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Document Freedom Day (DFD) is an annual event to "celebrate and raise awareness of Open Standards". It is celebrated on the last Wednesday of March each year. Document Freedom Day was first celebrated on March 26, 2008, and has continued to be celebrated every year since.
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Document Freedom Day is organised by a team of volunteers and staff of the Free Software Foundation Europe. DFD is funded by donors and partners which vary from year to year.
DFD 2013 was the largest ever with 60 events in 30 countries. A year later, in 2014, 51 groups in 22 countries held events celebrating Document Freedom Day. In 2016 it will take place on Wednesday March 30.
Relationship to free software
Document Freedom Day is a campaign about open standards and document formats, aimed at a non-technical audience. Open standards ensure communication is independent of software vendor; this in turn ensures that people "are able to communicate and work using Free Software."
Document freedom addresses much more than just essays and spreadsheets, it is about control of any kind of a digital data - including artwork, sheet and recorded music, email, and statistics. These can be stored in ways which empower users, but they can also be stored in formats which constrain and manipulate users at enormous cost. Documents that are not free are locked to some particular software or company. The author cannot choose how to use them because they are controlled by technical restrictions.
Relationship to open standards
According to Document Freedom volunteers, "Open Standards are essential for interoperability and freedom of choice based on the merits of different software applications. They provide freedom from data lock-in and the subsequent supplier lock-in. This makes Open Standards essential for governments, companies, organisations and individual users of information technology."
Document Freedom Day organizers have their own definition of technical standards that are considered to be open. These require standards to be: