Hi,
1. First a small introduction to Europe Information Society Fund (IST):
IST 2004 will address European policies, strategies and research activities in all areas of the Information Society.
There is a IST conference at 15-17 November 2004 in The Hague, Netherlands this is sort of a kick off meeting.
What i know of, Call 4 and Call 5 have a funding volume of 1900 Million Euro, probably ALL European based information technology funding is bundled in this IST program.
IST goals: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/research/index_en.htm
The Hague IST conference details: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/index_en.htm
2. Who can get funding?
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
We have started a homepage, forum and Wiki page to changes this! See http://ospro.sf.net
One small example:
The economical impact of free/open software on economy goes to billions of Euro. The efficiency (financial input versus powerful output) of free software is very high compared to many projects of research institutions or company projects.
Imagine how 5 % of the IST fund (95 Million Euro) could empower the European free/open source community: Many man years of efficient free software development.
3. Current state
We have started a session #513 on the IST The Hague event, to change the habit of IST to not sponsor free/open source directly (or for example via organizations like fseurope.org). See:
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/viewevent.cfm?even...
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/vieweventdetail.cf...
As you can see at the first link, session #513 has disappeared, there is a gap between #512 and #514!
!!! It was censored by IST !!!
But - with the second link you can circumvent the censorship and view the original session :-)
4. What can you do?
a) Subscribe to the censored session #513 with the above link!
Any active or passive subscription helps us to force IST to take back the censorship.
Please subscribe now!
The IST money is public money, our money!
b) Discuss your opinion on Wiki at http://ospro.sf.net
Thanks and see you in The Hague,
Marcel Ruff Phone: 07551 309371
On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 11:30, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
I don't think this is a fair comparision. Free software can well exist in both research institutes and companies. We should remember that free software is no longer a separate entity. Free software should be present in all projects that IST funds (ideally).
If you have read the IST Work Programme, you will indeed see that, "the development of open standards and open source software will be encouraged when appropriate to ensure interoperatbility of solutions and to further innovation."
The FSF Europe has a special page for information about the sixth framework programme: http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/fp6/ There's also a mailing list there for fp6 related activities, if you wish to participate.
Jonas
Jonas Oberg wrote:
On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 11:30, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
I don't think this is a fair comparision. Free software can well exist in both research institutes and companies. We should remember that free software is no longer a separate entity. Free software should be present in all projects that IST funds (ideally).
Sure, i'm aware of this, and i want in no way put back research institutes or companies.
But many free software developers are in no Universities and don't have a company with dependent employees. They are indiviuals or loosely organized communities. This is a big (social) movement and is ignored by IST. It is actually actively discriminated by IST, as our session #513 was censored instead of be taken as a chance to reflect the 'social' reality.
If you have read the IST Work Programme, you will indeed see that, "the development of open standards and open source software will be encouraged when appropriate to ensure interoperatbility of solutions and to further innovation."
That is not lived by IST. Free source developers have to pay 400 Euro to participate the The Hague event, Universities are free. Free source developers have no chance to enquire funding. As the The Hague event is an information event for public funding money it should be free!
The FSF Europe has a special page for information about the sixth framework programme: http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/fp6/ There's also a mailing list there for fp6 related activities, if you wish to participate.
Interesting, i didn't know that FSF was this active already. Still the problem remains, FSF was active but i can't find many positive feedback statements from EU officials.
Marcel
Jonas
On Sat, Oct 23, 2004 at 01:24:17PM +0200, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Jonas Oberg wrote:
On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 11:30, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
I don't think this is a fair comparision. Free software can well exist in both research institutes and companies.
But many free software developers are in no Universities and don't have a company with dependent employees.
Or their FS involvement is separate from their (University or non-University) employee position.
Lionel Elie Mamane wrote:
On Sat, Oct 23, 2004 at 01:24:17PM +0200, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Jonas Oberg wrote:
On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 11:30, Marcel Ruff wrote:
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
I don't think this is a fair comparision. Free software can well exist in both research institutes and companies.
