1. Henrik Sandklef becomes a member of the FSFE association 2. Fellowship a big success 3. Karsten Gerloff begins internship with FSFE 4. Freedom Party in Berlin 5. Free Software Workshop in Damascus 6. Conference on Free Software in Istanbul 7. Free Software Conference in Sarajevo 8. Linuxforum in Copenhagen 9. Microsoft trial getting increased public attention 10. Georg Greve visits FSF in Boston
1. Henrik Sandklef becomes a member of the FSFE association
Henrik Sandklef, who has been a member of the Swedish FSFE team for several years, has now become an official member of the association. This will strengthen the FSFE in Sweden politically and operationally.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/about/members.en.html
2. Fellowship a big success
The Fellowship of FSFE, officially announced on 28 February 2005, has already become a huge success. More than 300 people already registered within the first month, and more than 180 of them have activated their @fsfe.org email address, blogging on https://www.fsfe.org, and are looking forward to their personalised crypto cards, which are being prepared right now. If you have not yet signed up to protect your freedom, please do!
3. Karsten Gerloff begins internship with FSFE
After the experience with FSFE's first intern Matthias Kirschner was so positive, FSFE is more than happy to have found Karsten Gerloff to continue this work. Karsten is studying Applied Cultural Sciences at the University of Lüneburg and is working closely with Georg Greve in Hamburg. The focus of his activities is the Fellowship. If you want to know how he is doing, you can check out his blog.
https://www.fsfe.org/Members/gerloff/blog/
4. Freedom Party in Berlin
At the Freedom Party in Berlin, Fellows and interested users got together to celebrate the launch of the Fellowship. At the invitation of the FSFE and the Newthinking Network, about eighty guests exchanged inside knowledge on Free Software, watched a demonstration of the cryptocard, and had a good time.
https://www.fsfe.org/news/party2
5. Free Software Workshop in Damascus
Karin Kosina and Jonas Öberg gave talks at the Free Software Workshop in Damascus, Syria. Karin spoke about the economic aspects of Free Software and Jonas talked about formal education on Free Software on a university level. This was an interesting opportunity to get into contact with the Free Software community in the Middle East, and we are happy to see the the global Free Software network getting stronger all the time.
6. Conference on Free Software in Istanbul
A conference on Free Software was held at Istanbul Bilgi University, having the focus on the opportunities Free Software offers for the Turkish economy. Georg Greve and Matthias Kirschner had very interesting discussions with local Free Software activists and Georg Greve spoke on commercial, practical and sociological aspects of Free Software and the GNU Project.
7. Free Software Conference in Sarajevo
Alessandro Rubini has been at the Engineering Faculty in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he held a conference about "Free Software in a Free Society". During his staying at the University, in an activity sponsored by "Fondazione Willy Brandt", based in Rome, he managed to build the initial ties with relevant user-group members and some faculty staff that may help in setting up a local FSFE chapter in the future.
8. Linuxforum in Copenhagen
LinuxForum 2005 was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The FSF Europe was represented by Henrik Sandklef, together with the Danish organisation IT-Politisk Forening that is working for information freedom in Denmark.
9. Microsoft trial getting increased public attention
After it became apparent that Microsoft continued trying to drag its feet on the December 2004 decision of the European Court, FSFE and the Samba Team have now decided to take the initiative and present the European Commission with the exact terms to set for Microsoft in order to implement the EC antitrust decision. This created a very strong and positive media echo for Free Software in many major publications, such as the Wall Street Journal.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q1/000097.html
10. Georg Greve visits FSF in Boston
March was also the month during which Georg Greve took the time to visit FSFE's sister organisation, the Free Software Foundation in the United States and spend some time with its employees and directors. He also participated again in FSF's yearly Associate Member Meeting, where he kept the people supporting FSF in the United States informed about what is going on in Europe.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html