This was an important month for Free Software. Not only was Software Freedom Day held (as always) on the 20th, but this years marks the 25th anniversary of the GNU Project. Celebrations took place across Europe and our Fellows continued to support Free Software in local areas with enthusiasm and passion.
Other important events took place. On the policy level, FSFE engaged with representatives of the World Bank to explain why Free Software continues to be important in both economics and politics. On the legal level, meetings, speeches, panels and training events continued to build infrastructure for the future.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. The GNU's 25th Birthday in Berlin, Germany 2. The smallest unit of freedom: A Fellow - Sean Daly 3. Reach the people - Software Freedom Day in Berlin, Vienna and Utrecht 4. Fellowship events throughout Europe 5. Free Software for World Bank financed projects 6. Freedom Task Force activites - GPLv3 in The Netherlands, panels in Italy and speeches in Berlin and Winterthur 7. European Legal Network special interest group meetings in London and Brussels
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
8. FSCONS 2008, Gothenburg, Sweden (2008-10-24 to 2008-10-26) 9. NLUUG Autumn Conference and CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Ede, Netherlands (2008-11-06 to 2008-11-07)
1. The GNU's 25th Birthday in Berlin, Germany
The GNU-project turned 25 on the 27th of September. FSFE and the Berlin Fellows were at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to pop a cork and have a party. The event started at 3pm with some champagne and music to celebrate. A great time was had by all!
2. The smallest unit of freedom: A Fellow - Sean Daly
"In Europe, Microsoft's foot-dragging in complying with the 2004 Monti Decision concerned me, and I saw that with very few exceptions, the mainstream and tech media seemed not to cover fully all that was going on, in particular the important role of the intervenors like Samba and the FSFE. I felt that since traditional journalists were missing a vital part of the story, perhaps it was time for a nontraditional journalist to step up and report on that part."
Read the whole Fellowship interview: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/interviews
3. Reach the people - Software Freedom Day in Berlin, Vienna and Utrecht
On Saturday the 20th of September, FFII and FSFE's Fellowship group from Berlin had a barbecue and manned an information booth. At the booth they explained what Free Software is and why it is important for society. Meanwhile, Vienna's Fellows celebrate the annual "Software Freedom Day" in a Pub called Pint Pub in Vienna. The highlight of the event was the performances of the bands "Club Valat" and "Klaus (from Fadin' to Whiteout)". Finally, in The Netherlands, Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, delivered a keynote speech at the Dutch Software Freedom Day event at Liefland College, Utrecht.
4. Fellowship events throughout Europe
The Fellowship Group in Berlin met on the 11th of September at their usual venue, the New Thinking Store on Tucholsky Strasse. In Vienna the local Fellowship group invited Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, to deliver a speech entitled "The Professionalisation of Free Software. Where we are going next." The new Zurich Fellowship group also had a meeting, once again getting together at the FSFE Zurich office to discuss ways of spreading the word about Free Software in Switzerland and to generally have a good time. In Lille, a Fellowship stand was manned at the "Braderie de Lille" (Lille's flea market) by our very own French intern, Benjamin Morant, and Rainer Kersten from the Duesseldorf office.
5. Free Software for World Bank financed projects
FSFE president Georg Greve delivered a course as part of the annual "Procurement of Information systems in World Bank-Financed Projects" course at the International Training Center (ITC) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Turin, Italy. As in the past years, the course provided insights to the World Bank project managers on the economic and political basics of Free Software, as well as practical issues such as licences, business models and best practice examples.
6. Freedom Task Force activities - GPLv3 in The Netherlands, panels in Italy and speeches in Berlin and Winterthur
Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, hosted a three hour workshop entitled 'Licensing questions and Legal issues in the light of GPLv3' for the launch of the GPLv3 at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands on the 19th of September. This event is sponsored by NLnet. He also represented FSFE on the 'NESSI Open Source Working Group' panel at the OSS 2008 conference in Milan to explain Free Software and the reasons behind Free Software licences. This was followed by a speech entitled 'Free Software licenses and other questions' at OSiM World at Berlin on the 17th of September another talk entitled 'The strategic implementation of Free Software in business' at the OpenExpo conference in Winterthur, Switzerland, on the 25th of September.
7. European Legal Network special interest group meetings in London and Brussels
FSFE's legal project - the FTF - coordinated a special interest group meeting in London to discuss business processes and supply chain management. Another meeting was held in Brussels on the 29th of September to discuss software patents and other legal issues. These meetings were held for members of the European Legal Network, and it is hoped that the discussions prompted by them will lead to greater understanding and support for Free Software by European legal decision-makers.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
This is only a partial list, and only contains events where our presence has been confirmed at time of drafting this newsletter. For a more complete list of events FSFE will be involved with, please consult http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/
8. FSCONS 2008, Gothenburg, Sweden (2008-10-24 to 2008-10-26)
For 2008, FSCONS is a collaboration of FSFE, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia Sweden. There will be three tracks (Free Culture, Free Software, Free Content), each lead by one of the main organisers. Topics will range from modern kernel design over citizen journalism all the way across to licensing in the 21st century.
9. NLUUG Autumn Conference and CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Ede, Netherlands (2008-11-06 to 2008-11-07)
The FSFE will be attending the NLUUG Autumn Conference on Thursday 6th November. This year's theme is 'mobility'. Feel free to come to our booth and ask about Free Software! Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, will also deliver talk entitled 'The strategic implementation of free software in business' at the CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2008 at the same location on the following day, Friday 7th November. The successful implementation of Free Software requires an understanding of the best policy and processes applicable to its context. Shane will discuss how FSFE's legal project and its European Legal Network have engaged with this issue by producing generic market knowledge for supply and purchasing contracts, work flow documents and deployment methodology. The location for both conferences is Hotel en Congrescentrum De Reehorst, Ede, Netherlands.
http://www.nluug.nl/events/nj08/index.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.