But many free software developers are in no Universities and don't have a company with dependent employees.
Or their FS involvement is separate from their (University or non-University) employee position.
Thanks, i already thought i'm the only one in this situation on the entire planet :-)
Marcel
Hi,
As you can see at the first link, session #513 has disappeared, there is a gap between #512 and #514!
!!! It was censored by IST !!!
Could you ellaborate a bit more on this? What does it mean "it was censored"? Was there any official explanation?
We, as university, have participated (and are participating) in many EU funded projects that have Free Software as one of their goals. In AGNULA, for instance, even the FSF was a partner. I really can't imagine the EU applying "censorship" on this basis.
Xavier Amatriain wrote:
Hi,
As you can see at the first link, session #513 has disappeared, there is a gap between #512 and #514!
!!! It was censored by IST !!!
Could you ellaborate a bit more on this? What does it mean "it was censored"? Was there any official explanation?
We, as university, have participated (and are participating) in many EU funded projects that have Free Software as one of their goals. In AGNULA, for instance, even the FSF was a partner. I really can't imagine the EU applying "censorship" on this basis.
Our session #513 popped up on
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/viewevent.cfm?even...
for about one hour and then silently disappeared. There is now a gap between #512 and #514. This is an active censorship.
We never got any feedback from the IST organisation why and what is going on. (Even on our other session we asked some questions and the mail was never responded).
I have payed 350 Euros from my private pocket to participate and i think this is not OK at all (even if i wouldn't have payed anything one can expect a notification).
The only possibility i can see is to get many subscribers (passive subscribers don't need to pay a fee) on
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/vieweventdetail.cf...
This should convince the IST organisation that they can't ignore the independent free/open source power (outside of research institutes and companies) - this is a chance for IST to embrace this energy as well.
What astonished me is the fact that fseurope lead doesn't care about it, as we are talking about ALL bundled funding in Europe.
If Europes funding opens for free source development indiviuals and groups we would probably need some organisations like fseurope.org to handle the organisational task around it. Such topics will be discussed on session #513.
Well, probably i'm wrong, but lets see how it comes out ...
Marcel
At Mon, 25 Oct 2004 18:19:59 +0200, Marcel Ruff wrote:
This should convince the IST organisation that they can't ignore the independent free/open source power (outside of research institutes and companies) - this is a chance for IST to embrace this energy as well.
What astonished me is the fact that fseurope lead doesn't care about it, as we are talking about ALL bundled funding in Europe.
If Europes funding opens for free source development indiviuals and groups we would probably need some organisations like fseurope.org to handle the organisational task around it. Such topics will be discussed on session #513.
Well, probably i'm wrong, but lets see how it comes out ...
Do you know about http://www.flosspols.org/conf/ ?
Jeroen Dekkers
Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
At Mon, 25 Oct 2004 18:19:59 +0200, Marcel Ruff wrote:
This should convince the IST organisation that they can't ignore the independent free/open source power (outside of research institutes and companies) - this is a chance for IST to embrace this energy as well.
What astonished me is the fact that fseurope lead doesn't care about it, as we are talking about ALL bundled funding in Europe.
If Europes funding opens for free source development indiviuals and groups we would probably need some organisations like fseurope.org to handle the organisational task around it. Such topics will be discussed on session #513.
Well, probably i'm wrong, but lets see how it comes out ...
Do you know about http://www.flosspols.org/conf/ ?
Jeroen Dekkers
No, i didn't know it, very interesting!
But FLOSS POLS talks about free software, it is not doing it or funding it,
regards, Marcel
On Mon, 2004-10-25 at 22:32 +0200, Marcel Ruff wrote:
But FLOSS POLS talks about free software, it is not doing it or funding it,
They already do it indirectly by funding research institutes and companies.
However, it would be nice if they explicitly gave a higher ammount of support if it was for Free Software development...
Rui