FSF France activity report

Loic Dachary loic at gnu.org
Tue Aug 21 23:59:03 UTC 2001


	Hi,

	The FSF France activity report for June-July-August has just been
published. You can read it at:
http://france.fsfeurope.org/news/article2001-08-20-01.en.html

                         FSF France activity report

     The  [1]FSF  Europe  presence in France exists since April 12 2001,
     and  produced  an  [2]activity  report covering April and May 2001.
     This report covers June, July and August 2001. If some subjects are
     obscure,  you  can  get  back  to  the  previous  report  to better
     understand  them.  We  took care to keep the same headlines to ease
     cross reference.

     During  those three months we established many contacts, informally
     or   on   actual   actions,  with  Free  Software  organization  or
     individuals  around  the world. All of them were possible thanks to
     APRIL  (national),  FSF  (international) and FSF Europe (European).
     Our  actions  can  now  extend  to  Portugal,  Spain, Italy, United
     Kingdom,  Luxembourg,  Sweden,  Germany,  Netherlands, Switzerland,
     Denmark,  South  Africa,  Japan,  China,  Hungaria, Czech Republic,
     India, Korea, Mexico, United States and Canada.

     We attended to events, the most important being [3]LSM and produced
     a  sustained  advocacy effort coordinated with other organizations.
     Actions   previously   engaged   (Savannah,  Savannah  and  Europe,
     freedoms,  GPL  translation,  GNU  information, Technopole Logiciel
     Libre)  made  significant  progress.  New actions were also started
     (patents,  education, science, electronic voting, press review, GNU
     and   Debian),   most   of  them  mainly  undertaken  by  associate
     organizations.

     Our  involvement  in the GNU project grew with contributions to the
     web standards, the fact that the machine is now used as a secondary
     DNS  for  the  gnu.org domain, evaluation of candidate GNU packages
     and  heavy  contribution  to  the  maintainance  and  evolution  of
     [4]Savannah.  We  also  benefit  from the infrastructure of the GNU
     project  since  our domain, mailing lists, CVS tree etc. are hosted
     on other GNU machines.

     Political  and  legal  actions  are  also  doing  fine since we had
     opportunities  to stress the importance of legal protection of Free
     Software,   met  with  government  officials  occasionally.  To  be
     completely honest we cannot really claim a noteworthy achivement on
     this front.

     Last  but not least, it is now established that FSF France activity
     is ruled by a steady flow of volunteers, contributing their time in
     occasional  burst  and  happy  enthusiasm.  Around  ten  volunteers
     motivated themselves to fight for Free Software with us in the past
     three  months. This may seem very few people and yet we achieved to
     do  a  significant  amount of work. Nowadays every good will counts
     and  your action can really make the difference, as long as you can
     spare  some  time to drink a beer or relax between two sessions. We
     want  to keep going in the long term and this requires a bit of fun
     from time to time.

On cooperation

     The  collaborative  spirit  described  in the [5]previous report is
     certainly our most pro-eminent achievement. Our motto could be that
     we  don't undertake actions alone. It is better not to undertake an
     action if we fail to actually cooperate with Free Software movement
     people and organizations already involved.

     Although   this  spirit  makes  sense  in  writing  it  requires  a
     significant  amount  of  effort. The syndrome of replicating effort
     does  not only apply to software. Organizations also have a natural
     tendency  to  undertake  new  projects before searching for similar
     efforts,  before  actually  engaging a dialog with people involved,
     before trying everything to cooperate.

     The  bandwidth  of  the  brain  is  significantly  higher  than the
     bandwidth  of  the  mail.  If  all the dialog needed to start a new
     project  occurs  in  the brain of a single person, the project will
     take  off  rapidly,  the  first  version will be available fast and
     bring some results within days. When you extend the dialog to other
     people  and  organizations,  it gets significantly slower at first.
     Only  later  does  it  become  faster and stronger. Yes, union is a
     force but it works slower and is not fit for the impatient.

