= 20 Years FSFE +++ Finland achieving Router Freedom +++ microFSFE =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202107.fi.html ]
In our July Newsletter, we invite our community to join the celebrations
of 20 Years FSFE, we applaud Finland for securing Router Freedom, and we
look into Free Software activities for children. We are getting ready
for German elections and invite you to help us support Free Software
demands for public administration during the election campaign.
== FSFE: 20 years of empowering people to control technology ==
Long before the first smartphone was introduced, it was evident to the
FSFE's founders that it is the people who should be in control of
technology and not vice versa. In 2001, Free Software experts around
Europe created the Free Software Foundation Europe.
20 years is a long time in computing history and although technology is
ever-changing, our values have been consistent. The core of our work is,
in a nutshell: educating people on the nature of Free Software,
highlighting its political implications, and simplifying its legal
preconditions. Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE since 2015,
explains [1] this in his own words in a short video.
Our work throughout the years would not have been possible without the
help of our European community. Whether you have translated our news,
used your voice to share our message, helped us financially, or
participated in one of our public events, you have helped our cause to
take a step further.
Would you like to share your thoughts about your time with the FSFE? We
are looking forward to hearing from you. Also we would love to see
pictures from your activities in the past and share them with the
community. Or, if you are feeling creative, you can send us a birthday
video, just as the science-fiction author Cory Doctorow did. Do not miss
watching it and finding out more on how to share your throwback on our
birthday page [2].
== Router Freedom achieved in Finland, as the most fair and efficient practice ==
Finland recognises Router Freedom as a digital right, setting an example
for the EU. Net neutrality is ensured by EU Regulation. Net neutrality
means that users have the right to use terminal equipment of their
choice, such as a phone or modem. For Finland, this is clear. Traficom,
the national agency dealing with transportation, communications, and
networks, has a noteworthy stance on the issue, protecting [3] the
rights of end-users.
We interviewed [4] Klaus Nieminen, Chief Specialist of Traficom. In his
view, Router Freedom benefits end-users, fosters competition in the
telecommunications terminal equipment markets, and complies with the
Open Internet Regulation 2015/2120 of the EU. He shares that there is no
technological necessity to justify limiting end-users' rights to choose
their own equipment. Traficom arrived at this conclusion after an
objective assessment. Finally, he explains that in Finland Router
Freedom also applies to new technologies such as 5G.
== Listen to our Podcast ==
This is the first time since the launch of the Software Freedom Podcast
that a FSFE staff member gives an interview in our podcast series. Max
Mehl, FSFE Programme Manager, has been with the FSFE since 2011 and has
worked on numerous campaigns. With this episode [5] Bonnie Mehring and
Max Mehl provide a nice and easy entrance to the very complex world of
software licensing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for
the next 20 years to come [6]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== microFSFE ==
Early programmers deserve a spotlight too. From kids to teenagers, the
FSFE welcomes early programmers and all beginners in its community.
=== Teaching Free Software to children ===
In Kreuzlingen, a city in northern Switzerland, five children had the
chance to participate in a 4-day course on Free Software development.
The course was free of charge, and it was offered thanks to the
creativity and pedagogical skills of FSFE supporter Peter Bittner. The
kids had no prior experience using Linux, so the course started with
booting GNU/LINUX from a USB stick, and quickly advanced to working in
the terminal using Bash commands and coding Python.
'We need our kids to know what school doesn't teach them' says [7] Peter
in his blog about this course. 'Pupils are being taught "products" of
the technology giants ("Safari", "Word", "Excel", "PowerPoint") instead
of information technology concepts (web browser, text processor,
spreadsheet, presentations)'.
=== microfashion ===
According to scientists, early "nerdiness" can lead to a 10% increase in
happiness later in life ; )
So do not miss to starting early and get one of our fork T-shirts. They
are available for ages 5 to 12 [8], as well as in a bib [9] for babies!
=== Teenagers ===
This autumn, the FSFE will launch a new activity for teenagers. Our goal
is to share the values of Free Software with young developers. So if you
are a young person experimenting with software development, or if you
know one, stay tuned.
== Upcoming event ==
- On Wednesday August 4th, we are organising an online workshop (DE) to
prepare the promotion of our 'Public Money? Public Code!' campaign
during the last weeks until the German elections. We need your support
to spread our message. If you would like to be involved in this
process, please register [10] and join our workshop for in-person
discussions.
== What we have done: ==
- On June 23rd, Max Mehl, Programme Manager at the FSFE, presented REUSE
in the “Leveraging Open Source Responsibly” session [11] at OW2con’21.
In his presentation, he explained how REUSE makes it easier for
developers to declare the licensing and copyright situation for their
code. The presentation is available on Peertube [12]. This session is
part of a long-term effort by OW2 to promote best practices and good
citizenship in open source governance.
- On July 6th and 7th, Bonnie Mehring and Alexander Sander presented our
German federal election campaign to the local groups of Nordhessen and
Frankfurt. If you are interested in participating in such a workshop
check our upcoming event.
- On July 22nd, Bonnie Mehring presented our 'Public Money? Public
Code!' campaign in the FSFE women [13] monthly meeting. Also, they
discussed what the plans are with respect to the upcoming election
campaign of the federal parliament in Germany 2021. The FSFE women
group is open to all women who are interested in Free Software and
technology; meetings take place online.
- On July 24th, translators met online to get to know each other and
learn valuable tools for their work, such as the webpreview tool, the
translation wiki, and Git. The meeting was hosted by Bonnie Mehring,
coordinator of the FSFE translator group [14] team, and Luca Bonissi,
who has created the webpreview tool.
- Alexander Sander, our Policy Consultant, contributed to a report on
the use of Free Software in local administrations which was released
by the German association for municipal government. The association,
'Kommunale Gemeinschaftsstelle für Verwaltungsmanagement (KGSt)',
published the report [15] [DE] titled 'Open Source in Kommunen – Ein
Baustein für mehr Digitale Souveränität.'
== Legal and Licensing Workshop 2021 ==
On July 14th, the Online Legal and Licensing Workshop 2021 was
completed. The FSFE's Free Software Legal and Licensing Workshop (LLW)
[16] has been held annually for the FSFE's Legal Network [17] since
2008, and serves as a conference for legal experts in the field of Free
Software to debate issues and share best practices surrounding Free
Software licenses. Instead of a one-time conference, this year LLW
offered online presentations, discussion panels, and workshops
continuously from March to July.
We are very happy to have put up an online edition of the LLW, and we
are also looking forward to organizing next year's edition of the LLW,
to be held hopefully in person, to continue building a robust Free
Software legal community.
== Get active for the Federal election in Germany ==
On 26 September, a new Bundestag will be elected in Germany. We are
engaged around the election and want to ensure with our activities that
"Public Money? Public Code!" plays an important role for the next
government. Therefore we want to make sure that our "Public Money?
Public Code!" demands will be included in the coalition agreement of
Germany's next government. To achieve this we need your help and
support. We created an activity package [18] [DE] for you and will also
present it during a workshop on 4 August 2021. If you want to
participate, register now [19].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please 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 [20]. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers,
supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical
distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including
our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive,
please consider donating a part of your conference budget to Free
Software organisations, including the FSFE [21].
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [22]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/2021/news-20210721-01.fi.html#a-birthday-message-from-our-…
2: https://fsfe.org/activities/20years/20years.fi.html
3: https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/communications-networks/open-inte…
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210629-01.fi.html
5: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-11.fi.html
6: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
7: https://ferienpass.gitlab.io/blog/
8: https://fsfe.org/order/index.fi.html
9: https://fsfe.org/order/2017/baby-bib-pink-large.png
10: https://registration.fsfe.org/btw21-Workshop
11: https://www.ow2con.org/view/2021/Abstract_Community_Day#23061545
12: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/a3cb5598-7d97-479e-851c-9dee96bc278f
13: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women
14: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Translators
15: https://www.kgst.de/doc/20210706A0006
16: https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/llw.fi.html
17: https://fsfe.org/activities/ln/ln.fi.html
18: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Bundestagswahl_DE
19: https://registration.fsfe.org/btw21-Workshop
20: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
21: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
22: https://community.fsfe.org/t/709
= Rising demands for Dutch digital autonomy +++ REUSE Booster +++ Torsten Grote =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202106.fi.html ]
Dutch digital public services rely increasingly on monopolistic
companies; the FSFE Dutch team actively demands digital rights. In June,
we launched REUSE Booster to share legal advice with Free Software
projects on copyright. We interviewed Torsten Grote, a member of the
FSFE, who stressed the need to Free our Androids early on.
