Discussion January 2010

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

5 participants
6 discussions

We got the Theodor Heuss Medal
by Matthias Kirschner 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Hi all, today the Theodor Heuss Stiftung announced that FSFE will be honoured with this years Theodor Heuss medal. This would not have been possible without your ongoing support, your input in discussions, and the great work from all of you for Free Software. Looking forward to interesting discussions about Free Software! Matthias == FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation" == [Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100126-01.en.html ] 26th January 2010, 09:00 am CET, Berlin, Germany The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) receives this year's Theodor Heuss Medal for its extraordinary work for equitable participation in the information society. Since 2001 FSFE has been committed to the freedom to use, investigate, modify and redistribute software in all parts of society and politics. Theodor Heuss Foundation states: "FSFE as a forward thinking organisation contributes to the development and establishment of rules for good global governance." "Free Software is an indispensable component of a free society in the digital age. It ensures equal access to the information society for everyone, " says Karsten Gerloff, President of FSFE, commenting on the award. "A small group of people who were ahead of their time founded Free Software Foundation Europe in November 2000. They have worked for that success tirelessly and with great personal commitment," Gerloff emphasises. "Special credit is due to the initiator of FSFE, Georg Greve and co-founder Bernhard Reiter. Georg Greve took on substantial personal risk to get the organisation off the ground, and until 2009 presided over its growth. For many years, Bernhard Reiter built up the German team to become one of the strongest groups for Free Software in Europe." "We founded the Free Software Foundation Europe to serve as an independent organisation, fighting for the freedom of society in the digital age. Our work is both about freedom from surveillance and monitoring as well as about freedom for personal initiative in all its forms," Georg Greve explains. "From the very beginning, the organisation has taken a long-term view, distributing its work for sustainable change across many shoulders." "From the start, we designed the organisation to work independently of any specific person," adds Bernhard Reiter. "We wanted FSFE to accompany the changes in society for the coming decades. Today FSFE is supported and protected by many dedicated people." Matthias Kirschner, Germany Coordinator of FSFE, comments: "The Medal goes to all those who have been contributing to FSFE's success over the years with their considerable initiative and personal commitment. But there is still much more to do in a world where software is everywhere. Our work is reaching more and more people, from the United Nations to our towns and villages. For this, we need broad support. Contributors are always welcome! == About the Theodor Heuss Stiftung == The Theodor Heuss Stiftung is above party lines and carries the name of Germany's first president (term in office 1949 - 59). After his death the foundation was founded by Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, his son Ernst Ludwig Heuss, and some friends, to remind of the political achievements of Theodor Heuss as an example for social commitment, moral courage and the dedication to foster democracy. The foundation seeks "to bring attention to something, which has to be done and shaped in our democracy, without being finished" (Carl Friedrich v. Weizsäcker, 1965). The Theodor Heuss price is given annually to persons of high standing and organisations, which are pathbreaking in this respect. -- German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfe.org) Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join) Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfe.org/donate)

1 0

[frank@openDesktop.org: Free BIOS and no Binary Blobs on Open-PC]
by Matthias-Christian Ott 18 Jan '10

18 Jan '10

Hi, I asked the Open-PC Team whether their Computer is entirely free and got the following reply I wanted to share with you, because there are some people who spread the rumor that the Open-PC is entirely free. Regards, Matthias-Christian ----- Forwarded message from Frank Karlitschek <frank(a)openDesktop.org> ----- Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:40:16 -0800 From: Frank Karlitschek <frank(a)openDesktop.org> To: ott(a)mirix.org Subject: Free BIOS and no Binary Blobs on Open-PC X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1077) Hi, we use completely free software and drivers. But for the hardware we rely on components from company like Asus. I don´t know if the BIOS trey us is open? Cheers Frank --------- Hello, I\'m interested in your Open-PC and also want recommend it to friends. However, I would like to know if the Open-PC is based entirely on Free Software, i.e. does it require any proprietary software (e.g. Firmware or Kernel modules) or does it have a proprietary BIOS. I would really like to have a free Computer which uses coreboot or similar software and uses entirely free drivers. Kind Regards, Mat -- Frank Karlitschek frank(a)openDesktop.org ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

publicprivateproperty.org
by marc 18 Jan '10

18 Jan '10

hi i wanted to let you know about this initiative: http://publicprivateproperty.org "The objectives are: * Providing a bunch of PPP declarations with optional clausules for attaching them to all kind of private owned physical goods. * etc ...." Looking for some opinions and posible clausules-cases-suggestions brought-based on FS-FC experiences. zanx in advance.

