efficiently. We were deeply upset with that as we realized how annoying it would be for more
than 300 people to sit for 5 hours in a hall with bad air conditioning in that day’s hot weather.

T-1 HOUR:

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Students started to arrive in great numbers and the hall was filling up fast. Everything was alright, until
another problem surfaced. It was already 9:00 AM, and engineer Diaa Radwan, the speaker of the first
session, was nowhere to be found. When we called him to ask where he was, he said, in a sleepy voice,
“Isn’t it next month?!”

ANOTHER INEVITABLE CHANGE:
We realized that he would not be able to make it in time for his session. Luckily, engineer Abbas Adel
had arrived early. So, we changed the agenda by moving the “Enterprise Open Source” session to the
beginning, with the coffee break after it, then engineer Diaa’s session. It was unnatural and we did not
like it, but we had no other choice.

HAPPY ENDING:
The rest of the event went very well. The attendance was great, the sessions appealed to everyone, the
coffee break was very well-organized even though it was organized by us and not a specialized caterer,
and everyone was satisfied including our faculty dean (Professor Mohey Hadhoud) who graced us with
his presence. We can safely say that all of those who attended returned home with a smile on their
faces!

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Attendees Stats:
 Faculty Professors: 10
 Faculty Instructors: 15
 Students: 423

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Feedback:
To get everyone’s opinion on the event, we created a little survey and posted it on the website. Here
are the questions and the results after two weeks:

How helpful was the event in providing you with new information about Free Open Source
Software (FOSS)?
Extremely helpful 15%
Helpful 60%
Average 10%
Not as helpful as I thought it would be 10%
Not helpful at all 5%

Based on what you learned and heard at the event, how much more interested are you in open
source development?
Very interested 50%
Interested 30%
Not sure 5%
Not interested 0%
Not interested at all 15%

If Software Freedom Day was held again next year, would you attend it?
Yes 85%
No 5%
Not Sure 10%

How satisfied are you with the event website?
Very satisfied 30%
Satisfied 45%
Average 20%
Dissatisfied 0%
Very Dissatisfied 5%

How satisfied were you with the registration process?
Very satisfied 26%
Satisfied 52%
Average 15%
Dissatisfied 5%

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Overall, how satisfied were you with the speakers?
Very satisfied 10%
Satisfied 60%
Average 25%
Dissatisfied 0%

Which speaker did you find the best?
Eng. Abbas Adel (Enterprise Open Source) 65%
Eng. Diaa Radwan (Open Source Concepts and Operating Systems) 20%
Eng. Mostafa Ibrahim (Open Source Software Development) 15%

Did you feel the length of the sessions was too long, just about right, or too short?
Too long 5%
Just about right 90%
Too short 5%

The event was well organized.
Strongly Agree 10%
Agree 65%
Average 10%
Disagree 5%
Strongly Disagree 10%

The event staff (MUFIX Community organizers) was helpful and respectful.
Strongly Agree 50%
Agree 35%
Average 15%
Disagree 0%
Strongly Disagree 0%

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The Team:

Dr. Osama Abdel Ra’oof – MUFIX Community Leader
Eng. Hamada Zahera – MUFIX JUG/OSUM Leader
Ahmed Salem – Team Leader
Mostafa Abdel Naser – Speaker of the MUFIX Community Word
Allaa Eissa – Primary Presenter
Ahmed Daoud – Technical Support
Ahmed El- Sadek – Hall Room Manager
Ahmed Samir – Registration Desk
Sameh Ammar – Registration Desk
Nourhan Osama – Registration Desk / Coffee Break Preparations
Mostafa El- Najaar – Registration Desk (On-Site Registration)
Mohamed Farrag – North-Western Door (VIPs Entry)
Mohamed Adel – North Western Door (VIPs Entry)
Eman El- Ganzory – South Western Door (Students Entry) / Coffee Break Preparations
Khaled Magdy – South Western Door (Students Entry)
Mahmoud Nasr – South-Eastern Door (Students Entry)
Ibrahim Abdullah – South-Eastern Door (Students Entry)
Abdullah Abu Oaf – North-Eastern Door (Students Entry)
Hanan Sabry – Coffee Break Preparations
Ahmed Nagy - Photographer
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SFD Memories:

Our dean, vice dean, and head of CS department along with Dr. Hamdy Moussa.

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Apparently something was ambiguous!

Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?!

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Professors Hatem Abdel Kader and Kamel Arram.

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Part of our teaching staff that we were honored to have :)

A proof that the IT field in Egypt is NOT male-dominated!

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Looking very serious, for no particular reason!

Apparently there is a hot debate here!

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A group picture at the end

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Sfd Post Event Report

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