== Dutch Digital Autonomy is undermined; demands for Free Software are rising ==
The Netherlands is becoming dependent on a digital infrastructure that
is dominated by a small number of monopolistic companies. Although the
Dutch Cyber Security Council recognises the consequent risk, their
report neglects focusing on Open Standards and Free Software, the proven
best practices to face this problem. The FSFE calls on the Dutch
government to stand firm and get a grip on their digital security and
autonomy by adhering to Open Standards and Free Software [1], in line
with their earlier commitment to use Free Software by default.
Our team emphatically defends digital rights in the Netherlands. In
2018, Jos van den Oever noticed that the 'Debat Direct' app could not be
downloaded to his Firefox OS phone. In other words, the official
application for parliamentary debates was not available under a Free
Software license. Jos' request to get the app's source code was denied,
and he brought the case to court. The Council of State ruled on 31 March
2021 that the Parliament does not have to publish the source code. As a
result, the participation app remains closed [2] to those who wish to
use only Free Software apps.
Jos van den Oever, the person behind this initiative, is a FSFE
volunteer and part of our country team Netherlands. Its members kept in
touch even during the pandemic, when they had to replace booths for
online meetings. Nico Rikken, one of the two coordinators, shares his
experiences about this transition in a blogpost, and calls anyone
interested to join the FSFE community based in the Netherlands [3].
== REUSE Booster supports Free Software projects with licensing ==
REUSE has facilitated the licensing of Free Software projects.
Developers are given standardised ways to mark all files in a project
with their chosen license and copyright notice. A tutorial, a set of
FAQs, a helper tool, and an API have been made available to lower the
threshold and save time.
With REUSE Booster, the FSFE takes this initiative a step further. Free
Software projects can seek tailored support [4] with licensing and
copyright by legal experts now. Each project will be evaluated
individually and the recommendations will apply to its particular
situation. Register [5] until 8 July to get your Free Software project
on board.
== 20 Years FSFE: Envisioning free operating systems in smartphones with Torsten Grote ==
In our fourth birthday publication we reminisce about the emergence of
the first smartphones. We are interviewing [6] Torsten Grote, who
explored Free Software alternatives for smartphones as early as 2012. A
programmer as well as a Free Software activist, Torsten shares his
memories of the developments of alternative operating systems and
applications for smartphones. Finally, we would not miss this chance to
ask him what options there are today for liberating our phones.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for
the next 20 years to come [7]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== Internal: The FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat. ==
Learn how to join us [8]. We are moving from Freenode to Libera Chat,
following the migration of its network of volunteer staff. We share our
thoughts that led the FSFE to migrate its IRC presence.
== What we have done ==
- On June 28th, Erik Albers, Sustainability Programme Manager of the
FSFE, spoke at the Round Table "How do we shape and grow a green tech
sector?" [9] organised by the Greens/EFA. In his presentation, Erik
Albers explained the role software design plays on the environmental
impact of digital technologies. The Round Table is part of a wider
effort of the Greens/EFA to compose a digital green manifesto.
- On June 23rd, Lucas Lasota, FSFE Deputy Legal Coordinator and Research
Associate at Humboldt University of Berlin, moderated a round table
[10] on cybersecurity, human rights, and digital sovereignty together
with Katerina Yordanova and Elisabetta Biasin from the KU Leuven
Centre for IT & IP Law.
- On June 23rd, Irmhild Rogalla gave a talk in the FSFE Women group
meeting about the accessibility of video conferencing tools,
supporting a conferencing platform for all. The FSFE Women group [11]
meets on a monthly basis, and keeps it casual while providing an open
space to discuss recent developments in the area of Free Software.
Often meetings focus on one specific topic.
- On June 19th, Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's President, presented [12] "20
Years FSFE: The long way for software freedom" at the openSUSE
Conference to inform people on our work as an independent
organisation.
- On June 18th, Bonnie Mehring, FSFE's junior project manager, presented
[13] "Public Money? Public Code!: A campaign framework to promote
software freedom" at the openSUSE Conference. In the talk, she
explained how the campaign framework can be used to push for the
adoption of Free-Software-friendly policies in your area; be it your
public administration, your library, your university, your city, your
region, or your country.
- On June 16th, the Netherlands-based FSFE [14] team held its regular
monthly meeting. The meeting is open to everybody, and can switch to
English if not everybody understands Dutch.
- On June 10th, Erik Albers participated in the "Zukunftswerkstatt Smart
Living" [15], where experts analyse sustainable design options for the
ongoing digitization of our everyday life.
- On June 5th, Lina Ceballos and Alexander Sander gave a 'Public Money?
Public Code!' workshop [16] for our Italian community members.
- On June 4th, Lucas Lasota participated at the Impropedia show [17] to
talk about Free Software, Router Freedom, and Digital Rights. The
event was hosted by KuZe Potsdam.
- On June 1st, Alexander Sander participated in the GnuLinuxNews-Podcast
GLN011. He talked [18] about Free Software during the Corona crisis
(DE).
- On June 1st, FSFE's Alexander Sander presented [19] the Public Money?
Public Code! campaign in Netzpolitischer Abend, organised by Digitale
Gesellschaft, and stressed that there are now no political excuses not
to implement the concept.
- On May 27th, the FSFE Berlin local group met for their regular meeting
which focuses on Education. Miriam from "Die Lernwerkstatt" introduced
this organisation and gave a talk on the design of digital learning
with tips on related platforms and techniques. A group discussion
followed. In the Berlin Fellowship group, everyone is invited to
discuss "Free Software and Education", share experiences, and work on
liberating knowledge and education in Berlin and beyond.
- On May 26th, Alexander Sander gave a talk [20] explaining why and how
public administrations should use Free Software. He highlighted the
benefits of this practice for public administrations, the economy and
the society. The current procurement models and an outlook for the
coming years were discussed.
== Get active ==
Pack your T-shirt and educate those around you on the definition of Free
Software during your summer holidays. If we have the right to use,
study, share, and improve it, then it is Free Software. Our T-shirts are
made of 100% organic cotton, and our collection [21] includes a variety
of colours and slogans.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please 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 [22]. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers,
supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical
distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including
our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive,
please consider donating a part of your conference budget to Free
Software organisations, including the FSFE [23].
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [24]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210521-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210611-01.fi.html
3: https://blogs.fsfe.org/nico.rikken/2021/06/23/how-the-netherlands-group-gre…
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210609-01.fi.html
5: https://reuse.software/booster/
6: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210625-01.fi.html
7: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210525-01.fi.html
9: https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/article/event/how-do-we-shape-and-grow-a-green…
10: https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/02071075f39248f6a2f6/
11: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women
12: https://peertube.tv/videos/watch/1fd019fd-2fcf-4777-8b3a-59ac647ab542
13: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/c3ae2ad6-f2e0-4168-a28b-f7b2c73e154f
14: https://wiki.fsfe.org/action/show/LocalGroups/BNL
15: https://www.ressourcenwende.net/veranstaltung/zukunftswerkstatt-smart-livin…
16: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/ContactingAdministrationsForPMPC
17: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/e73c6cf0-2ef0-4b1e-8b2c-441ecd055a2a
18: https://gnulinux.ch/gln011-podcast
19: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/585c88dd-4f2b-450c-9ffc-66005f11e030
20: https://public-money.confetti.events/
21: https://fsfe.org/order/index.fi.html
22: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
23: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
24: https://community.fsfe.org/t/702
= Cory Doctorow +++ Artificial Intelligence +++ New Staffer Fani Partsafyllidou =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202105.fi.html ]
In our May Newsletter read about our time traveller Cory Doctorow who
sends his wishes for 20 Years FSFE from utopian 2041, Router Freedom
developments in Greece, Germany, and Austria as well as AI application
benefits under Free Software licenses and as usual our other diverse
community activities.
== 20 Years FSFE: Time traveller Cory Doctorow sends his wishes from utopian 2041! ==
Prolific Sci-fi author Cory Doctorow envisions the world in 2041 and
informs us that humankind was able to solve major world problems thanks
to collective work and mutual sharing of knowledge. Doctorow has been a
vocal supporter of the FSFE for many years now. In his video he is
celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the FSFE in his own fascinating
way: Doctorow is travelling in time to greet us and congratulate us on
our 40 year anniversary, talking to us from 2041.
