Hi everybody, As most (all?) of you already know, Richard M. Stallman of the GNU/FSF/GPL/gcc/gdb/emacs/etc fame is coming to Israel to participate in the IBM's GNU/Linux events in Tel Aviv (Jan 8) and in Haifa (Jan 9).
We have been in touch with him, and invited him to a dinner with members of the Israeli free software community. The original idea was to offer him a free beer or two, but it turned out that RMS does not drink beer and generally disapproves of alcohol consumption, but is interested in food, so dinner it is. The "free speech, not free beer" cliche thus acquire extra significance. As usual, the most reasonable location that is the least inconvenient for people living in Israel is somewhere in the center. Note that before anyone decided on anything this opinion was voiced by people who do *not* live in the center ;-). RMS will be in Tel Aviv on the 8th, and it is likely that many people will attend the TAU event on that day, so we'll do it on the 8th of January, in the evening. We've been in touch with IBM organizers, too, to make sure there will be no scheduling conflicts with them. Having asked RMS about his preferences, we decided to meet in one of two restaurants in Herzliya Pituach. Which restaurant depends on the number of people who intend to come. Some ground rules: * Richard specifically asked to remind the people who will come to his lectures and especially to the dinner that he does *not* advocate "open source", and his work is not a part of Linux. Please refresh your memory with http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html Note that the point is, apparently, not that his views are indisputable (he is not one to shy away from an argument, is he?), but if you are going to talk/argue/ask meaningfully, it will help to know what the guy has said on the topic. * Everyone but RMS pays for himself/herself. * Please let us know if you are definitely coming to the dinner. Let us know also if you intend to come but are not quite sure you'll make it. To let us know, send us an email before noon Monday. We will settle on a restaurant when we know an approximate number of people, and if there are more than a few we will need to contact a restaurant in advance. Email us at the addresses in the signature below (remove NOSPAM), use both addresses for redundancy. Please use "RSVP: Dinner with RMS" as subject. Do *not* reply to this message - replies will go to linux-il. * Please don't start a discussion about time and place. If you really hate some kind of food, like "I am allergic to fish" or "I am a vegetarian" feel free to mention it, but we cannot guarantee anything. -- Oleg Goldshmidt | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Muli Ben-Yehuda | [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
