= Summit Meeting of UK and International NGOs calls upon UK Government
to deliver on Open Standards =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120425-02.en.html ]
The Free Software Foundation Europe held a summit meeting on Monday of
Free Software and Open Standards experts. Hosted by the BCS Open Source
Specialist Group, the meeting was called in reaction to the ongoing
public consultation by the Cabinet Office on the use of Open Standards
in Government [1]. It was triggered by concerns over the currently
proposed policy, which would discriminate against the use of Free
Software in the public sector, thanks to a definition which would allow
Government to adopt standards which impose charges, prohibiting its use [2].
"The policy being proposed in the consultation would constitute a u-turn
from the Government's commitment to a level playing field for software
and for businesses promised last year [3]" said Sam Tuke, UK Coordinator
of FSFE. "Lobbying and deliberation have resulted in another year of
Britain falling behind neighbouring countries in realising the savings
and interoperability benefits of Free Software [4][5][6]".
Gerry Gavigan, chair of the Open Source Consortium said: “The government
has been talking about the need for open standards since 2002. In the
meantime the oligopoly gripping public sector IT, first officially
identified in 2004, continues, as does the use of restrictive and choice
limiting proprietary standards for software".
Graham Taylor, Chief Executive, Open Forum Europe said: “Government
needs to move beyond policy setting and deliver on its past promises. It
is right to see public procurement as the focus for its activities, but
to change past behaviour it needs to invest more in education, and be
willing to be more prescriptive in its dealing with procurement decisions”.
Simon Phipps, a Director of the Open Source Initiative said: "OSI has
long asserted that unrestricted open standards are essential for open
source; the Open Standards Requirement of 2006 [7] explains why. We join
other groups serving the UK in calling on the government to embrace a
truly open standards requirement."
Jim Killock, Executive Director of ORG said: "Open Standards are best
when they are free to use, and can't be hijacked and stifled.
Unfortunately, some major software companies want to have vetoes and
decide where payments are made. While governments need flexibility, they
should be clear that royalty free standards will ensure greater
competition and innovation."
Howard Thomson, Treasurer, and Martin Houston, Council Member, of FLOSS
UK said: "Adopting open standards and freedom from having to pay license
fees for intellectual property just to implement those standards is
vital for the future efficient use of IT in this country, giving good
value for money to the taxpayer and the opportunity for a vibrant local
IT culture to benefit everyone."
A group of attendees also agreed jointly to urge the Government to stay
committed to its stated goals of openness and competition, and
published a joint statement [8] pledging to assist in the process of
practically implementing an open standards policy.
== Links ==
[1] http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/
[2] http://fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-analysis.en.html#3
[3]
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/how-microsoft-lobb…
[4]
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2011/02/prime-minister-pu…
[5]
https://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/252921/munich_mayor_says_swi…
[6]
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/1761/european-public-services-mu…
[7] http://opensource.org/osr-intro
[8] http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120425-01.en.html
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in the
information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the furthering of
Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study, modify and copy.
Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues, securing Free
Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by
supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.
http://www.fsfe.org/
== About the Open Source Consortium ==
Open Source Consortium is a UK based association of firms and
individuals that deliver solutions and advice based on Open Standards
and Free & Open Source Software. We campaign ceaselessly for the use of
Open Standards in all aspects of public and commercial life, promoting
the unique advantages of Free & Open Source Software and welcome anyone
that supports our aims and objective. http://www.opensourceconsortium.org/
== About the Open Source Initiative ==
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation with global
scope formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open
source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open
source community. http://opensource.org
== About FLOSS UK ==
Free and Libre Open Source Software UK is for people who care about Open
IT standards and the systems that implement them. We promote education
and understanding through our newsletter, regular briefings and
conferences. We are independent of any industry groupings and are
not-for-profit. We value intelligence, thoughtfulness and long-term
thinking rather than immediacy and froth. http://www.flossuk.org/
== About Open Rights Group ==
Open Rights Group is the UK’s leading voice defending freedom of
expression, privacy, innovation, creativity and consumer rights on the
net. We campaign to change public policy whenever your rights are
threatened, by talking to policy-makers, informing the public through
the media, and mobilising our supporters. Founded in 2005 by 1,000
digital activists, ORG is a non-profit organisation.