     A  fairly  good example is our involvement in the infrastructure of
     the  GNU  project. From the beginning we started with the idea that
     all  our  technical infrastructure should use and contribute to the
     infrastructure  of  the  GNU  project.  The  advantages  are pretty
     obvious:  why  run  and  maintain  Mailman,  exim,  ftp server, web
     server,  CVS when those are already available and maintained by the
     GNU  project ? The drawbacks are also pretty obvious: understanding
     the  infrastructure of the GNU project, contribute to it so that it
     fits our needs introduces a significant bootstrap delay.

     The  machine  we installed in France is now fully integrated to the
     GNU project, meaning that it is monitored and maintained by the GNU
     project.  This  a  win  for  us. It also runs the secondary DNS for
     gnu.org  domains.  This is a win for the GNU project. Mailing lists
     and web site for FSF Europe are managed by machines in Boston. This
     is  win for us. People involved in the system administration of the
     machine  in  France  know the infrastructure of the GNU project and
     can  contribute  to  the maintainance of other machines. This a win
     for the GNU project.

     This may seem an example that is of no great consequence but in our
     eyes  it  reflects  the  essence of cooperation. It's slower but it
     makes  us  stronger. This example is also chosen on purpose because
     we believe that technical heterogeneity is often the first obstacle
     to  cooperation  on  non technical matters. Say, for instance, that
     two  Free  Software  organizations want to share their calendars to
     coordinate  their  political  actions.  If they use technical tools
     that are significantly different it may prove inconvenient for them
     to actually do it. We are not saying that it is a major problem, we
     are  not  saying  that everybody should use the exact same tools or
     nothing.  We  only  acknowledge  that  cooperation  on  a technical
     infrastructure is a win/win situation that also removes an obstacle
     for  cooperation  on  non technical matters. Given the fact that we
     have  scarce  resources  at all time, there is no reason to discard
     this advantage.

Projects

   [6]Translation of the GNU GPL in French ([7]previous report).
          Interviews  of  [8]Mélanie  Clément-Fontaine  (french,  19  May
          2001),  and  [9]Benjamin  Drieu (french, 17 May 2001) about the
          translation  of  the  GNU  GPL  were  conducted  to keep people
          informed of the progress made so far.

          Till  Jaeger  and  Axel  Metzger, two German lawyers in contact
          with  the  FSF  Europe  are also following and participating to
          this project. They are working on launching a similar effort in
          their country.

          During  the [10]Libre Software Meeting in Bordeaux, Eben Moglen
          came to express his vision of the future of the GPL. A workshop
          involving  Mélanie  Clément  Fontaine,  Eben Moglen, Bradley M.
          Kuhn,  Anne  Østergaard  and around twenty people interested in
          the  subject  allowed  to  clarify  very important points. Eben
          Moglen  stressed  the  fact  that  it  is  important  that  the
          translation matches the following constraints:

          + It  must  not  be  used as a legally binding license, it must
            remain  informative,  the  English version being the only one
            that has a legal force.
          + It must not be bound to contract law

          Volunteers:  Mélanie Clément-Fontaine, Benjamin Drieu, Frédéric
          Couchet, Olivier Berger, Sebastien Blondeel, Loïc Dachary, Till
          Jaeger, Axel Metzger.

   [11]Patents
          APRIL  (FSFE associate organization) launched a call for action
          to  encourage  people  to  act  against  patents.  They propose
          specific  actions  and  provide  all  the  material  needed  to
          strongly   react   against  the  report  given  to  the  french
          government that is in favor of software patents.

          Late  June,  Richard  M.  Stallman was in Paris and proposed an
          idea  for  a [12]program against software patents to Jacques Le
          Marois (CEO of Mandrake).

          On the subject of patents we follow the lead of APRIL and AFUL.

          Volunteers: Frédéric Couchet, Jérôme Dominguez.

   [13]The four freedoms ([14]previous report)
          A steady flow of people are participating.

          Volunteers: Raphaël Rousseau, Loïc Dachary.

   [15]Education
          Hilaire  Fernandes  and other volunteers joined the GNU project
          and  created the [16]education section of the GNU project. They
          established   contact   with  Canadian  and  Chinese  activists
          involved in providing Free Software for educational purposes.

