There seems to be a lot of anti-establishment rhetoric going about.
The UK may have an anti-EU referendum in 3 months. Yanis Varoufakis (controversial former Greek finance minister who rides motorbikes[1]) is now trying to create some movement of pro-EU democracy activists under the name DiEM25[2] with a launch in Berlin next week.
What is notably absent from debates on both the left and right of the spectrum is any talk about the role of proprietary technology, big data and the cloud. Many of the social problems created by big data are global. The DiEM25 people are talking about "bringing back" democracy, but I suspect that with their web site simply linking to Facebook and Twitter they are simply another well-intentioned group transferring a little more power into the hands of a few privileged people in Silicon Valley.
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
Has there been any follow-up after the efforts around the last European elections?
Is anybody potentially interested in the DiEM25 meeting next week, maybe even trying to get somebody with competence in big data and the cloud into their panel of speakers?
Even if we don't agree with everything these people have to say politically, I feel these types of collaborations can lead to more public awareness and sometimes fund-raising opportunities for the things we do believe in.
Regards,
Daniel
1. https://www.google.ch/search?q=yanis+varoufakis+motorbike&&tbm=isch 2. http://diem25.org/
Hi,
On 05 Feb 2016, at 14:22, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
The UK may have an anti-EU referendum in 3 months. Yanis Varoufakis (controversial former Greek finance minister who rides motorbikes[1]) is now trying to create some movement of pro-EU democracy activists under the name DiEM25[2] with a launch in Berlin next week.
What is notably absent from debates on both the left and right of the spectrum is any talk about the role of proprietary technology, big data and the cloud. Many of the social problems created by big data are global. The DiEM25 people are talking about "bringing back" democracy, but I suspect that with their web site simply linking to Facebook and Twitter they are simply another well-intentioned group transferring a little more power into the hands of a few privileged people in Silicon Valley.
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
I wanted to attend the event but did not get an invitation or a ticket. I would be interested in participating.
Cheers,
Mirko.
On 05/02/16 15:19, Mirko Boehm wrote:
Hi,
On 05 Feb 2016, at 14:22, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
The UK may have an anti-EU referendum in 3 months. Yanis Varoufakis (controversial former Greek finance minister who rides motorbikes[1]) is now trying to create some movement of pro-EU democracy activists under the name DiEM25[2] with a launch in Berlin next week.
What is notably absent from debates on both the left and right of the spectrum is any talk about the role of proprietary technology, big data and the cloud. Many of the social problems created by big data are global. The DiEM25 people are talking about "bringing back" democracy, but I suspect that with their web site simply linking to Facebook and Twitter they are simply another well-intentioned group transferring a little more power into the hands of a few privileged people in Silicon Valley.
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
I wanted to attend the event but did not get an invitation or a ticket. I would be interested in participating.
How do people get the tickets, or are they purchased at the door?
I wrote a blog about their reliance on facebook[1], some people have probably seen it on planet already.
If people from this campaign or any other like it wanted to bootstrap themselves in a Free manner, do we have solutions for them? Has anybody ever written a guide or anything else to get people started?
1. http://danielpocock.com/giving-up-democracy-to-get-it-back
El 07/02/16 a las 09:49, Daniel Pocock escribió:
On 05/02/16 15:19, Mirko Boehm wrote:
Hi,
On 05 Feb 2016, at 14:22, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
The UK may have an anti-EU referendum in 3 months. Yanis Varoufakis (controversial former Greek finance minister who rides motorbikes[1]) is now trying to create some movement of pro-EU democracy activists under the name DiEM25[2] with a launch in Berlin next week.
What is notably absent from debates on both the left and right of the spectrum is any talk about the role of proprietary technology, big data and the cloud. Many of the social problems created by big data are global. The DiEM25 people are talking about "bringing back" democracy, but I suspect that with their web site simply linking to Facebook and Twitter they are simply another well-intentioned group transferring a little more power into the hands of a few privileged people in Silicon Valley.
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
I wanted to attend the event but did not get an invitation or a ticket. I would be interested in participating.
How do people get the tickets, or are they purchased at the door?
I wrote a blog about their reliance on facebook[1], some people have probably seen it on planet already.
If people from this campaign or any other like it wanted to bootstrap themselves in a Free manner, do we have solutions for them? Has anybody ever written a guide or anything else to get people started?
I don't know a holistic documentation for "creating a campaign using free software based communication means".
For English speaking people/organizations that want to build/control their own websites/networks (despite they selfhost or not), I would point them to https://communicationfreedom.wordpress.com/about/ for a very short summary, and then, try to talk with their people in charge of IT/communication channels, to learn about their skills and needs, and then, offer them the suitable clients for the networks they choose to be in, technical support, etc.
It seems, however, that the DiEM25 website was created by a creative agency (http://holy.gd/). So probably DiEM25 has no "IT personnel", and then, probably they don't need technical assistance, they just need to be sure that they want to use free software based networks, and then, make their agency comply, or subcontract with other agency.
