FREE Software has an important place in teaching both practical skills
as well as political and social empowerment. Although the growth of
FREE Software has only recently begun to grow as an institutional
priority at CUNY, the CUNY-Graduate Center Digital Fellows will share
their strategies, failures and plans for the future. Active contributors and
maintainers of FOSS projects are encouraged to attend.

Today's City University of New York dates back to the 1847 founding of
the Free Academy by Townsend Harris, an early champion of public
education and a pioneering diplomat who was the United States' first
ambassador to Japan. With an inaugural class of 143 academically
qualified young men, the Academy set upon a mission to, in Harris'
words, "let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats
together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good
conduct, and intellect." The university's mission includes promoting
social and economic mobility as well as workforce development.