= FSFE Newsletter - June 2017 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201706.es.html ]
== New European Interoperability Framework urges public administrations to use and contribute to Free Software ==
After a round of public consultation last year, the 'new' European
Interoperability Framework [1] (EIF) was finally published in March
2017. In alignment with our answers [2] to the public consultation, and
with the general responses [3] from citizens and businesses that
demanded more Free Software within public e-services, the revised EIF
includes a recommendation to public administrations across Europe to
ensure a level playing field for Free Software and demonstrate active
and fair consideration of using Free Software when offering e-services.
In addition, the new EIF urges public administrations to not only use
Free Software but "whenever possible contribute to the pertinent
developer communities". This is a significant improvement in comparison
to the previous EIF v.2, and explicit acknowledgement of Free Software
being essential for ensuring better interoperablity. The down side is
that similar to the communication on "ICT Standardisation Priorities for
the Digital Single Market" [4], the new EIF unfortunately does not
sufficiently address the obstacles that so-called "fair, reasonable, and
non-discriminatory" (FRAND) licensing terms create for Free Software. By
basing its licensing policy of Open Standards on FRAND, the EIF
unfortunately does not allow Free Software projects to participate in
offering their services to public administrations.
For more background on this topic read our article "Why is FRAND bad for
Free Software?" [5]
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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017
https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-06 [6]
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== What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- Jonas Öberg, the FSFE's executive director, explains an upcoming
project [7] by the FSFE to facilitate automation in the software
toolchain by helping to automatically identify the license in use.
- Daniel Pocock, our newly elected FSFE Fellowship Representative, is
organising a meetup to build a food computer in Zurich. In his blog,
Daniel explains [8] what it is about and the project's connection to
Free Software.
- Heiki Löhmus, Vice President of the FSFE, gave a workshop [9] about
using Free Software for STEM education at DORS/CLUC in Zagreb,
Croatia.
- Polina Malaja, the FSFE's Legal Coordinator and Policy Analyst,
participated in a panel discussion about "Towards an Internet of
People: A progressive new deal for technology" at Diem25 [10] in
Berlin.
- Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE, participated in a panel
discussion [11] about how data, code, and algorithms are influencing
our lives and the economy at the German Church Day in Magdeburg,
Germany. There is also a video recording available [12].
- Erik Albers, the FSFE's Community and Communication Coordinator, gave
the opening talk at the Open Tech Summit 2017 about "The Digital-o-Mat
or how to set Free Software as a topic for democratic elections". The
FSFE was also present with a booth.
- Maurice Verheesen, the FSFE's country coordinator Netherlands, gave a
keynote about public money, public code at the Open Source event in
Tilburg, the Netherlands.
- Franz Gratzer, one of the FSFE's volunteer designers, was giving a
workshop about GIMP basics [13] at the Linuxwochen Wien 2017. The FSFE
group Vienna was also present with a booth.
- The FSFE-Group Munich, Germany, was present with a booth at the Munich
street festival "Corso Leopold" to inform people about the FSFE and
our work for Free Software.
- Matthias Kirschner gave the keynote at the openSUSE conference [14]
2017 in Nürnberg, Germany, about Limux and what the Free Software
community can learn from it. There is also a video recording available
[15].
- Fellows from Madrid, Spain, have been at the OpenExpo with a booth to
inform people about FSFE and our work for Free Software.
- Polina Malaja gave a presentation about the current status of Radio
'Lockdown' Directive [16] during the Wireless Community Weekend [17]
in Berlin.
- Frank Karlitschek blogs about [18] our ethical responsibility towards
technology and software.
- Matthias Kirschner, Polina Malaja, and Daniel Pocock have been at the
Open Source Conference Albania (OSCAL) to talk about "Empowering
people to control technology", "EU level and software freedom" and
"Free Real-Time Communications with Free Software". The FSFE was also
represented with a booth.
- The FSFE group Vienna was present with a booth at the veganmania [19]
to inform people about FSFE and our work for Free Software.
== Help us to improve our newsletter ==
If you see some news you think that should be included, forward it to
us. If you'd like to share any thoughts, send them to us. As always, the
address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from
you!
Thanks to all the volunteers [20], supporters [21] and donors [22] who
make our work possible.
Your editors,
Erik Albers and Polina Malaja
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1: https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en
2: https://fsfe.org/activities/os/eif-v3
3: http://ec.europa.eu/isa2/sites/isa/files/eif-public-consultation-factual-su…
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160428-02
5: https://fsfe.org/activities/os/why-frand-is-bad-for-free-software
6: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-06
7: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/automating-the-software-toolchain/
8: https://danielpocock.com/hacking-the-food-chain-in-switzerland
9: https://2017.dorscluc.org/talk/2/
10: https://diem25.org/diem25-returns-to-berlin-to-develop-its-political-roadma…
11: https://theonet.de/2017/05/29/freie-daten-freies-teilen-frei-sein/
12: https://k7r.eu/free-software-at-church-days/
13: https://cfp.linuxwochen.at/de/LWW17/public/events/547
14: https://k7r.eu/recording-for-limux-the-loss-of-a-lightouse/
15: https://media.ccc.de/v/1458-limux-the-loss-of-a-lighthouse
16: https://fsfe.org/activities/radiodirective
17: https://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2017/Timetable
18: https://karlitschek.de/2017/06/is-doing-nothing-evil/
19: http://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2017/06/04/booth-at-linuxwochen-and-veg…
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute
21: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
22: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus