This September 21st, open source enthusiasts celebrated the 21st Software Freedom Day, worldwide. Our community at Nepal was not behind with the celebration. The LibreOffice Nepali Community was seen active supporting small open-source communities and connecting them
for the greater good, into the LibreOffice project.
I, liaison from Nepal, and a fresh TDF member, was myself available in the LibreOffice Booth at the Software Freedom Day celebration by Nepal Open Source Klub (NOSK) at Nepal College of Information and Technology (NCIT), Lalitpur. Our LibreOffice booth was so full and engaging there. Particularly, the LibreOffice Nepali Community supported the event with fun games, swags, candies, and engagement while advocating for the best free open-source office suite.
The booth included amazing LibreOffice swags and merchandise, including: t-shirts, tote-bags, water-bottle, round pin plastic badges, flyers, variety of stickers, beer mats, candies, etc. The booth facilitated LibreOffice crossword game, V24.8 on display for hands-on, presentation deck for newbies, and some verbal support/assistance to improved LibreOffice experience and
customization for easier navigation within the software interface.
Every 3 out of 4 people appearing in the booth for a quick hello mentioned hearing or knowing and using LibreOffice at their home or workspace. The event was mainly joined by students across Kathmandu valley, open source contributors, club alumni, and veteran FOSS contributors/kick-starters in Nepal. Apart from the event itinerary and other activities in the event, LibreOffice Paper plane contest was a major attention and everyone seems to enjoy their paper plane flight to software freedom! The winner was awarded a LibreOffice printed 750ml aluminum water bottle. Suraj concluded the competition with the 3R principle and the analogy of releasing paperwork and transitioning to digital open-source office suite for document related work pieces.
The college administration expressed some interest in replacing MS Office and migrating the campus computers to LibreOffice suite.
Similarly, I also delivered a recorded talk titled “Diversity, Inclusion and Community
Model in Free Software Communities” at Birendra Multiple Campus, Chitwan. There, the
Software Freedom Day celebration was hosted by Birendra Open Source Club (BOSC) in
support from the LibreOffice community. The aim of the talk was to deepen and bridge the
relation of the club with LibreOffice community and LibreOffice activities/contributions in the
future. Previously, the club has contributed greatly to the success of the local event: LibreOffice Localization Sprint 2023. Achyut Koirala, the acting president of the on-campus club
represented LibreOffice community there. While I myself couldn’t be present, Achyut Koirala together with Shreeram Lamichhane communicated the positive word of the recorded talk I had shared, into their community space. As a closing remark, Achyut thanked LibreOffice community as a whole for the inclusive community model and welcoming their community into the project.
And not to the last, Nirjal Bhurtel, representing LibreOffice local community, did the same at Kathmandu University, where the celebration was hosted by their very on-campus community.
Kathmandu Open Source Community has been the veteran contributor when it comes to the history of contributions from Nepal in the LibreOffice project.
More images will be shared in the blog post {soon to be published}!!