1 0

FSFE Newsletter - December 2009
by Free Software Foundation Europe 14 Jan '10

14 Jan '10

FSFE Newsletter - December 2009 Despite the temperatures dropping below zero all over Europe and the Christmas holidays approaching, FSFE kept working as usual for software freedom. The major news of December are that we have begun to restructure our website, added Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as webmaster deputy coordinator, and published a statement on the EC's settlement with Microsoft in the browser antitrust case. Read on to learn more about what we did in December. Moreover, let us offer you our best wishes for a great and Free 2010! Giacomo Poderi 1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the public sector, 21 Dec 2. Restructuring FSFE's website 3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson 4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster deputy coordinator 5. November Fellowship grants IN THE SPOTLIGHT 6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software is excluded from interoperability IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST 7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information UPCOMING EVENTS 8. Election for Fellowship GA representative 1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the public sector, 21 Dec Various Fellows participated in an interesting jabber meeting on Free Software in the public administration. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president, chaired the meeting and brought his sound experience on the topic into the chat-room. The ISO standardization process, Open Standards, procurement rules in the Netherlands, and Free Software in the Swiss Federal Court and Munich were discussed for nearly two hours. As usual the conversation went on much longer in an informal way, after the official closure of the meeting. http://blogs.fsfe.org/blog/2009/12/18/what-do-your-taxes-buy-free-software-… 2. Restructuring FSFE's website In order to make FSFE's work more accessible, the web team this month started work on a major restructuring of fsfe.org's content and usability. The website wasn't originally designed to include so many documents and information related to so many different domains: from the legal to the political, from the educational to the community oriented and more. The time has now arrived to improve its structure, and so that it can reflect the diversity and quality of FSFE's work. The web team's goal is to make our website easier to browse and to read, and make it possible to find information much faster. If you would like to help...join the web team! http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/web/index.en.html http://home.e-tjenesten.org/~ato/2009/12/restructuring-fsfe-website 3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson This month, Stian Rødven Eide interviewed Simon Josefsson. Simon is a Fellow and 'old' established GNU hacker with interest in security, who in November received the Nordic Free Software Award. His contributions to the Free Software world include such ubiquitous projects as GnuTLS and Libssh2. In the interview, Stian and Simon talk about differences between proprietary and Free Software in relation to security issues, discuss encryption, DNS and different projects that Simon is involved in, such as GnuTLS, GNU SASL and GSS. Read the interview at: http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=98 4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster deputy coordinator After contributing to FSFE's web team for three years, Andreas Tolf Tolfsen has taken on the role of webmaster deputy coordinator within FSFE, becoming part of the European core team. Andreas is a Norwegian Free Software activists with years of experience on web design and web technologies. Together with Reinhard Muller, webmaster coordinator, Rolf Camps, deputy coordinator, and the web team, Andreas' first big challenge will be the restructuring of FSFE's website. At the same time, he will work on the setting up of a Norwegian country team. Welcome on board Andreas! http://www.fsfe.org/about/team.html http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=79 5. November Fellowship grants The Fellowship grants project we launched in November generated a great response in the Free Software community. We received many outstanding applications by activists coming from all over Europe: choosing the first three people to receive the grants was not easy at all. Finally, Alexjan Carraturo from Italy, Ferdinand Thommes from Germany and Matija Šuklje from Slovenia stood out from the evaluation process due to their lasting and diverse contributions to Free Software. We welcome them in the Fellowship! http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join http://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html IN THE SPOTLIGHT 6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software is excluded from interoperability FSFE congratulated the European Commission on pushing Microsoft to give users greater choice between different browsers. The settlement that the Commission reached on the Microsoft's browser case is an improvement from the scenario that FSFE criticised this October. In early 2010, Microsoft will provide the users of its operating systems with a ballot screen that should make it easy for users to chose between different web browsers. The screen will suggests various browsers available on the market, Free Software ones included. This settlement relates to only one of the two issues that Microsoft currently faces with the EU Commission. FSFE also congratulates the Commission for the decision to keep open the investigation on Microsoft's refusal to let other products interoperate with its own desktop programs. Microsoft has offered a voluntary commitment, but FSFE warns that this will not be enough for real competition to develop. http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091216-01.html Relevant links: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1941 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091008-01.html http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091006-01.html IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST 7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information During December 2007, as a consequence of the drawn-out EU vs Microsft antitrust case, the Samba team was finally able to receive Microsoft's network interoperability information. The specifications were requested with a one-time access fee of 10.000 EUR for full access to crucial information. This event marked an important victory for competition in the IT market. It was a great achievement for Free Software, FSFE and the Samba team. http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2008q1/000193.html UPCOMING EVENTS 8. Election for Fellowship GA representative During the whole month of February 2010 it will be possible to vote for the second Fellowship representative in FSFE's General Assembly (GA). Fellows will soon have the chance to declare their candidature and to vote again for participation in FSFE's highest decision-making body. We encourage you to run for the second seat! http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090601-01.html http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html You can order our merchandise at http://fsfe.org/order/order.html Copyright 2009, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr(a)fsfeurope.org>. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

1 0

New Free Software related books for friends
by Matthias Kirschner 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi all, <commercial> you have no idea what to buy as a Christmas present? I wrote a blog entry to solve that.</commercial> ;) As last year I wrote a short blog entry with some Free Software releated books as a suggestion <http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=399> for you. Hope it helpful. If yes you can vote for it on fsdaily <http://www.fsdaily.com/Community/Good_Free_Software_related_books_as_a_pres…>. Best wishes, Matthias -- German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfe.org) Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join) Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfe.org/donate)

5 9

Help needed for pdfreaders photograph
by Matthias Kirschner 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi all, we are looking for a photograph which we can use to promote PDFreaders.org in an upcomming activity. We had the idea of one of this street signs (e.g. at highways) were the government or the European Union are advertising a project (e.g. this bridge is sponsered by the EU and XY). We want to modify it, so we have something like: "To drive on that highway you need a [car model]. You can do a gratis test drive at your local [car manufactor] dealer. Your government." That is like the Adobe advertisement on many websites from the government. We would need a high quality picture of one of those signs, the right for us to modify it, so we can use it on our websites and give the press the right so they can use it however they like. So if you are able to sent us a photograph (either made by yourself, a friend of you, or you find it on the internet with the necessary rights for us), please sent it to pdfreaders(a)fsfeurope.org. Looking forward to your help, Matthias -- German Coordinator, Fellowship Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) [] (http://fsfe.org) Join the Fellowship of FSFE! [][][] (http://fsfe.org/join) Your donation powers our work! || (http://fsfe.org/donate)

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Discussion January 2010