          Hilaire  published an [17]essay (in french) about Free Software
          and  education.  Verbatim  copy is permitted and encouraged. It
          also contains a detailed history of the Free Software movement.

          On  the  subject of education we follow the lead of OFSET. Many
          people  are  involved and their actions deserves an independent
          activity report.

          Volunteers: [18]savannah list

   [19]Science
          Joris Van der Hoven initiated an APRIL working group to support
          Free  Software  in  science.  He  works for a french university
          himself  and  advocates  that  software made while conducting a
          research  financed by the government should be released as Free
          Software.  The  very  spirit of research does not fit well with
          the  restrictions  imposed  by  proprietary  licenses. Besides,
          citizens  are  not  too  happy  when  they  have to finance the
          research and buy the product when it is released.

          A  list  was  created  ([20]fsfe-france-sci at gnu.org) to discuss
          this subject.

          Volunteers: Joris Van der Hoven, Gilles Veillon, Jeremy Nestel,
          Jérôme Pansanel

   [21]Community Positioning System (Coposys).
          Olivier   Berger  [22]proposed  a  project  to  visualize  Free
          Software    friends    around   the   globe.   Cyril   Bouthors
          [23]implemented  and  installed a first version and hundreds of
          people registered from all over the world.

          Volunteers: Cyril Bouthors, Olivier Berger.

   [24]Electronic Voting
          An information page on electronic voting issues was produced to
          highlight  the  importance of Free Software in these matter. We
          do  not  have  the  ambition to spend time to try to solve this
          enormous  problem  at  present.  We  merely  keep in touch with
          french people interested in the subject and store information.

          Volunteers: Olivier Berger, Loïc Dachary.

   [25]Press Review
          Nicole   Ciry  and  Gilles  Veillon  launched  the  project  of
          gathering  french articles about Free Software. They produced a
          methodology,  explained  it  in a web page and gather a copy of
          the first articles. Those articles are sent once a month to the
          FSF in Boston and the first shipment was made early July.

          Volunteers: Nicole Ciry, Gilles Veillon.

   GNU project information relay (was GNU help desk) ([26]previous
          report)
          In  the  previous report this was listed as GNU help desk which
          was kind of inaccurate. The proximity of french people involved
          in  the  GNU project makes it easier for other french people to
          get  involved  in  the  GNU  project, in a way or another. Some
          developers  come  to  us  for various points related to the GNU
          project:

          + A software they wrote is being evaluated for inclusion in the
            GNU   project.   These  requests  are  handled  thru  [27]the
            fsfe-eval at gnu.org mailing list.
          + They wrote a software and wonder what it means to become part
            of the GNU project.
          + They  would  like to help in the system administration of the
            GNU project.
          + They  have  an  idea to improve the infrastructure of the GNU
            project.

          We  had many contacts are related to these points. Here are the
          two most pro-eminent.

          Loïc  Dachary got involved in the evaluation of a software that
          wanted to become part of the GNU project ([28]phpGroupWare). It
          was  the  occasion  for him to get practical experience of this
          process in order to better answer questions.

          A  pretty  [29]long  thread  regarding  the  rationale  of  the
          evaluation process and other issues related to GNU was launched
          by  Denis  Barbier.  His  critic views and comparisons with the
          Debian  process  are very valuable, specially since he is not a
          member  of  the GNU project. To be completely honest no visible
          modifications  of  the  GNU project are a direct consequence of
          this discussion. Mainly because Loïc Dachary is postponing this
          for no other reason than lack of time.

          Volunteers: Loïc Dachary.

   GNU and Debian
          French  people  involved in the GNU, Debian and FreeBSD project
          [30]met to drink a beer and share their experiences. This was a
          chance  to  know  each  other and discover possible cooperation
          grounds. No report of this meeting is available, unfortunately.

          We  had  another  opportunity  to  meet  and discuss during the
          [31]LSM since the [32]Debian conference 1 was hosted by LSM.

          As  a  direct  consequence of these talks, some concrete things
          happened.  That  may  not be all, but that is what we are aware
          of.

