When we first announced plans to celebrate the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) fortieth anniversary, we promised to do so in the spirit of bringing the international free software community together. On November 21--23, we invite you to participate in a global, online hackathon to help improve important libre software projects. It's at the core of the FSF's mission to foster free software development. With this hackathon, we want to spotlight the indispensable and hard work free software hackers are carrying out in the background, often without being seen and valued enough.

Register now to participate in the FSF40 hackathon.

Galene information

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Participating projects

Here is the list of projects so far that have declared that they will participate in the FSF40 hackathon:

• The Free Software Directory, the FSF's free software catalog;

• GNU Boot, a boot software distribution that can replace nonfree boot software like BIOS or UEFI on specific computers;

• GNU Guix, a reproducible package manager;

• Lewa, an interactive platform to learn African writing systems;

• op-mattermost, OpenProject integration for Mattermost; and

• Org Mode, the notes management and organizer for GNU Emacs.

You don't need to be a developer to participate in the FSF40 hackathon. There will be tasks for all kinds of interests and every experience level. In addition to advancing the participating projects, the goal of this hackathon is also to learn from each other, acquire skills, and sharpen them. Adding entries to the Free Software Directory, for example, is a dedicated exercise to deepen the understanding of licenses and how to codify software freedom. GNU Boot and op-mattermost are actively looking for non-developers to help write and improve documentation that can be understood by anyone.

Nevertheless, if you have any of the following skills, your experience could be very helpful for the following hackathon projects:

• Basic knowledge of JavaScript, Node.js, Mocka, Chai, and Sinon is ideal for op-mattermost;

• Basic Python and web development skills for Lewa;

• Emacs Lisp hacking experience for Org Mode; and

• Understanding of DIY hardware, which is welcome but not necessary for LibreVR.

Participation

You can either choose to participate in the hackathon as an individual or as a team consisting of up to four people. To team up, just state in the Libera.chat IRC channel #fsf-hackathon that you're looking for fellow team members to work on one of the projects together.

Upon registration, you'll be asked to specify one or two projects you would like to contribute to during the hackathon. Registration is gratis, but donations are encouraged and will support the FSF's work as well as the GNU operating system, which the FSF sponsors. You can also choose to donate to GNU Guix through the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund.

We will award prizes to participants who have not contributed to a free software package before and a team that includes at least one new free software contributor, as well as for diverse and inclusive teams. On top of these prizes, a jury will award a prize for the most impactful contribution made during the hackathon.

We're also happy to hand out a certificate that acknowledges the work you've accomplished during the hackathon, which can then serve as a valuable reference for job applications.

We encourage contributions to free software projects any time but, for fairness, only work accomplished between November 21, 10:00 EST (15:00 UTC) and November 23, 10:00 EST (15:00 UTC) will be considered for the awards. If you will need to work on submissions in shifted timezones, please request an exception upon registration.

Any code that is part of a hackathon contribution must be free software and may only be produced with free software.

Before registering, please carefully read the hackathon terms and conditions.

Sponsoring

Raise your companies' or organizations' profile among hackathon participants and present your brand to the more than two million annual unique web visitors on fsf.org by sponsoring the event. Sponsorship and underwriting opportunities can be found in the FSF40 sponsorship prospectus or in the informational flyer.

Volunteering

We're looking for volunteers who will moderate the hackathon channels. Interested? Email resources@fsf.org.

Share the word

You can share the word about the FSF40 hackathon using #HackFSF40 on your favorite microblogging platform. Invite your friends and family to join you for the event.

We look forward to hacking with you!

Register now.

The hackathon is just one of many initiatives around the fortieth anniversary of the FSF. Learn what else is happening during the anniversary year on fsf.org/fsf40.