His time travel allows him to see the critical importance of the FSFE in
the transition to a digital society. In the author’s words ‘In those two
decades we have seen massive decentralization of the internet thanks and
part to deep reforms to our anti-trust and monopoly law, mandates for
interoperability and open APIs’. This is why Doctorow is thanking the
FSFE for our next 20 years of fostering freedom and decentralisation.
== Rapid developments in Router Freedom in Greece, Germany, and Austria ==
Rapid developments in Router Freedom are being made in the EU countries
as an EU reform of telecommunications law is being transposed into
national jurisdictions. The implementation process has been complex and
has led to different solutions which may negatively affect Router
Freedom. The FSFE has been closely monitoring national legislation on
telecommunications and actively taken part in public consultations
together with local organisations to support legislative changes in
favour of Router Freedom. For example, in Greece, the FSFE and six other
organisations supported the preliminary decision of the Greek regulator
for incorporating Router Freedom in the national legislation.
The next months will be crucial for Router Freedom in EU countries.
There are challenges ahead. Differently from Greece, Germany [1] has
moved in a direction to reevaluate the consolidated framework, which can
lead to more restrictions to end-users rights. In Austria [2], the fate
of Router Freedom will be decided by the national regulatory agency RTR
after the full implementation of the telecom reform.
== Achieving accuracy and fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications using Free Software ==
Vincent Lequertier published an article [3] stating the reasons why AI
applications released under a Free Software license can prevent known
pitfalls in AI, making its use both efficient and fair. Three elements
of AI should be provided openly: the source code used to train the AI,
the datasets, and the trained AI models. Being able to understand how AI
works will enable us to correct unfair discrimination generated by AI
and give the opportunity for everyone to improve its transparency.
Furthermore, releasing AI as Free Software can help fostering innovation
in this field.
Vincent also suggested in a blog post [4] on FSFE's Planet [5] that the
successful imposition of checklists in crucial sectors can be used as an
example of good practice in AI development.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for
the next 20 years to come [6]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== Internal: Our new staffer Fani Partsafyllidou ==
We welcome our new staffer Fani Partsafyllidou! Fani holds a Master's
Degree in Modern History and Political Science and after working with
the European Association of History and Citizenship Educators she joined
the FSFE communication team on the first of May. You will read more and
more by her in the upcoming months, and -- except this very paragraph --
you are already reading the first newsletter brought to you by Fani.
== Upcoming events ==
Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE, and Bonnie Mehring, FSFE
Coordinator of Translations, will talk at OpenSUSE Con about Public
Money Public Code and the progress of the FSFE after 20 years of
collective action. OpenSUSE Con will happen on 18 & 19 of June, the
detailed schedule is still to be set.
== What we have done ==
- In the Next Generation Internet Zero initiative, the FSFE has
cooperated with other organisations in Europe to facilitate the use of
Free Software licences by developers, by providing educational
material as well as guidance. We recently published a report on how
the FSFE Helps Free Software Developers Engineer a Better Internet [7]
- On May 22 the FSFE participated in MERGE-it, a conference organised
for Italian communities that work with Open Source and Free Software.
Patrick Ohnewein, Financial Officer of the FSFE and the Deputy
Coordinator in Italy, gave a talk about Free Software in the Public
Administration, and Francesca Indorato, FSFE employee, moderated the
session and the discussion.
- Matthias Kirschner gave an interview (DE) [8] in Co-Vienna where he
analysed the concept of Ethical Software and its relation to freedom
of speech.
- On May 6 Alexander Sander, the FSFE's policy consultant, contributed
to a session about how to advocate on the EU level for Digital
Sustainability [9]
- On May 5 Alexander Sander hosted a session on "Public Money? Public
Code!" during an event of over 50 European civil society organisations
[10] who formulated several recommendations to political decision
makers in the light of the upcoming federal election in Germany.
- Alexander also hosted a webinar on May 26 to highlight the benefits of
using Free Software in public administration [11] and to explain the
process of implementation.
- Alexander Sander took part in a panel discussion on centralization to
standardization [12] with representatives of the German Government and
local government associations. Alexander brought the perspective on
Open Standards and Free Software to the panel
- Our Dutch country team organised an online get-together on May 19.
== Get active ==
Our new call for local projects is open until the 25th of July! [13] If
you are a supporter of the FSFE and you have a project you have wanted
to do for a long time, apply for funding by the FSFE and make it happen.
If you are a supporter but you have no project in hand, look for a local
group in your vicinity or create one. And if you are not a supporter yet
- time to join the FSFE now [14].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
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 [15].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [16], supporters [17],
and donors [18] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [19], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [20]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [21]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210505-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210506-01.fi.html
3: https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/artificial-intelligence.fi.html
4: https://vl8r.eu/posts/2021/05/16/artificial-intelligence-safety-embracing-c…
5: https://planet.fsfe.org
6: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202105.html
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210504-01.fi.html
8: https://www.co-vienna.com/de/leute/der-digitale-freiheitskampfer/
9: https://www.ioew.de/veranstaltung/european-approaches-towards-a-sustainable…
10: https://digitalezivilgesellschaft.org/en-
11: https://public-money.confetti.events/
12: https://www.egovkommunal.de/#Agenda
13: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210526-01.fi.html
14: https://my.fsfe.org/donate
15: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202105.html
16: https://fsfe.org/contribute
17: https://my.fsfe.org/support
18: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
19: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
20: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
21: https://community.fsfe.org/t/685
= Router Freedom Activity Package +++ Fernanda Weiden +++ Spring Sales =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202104.fi.html ]
In our April Newsletter read about our Router Freedom Activity Package,
our interview with former Vice President Fernanda Weiden, our new
Software Freedom Podcast with Elisa Lindinger, our Spring Sales and as
usual our other diverse community activities.
== FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package ==
Router Freedom is the right that consumers of any Internet Service
Provider (ISP) have to choose and use a private modem and router instead
of equipment that the ISP provides. In the context of reform of
telecommunications law, since June 2020 a new set of rules guides the
implementation of Router Freedom in Europe [1].
Although the new rules will provide more clarity in several respects
concerning end-users' rights, the awareness of Router Freedom is low
across Europe. Active participation of local communities in the
legislative processes of laws impacting the ability of end-users to
choose their network devices is crucial for leveraging the protection of
Router Freedom in national jurisdictions.
Therefore, we have prepared an activity package for individuals and
organisations [2] who want to communicate with regulators and decision
makers of their countries and take a stand for Router Freedom. The
package consists of an activity summary [3], a monitoring map [4] and a
wiki page [5] with relevant information for local engagement.
We would love to know more about your experience with Router Freedom, so
we can act accordingly. Please participate in our end-user survey [6].
It will take only a few minutes!
== 20 Years FSFE: Interview with Fernanda Weiden ==
In our third birthday publication we interview Fernanda "nanda" Weiden
[7] who was raised n Porto Alegre, Brasil, where she organised FISL, the
largest Free Software conference in Latin America. Later she became a
founding member and council member of the Free Software Foundation Latin
America, before moving to Europe, where she joined the FSFE as a
volunteer. Just a little bit later she was elected Vice President of the
Free Software Foundation Europe from 2009-2011.
In these early years of her engangement with the FSFE, Fernanda helped
to shape the FSFE's profile and organisation. Her favourite campaign
that she was heavily contributing to was the Document Freedom Day, a
campaign to highlight the importance of Open Standards and a global day
to celebrate them. Fernanda is also co-founder of the "Women in Free
Software Project" in Brazil and former member of "Debian Women". Until
today Fernanda is part of the FSFE's General Assembly and helps the
organisation with her manifold professional skills if needed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for
the next 20 years to come [8]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== SFP#10: How to support Free Software and a sustainable digital infrastructure ==
In our 10th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast [9] we talk with
Elisa Lindinger from Superrr Lab. Together we discuss problems faced by
Free Software projects and how to tackle them. In a broader frame we
discover what would be needed for a more sustainable digital
infrastructure and talk about the work Elisa does for this aim.
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- With a groundbreaking resolution, Dortmund has committed itself to the
use of Free Software. With an overwhelming, cross-faction majority,
the city council has paved the way for "Public Money? Public Code!"
[10] In the future, software developed or commissioned by the
administration will be made available to the general public.
- Max Mehl, FSFE programme manager, gave a talk on "Digital Sovereignty
in Europe - Free Software as the Key" [11] in which he provided an
overview of the most important contexts and discussed pragmatic
possibilities based on existing examples to put public digital
infrastructure on a modern footing.
- Ralf Hersel, Coordinator of the FSFE local Zurich group, gave a
presentation on "Learning like the Pros" during the Open Education Day
conference [12]. Learning like the Pros informs about Digital
Sovereignty, explains professional approaches and offers concrete
suggestions.