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/
= Press contacts =
Howard Thomson, FLOSS UK : howard.thomson(a)dial.pipex.com, 077 7091 7538
Martin Houston, FLOSS UK : mhoust42(a)gmail.com
Sam Tuke, FSFE : samtuke(a)fsfe.org, 0049 30275 95290
Graham Taylor, OFE : graham(a)openforumeurope.org
Peter Bradwell, ORG : peter(a)openrightsgroup.org
Gerry Gavigan, OSC : gerry.gavigan(a)opensourceconsortium.org, 077 8755 8976
Simon Phipps, OSI : webmink(a)opensource.org, 023 8098 7027
= Is vendor lock-in costing Helsinki 3.4 million Euros per year? =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120412-01.en.html ]
A report on the City of Helsinki's pilot project for the use of
OpenOffice in the public administrations leaves the public with more
questions than answers. The city trialled the Free Software productivity
suite on the laptops of council members for ten months in 2011. The
suite enjoyed high approval rates among its users. When the pilot was
finished, the City produced a report stating that the costs of migrating
the entire administration to OpenOffice would be very high.
"The City's report claims that it would cost EUR 3.4 million per year to
run OpenOffice. This figure appears surprisingly high, and the report
does not say how it was calculated," says Otto Kekäläinen", Finland
coordinator of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "Without details,
this figure seems baseless." Apparently, Helsinki's administration did
not even contact major OpenOffice service providers to ask for their
prices when preparing the report.
The City of Helsinki should answer the following questions:
- How were the figures calculated? The City needs to provide details to
make them credible.
- How much of the migration cost is due to lock-in?
- Which service providers were contacted to ask for prices?
Much of the purported high costs appear to stem from the fact that the
City is locked into the products of a single software vendor. The City
uses a large number of Microsoft products, and each of them makes it
harder to replace any component of the city's IT infrastructure with
programs from other vendors.
"The city should make it clear how much of the costs quoted in the
reports stem actually from rolling out OpenOffice, and how much is
merely the cost of breaking free from Microsoft's proprietary file
formats and interfaces," says Kekäläinen.
It also appears that the pilot program suffered from a number of
conceptual errors. For example, users involved in the pilot program did
not receive training. Though support for Microsoft's latest proprietary
file formats is normally included in OpenOffice, the version installed
on the council members' computers did not support those formats. This
meant that participants in the pilot program experienced problems
exchanging data with the rest of the administration which users of the
normal, full-featured OpenOffice version would not have experienced.
Even so, most participants in the pilot projects declared themselves
happy with the Free Software office suite.
"Many other cities have done before what Helsinki claims to be trying to
do here", says Kekäläinen. "There are many good examples and helpful
contacts out there, whether in Sweden, Munich or Spain. The experienced
people there can help Helsinki achieve its Free Software goals a lot
more quickly and at a lower cost."
FSFE has published an analysis of the report at
http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120412-02.en.html
FSFE works for the public good. Its activities can be supported by
signing up at fsfe.org/support.
== Contact ==
=== Finland ===
Otto Kekäläinen
FSFE Coordinator, Finland
otto(a)fsfe.org
+358 44 566 2204
=== International ===
Karsten Gerloff
FSFE President
gerlofffsfe.org
+49 176 9690 4298
If you wish to receive further updates, subscribe to our press release
mailing list at http://fsfe.org/press.
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
= Report of Document Freedom Day 2012 =
[Read online:
http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2012/news-20120403-01.en.html]
Document Freedom Day 2012 was a great success! America, Asia, Africa
and Europe celebrated together Open Standards at 54 events. It is
no doubt that DFD is growing and we believe that it will be even more
successful next year. So what about having look at what happened
around the world on 28th of March? And what has the Pope to do with
Open Standards? Read our detailed report to find out.
This year was the most powerful DFD day in the history! And we are
proud to say that. Our DFD team and amazing volunteers managed to
get on board more than 50 local organisers all around the world. One
of the most active countries that deserves our respect is Venezuela
with 10 events in a single country. The Document Freedom Day 2012 was
celebrated in 22 countries and in 19 world languages. Our fifth year
of organising this event got considerable press coverage with
almost one hundred articles. All this was possible thanks to the
support of our two main sponsors, Google and Oracle, and help of
hundreds of volunteers and 38 partners spread in all the corners of
the world.