          + Loïc  Dachary  who  is  a  [33]member of the GNU project also
            became a [34]Debian developer
          + Igor  Genibel  who  is  a  [35]Debian developer also became a
            [36]member of the GNU project.
          + Martin  Michlmayr, a leading force of the [37]Debian QA group
            (re)joined  the [38]GNU project to improve the QA of GNU with
            the help of the Debian tools.

          Of  course  we  discussed  a lot about the philosophical issues
          that  keep  the  GNU  and  Debian  organizations apart. The GNU
          project  would  like  to  see  the explicit support of non free
          software   removed   from   the   Debian  social  contract  and
          identification  of  the  software  packages in the main part of
          Debian  that  do not qualify as Free Software according to GNU.
          Solving  these  issues is an on-going effort on both sides. The
          Debian  community  also has some claims for the GNU project and
          [39]Denis Barbier voiced some of them.

          Volunteers: Raphaël Rousseau, Loïc Dachary, Olivier Berger.

   [40]Technopole Logiciel Libre ([41]previous report)
          Frédéric   Couchet   maintains   good  relationships  with  the
          Technopole Logiciel Libre. A result of this cooperation was the
          interview   of  Philippe  Carpentier  on  Internet  actu  video
          newspaper.  The  Technopole  Logiciel Libre was also invited to
          [42]LSM  where Philippe Carpentier made a speech to explain the
          goals and philosophy of the project.

          Philippe  Carpentier  proposed to launch a European contest for
          Free  Software  and  is  working  on  this  idea  with Frédéric
          Couchet.

          Volunteers:    Frédéric   Couchet,   Loïc   Dachary,   Philippe
          Carpentier, Pierre Jarret

   [43]Savannah and Europe: CoopX ([44]previous report)
          The   contacts   we  had  with  hosting  platforms  similar  to
          [45]Savannah  in  France  triggered  the  creation of a working
          group called [46]CoopX.

          The  goal  of  this  working  group is to define an interchange
          format     between    hosting    platforms.    [47]SourceForge,
          [48]phpGroupWare  joined  the  working  group shortly after its
          creation.  CoopX  was  also pleased to welcome [49]TuxFamily, a
          cooperatively run hosting facility run by french volunteers.

          Although  we are a founding member of CoopX, the project itself
          is neither hosted nor ruled by us. It is a strictly cooperative
          effort  and  every  group  willing  to  participate actively is
          welcome.  Even  non free software groups, as long as the format
          is  decided cooperatively and released under a license that has
          the same qualities as the GNU FDL.

          Volunteers:  Loïc  Dachary,  Christian Bac, Samuel Tardieu, Dan
          Kuykendall, Tim Perdue and many others.

Links with Free Software organizations

     In the network of Free Software organizations we actively worked to
     establish  contacts  in order to be able to actually do things in a
     coordinated   way.   The   ideal   situation  would  be  that  each
     organization  in  a  given  geographical  location  is able quickly
     establish  contact with any other organization over the world for a
     given   action   related  to  education,  software  development  or
     political  issues.  The  following  list  is  a  map of the network
     involving at least one person from FSF France or APRIL.
     * [50]FSF.
     * [51]FSF Europe.
     * [52]FSF Canada.
     * [53]FSF India.
     * [54]FSF China.
     * FSF Japan.
     * [55]AFSM.
     * [56]GNU Spain.
     * [57]ABUL.
     * [58]ALDIL.
     * [59]ALL.
     * [60]AGIL.
     * [61]Associazione Software Libero.
     * [62]AAUL.

     At present we cannot claim any world wide coordinated action but we
     sincerely  hope  it  will  happen,  on  the  subject of patents for
     instance. Do you want to take the lead ?-)

     FSF  France  is  tightly bound to APRIL and we had four meetings in
     the past three months. Two meeting reports are available.

     * [63]July 23 2001
     * [64]June 12 2001

   A  Free Software organization ([65]AGIL) is being created in Portugal.
   A   lot  of  discussions  with  APRIL  were  engaged  to  share  their
   experience. A similar dialog is being established with Masayuki Ida to
   create  a  Free  Software  organization in Japan. Masayuki Ida will be
   visiting  France  in October and he wants to meet with APRIL activists
   on this subject.

