= Cory Doctorow +++ (pre-) FOSDEM +++ 36C3 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202001.el.html ]
2020 is not just a new year, it is the dawn of a new decade. With more
and more automated systems run by software, a political representation
of freedom is more needed than ever. Read in our January Newsletter
about why Cory Doctorow supports the FSFE financially and why you should
do so too. Read about our upcoming FOSDEM activities including our pre-
FOSDEM meeting and reflections on our presence at the Chaos
Communication Congress. Also we have a new Software Freedom Podcast with
Harald Welte and reports from our community.
== FSFE needs you ==
2019 was a year full of successes for the FSFE and for Software freedom
in Europe [1] accordingly. The Parliament of Asturias has signed our
open letter demanding public code, the biggest conservative party in
Europe -- the german CDU -- decided to foster Free Software, we managed
to get an exclusion for Free Software in the EU copyright reform, and we
have many more success stories to tell. But while we spent our time
spreading software freedom in such a successful way, we missed one goal
to achieve, that is having enough donations for 2020.
Your financial support is crucial for our work! A secure financial basis
gives us the ability to solely concentrate on our mission to spread
software freedom in Europe - independent, professional and consistent.
Join the FSFE as a supporter [2] or make a one-time donation [3].
Every 1 Euro brings us closer to this momentum! Every 15 Euro allow us
to send a package full of information material to a Free Software
supporter in Europe. Every 50 Euro help us to pay our infrastructure and
every 150 euro enable us to support travel and accommodation costs for a
volunteer from Europe to participate in one of the FSFE community events
like our hack-a-thons.
By the way: Cory Doctorow, author of many digital rights-related books
and co-editor of the blog Boing-Boing put the FSFE on the BoingBoing's
charitable giving guide and explains:
Software has eaten the world, and software freedom is increasingly
synonymous with human freedom. In Europe, far-right parties and
authoritarians are inheriting a constellation of gadgets and devices
that are "defective by design," built to allow corporations spy on and
control their owners -- and those thugs are contemplating how they can
use those companies' extraordinary powers to put whole populations under
their thumbs. Free software in Europe, free software everywhere! Join
Cory Doctorow. Join the FSFE! [4]
== FSFE goes FOSDEM ==
Europeans biggest Free Software conference 'FOSDEM' is taking place on
1-2 February in Brussels. More then 7.000 participants are expected to
come and the FSFE will be present with multiple talks and a booth.
Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE, gives a talk about "The core
values of software freedom" [5] and a lightning talk about "Civil
society needs Free Software hackers" [6]. Max Mehl, Programme Manager of
the FSFE, talks about REUSE [7] in "Go REUSE to license your code" [8]
and the FSFE's Deputy Coordinator France, Vincent Lequertier, talks
about "Putting Artificial Intelligence back into people's hands" [9].
As every year we will have a booth at FOSDEM, but unlike in previous
editions, this time you will find us on top level of building K [10] -
just upstairs from where it was in the past years.
Pass by anytime to have a chat with us, give us your feedback on our
latest activities or proposals for further engagement. You can enjoy our
latest merchandise and promotion material, for example our new
multilingual I love Free Software T-Shirts [11].
On Saturday night we invite you to come together after FOSDEM to have a
social evening with our community. The location will be announced at the
booth the very same day. Pass by and find out. Looking forward meeting
you!
And if you arrive early, you might also be interested in joining our
Pre-FOSDEM Community Meeting [12] (see below).
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Support our work with a donation [13]
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== Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE ==
- The first self-organised FSFE event in 2020 will be our Pre-FOSDEM
Community Meeting. In this meeting, the FSFE will bring together the
key Free Software groups of Europe on Friday before FOSDEM to get to
know each other and to get an overview about interesting activities of
Free Software groups from all over Europe. The event takes place on 31
January 2020, 13:30 to 19:00 at MundoB, Edinburgh Street 26, in
Brussels. Attendance is gratis but capacities are limited and
registration [14] is required.
- As written above, the FSFE will be prominently represented at FOSDEM
with multiple talks, a full-packed information-booth and social events
in the evening.
- I love Free Software: On 14 February the Free Software community
celebrates again the I love Free Software Day [15]. A day dedicated to
say "Thank you" to all Free Software and their contributors. Save the
date now and stay tuned for more news on the 2020 edition.
- Save the date: On 4 May 2020 the FSFE is inviting for an event about
"Digital sovereignty and modernising public aministrations" in the
Kalkscheune Berlin (in German). Attendance is gratis but registration
[16] is required.
== What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- The FSFE was present at the 36th Chaos Communication Camp (36C3) and
one of the main organisers of the cluster "about:freedom" - a cluster
that brings together civil society organisations with a focus on
digital rights and Free Software advocacy at European's biggest
hacking-related conference. In the four days of the event we had 19
self-organized session by the FSFE assembly, counted hundreds of
visitors at our booth and we have created a cosy space for freedom
activists to come together. On this occasion, Bonnie Mehring and Erik
Albers have been interviewed by Komm:On [17] in their report about the
congress. Read our full report [18] for more details.
- In December we published our Software Freedom Podcast #3 [19] about
Free Software in the mobile phone communication featuring Harald
Welte. Harald discusses with us his current projects regarding mobile
phone communication and the general status of Free Software in this
area.
- 3 new organisations signed our open letter demanding public code [20]:
Association Naga, RevLibre and GEN Europe
- Alexander Sander, the FSFE's Public Policy Manager wrote a comment on
Netzpolitik.org [21] (in German) on the recent decision of Germany's
conservative party CDU to foster Free Software and where to go on from
this decision.
- Alexander Sander was giving a talk about our "Public Money? Public
Code!" at the GNU Health CON [22] in Liege, Belgium and also in
Utrecht (NL) at the "Online Participatie in Actie! Congress" [23]
- The FSFE was present with a booth at the NLLGG meeting in Utrecht.
== Get Active ==
If you are already supporting the FSFE, then let other people know why
you do so. Write a toot or an email, chat with your friends or mention
it in your working group, let them know why software freedom matters to
you and why you decided to support the cause with a donation for the
FSFE. Thank you so much!
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
support us with a donation or a monthly contribution [24].
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [25], supporters [26] and
donors [27] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[28], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native languages.
Best Regards,
Erik Albers
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Support our work with a donation [29]
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.html
2: https://my.fsfe.org/support
3: https://my.fsfe.org/donate
4: https://my.fsfe.org/support
5: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/software_freedom/
6: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/free_software_hackers_needed/
7: https://reuse.software/
8: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/reuse_code_licensing/
9: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/ai_in_peoples_hands/
10: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=50.8147&mlon=4.3819#map=16/50.8147/4.38…
11: https://fsfe.org/order/index.en.html#tshirt-multilingual-black
12: https://registration.fsfe.org/Pre-FOSDEM-2020
13: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202001
14: https://registration.fsfe.org/Pre-FOSDEM-2020
15: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/
16: https://registration.fsfe.org/Digitale-Verwaltung-2020
17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhfLazPO7C4
18: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200121-01
19: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-3.en.html
20: https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
21: https://netzpolitik.org/2020/was-bedeutet-der-cdu-beschluss-zum-einsatz-fre…
22: https://www.gnuhealthcon.org/2019-liege/program.html
23: https://vng.azavista.com/event_website_pages/view/5d9c68d2-41a0-4ebc-9857-0…
24: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202001
25: https://fsfe.org/contribute
26: https://my.fsfe.org/support
27: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
28: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
29: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202001