FSFE-IE March 2004

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17 participants
26 discussions

Conference on software patents and free software at European Parliament
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 04 Apr '04

04 Apr '04

*****************PLEASE HELP TO WIDESPREAD*************** 14-15 April 2004 : Brussels is the Hub to go Conferences and LUG in Brussels European Parliament Chaired by Dany Cohn-Bendit MEP ___________________________________________________ http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04 http://www.greens-efa.org/agenda http://laurence.domainepublic.net Most legal frame related to new technologies is cooked up at Brussels. To get a feet into European Parliament's door and show that you care right before the election. Its future Members will decide on the patentability of software, on data privacy issues, TPRM, and so on), join an install party within parliament (and bring your favourite MEP with you), attend a panel with eg Alan COX, Georg GREVE, Jon Lech JOHANSEN (of decss fame), participate in a guided tour through brussels (anti-swpats "demo"), meet LUGs and programming rights groups from all over the place, and some chaotic nerds of FFII. A Wiki DSL connection will be available. On 14 April evening, there will be a diner/party at restaurant La Tentation, in the center of Brussels. http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004 (also to book you hotel). Entrance is free however to access the building you have to register online before 7 April http://www.greens-efa.org/agenda Contact : lvandewalle(a)europarl.eu.int euroG/LUGparty Brussels European Parliament room ASP 1G2 15 April 2004 ____________________________________________ The Greens in European parliament invite representatives of GNU/Linux Users Groups of the 25 Member States of the European Union to come to Brussels to - enhance the networking among the free software community in Europe(in particular with the New Member states) - prepare the second reading on the software patents directive - show inside EP what free software is, how it works and what ideas lie behind - participate to the FFII conference and demo against software patents on 14 April Programme and registration on http://www.greens-efa.org lvandewalle(a)europarl.eu.int PROGRAMME 9.00-11.00 25 G/LUGs for a Free Europe Gathering European GNU/Linux Users Groups and associations for the promotion of free software : BxLUG - Belgium, RWO -Plug - Poland, Vrijschrift - The Netherlands, LiLux - Luxemburg, FFS Software - Austria, APRIL - HNS-info.net - France, GUUG - Germany, SSLUG - Sweden&Denmark, LUGOS - Slovenia, Debian - Latvia, AKL - Lithuania, LugRoma - Italy, Grece, Cyprus, Finland, Estonia, ... 11.00-12.30 Linux Install Party for MEps with Monica Frassoni Dany Cohn-Bendit, Hiltrud Breyer, Bart Staes, ... organized by BxLug 15.00 PANEL I: FAIR USE/COPIE PRIV E Gwen Hinze(Electronic Fronteer Foundation) Laurence Lebersorg(Test-Achat Belgium) Jon Lech Johansen(DVD-Jon) 16.00 PANEL II: FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE Cristiano Paggetti(Italy): eGovernment Andrea Glorioso (Italy) : Free Content Herman Bruynickx(Belgium): Free software in education Jens Muhlhaus(Germany): Public administration: Linux f r Munchen 17.00 PANEL III : FREE AS IN FREEDOM Georg Greve, FSF Europe (Germany) Agenda 1910 17.30 Alan Cox www.linux.org.uk co-signatory of the letter sent by Linus Torvalds to the President of EP against software patents(UK) ---------- Teresa Hackett 114 Cedar House Mespil Estate, Sussex Road Dublin 4, Ireland Email: teresahackett(a)eircom.net Mobile +353 87 6253768 ----------

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Invitation to participate in Indymedia Ireland Conference
by Chekov Feeney 28 Mar '04

