= Document Freedom Day from Brussels to Taiwan: Open Standards
celebrated in 30 countries =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130327-02.en.html ]
In 30 countries around the world, activists are celebrating Open
Standards on today's Document Freedom Day, an annual campaign to promote
Open Standards. More than 50 groups are hosting events around the world,
from Brussels to Nicaragua to Taiwan.
Open Standards are crucial to ensure that different computer systems can
work together, and that users can access documents regardless of the
computing platform or device they use. They are the foundation of the
Internet and the World Wide Web.
"Markets for digital products such as audiobooks and cloud documents
have grown dramatically. Open Standards let users break free from vendor
lock-in and corporate control," said Sam Tuke, Campaign Manager at the
Free Software Foundation Europe.
This year the campaign focuses on web-streaming technologies. "In 2012
trail-blazing Open Standards advocates introduced thousands of people to
better standards" said Erik Albers, Community Manager. "This time, we
are encouraging people to switch to HTML5 technologies".
The campaign calls on websites to replace Flash with Open
Standards-based HTML5 technologies. Activists are reporting
Flash-dependent web pages and donating to educational packs including
blacked-out "Flash Player required" glasses, illustrating the exclusive
and inaccessible nature of closed formats for media streaming.
Document Freedom Day 2012 is facilitated by the Free Software Foundation
Europe, and supported by campaign sponsors Google and openSUSE.
== 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 last year had 54 events worldwide. It will happen on 27th
March.
http://documentfreedom.org
== 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/
= taz.die tageszeitung receives Document Freedom Germany Award =
[Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130327-01.en.html ]
The German newspaper taz.die tageszeitung (TAZ) receives this year's Document
Freedom award. With this award, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and
the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) honour
organisations that make exemplary use of Open Standards.
The TAZ receives the Document Freedom award because it delivers its electronic
paper to its subscribers in a choice of open formats, and without digital
restrictions (DRM). "We are awarding the TAZ with the Document Freedom Award
for their longstanding commitment to Open Standards and continuos efforts in
offering their newspaper without restrictions" says Erik Albers, Fellowship
Coordinator Berlin.
TAZ subscribers can receive their paper in HTML, PDF, ePub, and even plain
text formats. HTML files form the basis of the World Wide Web. The Portable
Document Format (PDF) was published as a standard by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2008. Adobe has granted anyone the
right to make and distribute PDF files without restrictions. Plain text files
(.txt) can easily be read or opened by any thousands of applications,
independent of any platform, product, or vendor. "Plain text files have great
benefits for libraries," highlights Elisabeth Klein, a humanities scholar with
close connections to academic libraries in Germany. "They can offer easy
access to works using a lot of different devices. Users and researchers can
efficiently search and analyse them."
ePub is an Open Standard for electronic books. Rather than being bound to a
particular vendor, users can open files with the .epub extension with a wide
range of programs and devices. "We use Free and Open formats, because we don't
like to put our readers in a cage - even it it's made of gold. Only by using
Open Standards without DRM we are able to spread TAZ news media as widely as
possible" says Ralf Klever, Head of IT in the TAZ.
Stephan Uhlmann, FFII board member, adds: "We congratulate TAZ for their firm
stance on the usage of Open Standards. The TAZ has a history of covering
contemporary political movements very closely, which makes this an important
contribution to preserve this documentation in open and accessible document
formats for future generations."
Document Freedom Awards are given annually on Document Freedom Day - the
international day for Open Standards. Previous winners include 1&1 Internet
AG, tagesschau.de and Deutschland Radio.
Press pictures of the award ceremony: https://wiki.fsfe.org/DFD-2013-Berlin
== 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 last year had 54 events worldwide. It will happen on 27th
March.
http://documentfreedom.org
== 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/