Information about the Free Software Foundation Europe

Tue Nov 28 09:12:24 UTC 2000

On 27 Nov 2000, Georg C. F. Greve wrote:

> 
> As we are currently seeing more mail than we can reasonably reply to
> without giving up everything else, we will try to answer some of the
> more frequently asked questions in this posting.
> 
You've been slashdoted, remember? 
> 
> Current plans of the FSF Europe:
> 
> About local organizations:
> 
> Our plans are to work together with local organizations like the FFII,
> AFUL or APRIL. They are doing important work, and we are not planning
> to replace them. Bernhard Reiter is member of the new FFII board and
> we are in contact with people from APRIL and AFUL. Our declared goal
> is to strengthen and unite.
> 
Strenghten and unite? I always though GNU related things are most powerful
when they're divided into smaller grops working for the same goal, with
more or less coordination :)
>
> About local representatives:
> 
> We are currently looking for people in other countries to become part
> of the FSF Europe and we have been contacted by a lot of people so
> far. 
> 
> The FSF in the U.S. itself is not a "membership organization." It is
> rather an organization of selected individuals that have proven
> themselves to possess a deep understanding of the Free Software
> philosophy and a firm belief in the long-term goals of Free
> Software. It can easily be understood that being a member of such an
> organization requires a relatively high level of commitment.
<REALLY UNCOOL ATTITUDE IDIOCY=100%>
Like what? 
I don't wnt to commit to an _evil_ anti-proprietarian group of people who
think software should bree... yuck!
</REALLY UNCOOL ATTITUDE>
I'm planning to give a (dammit, I can't remember the
word for 'standing in front of people like a professor and
babblingsomething none of them even hopes to understand) about GNU in
general.

> As we seek to become the acknowledged sister organization of the FSF,
> we feel that we have to maintain the same level of commitment and
> philosophical awareness of the FSF itself.
Well... I'm not yet aware of GNU philosophy being a part of the
dialectical materialism, but who cares. :)
> 
> For this reason we would like to get to know everyone who is
> interested in becoming part of the FSF Europe. Of course we have read
> or heard from a lot of the active members of the Free Software
> community before, but this is no substitute for getting to know you
> from personal email and discussions. We therefore ask you to be a
> little patient - talk to us, discuss things with us, let us know your
> personal take on things so we know who we are truly dealing with. At
> the same time this will give you a chance to really get to know us and
> our views and standpoints. Hopefully this will allow us to build the
> mutual trust that is neccessary for such a big project.

<CAPITALIST>
TRUST?! You really want to trust someone?!
</CAPITALIST>
I definetly agree with this point.

> 
> If this seems overly cautious to you, please keep in mind that we seek
> to create an organization that will at least last as long as the FSF
> has so far (which is about 16 years). 
So am I (OK, I'm a bit over 16, and a bit less below 16.5)
> This requires doing things
> _right_ and we feel that anything less would not do it justice.
yup.. (OK, I'll stop agreeeing :))
> 
> But this does not mean that you have to become a member in order to
> help the FSF Europe. In fact there will be a lot of tasks we will need
> help with (see below).
> 
I will skip the aprt about finances. I just am in a position where giving
money just isn't the wisest thing to do (in other words, I'm poor, and my
mother, being a ph.D. Chemist, has a word for never stating 'when I become
welthy working on IRB (Rudjer Boskovic Institute)).
> 
> On other help:
> 
> We are extremely pleased with all the spontaneous offers of help we
> have been receiving. In general, discussing things with us, giving us
> your views and perceptions on things, as well as spreading the word
> and backing us, is a lot of help already. 

I've already done most of that. And _I will_ keep doing it.

> Although the amount of
> specific tasks that we can be helped with is rather small, that number
> will surely increase as we will need everything from web masters and
> admins to people helping with booths at shows.
ok
> 
> If you have any specific ideas as to how you might help us now, we
> would be very glad to hear them. Just because we haven't thought of
> it, doesn't mean that we won't consider it a good idea.
<EVIL>
wow... appreciating another's view, I thoght it was just Voltaire's
nightmare
</EVIL>
> 
> 
> Judging by the support all of you have given us so far, it seems quite
> likely that together we can build a stronghold for Free Software in
> Europe.
A _stronghold_? I think more like a fortress from what I've seen up to
now.
> 
> On behalf of the FSF Europe team,
> 					Georg C. F. Greve
> 					<greve at gnu.org>
I agree with this part :)

Sinisa 
--
"Mors EULAe, libertas softwarei!"