== FSFE honoured with Theodor Heuss Medal - "trendsetting organisation" ==
[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100126-01.en.html ]
26th January 2010, 09:00 am CET, Berlin, Germany
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) receives this year's Theodor
Heuss Medal for its extraordinary work for equitable participation in
the information society. Since 2001 FSFE has been committed to the
freedom to use, investigate, modify and redistribute software in all
parts of society and politics. Theodor Heuss Foundation states: "FSFE as
a forward thinking organisation contributes to the development and
establishment of rules for good global governance."
"Free Software is an indispensable component of a free society in the
digital age. It ensures equal access to the information society for
everyone, " says Karsten Gerloff, President of FSFE, commenting on the
award.
"A small group of people who were ahead of their time founded Free
Software Foundation Europe in November 2000. They have worked for that
success tirelessly and with great personal commitment," Gerloff
emphasises. "Special credit is due to the initiator of FSFE, Georg Greve
and co-founder Bernhard Reiter. Georg Greve took on substantial personal
risk to get the organisation off the ground, and until 2009 presided
over its growth. For many years, Bernhard Reiter built up the German
team to become one of the strongest groups for Free Software in Europe."
"We founded the Free Software Foundation Europe to serve as an
independent organisation, fighting for the freedom of society in the
digital age. Our work is both about freedom from surveillance and
monitoring as well as about freedom for personal initiative in all its
forms," Georg Greve explains. "From the very beginning, the organisation
has taken a long-term view, distributing its work for sustainable change
across many shoulders."
"From the start, we designed the organisation to work independently of
any specific person," adds Bernhard Reiter. "We wanted FSFE to accompany
the changes in society for the coming decades. Today FSFE is supported
and protected by many dedicated people."
Matthias Kirschner, Germany Coordinator of FSFE, comments: "The Medal
goes to all those who have been contributing to FSFE's success over the
years with their considerable initiative and personal commitment. But
there is still much more to do in a world where software is everywhere.
Our work is reaching more and more people, from the United Nations to
our towns and villages. For this, we need broad support. Contributors
are always welcome!
== More Information ==
- What is Free Software: http://fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.en.html
- FSFE's work: http://fsfe.org/projects/work.en.html
- Donate: http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
- Contribute: http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org
Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298
Matthias Kirschner, German coordinator
+49-30-27595290
http://www.fsfe.org/contact/
== About the Theodor Heuss Stiftung ==
The Theodor Heuss Stiftung is above party lines and carries the name
of Germany's first president (term in office 1949 - 59). After his
death the foundation was founded by Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, his son
Ernst Ludwig Heuss, and some friends, to remind of the political
achievements of Theodor Heuss as an example for social commitment,
moral courage and the dedication to foster democracy. The foundation
seeks "to bring attention to something, which has to be done and
shaped in our democracy, without being finished" (Carl Friedrich v.
Weizsäcker, 1965). The Theodor Heuss price is given annually to
persons of high standing and organisations, which are pathbreaking in
this respect.
FSFE Newsletter - December 2009
Despite the temperatures dropping below zero all over Europe and the
Christmas holidays approaching, FSFE kept working as usual for software
freedom. The major news of December are that we have begun to
restructure our website, added Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as webmaster deputy
coordinator, and published a statement on the EC's settlement with
Microsoft in the browser antitrust case. Read on to learn more about
what we did in December.
Moreover, let us offer you our best wishes for a great and Free 2010!
