Obsidian Systems, an established South African supplier of Open Source software solutions, in association with several industry partners, will host a one-day open collaborative session Software Freedom Day Pretoria 2014 on 20 September in support of the global Software Freedom Day (SFD) initiative.

The full day event will be held at The Station Lounge (50 meters from the Pretoria Gautrain Platform) and is scheduled to begin at 9am.

It is cost-free to visitors, but space is limited. The Programme will feature a number of speakers, interactive discussion, breakaways in hack rooms and networking opportunities.

“Our aim for SFD 2014 is to engage with and encourage computer users, local businesses, startups and other groups to use free software and promote the philosophy. We provide a friendly and accessible community to learn about and discuss free software,” explains Karl Fischer, Technical Consultant at Obsidian Systems.

Coverage of the event will also be available via social networks Facebook and Google.

A number of speakers are lined up to delve into an array of topics from Open Hybrid Cloud, the Internet of Things and Graphics in the open source world to insight into open source technology offerings including ELK – Log Analysis, OpenSUSE Build Service, ownCloud – Your ownCloud 9, and Docker, amongst others.

Fischer adds that several speakers are potentially lined up for the event. The final itinerary is to be decided upon by the public and leadership behind Obsidian Systems has set up an online voting facility through which the public can decide what they would like to hear more about.

Voting can be conducted by clicking through to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1D61tofS_SzG8bA6HoyjEgVOolfd1xP2jtP3V02JBoqI/viewform

“We are very excited to be hosting this awesome event… this is a real opportunity to bring together the community and industry to promote open source and its benefits.” says Fischer.