- For the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Carmen Bianca
Bakker writes about "What's in a name?" [13]
- Lucas Lasota, FSFE Deputy Legal Coordinator, will conduct the course
"Legal Aspects of Digital Sovereignty" [14] at the Humboldt University
of Berlin. The course is dedicated to several elements that compose
the terms that are being discussed in public debates, but from the
legal perspective.
== "Show your support" (aka "Get active") ==
Although Spring seems a little bit late this year in Northern Europe, we
have started the FSFE Spring Sales [15] in which we offer all our
coloured T-shirts, magnets, pins, gym sacks and children's shirts at a
reduced price for a short period. Be quick, because the offer is only
valid while stock lasts. Moreover, sale products that are sold out will
no longer be reordered as we will refresh our inventory.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
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 [16].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [17], supporters [18],
and donors [19] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [20], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [21]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [22]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200601-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.fi.html
3: https://download.fsfe.org/routers/fsfe-router-freedom-activity-summary.pdf
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210330-01.fi.html#id-monitoring-map
5: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/CompulsoryRouters/
6: https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/628449?lang=en
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210420-01.fi.html
8: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202104.html
9: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-10.fi.html
10: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210331-01.fi.html
11: http://www.europe-direct-dortmund.de/event/digitale-souveraenitaet-in-europ…
12: https://openeducationday.ch/programm-2021/
13: https://www.carmenbianca.eu/en/post/2021-03-31-whats-in-a-name/
14: https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/8ade75042d024d90b89c/
15: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210406-01.fi.html
16: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202104.html
17: https://fsfe.org/contribute
18: https://my.fsfe.org/support
19: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
21: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
22: https://community.fsfe.org/t/662
= Luca vs Lenovo +++ Reinhard and the FSFE +++ IloveFS report =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202103.fi.html ]
In our March Newsletter read about our supporter Luca Bonissi who forced
Lenovo to pay a 20.000 Euros refund for a pre-installed Windows, about
our supporter Reinhard Müller who has volunteered for the FSFE for two
decades, our "I Love Free Software" report and as usual about our other
diverse community activities.
== Luca Bonissi vs Lenovo: 20.000 Euros refund for a pre-installed Windows ==
We all know how frustrating it is to buy a brand new computer and
realise that it comes with a pre-installed proprietary operating system.
After an initial annoyance, however, even most Free Software stalwarts
do not further complain, wipe the system and proceed with a fresh
install of a free operating system of their choice. Not so Luca Bonissi,
an Italian developer and long-term FSFE supporter. After buying a new
Lenovo Ideapad, he contacted Lenovo to file a request for a license
refund and a return of the pre-installed Microsoft Windows. However,
Lenovo refused to refund Luca for the Windows license - worth 42 Euro -
and what followed was a truly legal and bureaucratic quest which
consumed many months and several court proceedings. Finally, in December
2020, the Court of Monza rejected all Lenovo's arguments, confirming
that the reimbursement of the pre-installed software was due.
In its sentence, the Court of Monza also pointed out that the
manufacturer itself had expressly assumed an obligation to pay a refund
in the Windows licence. In its historic decision, the court further
imposed upon Lenovo punitive damages amounting to 20.000 euros [1] for
abuse of the appeal procedures. Lenovo forced its customer to take part
in a disproportionate and unnecessary legal process. The court also
noted that this case is an example of the arrogance and prevarication of
a giant company against a modest consumer. In the end, the court ruled
that the sum was to be paid to Luca, by way of compensating for the
damage caused by aggravated procedural liability.
In a deeply selfless act, Luca Bonissi donated 15.000 Euros [2] from the
recovered damages to the FSFE, encouraging people to stand their ground
for their rights. We are extremely grateful for this donation by Luca
and also that he shared the documentation [3] and procedures in the
updated wiki page for Italy [4].
== "The Monza decision demonstrated that is possible to reverse the unacceptable behaviour of big techs. What was taken away from the Free Software community has now been returned to it. I encourage everyone to fight back for their legitimate rights!" says Luca Bonissi and we could not agree more. 20 Years FSFE: Interview with Reinhard Müller ==
Now from Luca Bonissi in Italy to Reinhard Müller in Austria: Reinhard
is another volunteer whose dedication to Free Software and the FSFE are
legendary. Throughout the last two decades, Reinhard has helped to shape
the FSFE in its self-understanding and in its overall organisation as
well as in our daily operations. Indeed, Reinhard has basically taken
over any position from local volunteer to country team member, from
booth volunteer to financial officer and from a supporter to the General
Assembly. Most people are surprised when they hear that he is a
volunteer and not a paid staffer of the FSFE.
Listing all of his contributions in this newsletter basically seems
impossible, but we conducted an interview with Reinhard [5] in which we
try to cover at least some of the most essential parts of his life with
and within the FSFE. Read about what keeps him motivated, his energy
sources, his favorite FSFE activities and his wishes for the FSFE for
the next 20 years.
== I Love Free Software Day ==
>From Reinhard Müller to the I Love Free Software Day, because this is
his favorite campaign and it is the favorite campaign for many people
around the globe. This year we already celebrated the 11th edition of
the "I Love Free Software Day" and we just published our activity report
[6]. In numbers we counted 411 tweets on Twitter and 210 toots and
countless retweets and retoots in the Fediverse using the hashtag
#ilovefs. People from all over the world joined the "I Love Free
Software Day" via social media and tweeted and tooted from at least 328
different places.
This year we had two novelties: Together with FSFE's volunteer Florian
Snow we created some share pictures for sharing our love for Free
Software and a lot of people participated [7]. Also we created a special
Software Freedom Podcast Episode [8] which provides a nice background of
the origins and the highlights of the last eleven years of the "I Love
Free Software Day".
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This year the FSFE celebrates its 20th anniversary. Support our work for
the next 20 years to come [9]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- As you know from our previous newsletters, the FSFE was again present
at FOSDEM with a community event before FOSDEM, and this year we also
co-organised the Legal and Policy Devroom for the first time. Now [all
talks are available online], including the talks in the Devroom as
well as Cory Doctorow's keynote in our community event.
- Johanna Pohl, Anja Höfner, Friederike Rohde and the FSFE's Erik Albers
published an Open Access article about the "Design Options for Long-
lasting, Efficient and Open Hardware and Software" [10] in
"Ökologisches Wirtschaften: Digitalisation and Sustainability"
- Our PMPC Video is now available in Swedish [11]; it is now available
in nine different languages.
- The FSFE was present at this year's Chemnitzer Linuxtage where Bonnie
Mehring gave a talk about "Public Money? Public Code!" [12] in which
she explained how the campaign framework can be used to push for the
adoption of Free Software friendly policies on a local level. Matthias
Kirschner gave a talk about "20 years FSFE - The long road to software
freedom" [13]
- Erik Albers was at the Winterkongress of the Digitale Gesellschaft
Schweiz, where he gave a talk about the sustainability of Free
Software [14].
- In the aftermath of his participation in a panel discussion about
opportunities, hurdles with and incentives for Free Software in the
public administration, Matthias Kirschner wrote down [15] his
recommendations and thoughts for public procurement and Free Software
in his blog.
- The German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg,
together with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, are planning to
set up a joint Free Software code repository for public
administrations, consisting of a central part and compatible,
decentralized "satellites". This approach comes close to our demands
formulated in the initiative "A Place for Public Code" [16]
- On 17 March 2021, in the Netherlands the Bestuursafdeling van de Raad
van State heard our Dutch team member Jos van den Oever in a case
against the Tweede Kamer. It concerns the app 'Debat Direct'. With
this app, debates in the Lower House can be followed. Jos requested
the Tweede Kamer to disclose the source code of the app 'Debat
Direct'. As yet, Chamber President Arib refuses to make this public. [
https://broncode.org/nieuws/20210315.html [17] ]
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
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 [18].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [19], supporters [20],
and donors [21] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [22], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [23]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [24]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210302-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
3: https://bonissi.it/bonissi_lenovo/
4: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/WindowsTaxRefund/Italy
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210305-01.fi.html
6: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210317-01.fi.html
7: https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics/people/
8: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-9.fi.html
9: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202103.html
10: https://www.oekologisches-wirtschaften.de/index.php/oew/article/view/1788
11: https://publiccode.eu/sv/#about
12: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/227
13: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/124
14: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/en/programm/beitrag/227
15: https://k7r.eu/panel-free-software-development-for-the-public-administratio…
16: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200910-01.fi.html
17: https://broncode.org/nieuws/20210315.html
18: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202103.html
19: https://fsfe.org/contribute
20: https://my.fsfe.org/support
21: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
22: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
23: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
24: https://community.fsfe.org/t/633
= FSFE's plans for 2021 +++ IloveFS +++ FOSDEM =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202101.fi.html ]
In our January Newsletter, read about our plans for 2021 including our
upcoming birthday celebrations and our participation at FOSDEM. We roll
out this year's "I love Free Software" campaign and, as usual, report
about our various community activites.