Giacomo Poderi
1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the public sector, 21 Dec
2. Restructuring FSFE's website
3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson
4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster deputy coordinator
5. November Fellowship grants
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software is excluded from interoperability
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information
UPCOMING EVENTS
8. Election for Fellowship GA representative
1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the
public sector, 21 Dec
Various Fellows participated in an interesting jabber meeting on Free
Software in the public administration. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's
president, chaired the meeting and brought his sound experience on the
topic into the chat-room. The ISO standardization process, Open
Standards, procurement rules in the Netherlands, and Free Software in
the Swiss Federal Court and Munich were discussed for nearly two
hours. As usual the conversation went on much longer in an informal
way, after the official closure of the meeting.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/blog/2009/12/18/what-do-your-taxes-buy-free-software-…
2. Restructuring FSFE's website
In order to make FSFE's work more accessible, the web team this month
started work on a major restructuring of fsfe.org's content and
usability. The website wasn't originally designed to include so many
documents and information related to so many different domains: from
the legal to the political, from the educational to the community
oriented and more. The time has now arrived to improve its structure,
and so that it can reflect the diversity and quality of FSFE's
work. The web team's goal is to make our website easier to browse and
to read, and make it possible to find information much faster. If you
would like to help...join the web team!
http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/web/index.en.htmlhttp://home.e-tjenesten.org/~ato/2009/12/restructuring-fsfe-website
3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson
This month, Stian Rødven Eide interviewed Simon Josefsson. Simon is a
Fellow and 'old' established GNU hacker with interest in security, who
in November received the Nordic Free Software Award. His contributions
to the Free Software world include such ubiquitous projects as GnuTLS
and Libssh2. In the interview, Stian and Simon talk about differences
between proprietary and Free Software in relation to security issues,
discuss encryption, DNS and different projects that Simon is involved
in, such as GnuTLS, GNU SASL and GSS. Read the interview at:
http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=98
4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster
deputy coordinator
After contributing to FSFE's web team for three years, Andreas Tolf
Tolfsen has taken on the role of webmaster deputy coordinator within
FSFE, becoming part of the European core team. Andreas is a Norwegian
Free Software activists with years of experience on web design and web
technologies. Together with Reinhard Muller, webmaster coordinator,
Rolf Camps, deputy coordinator, and the web team, Andreas' first big
challenge will be the restructuring of FSFE's website. At the same
time, he will work on the setting up of a Norwegian country
team. Welcome on board Andreas!
http://www.fsfe.org/about/team.htmlhttp://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=79
5. November Fellowship grants
The Fellowship grants project we launched in November generated a
great response in the Free Software community. We received many
outstanding applications by activists coming from all over Europe:
choosing the first three people to receive the grants was not easy at
all. Finally, Alexjan Carraturo from Italy, Ferdinand Thommes from
Germany and Matija Šuklje from Slovenia stood out from the evaluation
process due to their lasting and diverse contributions to Free
Software. We welcome them in the Fellowship!
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software
is excluded from interoperability
FSFE congratulated the European Commission on pushing Microsoft to
give users greater choice between different browsers. The settlement
that the Commission reached on the Microsoft's browser case is an
improvement from the scenario that FSFE criticised this October.
In early 2010, Microsoft will provide the users of its operating
systems with a ballot screen that should make it easy for users to
chose between different web browsers. The screen will suggests various
browsers available on the market, Free Software ones included.
This settlement relates to only one of the two issues that Microsoft
currently faces with the EU Commission. FSFE also congratulates the
Commission for the decision to keep open the investigation on
Microsoft's refusal to let other products interoperate with its own
desktop programs. Microsoft has offered a voluntary commitment, but
FSFE warns that this will not be enough for real competition to
develop.
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091216-01.html
Relevant links:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1941http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091008-01.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091006-01.html
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information
During December 2007, as a consequence of the drawn-out EU vs Microsft
antitrust case, the Samba team was finally able to receive Microsoft's
network interoperability information. The specifications were
requested with a one-time access fee of 10.000 EUR for full access to
crucial information. This event marked an important victory for
competition in the IT market. It was a great achievement for Free
Software, FSFE and the Samba team.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2008q1/000193.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
8. Election for Fellowship GA representative
During the whole month of February 2010 it will be possible to vote
for the second Fellowship representative in FSFE's General Assembly
(GA). Fellows will soon have the chance to declare their candidature
and to vote again for participation in FSFE's highest decision-making
body. We encourage you to run for the second seat!
http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090601-01.htmlhttp://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html
You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html
You can order our merchandise at
http://fsfe.org/order/order.html
Copyright 2009, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr(a)fsfeurope.org>.
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