= FSFE Newsletter - March 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201703.el.html ]
== The Chronicles of LiMux ==
In February, the news about LiMux shook the world. LiMux, a project run
by the city of Munich and completed in 2013, constitutes one of the
finest examples of vendor-neutral administration based on Free Software;
during its execution phase, 15,000 personal computers and laptops used
by public administrations were migrated to Free Software.
In a surprise move, a coalition of parties filed a motion with minimal
lead time before the city council, asking for the abolishment of the
project and the return into proprietary solutions.
The response by the community was immediate and formidable. FSFE's
Deputy Coordinator for Germany, Björn Schießle, describes what followed
[1]. An ad-hoc coalition was formed by the FSFE, the Document
Foundation, KDE and OSBA, collecting questions around the motion and its
related processes. Members of the city council were contacted prior to
the public hearing and FSFE supporters in Germany and Austria were
invited to engage, contacting politicians on the issue. Media coverage
in multiple languages [2] was additionally created.
During the public hearing, participating parties quoted some of our
questions, and admitted they had never before received so much input
from the public. The result of the hearing was a modified motion passed
on February 15, calling the administration to propose a strategy for the
unification of the city's client-side IT architecture by the end of
2020, building on a yet-to-be-developed proprietary client and
guaranteeing maximal compatibility with the existing solutions.
The FSFE does not claim LiMux has solved all the problems. However, we
do claim these problems are mostly of organisational nature, and as such
must be disconnected from the technical side. Public infrastructure must
remain independent of single software vendors, and invest into common
assets, which are provided by Free Software.
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- For #IloveFS, André translated [4] the Free Software song.
- After last year's successful pre-FOSDEM meeting, the FSFE and
OpenForum Europe continued the tradition of bringing together active
Free Software stakeholders during a prior to FOSDEM public policy
related event. This year's meeting [5] offered the opportunity to
individual citizens and decision-makers to exchange their views on the
basis of practical first-hand information concerning Free Software in
public policy.
- For 16 years, FSFE has been present at FOSDEM with a booth, numerous
volunteers and staff. Reinhard Müller, FOSDEM booth coordinator,
describes in his report [6] the great atmosphere among the booth
volunteers and how an outstanding amount of merchandise and
promotional material was distributed during the 2 days of the event.
- In 2016, Europe welcomed three new umbrella organizations [7] for Free
Software (and hardware) projects: Public Software CIC, The Commons
Conservancy, and the Center for the Cultivation of Technology.
Standing by the needs of the community, the brand-new organisations
provide a legal entity for projects to join, with regards to
donations, accounting, grants, legal compliance, or even sophisticated
governance. These administrative services allow projects to focus on
technical and community matters.
== Get active ==
We're still able to accept additional student interns for 2017. If
you're currently studying and are required to do an internship as part
of your studies, or if you've not yet graduated and want to do a
voluntary internship, you should apply now [8].
== Help us to improve our newsletter ==
If you see some news you think should be included, forward it to us. If
you'd like to share any thoughts, send them to us. The address is as
always newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to all volunteers [9], supporters [10] and donors [11] who make
our work possible.
your editors Olga Gkotsopoulou and Jonas Öberg FSFE
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170301-01
2: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/LiMux
3: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-03
4: https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/2017/02/14/ilovefs-2017-vrije-software-lied/
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170214-02
6: https://blogs.fsfe.org/reinhard/2017/02/fosdem-2017/
7: https://lwn.net/Articles/713073/
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170116-01
9: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
10: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join/nltr17
11: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
12: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-03