== FSFE's plans for 2021 ==
In the last weeks, we have constantly developed our message of software
freedom for 2021. And with so many exciting things surrounding FSFE's
activities in the upcoming months, we are looking forward to realize
them.
The FSFE will celebrate its birthday as we turn 20 in 2021. 20 years of
defending user's rights and spreading software freedom. We want to use
that momentum to speak, show and reflect on our activities in the past
20 years. And we want to give momentum to our community because it is on
their shoulders that we have built our movement and our networks, which
form a well-known pan-European Free Software expert interest
representation called Free Software Foundation Europe. More information
on this in the next newsletter.
As we turn 20, we will continue to have to deal with the current global
situation, for instance by running our events online this year. Our
running campaigns will be updated and we will launch a brand-new
campaign "Upcycling Android" towards the second half of the year – stay
tuned.
Now looking a bit into the closer future, our event team is doing its
best to offer you a pleasant FSFE online experience at FOSDEM, the
biggest Free Software conference in Europe. Not only are we offering a
digital booth and our annual pre-FOSDEM community meeting, we will also
co-coordinate the Legal and Policy Devroom. For more information, see
below. Not to forget that right after FOSDEM there will be the:
== I love Free Software day 2021 ==
More than any other year, we feel it is important this year to come
together and celebrate the annual "I love Free Software day" [1] on 14.
February. After months of a dark and physically distanced winter, we
invite you to show your faces and your love towards the philosophy that
unites us all, our love for Free Software.
To bring us all together on the same virtual page, we have prepared a
brand new "I love Free Software" activity for you. Use our graphics [2]
to share your love with your friends, family, colleagues and the Free
Software community and to virtually unite. Simply take a picture of
yourself that you like and write down in a few words why you love Free
Software. Then fill our share-pic generator and share the result in your
favourite channels or via social media. By using the hashtag #IloveFS
you make sure that we also see it - or by pinging our account directly
in the respective social media channel. If none of that works for you,
we are also happy to receive your image in an email to contact(a)fsfe.org.
We are really looking forward to celebrating #IloveFS with you!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Start the new year as a supporter of the Free Software Foundation Europe
[3]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== Upcoming events ==
The FSFE will be present at FOSDEM, the biggest annual Free Software
happening in Europe. While FOSDEM normally takes place in Brussels, this
year it will happen online. Max Mehl gives a talk about the "Best
practices for declaring copyright and licenses" [4] and Lucas Lasota
will speak about Router Freedom. The FSFE will be present with a digital
booth that you can visit to talk with people. There will also be some
events happening "at the booth". Unfortunately, not all details from the
organisers are available at the time of writing this newsletter, so we
cannot dig into more details or offer links right now. Please follow us
on social media ( Mastodon [5] / Twitter [6] ) or visit the official
page [7] during the event to find our booth.
Apart from the digital booth, for the first time the FSFE will co-
organise the Legal and Policy Devroom at FOSDEM. We will also continue
with our traditional pre-FOSDEM meeting the day before FOSDEM, on Friday
5 February 2021. This meeting is our community get-together and will be
kicked-off with a keynote by Cory Doctorow.
- I love Free Software Day: As every year on 14 February the Free
Software community is celebrating the "I love Free Software Day" [8].
Don't miss showing your love on that day, following the hashtag
#IloveFS and listening to our upcoming special IloveFS podcast episode
[9].
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- The FSFE was present with a digital representation at this year's
online Chaos Communication Congress, called "Remote Chaos Experience "
or #rC3. Together with our cluster about:freedom [10] we created a map
for the rC3-world [11] and produced a joint presentation video [12].
Since we used to sing the Free Software song at our booths at the CCC,
we also transferred this happening into the digital world and invited
folks to join and sing the Free Software song together in a Jitsi room
[13].
- Our project manager Lucas Lasota gave a talk about Router Freedom at
the Remote Chaos Experience rC3 [14]. The talk provided an overview of
the recent successes for Router Freedom and the legal challenges
against net neutrality in Europe.
- Our programme manager Max Mehl participated in the GNU/Linux News
Podcast by GNU/Linux.ch [15] (German) with one of the topics covering
the principle of "Public Money? Public Code!" to be applied on
publicly funded mobile phone apps.
== Job vacancy ==
We are looking for a person with a strong technical background [16] to
support projects with software engineering and expertise. The person
will work part-time, either in our Berlin office or remotely. The
closing date for applications is Sunday, 21 February 2021.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
looking forward 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 [17].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [18], supporters [19],
and donors [20] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [21], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [22]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [23]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/index.fi.html
2: https://download.fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/share-pics
3: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202101.html
4: https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/reuse/
5: https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/
6: https://twitter.com/fsfe/
7: https://fosdem.org/
8: https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/index.fi.html
9: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.fi.html
10: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom
11: https://links.rc3.world/
12: https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-86253-opening_session
13: https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/105463999431351392
14: https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-54981-net_neutrality_2_0_router_freedom_and_devi…
15: https://gnulinux.ch/gln006-podcast
16: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210119-01.fi.html
17: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202101.html
18: https://fsfe.org/contribute
19: https://my.fsfe.org/support
20: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
21: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
22: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
23: https://community.fsfe.org/t/585
= CWA without Google +++ International development cooperation +++ KDE interview =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202012.fi.html ]
In our December Newsletter, read about the German Corona Warn App being
published independently to extend software freedom, learn about public
code in international development cooperation, enjoy an interview with
Cord-Landwehr from KDE about REUSE adoption, one about the Zurich local
group receiving a DINACon award and much more.
== German Corona tracing app available without Google services ==
Christian Grigis, Fynn Godau, Marcus Hoffmann and Marvin Wißfeld
achieved what official bodies have been missing for months: They have
made available the German "Corona Warn App" (CWA) for tracing Covid-19
risk contacts in a version that is completely free of dependencies on
Google and is available in F-Droid, the Free Software app store.
Initial release of the CWA was in June and the FSFE's demand that any
Corona tracking app must be used voluntarily and be Free Software [1]
has been followed. However, the implemented exchange of device keys via
Bluetooth, on the basis of which the risk is calculated, is handled by
an underlying interface called Exposure Notifications API, which was,
significantly, developed by Apple and Google and was largely
proprietary. One also had to use proprietary Google Play Services or the
iTunes store to install it.
So while on the one hand we were satisfied that the publicly funded CWA
has been released as Free Software, we raised the question what is all
this freedom worth if the solution depends on third-party proprietary
blobs? [2] And if one has to use proprietary software to install them?
=== Indepently published in F-Droid ===
A first major improvement towards fixing this issue was provided by Free
Software developer and FSFE supporter Marvin Wißfeld [3] in September.
He built the exposure notification functionality into microG [4], a Free
Software implementation of the proprietary Google services. This allowed
at least people who owned a Google-free Android phone [5] and had microG
installed to use various Corona apps.
A few days ago, Christian Grigis, Fynn Godau, Marcus Hoffmann and Marvin
Wißfeld went one step farther. They integrated the exposure notification
component of microG directly into the German Corona Warn App [6]. This
so-called Drop-In-Replacement enables even people who have neither the
Google services nor their Free Software alternative microG installed, to
use the CWA. They also made the app available on F-Droid [7], an app
store with exclusively Free Software.
We would like to thank all persons involved who made the use of the CWA
in Germany possible without having to accept any loss of software
freedom. Furthermore, the FSFE appeals to governments and
administrations to publish developed software as Free Software, to break
dependencies on Google's and Apple's app stores and instead make their
apps installable from independent sources like F-Droid and to renounce
proprietary dependencies.
== FSFE demands public code in international development cooperation ==
International development cooperation is increasingly digitised. Whether
in agriculture, industrial production, health care or public
administration, the development and maintenance of modern social
processes is no longer conceivable without software. Free Software thus
is becoming a fundamental technology to reach the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals. International development cooperation
strives to achieve the UN sustainability goals by improving global
conditions and the empowering of local partners. As in the case of
Software Freedom in general, in international development cooperation
existing dependencies should be reduced and new dependencies avoided at
all costs.
