= CDU wants public code +++ Community Meeting +++ 36C3 =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201912.it.html ]
The last Newsletter of the year ends with exciting news for software
freedom: the biggest conservative party in Europe, the German CDU,
endorsed the principle that software developed with public money should
be under a Free Software License. We further invite you to to read about
the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months and to dig into
Florian Snow's report of our Annual Community Meeting 2019. Also you
find an outlook on our participation at the biggest hacking related
conference in Europe, the 36C3 and a call for your support and help to
continue our mission towards empowering users to control technology.
== Biggest conservative party in Europe aligns with our demand for public code ==
During the last week of November, Germany's conservative party "CDU" had
their 32nd Annual Conference in Leipzig. As part of the event, the party
updated their convention and included a tribute towards Free Software in
their Chapter for Digital Innovation. With this update, the CDU resolved
to join the FSFE in demanding that software developed with public money
should be publicly available as Free Software [1].
The CDU's party convention resolution states: "[...] This is why the
following will apply to all (public) digitalisation projects in Germany
in the future: the awarding of contracts and funding will be subject to
compliance with the principles of open source and open standards.
Software financed by public funds should serve all citizens. In
addition, free and open APIs should facilitate access for independent
developments." (Translation provided by the FSFE)
We are happy to see that the good energy and resources the FSFE
community dedicates on creating, translating and promoting the
campaign's objectives keeps increasing support from major public
stakeholders. "We now expect the CDU to immediately work within the
government to create the legal basis for publicly funded software to be
released under a Free- and Open-Source Software license." says Matthias
Kirschner, President of the FSFE.
== End of the Year Retrospective ==
At the end of this Year, we are inviting you to take a moment to read
about the important things the FSFE has done and achieved during the
last 12 months. In our recently published Annual Report [2] we cover the
biggest and most important activities of the FSFE in 2019. You will find
insights about our campaigns and projects, about our policy work, our
community and its members.
Read for example about the first Parliament in Europe who joined our
demand for public code or about how we aim at bringing together
environmental communities and digital rights communities to discover the
sustainability of Free Software. Maybe you are interested in our write-
up of the updated set of best practices within our REUSE project or you
like to discover the diverse community who form the FSFE ... Whatever
you are most into, enjoy the read [3], discover your personal favourites
and be assured that we keep on advocating for software freedom in Europe
throughout 2020!
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== Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE ==
- The FSFE will be present at the annual Chaos Communication Congress,
the 36C3, happening from 27 to 30 December in Leipzig. We will host
our own assembly [5] and organize the cluster "about:freedom" [6]. A
cluster that brings together like-minded organizations from the
digital-rights hemisphere and also from the environmental communities
within our child-cluster "about:future" [7]. As usual the FSFE is
running its own track with many sessions and workshops, covering
various topics regarding Free Software. Find more info in our event
announcement [8] and If you are going to 36C3, check out the regularly
updated wiki page [9].
- As every year, the FSFE will be present at FOSDEM, Europeans biggest
Free Software conference with a booth and talks. More details about
our participation at FOSDEM will follow in January.
== What have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==
- On November 28, the Local Group of FSFE in Zurich organised a workshop
[10] under the name "There is no cloud, just other people's
computers". The participants were shown how to run "their own cloud"
where they can store and share files, photos, contacts, calendars and
more. All attendies were given the opportunity to try different cloud
services.
- From November 15 to 16 we have been inviting to this year's FSFE
Community Meeting that was composed of social meetups, breakout-
sessions, future-plannings and an official track organised by the FSFE
as part of the SFSCon. If you like to get a feeling of the good vibe
we had, read the report by Florian Snow [11]. But also if you like to
catch up on the talks and presentations we had, you find slides and
videos of most of the presentations linked from the same report.
- We have a new multilingual t-shirt [12] in our shop: Now you can show
your love for Free Software in 24 languages! Get one for Christmas or
at least before the next "I love Free Software"-Day [13] : )
- Surprise your friends, families or colleagues with our special edition
of Christmas cards [14] dedicated to the 4 freedoms to use, study,
share, and improve.
== Get Active ==
2019 was a year with a lot of challenges and we have seen quite some
changes within the Free Software environment. On one hand Free Software
usage is as widespread as never before and our "Public Money? Public
Code!" campaign receives a lot of endorsement - on the other hand Free
Software is constantly under threat. Big economic players buy into Free
Software and politicians create laws that directly endanger software
freedom. Not to forget that with every proprietary app developed by a
public authority or solely offered on a proprietary platform, more
citizens are forced every day to expel their freedom. And with every app
more, the threshold gets higher for everyone to break free from the
proprietary world and from vendor lock-ins.
Since 2001, the FSFE promotes software freedom and on this road we have
achieved many things - but protecting freedom never ends. Help us
mastering the upcoming challenges and support software freedom in Europe
by donating to us now: https://my.fsfe.org/donate [15]
== Contribute to our newsletter ==
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to
us. As always, the address is newsletter(a)fsfe.org. We're looking forward
to hearing from you!
If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and
support us with a donation or a monthly contribution:
https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911 [16]
Thanks to our community, 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.
Best Regards,
Erik Albers
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1: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191125-01.it.html
2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.it.html
3: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191022-01.it.html
4: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201912
5: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:Free_Software_F…
6: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom
7: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:future
8: https://fsfe.org/events/index.it.html#id-the-fsfe-assembly-at-the-chaos-com…
9: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2019/wiki/index.php/Assembly:About:freedom
10: https://www.digicomp.ch/events/it-professionals-events/referat-free-softwar…
11: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20191205-01.it.html
12: https://fsfe.org/order/index.it.html#tshirt-multilingual-black
13: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/index.it.html
14: https://fsfe.org/order/#card-christmas-blue
15: https://my.fsfe.org/donate
16: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=nl-201911
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-201912