Discussion March 2018

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

19 participants
9 discussions

Mozilla: "We’re taking a break from Facebook"
by Jonke Suhr 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

Hey all, irregardless of the split in our community between privacy pragmatists and privacy absolutists, I think we should take note of this step Mozilla has taken, as I believe FSFE still has a Facebook page (last active on September 21st as far as I can ascertain). > Dear global community we’ve had the opportunity to interact with over the past several years here: > > We’re taking a break from Facebook. > > At Mozilla we champion platforms and technologies that are good for the web and good for the people that use it. > We stand up for transparency and user control because they make the web healthier for us all. > > That’s why we are pressing pause on any Facebook activity. Mark Zuckerberg has just promised to improve Facebook’s settings and make them more protective, which is a start! Please do that! But we can’t help but think we’ve heard it before, so we’re still going to wait and see what materializes before we resume spending our ad dollars or time here. > > IN THE MEANTIME: > If you need support for Firefox or want to tweet at us, you can find us here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/ > and https://twitter.com/mozilla (Non-tracked link to the source: https://web.archive.org/web/20180323091845/https://de-de.facebook.com/mozil…) What do you guys think? Best regards, Jonke

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FSFE-in-2020: Who are we?
by Jonas Oberg 14 Oct '19

14 Oct '19

Hi everyone, I wanted to point you to this open internship position at the FSFE: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170811-01.en.html As you know, when the FSFE was founded, we put together a document describing our self conception. That was 16 years ago, and while I believe it to still be relevant, we'll be looking at making a new committment towards a revised organisational identity later this year. As a part of this work, we're looking for an intern to support the process for 3-6 months, working closely with me and others in the FSFE on analysing how the different groups within and outside of the FSFE perceive the organisation's identity, which will then work towards understanding how aligned they are, and supporting a renewed committment towards a self conception. We've already started the work, and will be looking for someone who could jump on board quite soon indeed, so don't wait to send this to someone you think might be interested! Work description and other application details on the page above. Sincerely, -- Jonas Öberg, Executive Director Free Software Foundation Europe | jonas(a)fsfe.org Your support enables our work (fsfe.org/join)

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Talos II (FSF RYF candidate)
by Timothy Pearson 16 Sep '18

16 Sep '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Just wanted to pass this along from the FSF on this side of the pond in case you haven't seen it yet: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-talos-ii-a-candidate-for-re… - -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJZuEx+AAoJEK+E3vEXDOFbEI4H/ii1wPQbq6xhZF0F5hcS3Kfi 03oE0E1Xaj5IV2FM30sExO/Lf8I5jl+VQnVdrsiCoIIqBev4DcfxA/vfJ4SUY24y hmbwzafi8g2zffaLSICIChiAEEcDHlaQniTU4S6wxNWv4RyIUrkEYvqUvwRNnpUv g69V8VxYUqcjnHtZVpu9gwAmPgc1TXNW508i4fnMP3EHX1DEmW5pBLmRvPvGsRor 9th3F/ezacfqkPlkuWmL2YLb7wRvTzTJw6CMXInpKDyK+kQCMvL3Tgyp2HFZcCm7 skpS+uconvRQhpp/InVYYCh/e6CrHznpxyEhvug0elX0lZDpqvmv1Hv0sTY3mEU= =WEgY -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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34C3
by Cornelia S. 05 Apr '18

05 Apr '18

With all talk of a code of conduct, this ist the result: https://blogs.fsfe.org/majestyx/2018/01/07/sold-out-majestyx-goes-to-chaos/… It is shameful, this coming from the FSFE. Regards, Cornelia

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Constructive measures to help people communicate freely
by Paul Boddie 27 Mar '18

27 Mar '18

Hello, There has been a lot said recently about Facebook, Google, and other entities that facilitate online communication through services that have hidden impacts on people's freedoms. But as I noted before, it is more constructive to focus on how we in the Free Software community can help others communicate using more respectful tools and services. This isn't just in the context of recent discussions about Mozilla and Facebook: I also mentioned it when Daniel suggested a plugin to remind people about how their use of proprietary, exploitative services might be impacting their freedom and those of others. While I understand what the motives are for doing something like this, telling people that they are bad only really appeals to people who like punishing themselves or who admit to weakness and want someone else to apply the discipline. Now, it is often the case that any negative message is accompanied by a positive one. One might suggest a range of alternatives that are better for people. So, people have already suggested that the FSFE and the community in general promote things like Diaspora, GNU Social, Mastodon, or whatever. But I don't think this goes far enough. In the context of the FSFE, one may consider the campaigns that are occasionally run by the organisation. An interesting example is the PDF Readers campaign which attempted to promote Free Software PDF reader applications and to demand that public organisations advertising the proprietary Adobe Reader stop doing so. Much of the focus of the PDF Readers campaign appeared to be on getting those organisations to stop giving Adobe's software free advertising. I support such efforts and even attempted to participate in them. But the other side of the campaign involved promoting the Free Software alternatives, and it was in this area where I think much more should have been done. Anyone going to the pdfreaders.org site will see a list of applications, and the diversity of Free Software means that there is plenty of choice, but a consequence of this is that it would have been awkward for people to take the intended positive action when confronted with such information. Admittedly, it is a complicated problem to solve: how can such a campaign suggest a relatively simple, concrete action that helps the user to do the right thing? But it goes beyond whether people can get started with the right solutions. Many of us will have been faced with documents that need certain features in the application we are using. Things like forms in PDF documents, for instance. It is likely that some of the suggested solutions do not support forms, and others may have problems with whatever Adobe's authoring tools emit. Standards-compliance is difficult, especially when proprietary software companies often indulge in a bit of "front-running" to lock people into their own products. In other words, promotion and advocacy are not enough. Support has to be given for people to actually develop and improve the solutions we suggest. And the combination of solutions suggested for meeting people's needs must be coherent and provide an obvious path for them to follow. Where there are deficiencies or gaps in those solutions, support has to be given to make the campaign message credible rather than "here's some cool stuff, you're on your own now". Another relevant example involves things like the use of encryption technologies for personal communications. How many times have we been told that encryption is important only to be confronted with lengthy "instructive" texts full of caveats and the hedging of positions on things like key management? That maybe the way to adopt such things is to become an expert yourself and, by the way, good luck! People just get put off from doing anything at all because at any moment someone might berate them for "doing it all wrong". With such considerations in mind, does anyone else think that the topic of genuinely free communication might be worthy of a comprehensive campaign? One that would focus on solutions and not problems. Paul

