FSCONS 2009/Introduction

The Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) is a meeting place for social change, focused on the future of free software and free society. The growing speed of new and innovative changes taking place within digital culture, as well as the pressing need for members of a marginalised society to gain access to important, updated information without financial or governmental barriers, the 2009 FSCONS will deal with an array of hot topics.

Open discussion and brainstorming are two of the primary factors that pave the way for change. The conference seeks to engage, inform and motivate social change through these discussions. In addition, FSCONS will be a meeting place for the digital revolution, providing presentations, workshops and showrooms, as well as social events in the evenings. Due to the variety of participants from across the digital spectrum, the conference offers the opportunity to connect prospective partners to further the goal of free culture and free software.

The essential goal of FSCONS is expansion: expanding the accessability of digital and technological information to everyone in the world; expanding the interest and promotion of free culture and free software; expanding the opportunities for all interested parties from around the globe to engage with others in hopes of changing the future of digital culture.

FSCONS brings together everyone with an interest in the future, regardless of their demographics, be they grass root organisations, companies, academics, cultural workers, hackers or interested individuals. Regardless of who is asked, a common trend among the participants of FSCONS, is the interest in the discourse about our future society and how free software and free culture plays a part in shaping this society. Similarly, participants of FSCONS share a common feeling that meeting spaces where all groups of people from the different fields can come together are severely lacking, and FSCONS intends to help in creating such a cross-cultural meeting space, and to bridge the gap between organisations and inviduals from all fields, who can come together in a united effort to participate in the discourse.

Non-profit organisations and companies participate in FSCONS in order to show their activities to a larger audience. Companies looking for talented individuals that can contribute positively to their work can find those individuals among the FSCONS participants. They can also find other companies to interact with, as well as potential customers and clients in their field of work. But more importantly, companies participate in FSCONS because they will work within the future society, which is shaped in part by the participants, and being a part of this discourse, either as participants or as sponsors of FSCONS, is essential for their future.

Individuals attending FSCONS come from a significant demographic spread, from young graduates to senior advisors, but they are with few exceptions all involved in the discourse about the future society, and come to FSCONS in order to communicate with individuals, organisations and companies around their topics. In particular academic visitors find FSCONS a valuable source of ideas and input for their work, and professionals within any field participate to not only find other professionals in their area, but also to communicate and engage in discussions with companies around their common interests.