= (pre-)FOSDEM +++ ILoveFS +++ Community =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202002.el.html ]
>From our own pre-FOSDEM event, to the exciting FOSDEM weekend, to I love
Free Software day, February was full of exciting news for the FSFE. We
used these occasions to present our work, as well as to offer
communities around Europe the opportunity to present their own. Read
about our booths and presentations, about love and upcoming events in
our February Newsletter.
== FSFE pre- and post-FOSDEM ==
Every year, at the beginning of February, FOSDEM brings together
thousands of Free Software enthusiasts for one weekend in Brussels to
discuss current topics and developments in the Free Software world. The
FSFE used this occasion to invite key Free Software groups of Europe one
day before the FOSDEM festivities to participate in our "pre-FOSDEM
meeting" [1]. This was an event for everyone to network and get an
overview of the activities of different Free Software groups from all
over Europe.
The event was kicked off by a presentation from Marcel Kolaja, Vice
President of the European Parliament, which was then followed by
insights and presentations from diverse Free Software organisations from
all over Europe, from Portugal to Greece. After the presentations, we
concluded with a dinner and a social meeting.
During FOSDEM itself, our infobooth was in great demand and our highly
motivated team put smiles on many faces. At the same time, we were
present with talks about the latest issues regarding FSFE and software
freedom all over the conference. Lucas Lasota presented "Regaining
sovereignty over your router - Router freedom" [2], Max Mehl showed how
you can "Go REUSE to license your code - Free Software licensing made
simple for everyone" [3], Vincent Lequertier reflected on "Putting
Artificial Intelligence back into people's hands - Toward an accessible,
transparent and fair AI" [4] and Matthias Kirschner talked about "The
core values of software freedom" [5] as well as his lightning talk about
how "Civil society needs Free Software hackers" [6].
We completed our presence with social evenings for our community on
Saturday and Sunday night. A big thanks to everyone who participated in
our events, helped at our booth and passed by for a chat.
== ILoveFS day ==
Love is like Free Software: it multiplies when you share it. So once
every year we square it up by celebrating "I love Free Software" Day
around the globe on 14 February. A day full of positive, creative and
lovely messages for Free Software, individual contributors and
communities.
In 2020 again we have seen massive participation throughout the day in
many countries and languages. This year we saw an extraordinary growth
in the fediverse where JayVii counted an increase from 194 mentions in
2019 to 330 in 2020 [7]. This is an outstanding increase of 70%! Stay
tuned for the upcoming full report and please accept our special thanks
to every one of you who participated in #ILoveFS by sharing or receiving
love.
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Support our work with a donation [8]
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== Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE ==
- The FSFE will be present with an information booth at Chemnitzer
Linuxtage. If you happen to be there, meet up with Bonnie Mehring and
her team who are looking forward to speak with you about FSFE and our
current projects. Of course, we will also have the latest promotion
material and merchandise with us.
- On 21 March, The FSFE BNL (Belgium/The Netherlands/Luxemburg) will
meet and be present with a booth at the meeting of the Dutch Linux
User Group (LUG) NLLGG in Utrecht. They will use the occasion to
kickoff regularly organised meetings. If you are interested in Free
Software and the FSFE in BNL, pass by and get to know the people from
the community and our work. If you cannot make it, subscribe to the
mailing list [9].
- Save the date: On 4 May 2020 the FSFE invites you to our event about
"Digital sovereignty and modernising public aministrations" in the
Kalkscheune Berlin (in German). Attendance is gratis but registration
[10] is required.
== What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- In order to defend Router Freedom [11], on 4 February, Lucas Lasota
[12] took part in the workshop organised by BEREC at the IRG
Secretariat in Brussels about the Guidelines on the identification of
the Network Termination Point (NTP). The Guidelines will enter into
force in June 2020 and will have a central role in shaping the Router
Freedom panorama in Europe. The FSFE took part in the public
consultation [13] to push forward the main arguments in defense of
people's freedom to choose their own digital equipment.
- Apart from the many presentations at FOSDEM mentioned above, our legal
experts Gabriel Ku Wei Bin and Lucas Lasota took part in the Meetup
for the Next Generation Internet Initiative [14], for which the FSFE
does consulting regarding Free Software licensing and compliance
issues - as well as the promotion of the REUSE initiative [15]. At the
meetup [16] there were many opportunities to get one-on-one contact
with the various software projects involved and to develop
constructive dialogues with other consortium partners.