Full report with additional information and pictures:
http://www.documentfreedom.org/news/2012/news-20120403-01.en.html
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
== About Document Freedom Day ==
Document Freedom Day (DFD) campaigns to celebrate information
accessibility and introduce non-technical audiences to Open Standards.
Open Standards are a basic condition for freedom and choice in
software; ensuring the freedom to access data, and the freedom to
build Free Software to read and write information. Started in 2008,
the campaign has resulted in hundreds of
events worldwide, and this year will take place on March 28th. This
year 28 partners are supporting DFD.
http://documentfreedom.org
Contact: Matthias Kirschner, Free Software Foundation Europe,
Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290, m +49-1577-1780003
= FSFE Newsletter - April 2012 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201204.en.html ]
== Let us end all Free Software "projects" quickly! ==
A "project" is always temporary, in the narrow sense of the term. Some
Free Software people use "project" to refer to long lasting initiatives
instead. Your editor also did this, until Bernhard Reiter convinced him
to use different terms for people, the result they create, and temporary
concerted actions. After several people in FSFE encouraged Bernhard to
write down his thoughts, he now published an article arguing[1]: By
adopting the more widespread use of the term project, Free Software
initiatives will be more successful. "Free Software is here to stay,
prepare your mind for this situation.", writes Bernhard.
1.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard/2012/03/lets-end-all-free-software-projects-…
== Corporate perk or monopolist bribery? ==
Staff in the European Parliament are facing a challenge to their ethics.
A company is offering all of them a gift which could compromise their
independence. The company in question is Microsoft, and the gift is a
bunch of proprietary programs. Through the Parliament's administration,
Microsoft is offering staff (though probably not MEPs) gratis licenses
to Microsoft Office, Project, and Visio. This happens under the so-
called "Home Use Program".
The staff is working on regulations that also effect Microsoft, who is
now making a gift to them. Staff is usually the one who does all the
legwork. They are the one who control access to our MEPs. FSFE asks the
MEPs to tell their staff, and the staff in their groups, not to accept
Microsoft's gift. On the contrary, they should push the administration
into making Free Software tools available that staffers can use to do
their work, and urge the Parliament itself to migrate to Free Software.
Karsten Gerloff wrote about this in his blog[2]and will closeley monitor
how the MEPs and their staff in the European Parliament will react. We
will keep you posted.
2.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/03/23/corporate-perk-or-monopolist-bribe…
== Help for FSFE from Greece ==
The election period for this year's Fellowship GA seat has ended on
February 29th. To summarise the detailed election results[3]: Our new
Fellowship representative is Nikos Roussos from Greece. He will meet
with other members of FSFE's general assembly[4]in Lisboa at the end of
April, to work on strategic questions for the coming years. Thanks to
Albert Dengg and Gert Seidl who also stood for the Fellowship GA seat,
and who want to continue their great work for FSFE in their area.
3. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120303-01.en.html
4. http://fsfe.org/about/members.en.html
== Something completely different ==
- Digital Restriction Management: In his article"Like candy from a baby:
PS Vita takes freedom from new generation"[5], Sam takes the Sony PS
Vita, as an example how owners of devices are restricted in what they
can do with their computers.
- Guido Günther joined the Debian Project while completing his degree
in physics at the University of Konstanz. He helped with development
of Debian for new processor architectures, and co-initiated Debian’s
Groupware Meetings. He also enjoys contributing to the GNOME project,
and advanced Free Software virtualisation technologies. Read more in
the last Fellowship interview[6].
- Ask Your Candidates:[7]in Germany, we asked the usual set of
questions[8]and published the analysis[9]. Compared with the positive
replies in the Berlin election[10], the Saarland election was a
disappointment. Our press release also resulted in discussions[11]if
it is "the good right" of companies to restrict the users.
- Fellow Anna Morris was interviewed by the BBC(Audio, starting at
17:13)[12]about a conference that she is organising in London for
women in Free Software. In just a few minutes she discusses what Free
Software is, what it is like being a woman in the Free Software
movement, and how she first got involved.
