“They are not alone in their work for software freedom”
Every year on 14 February we celebrate “I Love Free Software Day”, thanking all who contribute to Free Software. Without all of you we would not have such a great ecosystem today! Our Polish group joined our celebrations on 2025 for the first time, and we wanted to know more about them. So, we talked with Damian, our Poland group coordinator, about the Polish groups’ commitment to Free Software.
The Polish country team of the FSFE, FSFE Poland has existed since 2018. For some time there was a lull in the activities of the groups – but now they are back! Currently there are three local groups, Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław, which are some of the largest cities in Poland. Together they do quite a lot and are actively organising events and campaigns. For a good view of their activity you can of course join their Matrix room (Polish only)
Together they decided to celebrate “I Love Free Software Day 2025”, taking this as the perfect opportunity to restart FSFE Poland. They organised three events to which everyone interested in Free Software was invited. Every event was visited by 20-30 people; there were lots of fun, interesting conversations with a focus on lesser known software, and lots of pizza!
FSFE: Hello Damian, we are glad that you could take the time for this interview. Can you tell us how many local groups there are in Poland? Can everybody who is interested join them?
Damian Fajfer, Coordinator of FSFE Poland: The Polish volunteers happen to be mostly from around Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław so I would say there are three groups overall. Of course anyone can join; these are not strict groups at all and have no membership formalities whatsoever. If your goals align with ours and Free Software is important for you, we invite you to participate in our Matrix rooms, especially if you would be willing to help with our projects and activities.
FSFE: What did you do for I Love Free Software Day 2025?
Damian: This was our first time; we plan to celebrate the event each year. But for the future in a more coordinated manner! For 2025, we managed to make a unified template for all our local activities and helped each other organise the event in three cities: Wrocław, Poznań and Warsaw. Here you can find the code of our website, published by Michał Korczak under the SIC license. The result was meetings of about 20-30+ people in each location. We talked about Free Software projects with emphasis on those that are hidden, lesser-known projects, but important for us for some specific reason.
FSFE: Was there something you liked very much about the celebrations?
Damian: I feel like they helped us unify our standing a little bit. People got to acknowledge that FSFE supports their work and – hopefully – that they are not alone in their work for software freedom. I liked that we made a common template for the event and that we translated Pretalx to Polish - huge kudos to Wiktor Przybylski, Paweł "pomidor" Wiczyński, Kacper from Hackerspace Łódź and others for their excellent work.
FSFE: Why do you think I Love Free Software Day is important and why should everybody be celebrating this day?
Damian: Because it raises awareness in the community about the importance of Free Software. It also shows the importance of work done by volunteers who help with the development of Free Software. “I Love Free Software Day” is one of the few opportunities to meet in person, where Free Software is the leading conversation topic.
FSFE: What are the activities the local groups do and is there something happening where new people are welcome to join and support the effort?
Damian: You could say that each FSFE group is loosely associated around a Hackerspace, which provided a space to host the event in that city this year. People feeling associated with the Free Software movement just naturally gravitate towards these places. We are using Matrix channel as the sole medium of communication and everyone interested in Free Software is encouraged to join. I would say our main activities are promoting the Free Software movement by organising Free Software events in Poland: “Sesja Linuksowa” (“Linux Session”), “Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania” (“Poznań Free Software Party”), “Jesień Linuxowa” (“Linux Autumn”) and many more.
The FSFE volunteers are, in varying proportions, organisers of these events and I think it is now impossible to find a Free Software event without one of us being there. We are timidly trying to get more seriously into translations and have started writing reports regarding Free Software that I hope will appear by the end of the year.
FSFE: Was the celebration in 2025, the first time you celebrated “I Love Free Software Day” and what motivated you to participate?
Damian: Actually, the first “I Love Free Software Day” event I organised was in 2017 at Poznań University of Technology. I was a student and also the Free Software student club president so it felt pretty natural at that time. I had already helped organising Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania (“Poznań Free Software Party”) and Linux Presentation Days before. In 2016 I saw some FSFE stickers on someone’s laptop and the person suggested that we could order stickers from the FSFE website for our conference next time. I wanted to be part of the celebration because I loved the idea the first time and the timing for the event is ideal for a Free Software event because nothing much happens during the winter time.
FSFE: As a coordinator of the Poland group, you managed the communication for all three local groups. How was this from your perspective as coordinator and are there some pitfalls you can share with us that other country coordinators should watch out for?
Damian: I think I had a huge advantage already because I personally know people from the other cities. I have studied in Poznań and the organisers are ex-members of the Free Software student's club. Their friends and I met Michał from Wrocław during “Jesień Linuxowa” (“Linux Autumn”). His being one of the main organisers behind “Sesja Linuxowa” (“Linux Session”) made him an ideal candidate to organise a way smaller event like “I Love Free Software Day”.
In reality I did not have to coordinate much as I had very experienced organisers at hand that I could rely on. If I were to give a piece of advice to people coordinating things on a country level scale, it is that you need to find people with initiative and a sense of responsibility to cooperate with. In any kind of relationship, input from both sides is required. I do not think it would really work in other communities if I tried to force my way onto people that do not feel comfortable in such a role.
FSFE: Do you already have plans for celebrating "I Love Free Software Day 2026"?
Damian: There is a LAN party culture that we inherited from previous organisers of “Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania” (“Poznań Free Software Party”) that I really cherish. I think it would be nice if the “I Love Free Software Day” had some LAN-Party-like online events alongside (like those that these informal communities organise: onFOSS and FOSSGralnia.
There we could promote and raise awareness about this kind of software. Besides, I do not know if the theme is already announced but I hope everyone is aiming to affect more people, listen to more talks and eat more pizza.
FSFE: That sounds like a great party! We cannot wait to see your event and we will keep our community posted about this. Thank you for your time and your work for the Free Software community!