FYI.
Please help spread the word.
Thanks,
Georg
[ http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/submit_your_free_software_pr… ]
Submit your Free Software projects for the Trophees du Libre
Monday 30 July 2007
[1] Cetril, the "Centre Europeen de Transfert et de Recherche en
Informatique Libre" is once again organising the [2] Trophees du
Libre, an award for Free Software projects in various categories,
focussed on unknown and innovative projects. The web page is now [3]
open for registration and you can download the [4] PDF leaflet
here. Deadline for registrations is 1 October 2007.
Having participated as part of the jury last year, I can say that this
event has left me with a very positive impression: A clear focus on
Free Software, professional organisation where the finalists' present
themselves in the afternoon to the responsible parts of the jury, and
a very nice award ceremony.
Prizes for the 2007 awards include financial support for the projects
from EUR 500 to EUR 3000, laptops, books, and other goodies. The idea
of the award is to give new, young and hitherto unknown projects a
chance of support, recognition and visibility. So don't hesitate and
submit your project today.
1. http://www.cetril.org/
2. http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/?lang=en
3. http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/-Inscrivez-votre-projet-.html?lang=en
4. http://www.tropheesdulibre.org/IMG/pdf/Trophees_du_libre_EN.pdf
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
What everyone should know about DRM (http://DRM.info)
Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft.
With today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most
basic of duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line
distribution of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a
Microsoft operating system to view BBC programming on the web.
****** http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted *******
Please Digg: http://tinyurl.com/3dzo57
Please Reddit: http://reddit.com/info/2a0qt/
Also, if you're in the North of England and would be interested in a
potential protest at BBC Manchester on the same day, please considering
joining 'Manchester Free Software'. As you may know, the BBC is soon to
move large amounts of its London operations to Manchester and Salford.
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester
If you're a British citizen or resident, you can also sign this
petition:- http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/iplayer/
You can also leave comments about the service, and demand a service that
works on free software systems, such as GNU/Linux, on the BBC iPlayer
Messageboard - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/F7357542
Cheers,
matt
---
Matt Lee - Free Software Foundation/GNU Project
One thing I've been thinking about lately - does the proliferation of
web services harm free software?
In a way, no - a lot of web applications are actually based on free software.
However, a large part of human/computer interaction is moving from programs
running on your local machine to programs running on an internet server.
And this means that those offering those services are not actually distributing
or releasing software - in the case of CMS' and Web servers, they are
only *using*
it, and in the case of more specific web services, letting people use them
as a *service* - in both case incurring no "redistribution"
obligations under e.g. the
GPL.
This means that even when more and more free software becomes available, people
might still become increasingly obliged to use non-free software
through the web,
or to use free software as web applications under conditions where the
four freedoms
don't apply. I'm sure the question isn't new and others could state it much more
eloquently, but ...
is the an answer, and which would be the right one?
best regards
Carsten Agger,
Aarhus, Denmark
--
http://www.modspil.dk
- fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL!
Hi
I am currently writing my master thesis in competition law on network
effects and computer software. If any one knows of good general
articles concerning software compatibility, Microsoft's (and other
software companies') market strategies, innovation in the software
market and so on, I would greatly appreciate a reference or link.
Personal input on the subject will also be of value.
I've been subscribing to this list for about a year and it seemed to
me a good place to make such an request. I apologize if I am off topic
and flooding your email.
Regards
Bjørn Olai Bye
--
Please try to avoid sending me Microsoft Word or PowerPoint attachments.
For information on open standards see:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
FYI and a possibility to get active.
The Inquirer covers MS-OOXML at
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41055
following up on FSFE's conversion hoax and links to the six questions.
[ http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/the_inquirer_on_ms_ooxml_and… ]
The Inquirer on MS-OOXML and ODF
Tuesday 17 July 2007
The Inquirer has an interesting opinion piece called
"Microsoft twists and turns over ODF" in which they pick up on the
MS-OOXML conversion hoax:
The problem is that if Robertson and Paoli's early claim is correct
would be theoretically impossible to convert a plane into a car? If
Open XML is so complex it would be a bugger to convert into
something as simple as ODF. Unless they have got it all wrong of
course.
And link to the six questions about MS-OOXML that are meanwhile
available in eight languages. If you want to add more, please check
this page on how to get involved in FSFE's translation effort.
FSFE will continue to offer information on
* the MS-OOXML archival myth
* the MS-OOXML conversion hoax
* why MS-OOXML means "Microsoft only"
as deep links for the time being, because the topic is still not as
widely discussed as it should be. Only yesterday did I have a
journalist from a well-known news agency tell me about fearing the
topic might be too "technical" for their readers. Formats and
protocols are like languages. And formats for office applications
concern virtually every computer user and every citizen of every
government that makes use of software. So practically everyone who
could read this. That ought to be a large enough potential readership
to publish something.
In a democracy it is the responsibility of the media to oversee the
government, analyse their work and criticise when democratic
principles are being thrown overboard -- which unfortunately happens
all too often when there is no public scrutiny. A sad example was
recently delivered by the Swiss standardisation body for
e-government (eCH), which in an act of anticipatory obedience
approved MS-OOXML as an Open Standard for Switzerland with a
description that reads like it was written by Microsoft's
spin-doctors, including the obviously false claim of free
implementability across vendors and platforms.
Microsoft certainly has huge advertising budgets, and it is known that
they like to wave this fact in front of publishers to get friendlier
treatment. So stories about their barely concealed manipulation of
UN processes or US state governments usually have a hard time
gaining traction in mainstream media.
The BBC and The Inquirer have now given some coverage to this
issue, but most journalists are still unaware of the significance of
what is going on. So we will need to make them aware. Help us spread
the word.