- The FSFE is hiring: We are looking for interns and trainees [17]
experienced in legal, policy or technical fields. These persons will
work 35 hours per week with our team in the FSFE's Berlin office.
There will be coordination with remote staff and volunteers, and
depending on the work area an opportunity to participate in events and
meetings throughout Europe.
- At the Chaos Communication Congress 2019, the FSFE was one of the main
organisers of the cluster about:freedom, an association of 12 civil
society organisations and groups. Together with the other
organisations, we focused on digital rights and network policy issues.
Read our report "about:freedom - about:fsfe" [18]
- In 2020's first episode of our monthly Software Freedom Podcast, we
talk with Carmen Bianca Bakker about the REUSE project [19]. The
episode covers the very broad but sometimes complicated topic of
software licensing and the problems there, which REUSE is able to
solve with three simple steps.
For I Love Free Software day Tobias Platen writes in his blog [20] about
serious privacy problems of the Grindr app and why for any sensitive
information he would only use copylefted Free Software. This is in line
with the message that the FSF put out this year for ILoveFS day [21],
where they called for an end to privacy breaches and to develop
copylefted dating apps.
- Evaggelos Balaskas wrote up an interesting story on his blog about his
first ever job in this industry as a junior software engineer [22] and
what it taught him for his career.
- For the ILoveFS-Day the FSFE local group Berlin invited Marcus
Hoffmann to talk about the latest issues and solutions regarding the
Free Software app repository F-Droid. Read the report by Tobias [23]
(DE).
- Alexander Sander gave a talk at DefensiveCon v02 in Berlin, Germany
where he reflected the status quo of "Public Money? Public Code!" and
how it can be changed. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfNyPqvSuLk
[24] )
- The local FSFE group "Nordhessen" organised a GNU/Linux install party
in Witzenhausen, Deutschland.
- The Free Software community in Merano, Italy, had a meeting to discuss
the REUSE project.
- The FSFE will be present with a booth at the NLLGG meeting in Utrecht.
- Two more organisations have signed the PMPC letter: Junge Europäische
Föderalisten Rheinland-Pfalz, an association to promote democratic
values for young people, and the AStA der Justus Liebig Universität,
the student association of the Giessen University in Germany.
== Get Active ==
Our initiative “Public Money? Public Code!” has the purpose that
Software, funded by public money and used in the public administration
shall be Free and Open Source Software. We have an open letter, which
you can sign as an individual or as a NGO. So far we have over 26.000
people and nearly 200 NGOs supporting our goal. Next to this we have
already three administrations who have signed our letter but still we
would like to have more administrations supporting our cause. To achieve
this we need your help: Contact your local administration and ask them
to support public code [25]
== 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 [26].
Thanks to our community, all the volunteers [27], supporters [28] and
donors [29] who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators
[30], 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 [31]
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1: https://registration.fsfe.org/Pre-FOSDEM-2020
2: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/router_sovereignty/
3: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/reuse_code_licensing/
4: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/ai_in_peoples_hands/
5: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/software_freedom/
6: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/free_software_hackers_needed/
7: https://mastodon.social/@JayVii_de/103675049401883155
8: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202002
9: https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-bnl
10: https://registration.fsfe.org/Digitale-Verwaltung-2020
11: https://fsfe.org/activities/routers/index.el.html
12: https://fsfe.org/about/lasota/lasota.el.html
13: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191120-01.el.html
14: https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/ngi0.en.html
15: https://reuse.software/
16: https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/bof_ngi_meetup/
17: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200129-01.el.html
18: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200121-01.el.html
19: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-4.el.html
20: https://blogs.fsfe.org/tobias_platen/2020/02/14/why-i-am-not-using-grindr/
21: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/on-i-love-free-software-day-swipe-copy-…
22: https://balaskas.gr/blog/2020/01/22/the-story-of-my-first-job-in-tech-indus…
23: https://blogs.fsfe.org/tobiasd/2020/02/15/f-droid-zum-i-love-freesoftware-d…
24: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfNyPqvSuLk
25: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC
26: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202002
27: https://fsfe.org/contribute
28: https://my.fsfe.org/support
29: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
30: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
31: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202002