Penguin Day New York

What is Penguin Day?

Nonprofits, eRiders, software developers, and activists met at Penguin Day in New York City to demystify free and open source software for social change organizations. This day-long event explored free and open source software in plain language, serve to build networks among nonprofits technology users, and help socially-minded 'geeks' find ways to support nonprofit organizations.

Penguin Day New York is co-organized by Aspiration in partnership with the LINC Project of the Welfare Law Center and United Way of New York City.

Penguin Days are partially underwritten by IBM Corporation, in-kind support from local partner organizations and Aspiration, as well as participant registration fees.

Agenda

Penguin Day took place from 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Lunch and refreshments were provided. Penguin Day included:

• Morning Plenary and Opening Circle
• Breakout Sessions and Conversations
• Lunch
• Afternoon Breakouts
• Afternoon Plenary and Closing

Penguin Day focused on conversation and curiosity, inviting nonprofits, eRiders, and developers to dig into the questions that interest them most.

Some of the agenda topics included:

• Introduction to Free and Open Source Software for Nonprofits
• Local resources and who's-who in the New York Free/Open Source community
• Helping techies and non-techies communicate and cooperate
• Overview of Free and Open Source desktop applications
• e-Advocacy platforms and best practices
• Selecting an operating system
• Free and Open Source migration strategies
• Creative Commons and open content
• "Speed geeking"

The agenda was developed and finalized in collaboration and communication with participants in the weeks leading up to the event.

Background

The goal of local Penguin Days is to make information about free and open source software available to non-profit organizations who are in need of specific, often expensive or inflexible programs to manage volunteers, fundraise, or mobilize constituents in campaigns. Open source software can be freely distributed and modified by organizations to suit their specific needs. Penguin Days challenge software developers to provide flexible and appropriate open source software for nonprofits, and also empower nonprofits to better communicate their needs and serve as active partners in the development and use of open source technology. 

The Penguin is a humorous symbol adopted in the early days of Linux as the mascot of this growing software movement.