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Re: Mozilla first, now FSFE?
by Mat Witts 24 Mar '18

24 Mar '18

The FSFE / FB thing is a classic case of personal choice elevated to moral imperative. Use FB/Don't use FB it's not relevant. If folk sense moral hazard from advocating Free Software on a non-free platform then that's their choice. The reverse is true, if an individual doesn't sense any moral hazard then that's a personal choice. Our personal choices are not relevant to advocating FS at the scale of social systems / polity. It's time we stopped the navel gazing and just do what we have to do to get Free Software a fair hearing. Contribute, develop, lecture, investigate and resist by all means but stop arguing with each other about whether we ought to use FB, we need to realize that conversation is peripheral AND trivial to the main work which is to promote Free Software in the best way we think. Your FS advocate on FB is not your enemy, the FS advocate who does not use FB is not your enemy. FB is not the enemy. Proprietory software is not an enemy, we are not at war. Change the vocabulary. Change the conversation. Talk about diaspora or mastodon or Quitter or something - they need all the coverage they can get. FB doesn't need our attention... it is perfectly capable of imploding all by itself. Let's move on. Please. Let's move on. FFS.

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Call for Participation: FSFE track during LSM/RMLL 2018 in Strasbourg
by Max Mehl 23 Mar '18

23 Mar '18

Hi all, This is to let you know that the Call for Participation for the FSFE's dedicated track during RMLL/LSM 2018 in Strasbourg, France, has opened. We are looking forward to interesting presentations, workshop proposals, and your participation in France's largest Free Software event. Please read more about the CfP and the programme in our dedicated news item: <https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180322-01.html> If you have any questions regarding the conference, please write them to contact(a)fsfe.org so we don't miss them. Looking forward to meet you in Strasbourg! Best, Max -- Max Mehl - Program Manager - Free Software Foundation Europe Contact and further information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl Support advocacy for Free Software: https://fsfe.org/donate

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jobs wanted
by Andreas Nilsson 23 Mar '18

23 Mar '18

Hi FSFE. I am about to quit my current job as a web developer at a company office. I look for other jobs at freelancer sites, contacts and brokers. I have experience in C or C-like programming languages, as well as two years experience in office web development in Javascript with NodeJS/MongoDB. I ask FSFE for offers. Thanks. Ani

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[UK] Information about the think tank Doteveryone
by Jonke Suhr 23 Mar '18

23 Mar '18

Hey everyone, I received a request to add Doteveryone [1] to our list of supporting organizations for Public Code, however I'm not sure if they are truly an NGO like the other organisations on our list. They are a registered charity, however I'm not sure what that entails so I wanted to ask if anyone who knows a lot about the UK could pitch in with some information (I CC'd Daniel so maybe he can forward this mail). After I asked Catherine this: > could you write a few words about how your organisation relates to Free Software and Open > Source? I'm unfamiliar with your organisation and not sure if will fit with our campaign. She replied: > Doteveryone is a thinktank fighting for a fairer internet. We want to ensure that people and society benefit from technology in a fair and responsible way. Our Responsible Tech work is around how technology development - in public and private sectors - can be done ethically and thoughtfully, with appropriate business models which reflect the values of those involved directly or otherwise. The Public Code declaration is perfectly aligned with this. As an example, last year we worked on technologies for end of life care [2] within the UK health system, and the importance of open source (and open standards) to avoid vendor lockin and exploitative pricing in software used in the NHS was part of our commissioning recommendations. [3] I'm concerned about their commitment to Free Software, should I still add them? Best regards, Jonke [1] https://doteveryone.org.uk/ [2] https://projects.doteveryone.org.uk/improvingcare/index.html [3] https://projects.doteveryone.org.uk/improvingcare/pages/commissioning.html

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Discussion March 2018