Free Dog's Purpose and Goals.

• Advocacy: We will serve as an advocacy group for free/open EDA tools, and free/open design in general. We will do this by keeping a website (where you are right now!), holding bi-monthly meetings with speakers, and (possibly) manning booths at occasional trade shows.
• Networking: We want to become a focal point for meeting fellow free software and electronics hackers. To this end, we will hold bi-monthly meetings, as well as occasional other activities. We will also have an e-mail list.
• Publicity: We will serve as a "go to" organization for journalists looking for information about free EDA tools in general. (For specific projects, we will encourage them to talk to the individual project's leader.)
• Professional advancement: Belonging to an interest group is a great way to make contacts and advance one's own career. We will also put a "jobs" bulletin board on our website (for any jobs which appear), as well as a "consultant's corner" listing companies in the business of design and support of free EDA tools.
• Learning: Since we like to hack both software and hardware, Free Dog will serve as an important meeting ground to swap tips and info about software, algorithms, bugs, programming, circuit design, circuit repair, and related subjects. Since Free Dog will have members representing many different skills and disciplines, we can all learn from each other.
• Have fun with like-minded people: This is the most important goal!

Note that our interest is not devoted to any free EDA project in particular. Rather, our focus is directed at the world of free EDA tools in general: their use, marketing, features, interoperability, business opportunities, licensing issues, success/failure stories, demand for new tools, and so on.