Together with experts in the field, the FSFE summarises these
interrelations in an article [8] and demands that publicly funded
software in international development cooperation be published as Free
Software [9].
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Start the new year as a supporter of the Free Software Foundation Europe
[10]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== Upcoming events ==
- Together with many other civil (digital) rights organisations, the
FSFE forms the cluster "about:freedom" [11] during the annual Chaos
Communication Congresses, which have come to be among the biggest
hacking-related events in Europe. The event takes place from the 27th
to the 30th of December. The schedule is not yet final but there will
be many talks about various topics regarding software freedom. From
the FSFE staffers, Lucas Lasota speaks about "Net neutrality 2.0:
Router Freedom and device neutrality in Europe".
- Our Pre-FOSDEM events [12] in the recent years have been highly
successful thanks to your contributions. Now we will go one step
further: integrate our fruitful exchange directly into FOSDEM! We are
therefore pleased to announce that we will co-organise the upcoming
Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom at FOSDEM 2021 [13]. The event will
take place online and we are looking forward to your exciting
submissions. The Call for Participation [14] is running until 20
December 2020.
== PMPC Video in Dutch ==
FSFE supporters from the Netherlands created a Dutch video translation
of the popular Public Money? Public Code! campaign video. After a sneak
preview on the 25th of November in the Netherlands online get-together,
you can now watch it yourself [15].
Nico Rikken, the FSFE coordinator Netherlands who mainly coordinated the
project, wrote a detailed blog-post about the whole process [16] - from
subtitle translation to the audio recording to its final editing and
mastering. Nico wrote it for your curiosity but also for you to pick it
up: /"I wrote this blogpost, to encourage you to do it too and save you
time by suggesting a methodology. In the process I learned some new
skills and got to use some free software that was new to me."/
With the Dutch version, the Public Money? Public Code! campaign video is
now translated and audio-dubbed in seven languages (DE, EN, FR, IT, NL,
PT, RU) and subtitled in nine languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, NL, PT, SK,
RU). If you would like to see your language added to the list, get in
contact with Nico or the FSFE.
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- In just three years, our REUSE initiative [17] has successfully
changed licensing practices of over five hundred projects. In 2020 one
of the biggest and oldest Free Software projects, the well-known KDE
community, included REUSE in their licensing policy and migrated all
their frameworks to the recommended standard. We took this opportunity
to speak with Andreas Cord-Landwehr, development engineer at KDE,
about REUSE adoption in the KDE community [18].
- In 2019, the FSFE's local group in Zurich launched the "Learn like the
pros" campaign [19]. The goal of the campaign is to present solutions
for the use of Free Software in education. Recently, the campaign was
awarded the DINACon Special Award. On this occasion, we interviewed
the local coordinators Ralf Hersel and Gian-Maria Daffré [20] about
the background and the success of this campaign.
- On the 25th of November the European Parliament adopted the resolution
"Towards a more sustainable single market for business and consumers"
[21] in which they call on the Commission "to establish a consumers’
‘right to repair". The document acknowledges the problems of software
obsolescence as a limitation to hardware's life-time longevity.
Unfortunately, the document misses the chance to tackle the problem
with solutions offered by Free Software licensing, e.g. the obligation
to freely license software code after its support ends. The FSFE will
follow the process and raise its voice for software freedom as a means
towards a more sustainable IT.
== From the Planet ==
- Bdale Garbee looks back on a long history of debian packaging and
encourages other Debian package maintainers with the right skills and
motivation to consider adopting some of his packages [22].
- Albert Astals Cid shows and explains software obsolescence he
experienced with his Android phone OnePlus2 and how he solved it using
the CustomROM LineageOS [23].
- Sebastian Schauenburg writes about his favorite terminals [24] and how
he solved a bug for the st terminal emulator.
== Get Active: 20 years of FSFE ==
This time we do not have a particular get active item for you but a
general reminder that next year we shall have had 20 years of FSFE and
we would like to celebrate that with you. So watch our news. There will
be some interesting backgrounds on the FSFE's history. We will introduce
you to some of our well-established community members and also dig into
past success stories as well as some funny fails we made. In particular
watch out for the several participative campaigns we are planning; we
look forward to seeing many of you taking part.
== Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project ==
We are currently running our second call for FSFE community projects
[25]. We happily support you with our expertise, our information
material, our networks, or even financially. Participating is as simple
as filling out a short online form [26] until 10 January 2021.
Among the successful applications in the last round is GnuLinux.ch,
which we support with promotion, a new logo, stickers, and a microphone
set for their regular podcast. Another project we will support is
Freedombox install events, which we will support with premises. If you
need support for a FSFE community project, don't hesitate to apply.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
looking forward 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 [27].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [28], supporters [29],
and donors [30] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [31], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [32]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [33]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200402-02.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200720-01.fi.html#id-health-care-apps-as-…
3: https://mastodon.social/@larma/104630652216622243
4: https://microg.org/
5: https://fsfe.org/activities/android/index.fi.html
6: https://codeberg.org/corona-contact-tracing-germany/cwa-android
7: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.corona.tracing/
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201210-01.fi.html
9: https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/developmentcooperation/index.fi.html#pmpc-for…
10: https://my.fsfe.org/donate
11: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom
12: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202002.fi.html#fsfe-pre-and-post-fosdem
13: https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/
14: https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2020q4/003145.html
15: https://publiccode.eu/nl/#about
16: https://blogs.fsfe.org/nico.rikken/2020/11/02/recording-a-public-money-publ…
17: https://reuse.software
18: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201215-01.fi.html
19: https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/
20: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201211-01.fi.html
21: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2020-0318_EN.html
22: https://gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/Shifting_Emphasis.html
23: https://tsdgeos.blogspot.com/2020/12/planned-obsolence-for-android-phones.h…
24: https://www.schauenburg.nl/posts/2020/11/11_st_xft_and_ubuntu.html
25: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201120-01.fi.html
26: https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.fi.html
27: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202012
28: https://fsfe.org/contribute
29: https://my.fsfe.org/support
30: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
31: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
32: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
33: https://community.fsfe.org/t/558
= Software Freedom 2020 +++ EU Open Source Strategy +++ New staffers =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202011.fi.html ]
In our Newsletter November, we review our annual report "Software
Freedom in Europe" and the new Free Software Strategy by the European
Commission. We have new staffers, a new call for FSFE community
projects, REUSE is taking off, the local group in Zurich received an
award, and so much more has happened to discover.
== Software Freedom in Europe 2020 ==
2020 is a year to remember. While many may remember the pandemic, there
have nevertheless been many positive changes in terms of Free Software
in recent months. In fact, a lot has changed. You can now read in one
document how busy our movement was in our annual report Software Freedom
in Europe 2020 [1].
The EU and the WHO followed our arguments [2] that publicly funded
Corona-related contact tracing apps should be published only under a
Free Software license. Several cities, including Munich, promised to
rely more on Free Software in the future. We convinced publicly funded
hackathons to publish their results as Free Software, and the largest
conservative party in Europe, the German CDU, resolved to join the FSFE
in demanding that software developed with public money should be
publicly available as Free Software.
We convinced the Board of European Regulators for Electronic
Communications to side with the FSFE's demand that any router and modem
be under the full control of the user [3]. With our REUSE initiative, we
aim to provide simple best practices and accompanying tools for machine-
readable licensing. KDE, one of the largest and oldest projects in our
community, adopted the REUSE guidelines in 2020. We now know of around
300 projects [4] which have benefitted from REUSE.
We participated in multiple European public consultations, introduced a
new way for our community to get their local community projects funded
[5], moved from physical to online events [6], had many exciting guests
in our regular Software Freedom Podcast [7], relaunched our website [8],
produced a new multilingual Free Software shirt, and there have been
many other activities to report.
Enjoy reading our annual report [9] and discover your personal favorite
success story of our community in 2020. This success is based on the
shoulders of all the people and communities who support our work.
Join our European movement now [10] and make our success your success.
== New EU Free Software Policy misses concrete ideas or actions ==
The EU Commission published its new "Open Source Strategy". While the
proposed strategy recognises the benefits of Free Software, it lacks
concrete targets and indicators to implement the strategy. Instead of
the hoped-for major step, which would reflect current developments
around the debates on digital sovereignty and state of the art
administration, the Commission has presented only a fig leaf. What the
European Commission presented is simply too little for a strategy [11].
With a lack of clear task descriptions and processes or concrete
guidelines for the implementation of wholehearted statements and
indicators to monitor success, we worry that the strategy will end up
accomplishing too little.
