Student group offers help, free software for personal computers

September 15, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida’s Florida Free Culture is hosting its fall Free Your PC event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 19-20 on the Reitz Student Union Colonnade.

Florida Free Culture, a student organization that focuses on advancing public interest as it relates to intellectual property and new technology, is working with the UF Help Desk, IT Security Team and Student Government to check laptops for malicious software, such as viruses and spyware, and install open source software. Students will learn about free and open source software and walk away with legal software, music, games and goodies.

“Students may know they have problems, but might not know how to fix it, or whom to trust to fix it,” said Jordan Wiens, FFC faculty adviser and senior security engineer for the UF IT Security Team. “Free Your PC is a free way to have computers fixed, get software and gain exposure to open source software.”

Free Culture will install Firefox and other open source programs on students’ laptops, as well as free Creative Commons-licensed music MP3 files. UF security experts will install its licensed McAfee VirusScan, which is free for students, faculty and staff. The group will also distribute promotional merchandise for nonprofit groups such as Creative Commons and Ubuntu.

Gavin Baker, Florida Free Culture’s president, thinks it’s important to educate students about the importance of open source software and help them to become socially aware of its benefits.

“Students need to be conscious consumers of information technology,” said Baker. “We want to make it easy to do the right thing.”

Florida Free Culture, UF’s chapter of the FreeCulture.org student movement, was formed in spring 2005. Free Culture works to promote a participatory culture, engaging students on issues such as copyright law, free software and access to information. Free software, also known as open source, is a matter of liberty not price; users are allowed to freely redistribute and modify the programs.

“FFC is a great organization and Free Your PC is an exceptional outreach project that benefits students as well as all of UF,” said Wiens.

For more information about the event, visit http://uf.freeculture.org/

WHO: Florida Free Culture presents

WHAT: Free Your PC

WHEN: Sept. 19-20, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

WHERE: Reitz Student Union Colonnade, UF campus

OBJECTIVE: To educate students on free, open source software, by helping them update and safeguard their laptops.