Regards
Hi,
On 07 Feb 2016, at 09:49, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
How do people get the tickets, or are they purchased at the door?
I can’t say. When I read about the event two weeks ago or so, it was already sold out.
I wrote a blog about their reliance on facebook[1], some people have probably seen it on planet already.
If people from this campaign or any other like it wanted to bootstrap themselves in a Free manner, do we have solutions for them? Has anybody ever written a guide or anything else to get people started?
This is probably going to end up in an endless discussion of principles over going-where-the-voters-are. Fun! I am in.
Mirko.
On 08/02/16 02:40, Mirko Boehm wrote:
Hi,
On 07 Feb 2016, at 09:49, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
How do people get the tickets, or are they purchased at the door?
I can’t say. When I read about the event two weeks ago or so, it was already sold out.
I wrote a blog about their reliance on facebook[1], some people have probably seen it on planet already.
If people from this campaign or any other like it wanted to bootstrap themselves in a Free manner, do we have solutions for them? Has anybody ever written a guide or anything else to get people started?
This is probably going to end up in an endless discussion of principles over going-where-the-voters-are. Fun! I am in.
When I said "any other like it", I didn't mean politically, I just meant any other grassroots campaign. I've avoided explicitly stating support or opposition to any of their policies in my blog or my emails about it, my only concern with this email was whether there is a Libre technology choice available to them.
The relevant thing for FSFE is that groups like this, if they latch on to the concept of free software, can promote it more widely. If they win control of some local council election or something they may even move some more cities onto GNU/Linux.
Regards,
Daniel
* Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro [2016-02-05 14:22:03 +0100]:
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
We constantly reach out to policial parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
Has there been any follow-up after the efforts around the last European elections?
Yes. For example we informed the MEPs about our DSM comments: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160118-01.en.html
One result is also: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160128-01.en.html
Before FOSDEM we had a meeting with EU Free Software groups who work on Policy issues to make sure we share more knowledge in future: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160205-01.en.html
Regards, Matthias
On 08/02/16 09:27, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
- Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro [2016-02-05 14:22:03 +0100]:
Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?
We constantly reach out to political parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
How does this group appear in relation to others?
The main thing that caught my eye is that they are unified by an emphasis on democracy, despite the fact that many of the people involved have significant differences in other policy areas. Democracy is also something that is now heavily connected with digital freedom. In Richard Stallman's talk the other day, he was emphasizing software freedom should be considered as fundamental as the right to public assembly or the right to vote.
Has there been any effort to survey or catalog free software use in such groups, parties, lobbying organizations and see how it evolves over time? Some are notoriously bad at it, having something to compare them against could be helpful.
Has there been any follow-up after the efforts around the last European elections?
Yes. For example we informed the MEPs about our DSM comments: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160118-01.en.html
One result is also: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160128-01.en.html
Before FOSDEM we had a meeting with EU Free Software groups who work on Policy issues to make sure we share more knowledge in future: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160205-01.en.html
Thanks for this feedback. It is good to see that some high level progress is taking place.
Regards,
Daniel
Hello,
On 08 Feb 2016, at 11:28, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
We constantly reach out to political parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
How does this group appear in relation to others?
The main thing that caught my eye is that they are unified by an emphasis on democracy, despite the fact that many of the people involved have significant differences in other policy areas. Democracy is also something that is now heavily connected with digital freedom. In Richard Stallman's talk the other day, he was emphasizing software freedom should be considered as fundamental as the right to public assembly or the right to vote.
I agree with your argument that groups aiming at improving democracy are better served with free software. I would be rather careful with connecting Richard’s statements with the demand for democracy in the EU. Mandatory software freedom as he demands and democracy are not inherently connected.
Has there been any effort to survey or catalog free software use in such groups, parties, lobbying organizations and see how it evolves over time? Some are notoriously bad at it, having something to compare them against could be helpful.
I am not aware of something like this.
Cheers,
Mirko.
On 08/02/16 12:19, Mirko Boehm wrote:
Hello,
On 08 Feb 2016, at 11:28, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
We constantly reach out to political parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
How does this group appear in relation to others?
The main thing that caught my eye is that they are unified by an emphasis on democracy, despite the fact that many of the people involved have significant differences in other policy areas. Democracy is also something that is now heavily connected with digital freedom. In Richard Stallman's talk the other day, he was emphasizing software freedom should be considered as fundamental as the right to public assembly or the right to vote.
I agree with your argument that groups aiming at improving democracy are better served with free software. I would be rather careful with connecting Richard’s statements with the demand for democracy in the EU. Mandatory software freedom as he demands and democracy are not inherently connected.
That statement could be written differently: enforced use of non-free technology (in voting machines, in schools, in communication with public bodies) is usually not compatible with a healthy democracy.
Hi!