>From a general perspective, the strategy mainly repeats previous
commitments and activities; sustainable and verifiable approaches are
sought in vain. And while the benefits of Free Software are fully
emphasised and the Commission is on paper ambitious in its future use of
Free Software, concrete goals are rare and a clear commitment to the use
of Free Software is lacking.
With this little engagement from the EU Commission it is once more clear
to see how important civil society organisations like the FSFE are to
make our solutions heard. In contrast to the uninspiring strategy by the
central European technocratic institution, our direct bottom-up approach
helped many public administrations in Europe find the road to freedom
"by themselves" in 2020. Read in our annual report [12] about Munich,
Hamburg, Beniganim and the Netherlands taking steps towards more
software freedom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas is coming and our merchandise is a nice surprise for your
loved ones or yourself. Order now [13] before we run short.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== New staffers: Linda Wagener and Lina Ceballos ==
Linda Wagener joined the FSFE team as our new office assistant. Linda
has an M.A. in communication studies and is looking forward to
supporting the organisation and accounting of the FSFE, because - as
Linda states - /"I believe in the importance of the advancement of free
access to information and the means to study and understand the world."/
Lina Ceballos is our new intern until March 2021. Lina is an attorney
from Colombia with an M.A. in development and governance. Lina is
looking forward to working with our community and says: /"I am quite
excited to be part of this organisation, since one of my main drivers
has been always the construction of a more transparent and free society,
in this specific case in a digital society."/
== Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project ==
We are currently running our second call for FSFE community projects
[14]. We happily support you with our expertise, our information
material, our networks, or even financially. Participating is as simple
as filling out a short online form [15] until 10 January 2021.
Among the successful applications in the last round is GnuLinux.ch,
which we support with promotion, a new logo, stickers, and a microphone
set for their regular podcast. Another project we will support is
Freedombox install events, which we will support with premises. If you
need support for a FSFE community project, don't hesitate to apply.
== Upcoming events ==
Together with a lot of other civil (digital) rights organisations, the
FSFE forms the cluster "about:freedom" [16] during the annual Chaos
Communication Congresses, which have become one of the biggest hacking-
related events in Europe. The event takes place from the 27th to the
30th of December, this year for the first time online. We are currently
reviewing the proposals we received in our call for participation to
offer you a good choice of software freedom related content.
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- Our REUSE campaign is taking off. Some weeks ago KDE adopted the REUSE
guidelines and a new screencast has been produced [17] to show how to
make a repository REUSE compliant. Also the German Corona Warn App's
iOS version is REUSE compliant now [18] and we helped almost a hundred
projects so far that are supported by the FSFE's help in the NGI0
project [19] to do likewise.
- The local FSFE group in Zurich created a website called "Learning like
a pro" [20] (original German: "Lernen wie die Profis") that explains
the needs and benefits of using Free Software in education. It
proceeds describing individual Free Software solutions and how these
solutions in particular can be used to make school learning efficient
and easy. This project has now been awarded a special award by the
Dinacon conference [21] - a conference on digital sustainability. The
FSFE is proud of the Zurich local group's success and recommends that
you look at other interesting local projects in 2020 in our yearly
report [22]
- Several sessions were organised by the FSFE for this year's SFScon
[23]. We have a long-lasting relationship with that conference. Last
year we also celebrated our annual community meeting at SFScon [24].
This year, we focused on talks in which legal issues are clarified and
current political developments are analysed. Concrete practical
questions concerning compliance were addressed as well as questions
about machine learning and problems that arise in the development of a
free smartphone. In talks from our own staffers, Alexander Sander
talked about our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign [25] and Lucas
Lasota about the "Challenges ahead for software freedom in Europe"
[26].
- The FSFE participated in the consultation by the European Commission
regarding "Interoperable digital public services – European
Interoperability Framework evaluation & strategy" [27] in that we
highlighted the crucial role Free Software and Open Standards play for
interoperability.
- The FSFE demanded establishing Free Software as a standard for
publicly funded software and concrete data-oriented monitoring of the
adopted strategies with measurable reports of progress evaluation in
our consultation feedback for "eGovernment services across the EU
(ISA² programme) - final evaluation" [28] by the European Commission.
- Germany tested their public alert system with an official warning day
in September. The proprietary apps involved caused the event to become
an official failure. We analysed the situation [29] and found more
robust solutions that respect user rights.
- Thomas Friese published a blog post [30] (DE) in which he tells the
background story and gives insights on the creative work behind the
Software Freedom Podcast [31] jingle.
- A coalition of organisations in Switzerland produce the 7at7 event
series. In its November edition, the FSFE's There is no cloud [32]
campaign was part of a virtual exhibition on "campaigning for digital
rights" [33].
- From October 2020 until March 2021 our legal expert Lucas Lasota is
conducting a course on software licensing at Humboldt University of
Berlin [34].
- Our policy expert Alexander Sander gave talks about our "Public Money?
Public Code!" campaign at the openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual
Conference [35], at the Open Web Lounge / CMS Unconference [36], at
the Open Source Summit Europe, [37] and at FOSSCOMM2020 [38].
- Our president, Matthias Kirschner, gave a talk about "The long road to
freedom" [39] at the KNF Conference.
- Like many local FSFE groups, the Dutch country team now started with
regular online meetings.
== Get Equipped (aka Get Active) ==
Christmas is coming and if you'd like to make a loved one happy and
spread the message of Free Software at the same time, check out our
online shop [40]. We have a new multilingual Free Software shirt for men
and women, in beautiful colors and with a print of a big heart. Our "No
Cloud" and "Public Money? Public Code!" shirts go very well in any
professional setting, as well as in private. And our "100 Freedoms" puts
a smile on any insider's face.
We have buttons, magnets and for the parents we have our highly demanded
baby bibs and kid's t-shirts stating "I am a fork ()".
We cannot refill our stock before Christmas. So get your special present
[41] before it is too late!
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
looking forward 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 [42].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [43], supporters [44],
and donors [45] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [46], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
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Support us with your donation [47]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [48]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#europeanpolicies
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#routerfreedom
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#reuse
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#communityprojects
6: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#events
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#podcast
8: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#webpresence
9: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html
10: https://my.fsfe.org/donate
11: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201023-01.fi.html
12: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html
13: https://fsfe.org/order/order.fi.html
14: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201120-01.fi.html
15: https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.fi.html
16: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom
17: https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool#user-content-example-demo
18: https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios
19: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.fi.html#ngi0
20: https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/
21: https://awards.dinacon.ch/gewinner2020/
22: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201110-01.fi.html#communityprojects
23: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201019-01.fi.html
24: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191205-01.fi.html
25: https://www.sfscon.it/talks/public-money-public-code/
26: https://www.sfscon.it/talks/challenges-ahead-for-router-freedom-in-europe/
27: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…
28: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…
29: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201112-01.fi.html
30: https://tasmo.rocks/zwei-jingles/#der-jingle-zum-software-freedom-podcast
31: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast.fi.html
32: https://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.fi.html#nocloud
33: https://7at7.ch/nov2020/
34: https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/9fc90637b3b9487c84db/
35: https://events.opensuse.org/conferences/oSLO/program/proposals/3247
36: https://open-web-lounge.org/
37: https://osseu2020.sched.com/event/eCVu
38: https://pretalx.2020.fosscomm.gr/fosscomm-2020/talk/V3GTG8/
39: https://www.franken.de/veranstaltungen/kongress/knf-kongress-2020/
40: https://fsfe.org/order/index.fi.html
41: https://fsfe.org/order/index.fi.html
42: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202011
43: https://fsfe.org/contribute
44: https://my.fsfe.org/support
45: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
46: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
47: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
48: https://community.fsfe.org/t/550
= 35 years FSF +++ Participation at SFSCon +++ Technical job vacancy =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202010.fi.html ]
Read in our October newsletter about FSF's thirty-fifth anniversary, our
upcoming participation at SFSCon, our technical job vacancy, and our
other diverse community activities.
== Congratulations to the FSF on its thirty-fifth anniversary ==
35 years ago [1], our sister organisation, the Free Software Foundation
[2], was founded to work for users' freedoms to use, study, share, and
improve software with the introductory line that *"Our work will not be
finished until every computer user is able to do all of their digital
tasks in complete freedom"*. That is a promise that holds true even
after thirty-five years of working for software freedom and inspiring
countless people and many organisations to take a stand for user
freedoms. The FSFE's President, Matthias Kirschner, recorded a
congratulatory speech [3] in which he reflected on the importance the
FSF and our movement have had and continue to have over the years.