   Matthias Saou, former president of the french organization ALDIL moved
   to  Spain  recently  and agreed to act as a liaison with Jose Marchesi
   and GNU Spain.

GNU project ([66]previous report)

   [67]Usenix award
          During  the  2001  Usenix  conference in Boston, Robert Chassel
          received  an  award  in the name of all the contributors to the
          GNU  project.  We  are proud to broadcast this award to all the
          people  who  contributed  to  the  GNU  project thru FSF France
          recently,  by  installing  the first machine of the GNU project
          outside  the US (fr.fsf.org) or by contributing to the hardware
          upgrade of Savannah (savannah.gnu.org).

   [68]Sysadmin fr.fsf.org
          Rodolphe  Quiedeville,  Cedric Valignat and Jean-Louis Bergamot
          are  also  doing  occasional  system  administration on the GNU
          machine in France and were very efficient when handling a minor
          security  alert.  Cedric  is  now  taking  care of the Internet
          connection  of the GNU machine in France and is in contact with
          Joel N Weber II for this purpose.

          Volunteers:  Rodolphe  Quiedeville, Cedric Valignat, Jean-Louis
          Bergamot, Loïc Dachary, Joel N. Weber II, Frédéric Couchet.

   [69]Savannah ([70]previous report)
          The  [71]installation  of  the new hardware allowed Savannah to
          grow. It is now serving more than 200 projects and around 1 500
          members joined it.

          The  most  important event is that Savannah is now open to Free
          Software  projects that do not (yet ;-) joined the GNU project.
          This  allows  candidate  packages to the GNU project to develop
          and  grow  while going thru the application process. At present
          87 such projects are hosted on Savannah.

          Now  that phpGroupWare is dubbed a GNU package, the perspective
          of   migrating   the   software  used  to  run  Savannah  under
          phpGroupWare  is  more  likely to become a reality. At present,
          there  is no concrete plan in this direction but it is actively
          discussed.

          Volunteers:  Loïc Dachary, Jaime Villate, Guillaume Morin, Joel
          N. Weber II, Mark H. Weaver.

   [72]GNU Search
          As of today the [73]GNU search team was created to maintain and
          improve the search facility of the GNU project. Cyril Bouthors,
          Igor  Genibel  and  Helios  de Creisquer launched this project.
          They  started  as  volunteer  system  administrators of the GNU
          machine  in  France (fr.fsf.org). By doing simple tasks in this
          context  they became familiar with the GNU project and proposed
          to become more commited to the infrastructure.

          Volunteers:  Loïc Dachary, Cyril Bouthors, Igor Genibel, Helios
          de Creisquer.

   [74]GNU DNS
          Joel  N. Weber II monitored the fr.fsf.org machine during a few
          weeks  and  found  that it could do a reasonable secondary name
          server  for  the  gnu.org domain. He installed it about a month
          ago  and it's running fine. Should the north American continent
          disappear the domain will still be resolved :-}

          Volunteers: Joel N. Weber II, Loïc Dachary, Cyril Bouthors.

Events and advocacy

   We  would  like  to acknowledge the countless advocacy efforts made by
   people  tuned  on  the  [75]FSF France mailing list. All of them would
   deserve  an entry in this report, laziness is the only reason why they
   do  not show. We miss some bits such as interviews (Europe II Bordeaux
   for  instance)  we  never  had  a chance to listen. If you heard about
   them, please [76]send us a note.

   [77]Microsoft FUD ([78]previous report)
          We  relayed  press  releases.  RMS  speech  was  translated and
          broadcasted. We did not do anything significant at the national
          level.

   Unisys studies Free Software ([79]previous report)
          Unisys  politely  dismissed  our  help  proposal  to  write the
          report,  although  they invited us to feed them with data. That
          was not what we wanted.

          Richard  M.  Stallman  suggested that the best course of action
          would  be  to  publish  an  article  explaining  why  the study
          conducted  by  Unisys could be biased. Nobody took the task and
          the  report  is  probably  finished  by  now. We failed on this
          advocacy issue.