- FSFE's volunteers and staff have been quite busy with Document Freedom
Day[13]in the last weeks. We will send out the handcuffs[14]and write
a report what happend all over the world. In the preperation we have
published an article by FSFE co-founder Bernhard Reiter[15]. He
discusses what makes a good data format, and argues that Open
Standards are good, but that we need to push further still. His
central question to data formats is "Can we make it simpler?" The
article is in German, and we are looking for translations[16].
- FSF announced the Free Software Awards[17]. Big thanks from FSFE to
Free Software hacker Yukihiro Matsumoto and GNU Health[18].
- Iceland launched a project[19]to encourage migration of the public
administration to Free Software. Your editor is already looking
forward to a report about this at FSCONS[20]in Gothenburg.
- A selection from the Fellowship planet aggregation[21]:Free Software,
nothing for marketing? And which is the most powerful brand in Free
Software? Timo Jyrinki writes about brands, marketing and technical
details[22].
- Hugo Roy is organising an event at Sciences Po on 6th April[23](in
French). Beside others Lawrence Lessig, author of "Code and other laws
of Cyberspace" will talk about "The Character of Cyberlaw Battles".
- Birgit Hüsken explains how to knit the Fellowship plussy[24].
- Fellow Number 1, Mario Fux, wants to set up a local association[25]in
Randa, Switzerland to keep the local Free Software activities running.
- And Mirko Böhm writes about about managing trust in mixed commercial
and volunteer Free Software communities[26].
5. http://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=325
6. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=547
7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.en.html
8. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/askyourcandidates/example-questions.en.html
9. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120322-01.en.html
10. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120322-01.en.html
11.
http://netzpolitik.org/2012/saarlandische-piraten-abhangigkeit-und-restrikt…
12. http://download.fsfe.org/audio/20120320-bbc5-interview-anna-morris.ogg
13. http://documentfreedom.org
14. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120321-01.en.html
15. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/minimalisticstandards.en.html
16. http://fsfe.org/contribute/translators/translators.en.html
17. https://www.fsf.org/news/2011-free-software-awards-announced
18. http://health.gnu.org/
19.
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/all-icelands-public-administrations-moving…
20. http://fscons.org
21. http://planet.fsfe.org
22. http://losca.blogspot.de/2012/03/on-brands-marketing-and-technical.html
23. http://blog.hugoroy.eu/2012/03/28/cyberlawconf-avec-lawrence-lessig/
24. http://blogs.fsfe.org/birgit.huesken/?p=122
25. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mario/?p=179
26.
http://www.agile-workers.com/web/2012/03/managing-trust-in-mixed-commercial…
-
== Get Active: Leaflets to free others mobile! ==
Our Free Your Android[27]campaign, got a lot of attention. Beside
preparing his exams, Torsten Grote gave interviews for the German
newspaper"Die Tageszeitung"[28], radio interviews[29], and held a first
installation party for FoeBud e.V.[30]. Also at our booth at Cebit[31],
Chemnitzer Linux-Tage[32], as well as Augsburger Linuxinfotage[33]a lot
of people showed interest in this campaign. We would like to get more
people involved in this campaign. We ask you to promote the campaign
with leaflets and posters in your local Free Software user group, your
hackerspace, company, university, school, or your favourite bar. Please
write an e-mail with a postal address to fellowship[34]
fsfeurope.org[35], and we send you some leaflets and posters to promote
it.
27. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/android.en.html
28. https://www.taz.de/Kampagne-fuer-offene-Mobilsysteme/!90036/
29.
http://on3.de/element/13543/freie-software-fuer-android-handys-weg-mit-den-…
30. http://foebud.de
31. http://blog.romal.de/2012/03/fsfe-cebit-stand-uberlebt.html
32. http://blogs.fsfe.org/birgit.huesken/?p=105
33.
http://blog.schiessle.org/2012/03/26/ruckblick-auf-den-augsburger-linux-inf…
34. mailto:fellowship@fsfeurope.org
35. mailto:fellowship@fsfeurope.org
Thanks to all the Fellows[36]and donors[37]who enable our work,
36. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
37. http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
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