28 Mar '04

Hi folks I am writing to you on behalf of Indymedia Ireland in order to issue an invitation to participate in an upcoming conference that we are organising. This conference will consist of a few large forums and a large number of practical workshops with the aim of educating the public about the potential for using new media technology as a means of distributing information and democratising the media. As part of this conference, we would like to hold a few sessions which concentrate on free and open source software as well as a forum on access to the information society. In particular we intend to hold a workshop on free software alternatives in the field of multimedia (eg. gimp, linux video capture software, staroffice, etc). If anybody in the IFSO/this list would be able to help out in the organisation and planning of such a workshop, that would be great. Although we do have a certain number of techies within indymedia, we prefer to offer space for dedicated groups to host such workshops rather than us doing everything ourselves. The conference will also include an exhibition space where participating groups can mount information stands and the IFSO or other similar groups would be welcome to have a stand in this. The participation of the group would also be welcomed in our community media forum, which will be an open forum on the problems of uneven access to the information society. We will consider any recommendations that you might have for panellists in this forum. As part of the conference preparations we will be putting together a network of computers with public access to the internet. We intend to use open source software for all of this and are aiming to construct a network of disk-less linux workstations. One of the technical problems that we face is the lack of an ADSL connection to the conference venue, so we are investigating the possibility of using wireless and satellite solutions for the provision of internet access. If any members of IFSO are interested in helping out in this technical side of things, their assistance would be much appreciated. If you would like to get involved and help out, just reply to this email and let me know. Although I'm sure that some of you are probably aware of indymedia (and hold strong opinions on it!), I will explain a little about the background of the indymedia project and the aims of this conference in particular. Indymedia Ireland is part of the global indymedia network, a global network of non-profit, volunteer-run, autonomous media projects. The Irish node was originally formed in 2000 and since then has become a key resource for Irish activists. Among other things we were responsible for breaking the news about the Dame street police riots in May 2001, which has been partly responsible for a widespread and unprecedented level of public scrutiny about the role of the police in our society. Perhaps most importantly, we were responsible for publicising the role of Shannon airport as a military base for the US airforce, fully 9 months before any of the mainstream media decided to cover the story and we continue to document the fact now, when the rest of the media has once again consigned the story to the memory hole. You can view our website at www.indymedia.ie to get a flavour of the project. On the first of May of this year, as Ireland currently holds the EU presidency, Dublin will host the ceremonies to mark the accession of the 10 new member states to the European Union. The ceremony will bring all 15 EU heads of state to Dublin, as well as the heads of state of the 10 accession countries and it is anticipated that it will be marked by protests from social justice groups who are opposed to various aspects of policy that is being pursued at a European level. In the week before the accession ceremony, Indymedia Ireland will be hosting a week long conference / festival entitled "Another view of Europe". This conference will run from Friday the 23rd of April until Friday the 29th of April. Thereafter the Indymedia centre will mostly concentrate on dispatching news from the events in Dublin to the global indymedia network. The conference will focus on gathering together material from the European Indymedia network for a series of exhibitions, including a photo exhibition, a series of video showings and a series of practical workshops intended to educate the public about the potential of new technologies as a means of distributing information and escaping the corporate domination of our global news media. Much of the material that will be used in the exhibitions will be sourced from the Indymedia Centres in the accession countries. The major focus of this conference will be on running practical workshops to asst local community groups and disadvantaged groups in using new technologies to distribute information and connect with wider networks. However, as a means of raising publicity within the mainstream media here and attracting new people to the Indymedia project, we are hoping to hold a public meeting which will feature high-profile figures who are critical of the news media as it currently operates. This event will have the theme: "What's wrong with the media and why we need an Independent Media." In addition to prominent media critics, the meeting will include speakers from Indymedia Ireland and indymedia UK who will describe the history and aims of the global Indymedia project and why we think such projects are important. Vincent Browne will be one of the keynote speakers. We will also hold several other general forums. One of these will look at access to the information society and will include various media rights campaigners, and reports from attendees at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference in Geneva as well as the We-Seize counter summit. Others will concentrate on issues arising from EU integration and the events planned for Mayday in Dublin and examine the coverage that they have attracted in the mainstream media (pretty sensationalist to say the least!). I apologise if this invitation is at rather short notice. We have only recently definitely secured a large premises in a city centre location for the period in question and, although it has been in planning for a while, we felt it was best to hold off on issuing invitations until the venue was definitely confirmed. Yours Sincerely Chekov Feeney (Secretary of the Independent Media Support Group Ireland)

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Gone for 3 months
by Aidan Delaney 19 Mar '04