On 08 Feb 2016, at 12:31, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
That statement could be written differently: enforced use of non-free technology (in voting machines, in schools, in communication with public bodies) is usually not compatible with a healthy democracy.
Agreed.
Mirko.
On Monday 8. February 2016 12.31.28 Daniel Pocock wrote:
On 08/02/16 12:19, Mirko Boehm wrote:
I agree with your argument that groups aiming at improving democracy are better served with free software. I would be rather careful with connecting Richard’s statements with the demand for democracy in the EU. Mandatory software freedom as he demands and democracy are not inherently connected.
That statement could be written differently: enforced use of non-free technology (in voting machines, in schools, in communication with public bodies) is usually not compatible with a healthy democracy.
And what is happening now is that institutions and public bodies, having frequently chosen proprietary solutions that require people to buy certain products, are now taking the opportunity to use those solutions as a staging post for migrating their users into the cloud (with proprietary products still being promoted as the "best" way of using that cloud service).
So, although people could have joked a couple of years ago that you would sign in to a government service via Facebook to file your taxes, or whatever it is that people need to do, there is a real risk that people will be obliged (even more than they are now) to use proprietary products and services to interact with the institutions that their tax money is funding. Because it is suddenly "easier" if the public join the same cloud platform.
In the midst of all this, I've seen surprisingly little comment about privacy and data sharing, despite the supposed demise of the "Safe Harbor" [*] arrangement. My expectation is that under pressure from corporations, a magic wand will be waved to make everything seem legal again, but at the ground level I expect to see people being told to accept cloud provider terms and conditions at their own risk (which is, in fact, what I've seen in one institution that seems intent on imposing a proprietary cloud solution on its users).
The "hard sell" lies in persuading potential decision-makers to bring back services from the cloud, because they will then need to justify the money spent doing so, and such expenditure is more open to scrutiny in detail than some opaque cloud services agreement. Moreover, it also involves the hard work of maintaining institutional expertise, which as we know can be unfashionable in this day and age. Nevertheless, I am aware of public institutions who are attempting to hire more full-time staff supposedly to stop being exploited by legions of big-name consultants, so there may be one avenue of persuasion right there.
Paul
[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Safe_Harbor_Privacy_Principles
* Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro [2016-02-08 11:28:01 +0100]:
We constantly reach out to political parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
How does this group appear in relation to others?
Sorry, I don't understand that question.
The main thing that caught my eye is that they are unified by an emphasis on democracy, despite the fact that many of the people involved have significant differences in other policy areas. Democracy is also something that is now heavily connected with digital freedom. In Richard Stallman's talk the other day, he was emphasizing software freedom should be considered as fundamental as the right to public assembly or the right to vote.
Yes, I am glad Richard included that in his speeches now. See also: - Democracy requires Free Software https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/society/democracy.en.html (16 languages) - FSFE's mission statement https://fsfe.org/about/mission "These rights help support other fundamental rights like freedom of speech, freedom of press and privacy."
Has there been any effort to survey or catalog free software use in such groups, parties, lobbying organizations and see how it evolves over time? Some are notoriously bad at it, having something to compare them against could be helpful.
We started once to document it for public administrations: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Free_Software_usage_in_public_administration but not for parties, lobbying organisations, etc.
Best Regards, Matthias
On 09/02/16 09:18, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
- Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro [2016-02-08 11:28:01 +0100]:
We constantly reach out to political parties, attend their meetings, give workshops, talk with staffers, etc.
How does this group appear in relation to others?
Sorry, I don't understand that question.
I was just wondering whether anybody may have had any insight into how organized they are, e.g. some have an office and generous flows of donations, others are just a Facebook group.
The main thing that caught my eye is that they are unified by an emphasis on democracy, despite the fact that many of the people involved have significant differences in other policy areas. Democracy is also something that is now heavily connected with digital freedom. In Richard Stallman's talk the other day, he was emphasizing software freedom should be considered as fundamental as the right to public assembly or the right to vote.
Yes, I am glad Richard included that in his speeches now. See also:
- Democracy requires Free Software https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/society/democracy.en.html (16 languages)
- FSFE's mission statement https://fsfe.org/about/mission "These rights help support other fundamental rights like freedom of speech, freedom of press and privacy."
Has there been any effort to survey or catalog free software use in such groups, parties, lobbying organizations and see how it evolves over time? Some are notoriously bad at it, having something to compare them against could be helpful.
We started once to document it for public administrations: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Free_Software_usage_in_public_administration but not for parties, lobbying organisations, etc.
I wonder if there may be any researchers who would be tempted to look at that more closely.
If they are genuinely understanding the reasons for using free software in public administration, then they would presumably not use anything proprietary in their own party or campaign offices.
Regards,
Daniel
* Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro [2016-02-09 11:16:34 +0100]:
I was just wondering whether anybody may have had any insight into how organized they are, e.g. some have an office and generous flows of donations, others are just a Facebook group.
No, I don't know how they are organised in comparision to other parties and groups.
Regards, Matthias