   BBC World
          BBC  World  wanted  to interview a Free Software advocate for a
          television show in London. We proposed that Phil Hands speak in
          our  name.  A  short  time  frame  did  not leave much room for
          cooperation and it turned out that the journalist really wanted
          a  confrontation  between  the  proprietary  world and the Free
          Software  world. At present it is still unclear what the result
          will be. If you ever see the show, let us know.

          Volunteers:  Phil Hands, Richard M. Stallman, Frédéric Couchet,
          Loïc Dachary.

   [80]Le Journal du Net ([81]previous report)
          This  well known french online newspaper changed their category
          entitled  Open  Source  to  Logiciel Libre. We are not entirely
          happy about the accuracy of their articles but they show a good
          will that we find remarkable.

   [82]FAQ hardware producers
          Marc-Aurèle Darche and Philippe Coulonges wrote a FAQ to inform
          hardware  producers  about  the  advantages  of  Free  Software
          drivers.  This  is  the  first work that involves a cooperation
          between APRIL, AFUL and FSF France. Marc-Aurèle Darche deserves
          all the credit for making this joint effort a reality. Although
          FSF  France  will  not endorse the document produced because it
          partially advocates for the Open Source movement, working on it
          allowed us to contribute to the ideas related to Free Software.

          We  will  keep the draft directory alive even after the release
          of  the  FAQ  to  show  how it evolved. In my eyes it is a nice
          example  of  the fundamental difference between the Open Source
          movement and the Free Software movement. Some people claim Free
          Software  and  Open  Source  are  two  words on top of the same
          movement  ? Check the [83]first version of the document, rather
          Open  Source  style  and  the [84]second version proposed, more
          Free  Software  style. You will see a visible difference in the
          spirit and very few differences in the wording.

          Volunteers: Marc-Aurèle Darche, Philippe Coulonges.

   [85]DCSSI and GNU PG
          The  french government defines a list of software accredited to
          provide encryption. During LSM Werner Koch asked for volunteers
          to register GNUPG. Some people show interest to do that but the
          action did not start yet.

   [86]CEENET
          Sebastien Blondeel is attending CEENET in Hungaria (August 20).
          He  will bring goodies from APRIL and FSF Europe and spread the
          word  in  our  name. He will meet Shooby Ban who is potentially
          interested in launching a Free Software dedicated organization.
          People attending CEENET are not specifically interested in Free
          Software, that makes his mission even more interesting.

          Volunteers: Sebastien Blondeel.

   [87]Unesco
          We  engaged  a  discussion  with Unesco on the subject of their
          Free  Software  portal  because  we  feel  that  its content is
          problematic in many ways. The people are responsive and we sent
          them a proposal to replace the license page.

          Volunteers: Loïc Dachary.

   [88]SourceForge and VA Linux
          We  are helping VA Linux to produce a copyright assignment form
          for  SourceForge  authors.  The  experience  of the FSF in this
          matter is valuable.

          Volunteers: Loïc Dachary.

   [89]Propriété intellectuelle , Copyright, Brevets, logiciels libres
          A  special issue of the french magazine MULTITUDE was published
          on  the  subject  of  copyright,  patents and free software. It
          features  articles from Richard M. Stallman and Eben Moglen and
          many  other  Free  Software  advocates.  Frédéric  Couchet  and
          Benjamin  Drieu were very involved in making this special issue
          a reality.

          Volunteers: Frédéric Couchet, Benjamin Drieu.

   [90]Libre Software Meeting
          The  event was far too rich to summarize in this report. To our
          knowledge  it  is  the  only  event  in  the  world exclusively
          dedicated  to  Free  Software and organized only by volunteers.
          Hundreds  of  users  and  developers  from all around the world
          attended  this  event.  When  compared to events like LinuxWord
          where  at  least  half the people and organizations present are
          indeed  interested or involved in non free software, it makes a
          huge  difference.  Some [91]pictures were taken for the record.
          Next year event will be organized together with the FSF France,
          with [92]technical help from the GNU project.

          We  had  the  opportunity  to  [93]meet people involved in Free
          Software organizations from all over the world.