19 Mar '04

Hey all, I'm off for three months to study in Spain. I'll be contactable by email (I hope). I'm bringing over my LinEx t-shirt and will wear it with pride :) -- Aidan Delaney email: adelaney(a)cs.may.ie web: http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney gpg: http://www.cs.may.ie/~adelaney/public_key.asc

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Re: [Fsfe-ie] ISA calls for stronger IP rights in Ireland
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 18 Mar '04

18 Mar '04

This is like the Business Software Alliance line, who are active at European level. Where I think that IFSO could make a useful contribution is to the Irish Council for Science,Technology & Innovation. They should be aware of the implications for R&D of heavy IP. If they only get the ISA views, they'll come up with a bad policy. "Guidelines for the successful commercialisation of research are currently being drafted by government advisory board the Irish Council for Science, Technology & Innovation." Teresa ----------- > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > > The Irish Software Association gets the wrong end of the stick > entirely regarding IP, patents, etc.: > > "Ireland must establish itself as the most intellectual property > rights-friendly country with very low barriers to technology transfer > and commercial exploitation within Ireland," she said. > > "There is a great opportunity for Ireland to benefit from the area of > IP," she said. "Ireland needs to be the place where companies go to > file patents and do research. ... > > ick! Anyone care to rebut this nicely? I know one of the executive > council guys and can pass on a mail. > > - --j. > > > http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040316/95/eopkt.html > > Tuesday March 16, 05:26 PM > > > New models for software R&D urged > > By Anthony Quinn > > The Irish software industry must find more successful models of > commercialising third level research, according to the Irish Software > Association. > > Ireland's EUR1.3 billion indigenous software market needs to commercialise > more research from third level institutions if it is to remain a serious > competitor in the global software development market, according to > Bernadette Cullinan, Performix Technologies' chief operating officer > and an ISA executive member. > > There is currently little effective collaboration between the Irish > software sector and third level institutions, noted the Performix > Technologies COO at the second ISA-sponsored Open Forum series. "But > we believe there is tremendous opportunity to sharpen Ireland's > competitiveness and to generate research that is commercially viable," > she said. > > "The software sector is seeking a way for effective and commercially > viable management of intellectual property rights creation between the > industry and the third level sector," Cullinan added. > > Currently EUR2.5 billion of the National Development Plan is spent on > research and 50 percent of the SFI's EUR646 million research funding is > going to software research," noted John Shiel, chairperson of the Irish > Software Association competitiveness sub-committee. > > "The fact is it is difficult to identify a company with more than 10 > employees that has emerged from a university, which strongly suggests > that the current model is broken," he said. The ISA will be working to > develop a proposed model that will address these issues, said Shiel. > > One of the main problems in Ireland is that it is often unclear who owns > the intellectual property (IP) for research, according to ISA director > Kathryn Raleigh. If it is jointly-funded research, there may be barriers > in place or conditions attached, she said. "Investors often won't touch > the research if that is the case," she told ElectricNews.Net. > > "Ireland must establish itself as the most intellectual property > rights-friendly country with very low barriers to technology transfer > and commercial exploitation within Ireland," she said. > > "There is a great opportunity for Ireland to benefit from the area of > IP," she said. "Ireland needs to be the place where companies go to > file patents and do research. It is relatively easy to commercialise and > transfer technology but there is a lot more that we can do," according > to Raleigh. > > There is willingness for collaboration on all sides, added Professor > Kevin Ryan of the University of Limerick. What has hampered the progress > is the misunderstanding between industry and academia on use of research > and goals, he added. > > Guidelines for the successful commercialisation of research are currently > being drafted by government advisory board the Irish Council for Science, > Technology & Innovation. > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Exmh CVS > > iD8DBQFAWKJzQTcbUG5Y7woRAtOpAKCZI3bcV9MZBiFQkYhiB6XRQij2FQCfc7wX > 8WyQ+X4Ud2xcNmej8UQ3xPk= > =yeVz > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >

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ISA calls for stronger IP rights in Ireland
by jm＠jmason.org 17 Mar '04