Here are two things you can do easily:
1. Email the newspapers and journalists you may know and ask them to
have a look at
+ the MS-OOXML archival myth
+ the MS-OOXML conversion hoax
+ why MS-OOXML means "Microsoft only"
As well as
+ Dual Standards: More Choice, Or Less?
+ Rob Weir's blog
+ Bob Sutor's blog
+ ODF Alliance web page
Because unlike MS-OOXML, the Open Document Format (ODF) has
support from a large group of independent and competing vendors
and implementations.
2. Put this banner on your web page and use it to link to the six
questions on MS-OOXML that are still unanswered:
[msooxml_small.png]
<a href="http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions"
border="0"><img
src="http://fsfeurope.org/graphics/msooxml_small.png" /></a>
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
What everyone should know about DRM (http://DRM.info)
1. FSFE's General Assembly and the first Benelux fellowship meeting
2. GPLv3 and LGPLv3 have been released
3. Free Software personal consultancy for businesses
4. Six questions to national standardisation bodies
5. Georg Greve in India
6. FTF useful tips translated to Asian languages
7. Free Software in Austrian Schools
8. Get your friends to support the Fellowship and FSFE
1. FSFE's General Assembly and the first Benelux fellowship meeting
The first Benelux meeting of the Fellowship took place on Thursday the
28th of June in Brussels and provided an excellent opportunity for the
local fellows to get to know each other. Two days later the General
Assembly of FSFE met at FSFE's Brussels office for a productive
discussion about the foundation's past work and future direction.
Georg Greve was re-elected as president and Jonas Oberg as
vice-president of FSFE, with Reinhard Muller elected as the Head of
Office. The executive summary for the last two years of FSFE's work
can be found on-line here
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/reports/es-2007
2. GPLv3 and LGPLv3 have been released
The final text of both the GNU GPL version 3 and the GNU LGPL version 3
licences were released on the 29th of June 2007. The GPLv3 is the
result of eighteen months of drafting, a process which included four
published drafts and thousands of comments from interested parties.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.htmlhttp://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html
3. Free Software personal consultancy for businesses
FSFE has always helped the community through providing pro bono advice,
and through this we have discovered that businesses often require
additional personal assistance. For this reason, FSFE is offering
businesses a chance to get individual consultancy regarding Free
Software issues at its Zurich, Switzerland office. Shane Coughlan, FTF
coordinator, will be available for reserved sessions starting from July
13th. The sessions cost 150 Euro per hour, with a special discounted
rate of 100 Euro for companies that have fellowship members among their
employees. The FTF can also organise and hold in-house training
sessions and workshop on Free Software licensing. By making use of this
service, companies will also help to sustain FSFE's continuing community
work.
http://fsfeurope.org/ftf
4. Six questions to national standardisation bodies
Microsoft very actively seeking ISO approval as an Open Standard for
their proprietary MS-OOXML format. Should ISO approve this format as a
standard, Free Software may find itself locked out of the office
application and collaboration market and the barriers to Free Software
adoption will increase.
FSFE president Georg Greve spoke about the necessity and value of
interoperability at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in
Calcutta. In order to help people understand the issue, FSFE also
published six questions that every national standardisation body
should have good answers to if it wants to approve Microsoft's
application. Read more and help us spread the word at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
5. Georg Greve in India
In cooperation with FSFE's sister organisation, the Free Software
Foundation India (FSF India), FSFE president Georg Greve visited the
Indian subcontinend and gave speeches in Mumbai, Calcutta and
Trivandrum at institutions like the Tata Institute for Fundamental
Research (TIFR) or the Technopark in Trivandrum, the first of its kind
in India. You can read more about the trip and some truly exciting
things about Free Software accessibility for the visually impaired at
http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/last_night_in_indiahttp://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/back_from_india
6. FTF useful tips translated to Asian languages
FSFE's Freedom Task Force is proud to announce that the useful tips for
users and vendors of GNU GPL version 2 software are now available in
Korean and Traditional Chinese. These documents are intended to help
users and vendors think about licence compliance and to guide people to
authoritative sources of information on the Internet. By making these
documents available in more languages the FTF aims to continue building
productive infrastructure for Free Software in Europe and beyond.
Useful tips for users:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users_ko.pdfhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users_zh_tw.pdf
Useful tips for vendors:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors_ko.pdfhttp://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors_zh_tw.pdf
7. Free Software in Austrian Schools
During the monthly meetings of the Fellowship in Austria, a constant
topic was the importance of Free Software in education to give the
next generation the freedom to become an active part of society. Some
committed Fellows carried this message into schools and as a result
of the initiative of two teachers, the "BG Rechte Kremszeile" in
Krems decided to switch the whole school to exclusively Free Software
with the start of the next school year.
The Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the school on
their decision and encourages others to follow the example. Our
thanks go to the Fellows involved in this initiative.
8. Get your friends to support the Fellowship and FSFE
FSFE's Fellowship is a community of people united by their interest in
Free Software and freedom in all aspects of the digital age and FSFE
is dedicated to supporting all aspects of Free Software in Europe.
Please tell your friends and collegues about the Fellowship and FSFE.
Their help and support would be invaluable in helping us to accomplish
our goals across Europe.
Join the fellowship
https://fsfe.org/en/fsfeuser/register
Donate to FSFE
http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate-2002.en.html
Volunteer time and energy
http://fsfeurope.org/help/help.en.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Hi all,
the BBC features an article by JJ and myself on MS-OOXML that should
provide a good reference for people to get an idea of the problems:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6291124.stm
We should spread the word, if we can.
Regards,
Georg
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org)
What everyone should know about DRM (http://DRM.info)
