content/news/2018-02-05-foss-month.md

   1 ---
   2 author: christel
   3 date: 2018-02-05 23:19:48+00:00
   4 slug: foss-month
   5 title: Celebrating FOSS, and twenty years of Open Source
   6 category: community
   7 category: general
   8 category: freenode
   9 category: foss
  10 category: open source
  11 ---
  12
  13 For the last few days I (and several of the freenode volunteers) have had the absolute pleasure of spending time with a wide range of
  14 freenode users over at [FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/2018/) in Brussels. FOSDEM has always provided us with an excellent opportunity to catch up, not only with one
  15 another but also with sponsors, group contacts and others.
  16
  17 I would like to extent heartfelt thanks to the incredible organisers and volunteers, speakers and attendees who make FOSDEM (and other
  18 such events) possible, and I would also like to thank those of you who took the time to speak with us, provide feedback, thoughts and
  19 words of appreciation. It is nice to be reminded that you appreciate the freenode project, and that you feel it adds some value.
  20
  21 We often find that a large proportion of our time is spent dealing with spam or other problematic behaviour, and
  22 it is all too easy to forget that the incredibly small minority of users that create issues are just that, a minority, and that the vast
  23 proportion of our userbase consists of amazing human-beings who collaborate on exciting, important and curious projects. And perhaps we
  24 also sometimes forget to show our appreciation of the incredible work you all undertake within the FOSS and peer-directed project spaces.
  25
  26 On Saturday, I joined [Laura Czajkowski](https://twitter.com/Czajkowski), [Leslie Hawthorn](https://twitter.com/lhawthorn), [Deb Nicholson](https://twitter.com/baconandcoconut), [VM Brasseur](https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur) and many others in
  27 song as we came together to sing Happy Birthday to Open Source to mark that it had been 20 years since the term was first coined. It felt
  28 fitting that this should take place not only during FOSDEM, but also during [Free and Open Source Software Month](https://nationaldaycalendar.com/free-and-open-source-month-february/). So once more, Happy Birthday
  29 Open Source!
  30
  31 To celebrate Free and Open Source Software Month, [Private Internet Access](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com) is running a promotion this month, with savings of up to 62% if you take out an annual subscription [here](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/foss-month).
  32
  33 We'd love to hear about, and help highlight any other similar promotions run by other companies that are doing something similar to celebrate
  34 FOSS month! Please do let us know (support@freenode.net) or via IRC if you are doing something cool, and would like us to share it with our
  35 community!