17 Mar '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Irish Software Association gets the wrong end of the stick entirely regarding IP, patents, etc.: "Ireland must establish itself as the most intellectual property rights-friendly country with very low barriers to technology transfer and commercial exploitation within Ireland," she said. "There is a great opportunity for Ireland to benefit from the area of IP," she said. "Ireland needs to be the place where companies go to file patents and do research. ... ick! Anyone care to rebut this nicely? I know one of the executive council guys and can pass on a mail. - --j. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040316/95/eopkt.html Tuesday March 16, 05:26 PM New models for software R&D urged By Anthony Quinn The Irish software industry must find more successful models of commercialising third level research, according to the Irish Software Association. Ireland's EUR1.3 billion indigenous software market needs to commercialise more research from third level institutions if it is to remain a serious competitor in the global software development market, according to Bernadette Cullinan, Performix Technologies' chief operating officer and an ISA executive member. There is currently little effective collaboration between the Irish software sector and third level institutions, noted the Performix Technologies COO at the second ISA-sponsored Open Forum series. "But we believe there is tremendous opportunity to sharpen Ireland's competitiveness and to generate research that is commercially viable," she said. "The software sector is seeking a way for effective and commercially viable management of intellectual property rights creation between the industry and the third level sector," Cullinan added. Currently EUR2.5 billion of the National Development Plan is spent on research and 50 percent of the SFI's EUR646 million research funding is going to software research," noted John Shiel, chairperson of the Irish Software Association competitiveness sub-committee. "The fact is it is difficult to identify a company with more than 10 employees that has emerged from a university, which strongly suggests that the current model is broken," he said. The ISA will be working to develop a proposed model that will address these issues, said Shiel. One of the main problems in Ireland is that it is often unclear who owns the intellectual property (IP) for research, according to ISA director Kathryn Raleigh. If it is jointly-funded research, there may be barriers in place or conditions attached, she said. "Investors often won't touch the research if that is the case," she told ElectricNews.Net. "Ireland must establish itself as the most intellectual property rights-friendly country with very low barriers to technology transfer and commercial exploitation within Ireland," she said. "There is a great opportunity for Ireland to benefit from the area of IP," she said. "Ireland needs to be the place where companies go to file patents and do research. It is relatively easy to commercialise and transfer technology but there is a lot more that we can do," according to Raleigh. There is willingness for collaboration on all sides, added Professor Kevin Ryan of the University of Limerick. What has hampered the progress is the misunderstanding between industry and academia on use of research and goals, he added. Guidelines for the successful commercialisation of research are currently being drafted by government advisory board the Irish Council for Science, Technology & Innovation. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh CVS iD8DBQFAWKJzQTcbUG5Y7woRAtOpAKCZI3bcV9MZBiFQkYhiB6XRQij2FQCfc7wX 8WyQ+X4Ud2xcNmej8UQ3xPk= =yeVz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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IFSO logo
by Malcolm Tyrrell 17 Mar '04

17 Mar '04

Hi there. Last night at the meeting, we discussed the logo options. Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who provided one as they were all good. On the Gnu/Harp issue, we agreed not to use it for our main logo. We have decided to use a variant of one of the following two: * the second on this page: http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalmcginley/logos.html We like this, but feel the s and f are slightly too bunched. * or this one: http://www.cs.tcd.ie/David.OCallaghan/images/ifso/ Here, we feel that there is too much whitespace between the letters. In both cases, we feel the title "Irish Free Software Organisation" should be written underneath the logo in a single line of text (probably in Roman or similar font). This would only be used to the big versions of the logo. Cathal and David: if you have time, would you mind creating some variants according to these suggestions. I think we'll probably make a decision pretty quickly. Good luck, Malcohol.

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Fw: Re: [Fsfe-ie] Information flyers.
by Ifso 15 Mar '04

15 Mar '04

Hi Aidan, --------- Original Message -------- > > How's your Irish? Not nearly as good as it used to be. Are you thinking of a translation for the leaflet? Of other official IFSO documents? Unfortunately, my fluent Irish isn't that good, though with practice it might get there. Éibhear.

