Volunteer teams from around the world organise events to promote Free and Open Source Software. Past events have included "Install-fests" where you can bring along your PC or laptop and have Free and Open Source Software installed and have someone take you through how to use it, tutorials, talks and giveaways of CDs of Free and Open Source Windows & Mac applications.

This year in Melbourne, Australia, Linux Users Victoria, Melbourne PC Users Group and the Apple Users Society of Melbourne have come together to organise a day of talks, tutorials and giveaways at MelbPC's facility at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne's inner south-east.

Talks will cover topics as diverse as "Installing Linux on your netbook" to "Why is Free Software important?" and "Firefox, including why and how to make it better". Speakers will give practical sessions on topics including "Introduction to Wordpress" and "Image editing with Inkscape".

"Lightning talks" are a concept where a speaker has between 3 and 5 minutes to talk about their favourite topic. Often you can gain a basic introduction to programming in a certain language, how to use an application, the state of their favourite Linux distribution or some totally random, but always interesting, topic!

Various Linux operating systems, applications and hardware will also be on display and you'll be able to get your hands dirty and play with it.

An interesting twist to Software Freedom Day is that the 19th of September each year is also "International Talk Like a Pirate Day", so I guess you might expect to hear phrases such as "Wordpress, me hearties! T'is the best for all ya blaggin' and bloggin'" or "Bring me 'nother bottle o' rum and we'll have a natter about backin' up with Clonezilla." Or maybe not...

More infomation, including a map of MelbPC's location at Chadstone Shopping Centre can be obtained from here: http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melb.

Please feel free to leave comments and let us know what your local Software Freedom Day group is organising in your area.