I said:
Why is it then however, that anyone can become a member of the FSF (in the USA)?
bernhard@intevation.de said:
This is news to me. AFAIK only the necessary number of people is actually a member of the FSF.
Ok, I may mix up terms here. I myself used to be a "member" of the FSF in the USA while I was there. This meant I was on the mailing list and paid the membership fee for a year (some years ago). I did not contribute in any other way. If my memory serves me right, there was an election of some sort announced on the mailing list (treasurer?), but I did not participate actively, since I did not know enough about the people involved to make an educated decision. Still, I believe I could have called myself a "member" of the FSF at that time.
- Josef
On Fri, Jul 27, 2001 at 12:30:54PM +0200, Josef Dalcolmo wrote:
I said:
Why is it then however, that anyone can become a member of the FSF (in the USA)?
bernhard@intevation.de said:
This is news to me. AFAIK only the necessary number of people is actually a member of the FSF.
Ok, I may mix up terms here. I myself used to be a "member" of the FSF in the USA while I was there. This meant I was on the mailing list and paid the membership fee for a year (some years ago). I did not contribute in any other way. If my memory serves me right, there was an election of some sort announced on the mailing list (treasurer?), but I did not participate actively, since I did not know enough about the people involved to make an educated decision. Still, I believe I could have called myself a "member" of the FSF at that time.
re all,
i have been reading this mailinglist since a couple of weeks now. i am a free software developer, founder and lead programmer of dyne.org, a software house which basically tries to join a political statement beside the practice of developing free software: in short words free speech is our goal, and free software is our medium. i'm pretty young and i don't have much experience in running a software house, alltough this is my experiment in seeking, among the other goals, a new shape for such a organization.
i'd like to thank Josef for raising (yet another time?) an issue which was discussed in the freesoftware italian association allready, some months ago. as an italian i asked for being a member of ASSOLI (associazione software libero), and the members of the association (actually only the founders) declared the association is not yet ready to acquire new memberships, to open his decisional structure, and that there are other tasks to be accomplished and being more important than structuring the association in such a open way. besides that i must say i'm satisfied with the activity of the italian free software association, which i can follow simply as a spectator.
i see the same situation here, and i have some doubts about the validity of such a position, which comes to be more dangerous on a larger scale. imho the free software foundation europe can't claim to be not representative of the free software european community. as a result of the assembly done on the 6th of May i read:
"So is beginning our work as a competence center for Free Software, aimed primarily at journalists and politicians who will be able to find authoritative information about Free Software from the Foundation."
and this _is_ a representative role. besides the discussion that could raise about validity of representative structures, which i would rather leave into another context, i think one of the first engagement of such an association it should be to insure a democratic way to choose representative people into the pool of represented people, possibly in a "fluid" way. and the first step it should be to open the membership, with a declared policy if necessary.
as long i don't like to criticize without being propositive, i see a possible solution for the wide spreading of such an european more open structure in a tree structure in which the national associations offer a clear way to people for choosing their representatives, playing then the role of reference points on a larger, european scale. i feel the need for a unified, declared policy and identity statement for the "branches of the Foundation", appearing in national contexts thru all europe.
i would be worried if such a discussion would'nt raise. also, as Josef pointed out, i would be happy to call myself a member of the free software association europe.
regards
On Sat, Jul 28, 2001 at 12:11:11PM +0200, jaromil wrote:
i'd like to thank Josef for raising (yet another time?) an issue which was discussed in the freesoftware italian association allready, some months ago. as an italian i asked for being a member of ASSOLI (associazione software libero), and the members of the association (actually only the founders) declared the association is not yet ready to acquire new memberships,
The discussion of ASSOLI is probably different. I do not know enough about the ASSOLI and their aims to judge, though.
The FSFE will have associated organisations which you can join and do a lot of the actual work.
You can also help us and get associated with the FSFE. There were several helpers in the booth of the FSFE at the GNU/Linuxtag in Stuttgart.
You are living in Austria right now, why not joining the FFS?
If ASSOLI is not open to members we can found a Free Software related organisaton in italy.
Bernhard
Bernhard Reiter writes:
On Sat, Jul 28, 2001 at 12:11:11PM +0200, jaromil wrote:
The discussion of ASSOLI is probably different. I do not know enough about the ASSOLI and their aims to judge, though.
The FSFE will have associated organisations which you can join and do a lot of the actual work.
You can also help us and get associated with the FSFE. There were several helpers in the booth of the FSFE at the GNU/Linuxtag in Stuttgart.
You are living in Austria right now, why not joining the FFS?
If ASSOLI is not open to members we can found a Free Software related organisaton in italy.
Bernhard Reiter wrote:
On Sat, Jul 28, 2001 at 12:11:11PM +0200, jaromil wrote:
i'd like to thank Josef for raising (yet another time?) an issue which was discussed in the freesoftware italian association allready, some months ago. as an italian i asked for being a member of ASSOLI (associazione software libero), and the members of the association (actually only the founders) declared the association is not yet ready to acquire new memberships,
The discussion of ASSOLI is probably different. I do not know enough about the ASSOLI and their aims to judge, though.
The FSFE will have associated organisations which you can join and do a lot of the actual work.
You can also help us and get associated with the FSFE. There were several helpers in the booth of the FSFE at the GNU/Linuxtag in Stuttgart.
You are living in Austria right now, why not joining the FFS?
If ASSOLI is not open to members we can found a Free Software related organisaton in italy.
Well ASSOLI is (or better will be) open as stated in the statute. There are some legal issues the founders are investigating to let other people join the association, once all the legal issues will be cleared they will effectively open subscriptions.