Hardware Freedom Day

File:HFDLogo.png

Hardware Freedom Day is an annual celebration organized by the Digital Freedom Foundation. The goal of Hardware Freedom Day is to celebrate the spirit of open hardware and make more people aware of using and contributing to free and hardware projects.{{cite news|url=https://www.engadget.com/2014/03/15/today-is-hardware-freedom-day-go-learn-how-to-build-stuff/|title=Today is hardware Freedom Day, Go Learn How to Build Stuff|last=Buckley|first=Sean|date=15 March 2014|work=Engadget|accessdate=15 March 2016}} The first Hardware Freedom Day was held on April 20, 2013.{{cite web|url=https://anydayguide.com/calendar/945|title=Hardware Freedom Day|last=|first=|date=|website=Anyday Guide|publisher=|accessdate=15 March 2016}} The 2024 date is 4/20.{{cite web |url=https://www.softwarefreedomday.org/ |title=Home |website=softwarefreedomday.org}}

Goals

To spread awareness about free and open hardware
To encourage user contribution
To provide a common platform for people passionate about open hardware to share their ideas and interests

Schedule

Anybody can organize a Hardware Freedom Day event and there is no rigid schedule followed. Digital Freedom Foundation co-ordinates the event at a global level, providing support, giveaways and a centralized collaboration space. However, volunteer teams around the world organize the events by themselves.

Some common activities of Hardware Freedom Day events are{{cite web|title=Countries conducting HFD events|url=http://wiki.hfday.org/2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908160341/http://wiki.hfday.org/2013|archivedate=8 September 2015}}

Workshops on various kinds of open hardware
Open hacking competitions
Demonstrations of projects
Introduction of new projects
Talks

Open hardware

In the context of Hardware Freedom Day, the term open hardware encompasses physical devices whose design can be{{cite web|title=Open Hardware|url=http://www.hfday.org/open-hardware|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905202922/http://www.hfday.org/open-hardware|archivedate=5 September 2015}}

shared in public without restriction and freely modified and re-distributed.

The design includes all information that a person would need to re-create the device.{{cite web|title=Working of Free Hardware|url=http://www.fsmk.org/?q=free-hardware-movement}}

2015-2016 issues

The Digital Freedom Foundation servers were hacked over Christmas 2015 (posted on their mailing list) and have struggled to come back up. HFD 2016 is planned for April 9, 2016 but no registration is available which will make this year celebration hard to follow.