== Participation at SFSCon ==
The South Tyrolean Conference for Free Software, SFScon, is one of the
established annual conferences on Free Software in Europe. In recent
years we have been represented with lectures, workshops and our
information booth. Last year we also organised our Community Event in
the context of SFSCON, so that we could meet our community and also many
other interested people, and eventually reported about our work [4].
Due to the current situation, the 2020 edition of this event can only
take place in blended mode: both online and at NOI Techpark, for a
limited number of people. But of course, the FSFE is again contributing
to the programme.
We have organised seven lectures in which legal issues are clarified and
current political developments are analysed. Concrete practical
questions concerning compliance, for example for SMEs, will be
addressed, as well as questions about machine learning and problems
which arise in the development of a "free" smartphone. Here you find
more information on our track and the SFSCon2020 [5]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical
distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including
our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive,
please consider donating a part of your conference budget to Free
Software organisations, including the FSFE [6].
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== Technical job vacancy ==
The FSFE is looking for a working student [7] to support our work to
empower people to control technology. The person will work 10 hours per
week in the Berlin office (home office possible at a later stage) and
will support the FSFE's technical infrastructure by working closely
together with our system administrators. Deadline to apply is Sunday, 15
November 2020. Please share this with others you know who might be
interested.
== Upcoming events ==
- At the OSSEU2020 Alexander Sander will talk [8] about how Free
Software enables global solutions for global problems.
- At the Privacy Week Alexander Sander will talk [9] about our "Public
Money? Public Code!" campaign and why Free Software helps to tackle a
global crisis.
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- For the seventh episode of our Software Freedom Podcast [10] we talked
with Vincent Lequertier about transparency, fairness, and
accessibility as crucial criteria for artificial intelligence (AI) and
why it is important for our society to release AI software under a
Free Software license.
- In his keynote at Software Freedom Kosova 2020 [11] Alexander Sander,
FSFE's EU Public Policy Manager, provided a brief overview of the
FSFE's previous and ongoing activities to foster software freedom in
Europe, on the levels of politics, legal work with enterprises, and
general public awareness. The keynote was followed by a workshop two
weeks later.
- At the "openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual Conference" (oSLO), Alexander
Sander gave a talk [12] about the advantages of using Free Software in
the public sector, about what we have learnt from the corona crisis,
and why it is even more important to use Free Software now than ever
before.
- We are grateful to Lioh Möller who coordinated the FSFE country team
Switzerland and welcome the new coordinator Gian-Maria Daffré with
Ralf Hersel as vice-coordinator. The Swiss group is well known for
their Free Software education portal Lernen wie die Profis (learning
like a pro) [13] and the news-zine and podcast gnulinux.ch [14].
- The Berlin coordinator Erik Grun together with Katja Jäger gave a talk
[15] about Free Software for the digital society in education at the
re:publica campus in Berlin.
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We are
looking forward 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 [16].
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [17], supporters [18],
and donors [19] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [20], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editors, Erik Albers and Alexander Sander
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Support us with your donation [21]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss this [22]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://www.fsf.org/events/fsf35
2: https://fsf.org
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201009-01.fi.html
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191205-01.fi.html
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201019-01.fi.html
6: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
7: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20201005-01.fi.html
8: https://osseu2020.sched.com/event/eCVu
9: https://cfp.privacyweek.at/pw20/talk/BU7HK9/
10: https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-7.fi.html
11: https://sfk.flossk.org/
12: https://events.opensuse.org/conferences/oSLO/program/proposals/3247
13: https://lernenwiedieprofis.ch/
14: https://gnulinux.ch/
15: https://campus.re-publica.com/en/session/freie-software-digitale-gesellscha…
16: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202009
17: https://fsfe.org/contribute
18: https://my.fsfe.org/support
19: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
21: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
22: https://community.fsfe.org/t/531
= "A place for public code" +++ FSFE support +++ Job vacancy =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202009.fi.html ]
Read in our September newsletter about a new strong alliance formed by
administrations, business and civil society organisations asking for "A
place for public code". Also read about our call to apply for FSFE
support for your local project, our job vacancy, and about our other
diverse community activities.
== "A place for public code" ==
A special interest group composed of the FSFE and many other civil
society organisations as well as major German municipalities like Munich
and Frankfurt has published a working paper (DE) [1] as a first concept
for a common code repository for the public sector. Under the slogan "A
place for public code" [2], the interest group now wants to pave the way
for one portal through which the public administration in Germany can
exchange and jointly develop Free Software in an adequate and legally
compliant manner.
With the slogan "Public Money? Public Code!", the FSFE has been
campaigning since 2017 that publicly financed code developments should
be published under a Free Software license. Facilitating the exchange of
this software is just as important as its publication. And while other
countries in Europe lead the way with other approaches but similar
initiatives - for example the Technology Transfer Centre [3] in Spain or
Etalab [4] in France - in the biggest economy in Europe, "a common place
to exchange this software within public institutions is still missing in
Germany", explains Alexander Sander, EU Policy Manager of FSFE.
The initiative invites administrations, politicians and the Free
Software community and other interested stakeholders to participate in
the discussion and to further develop the concept.
== Call to apply for FSFE support for your local project ==
>From international campaigns to local information booths, our successful
spreading of software freedom is based on many shoulders from active
members within our community. The FSFE has always been keen on
supporting initiatives and activities from local FSFE groups to single
supporters. We happily support you with our expertise, our information
material, our networks, or even financially.
To help formalize our support we will from now on run a call for FSFE
community projects [5] every two months. Participating in the first
edition is as simple as filling out a short online form [6] until 4
October 2020.
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The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical
distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including
our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive,
please consider donating a part of your conference budget to Free
Software organisations, including the FSFE [7].
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== Job Vacancy ==
The FSFE is looking for an office assistant to support our work to
empower people to control technology. The person will work 15-35 hours
per week with our team in the Berlin office and will support the FSFE's
Berlin office operations. Deadline to apply is Sunday 4 October 2020.
Please share this with others you know who might be interested.
== What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE ==
- On Saturday 12 September we ran our first online web-a-thon. Nine
participants joined us full- or part-time for one day to update and
improve our webpage with translations, content and technical issues.
Among the visible things we updated were our about [8] page and our
contact [9] page. This is in line with major improvements we already
did throughout the year on our activities [10] page, our team [11]
page and our front page [12]. If you would like to help us with our
web-development, join our web team [13].
- On 18 September, the FSFE's Policy Manager Alexander Sander gave a
talk at the esLibre conference [14] about the advantages of using Free
Software in the public sector.
- On 10 September, Alexander Sander gave a lightning talk at the State
of the Source Summit about "Public Money? Public Code! – Global
problems need global solutions!"
- A local TV station located at the biggest lake of central Europe, the
lake of Constance, created a special episode [15] about the background
of Free Software and its use in the educational sector and during
apprenticeships. Among the interviewees is Peter Bittner who also
managed to promote the FSFE with prominent use of our promotion
material.
== Get Active ==
If you are a supporter of the FSFE and you have a project you have
wanted to do for a long time, apply for funding [16] by the FSFE and
make it happen. If you are a supporter but you have no project in hand,
look for a local group [17] in your vicinity or create one. And if you
are not a supporter yet - time to join the FSFE now [18].
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking
forward 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:
https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202009 [19]
Thanks to our community and all the volunteers [20], supporters [21],
and donors [22] who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators [23], who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.
Your editor, Erik Albers
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Support us with your donation [24]
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Discuss this [25]
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
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Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
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Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1: https://download.fsfe.org/policy/papers/20200910-Ein-Ort-fuer-oeffentlichen…
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200910-01.fi.html
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180601-01.fi.html
4: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200609-01.fi.html
5: https://fsfe.org/news/2020/news-20200907-01.html
6: https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html
7: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
8: https://fsfe.org/about/about.fi.html
9: https://fsfe.org/contact/contact.fi.html
10: https://fsfe.org/activities/activities.fi.html
11: https://fsfe.org/about/team.fi.html
12: https://fsfe.org/index.fi.html
13: https://fsfe.org/contribute/web/web.en.html
14: https://eslib.re/2020/programa/
15: https://bodenseetv.ch/2020/09/
16: https://fsfe.org/community/projects-call/projects-call.html
17: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups
18: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
19: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-202009
20: https://fsfe.org/contribute
21: https://my.fsfe.org/support
22: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus
23: https://fsfe.org/contribute/translators
24: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl
25: https://community.fsfe.org/t/511