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Information flyers.
by Éibhear 14 Mar '04

14 Mar '04

Hi, At the meeting on last Thursday, I mentioned the flyers that were handed out to members of the audience at the recent talk by Darl McBride in Harvard University. For those who are interested, they can be found off the page http://web.mit.edu/jonas/www/faim/ which describes the talk from the perspective of the authors of the flyers. Inspired by the flyer for GNU/Linux, I did up my a version on free software which members of the IFSO could hand out at conferences and the like. See the PDF at http://www.geocities.com/eibhear.geo/IFSO/IFSO-free.pdf The two images I used in the document were modified celtic IFSO logo by Cathal (because it's the one *I* prefer) and the baby GNU image from the GNU web site. I used scribus to do it up, but it lacks certain functionalities that I was hoping to use. The most disappointing absence was not being able to use bullet points or numbered list like HTML's <UL> and <OL> tags. You can get the scribus version at http://www.geocities.com/eibhear.geo/IFSO/IFSO-free.scd.gz (I had to compress it because Yahoo! GeoCities didn't seem to like the contents) and the two images at http://www.geocities.com/eibhear.geo/IFSO/celtic-font-2-revised-small.png http://www.geocities.com/eibhear.geo/IFSO/baby-gnu-sm.png Let me know if you're having problems getting them (or if have violated anything by placing them on my own web-site). What you might want to change: * Anything and everything. This is just a first try. * I am concerned that it might be too packed and that there might be too much information. * Also, I'll point out that there is little discussion about the differences between beer and speech. The initial introduction discussion defines free software in terms of the freedoms it grants, and later in the leaflet I refer to the difference between free software and "freeware". * Finally, I studiously avoided the term "open source". I may be wrong here, but I believe IFSO falls on Mr. Stallman's side of the argument and I wanted to highlight the freedoms that come with the software and not the (consequential) openness of the software's development process. Let me know what you think, but be warned that due to my current working conditions, I can't reply to the list during office hours. Sin é, Éibhear -- Éibhear Ó hAnluain Dublin, Ireland -- My PGP/GPG public key can be downloaded from http://www.geocities.com/eibhear.geo/contact/pubkey.html Fingerprint: 59E6 6A2A F62D BE1E C19F DC6C 2E13 1321 1EA2 7144

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Irish Times piece: EU copyright law backs corporations
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

Hello friends, There's a good piece in today's Irish Times on the enforcement Directive. I tried to get Danny to mention IFSO, but it didn't work! http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2004/0312/3252398477BWWIRED12.html There was also a short news item in the Examiner on Wed. I'll update the page on the IPRE directive. Apologies for not coming to the meeting yesterday, crap weather and last minute dissorganisation didn't help ;-) Teresa

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IRC & BenShaws (is open again)
by Ciaran O'Riordan 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

I called into BenShaws on my way to the bus, and the barman said they're back open permanently. So that's one problem solved. The meeting happened in Mahaffeys tonight, there was a turn out of 5, (crap weather and last minute dissorganisation wouldn't help), but I think we got loads sorted. Glenn said he'll post the minutes some time next week (for some reason). The other thing is IRC: The channel is #fs-ie and the server is irc.gnu.org or irc.freenode.org (the former points to the latter, so either will do). To log into the channel, if you have BitchX installed, use: shell:"bitchx -c \#fs-ie -n yourusername irc.gnu.org" and that's all. The other popular console client is "irssi", and the popular gui client is "xchat". For people living in sin, Mozilla's "chatzilla" runs on all your shameful operating systems (as well as the GNU's and BSD's). If you want to register your username, once you're logged on, you can type : irc:"/msg nickserv register yourpassword" and then other people won't be able to steal your username (valueable IP!) Although you might have to verify your identity in future with: irc:"/msg NickServ IDENTIFY yourpassword The only other useful commands I know are irc:"/who" which tells you who else is currently logged in, and irc:"/quit" which, well.. yeh. Other docs and info can be found on: http://www.freenode.org/ When we get a bit used to it, we should be able to hold non-geographically-limited meetings etc., or quick meetings to sort out things etc. etc. (I won't be logged in much 'til sunday evening though) -- Ciarán O'Riordan http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/ Irish Free Software Organisation: http://ifso.info/

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FSFE-IE March 2004