          Frédéric   Couchet   and   Carl   W.  Vilbrandt  organized  and
          participated   to  the  [94]Law,  Economy,  Politic  and  libre
          software session.

          Frédéric Couchet introduced the FSF Europe to the audience in a
          one hour speech.

          Loïc  Dachary  was  an  informal  spoke-person  of the [95]AFSM
          during the [96]AAUL meeting.

          Loïc  Dachary shortly spoke about Savannah during the [97]Libre
          Software for Communication session.

          The  FSF France actively participated to the discussions of the
          [98]APRIL  members  Convention. Jaime Villate also attended the
          event  in  the  name  of  the future Free Software organization
          (AGIL will be the name) that is being created in Portugal.

   INJEP
          INJEP  is  launching courses for administrations and non profit
          organizations  in  France. These courses are co-financed by the
          government  and  cost  500  F  for  one day. Benjamin Drieu and
          Jeremy  Nestel  did  some  work  on a three days course on Free
          Software  at  the  initiation  level. Although not certain yet,
          this can lead to a cheap way for people to be introduced to the
          Free  Software tools. This project is at a very early stage and
          volunteers are very needed.

          Volunteers: Jeremy Nestel, Benjamin Drieu, Frédéric Couchet.

Information infrastructure

   [99]FSF Europe migration
          The    [100]FSF    Europe    web    was    migrated    to   the
          france.fsfeurope.org  machine. This was mainly done to ease the
          maintainance   process   of  the  web  and  increase  the  page
          generation rate without risking to overload the gnudist.gnu.org
          machine which is already hosting the [101]GNU web site.

          Volunteers: Frédéric Couchet, Loïc Dachary

   Contact Database ([102]previous report)
          This  area  was rather neglected and did not progress much. The
          situation  improved a little since Bradley M. Kuhn explained in
          detail what we would need and made contacts with Dan Kuykendall
          on  this  subject.  We  also  discovered  that  XML  Vcard  was
          published  earlier this year by W3C and this will definitely be
          the format on which we will be working.

          Volunteers: Bradley M. Kuhn, Loïc Dachary.

   [103]Web standards
          A  script repository was created so that directories on various
          GNU  machines handling web sites can use them. The first script
          to  enter  the  arena  is  a symbolic link builder for CVS HTML
          pages.

          The  task  of improving the web standards is enormous. However,
          it is a very rewarding since it brings results rapidly.

          A  rather  unexpected  improvement comes from [104]the hardware
          FAQ.  The  authors  use the technical infrastructure of the GNU
          project  to  publish  their  drafts. Since the source format is
          DocBook, we had some interesting exchanges on formating issues.
          It  appears that the machine fr.fsf.org now has a proper set of
          software  to  produce  output from DocBook sources. Since there
          also  exist  a translator from DocBook to texinfo, one might be
          tempted  to  write  DocBook documents from now on. This is food
          for  thought,  there  are many issues to consider, one of which
          being  the  relatively  immature  state  of  the  Free Software
          DocBook formating tools.

          Volunteers:  Jaime Villate, Paul Vischer, Loïc Dachary, Richard
          M. Stallman, Marc-Aurèle Darche

   [105]Audio and video repository
          A  large  audio  and  video repository was created. The primary
          purpose  is  to store the FSF Award 2000 video file (1.2Gb) and
          400Mb audio files. There is a total of 22Gb available.

          Volunteers: Loïc Dachary

   [106]News channel
          The  RSS  based  news channel of FSF France is available on FSF
          Europe.  Olivier  Berger enhanced it to display only the latest
          news  on  the  front  page  and  all  the  archives in the news
          subdirectory.

          They  are  now  dispatched  on  a  daily  basis  by mail on the
          [107]fsfe-newsfr-en at gnu.org   and   [108]fsfe-newsfr-fr at gnu.org
          mailing-lists  (resp.  in  english, and in french). This allows
          people interested in Free Software movement to keep informed of
          FSF   France  activity.  To  subscribe  to  this  mailing-list,
          [109]send  a  mail  to  fsfe-newsfr-en-request at gnu.org with the
          subject "subscribe"

          Volunteers: Olivier Berger, Loïc Dachary

Administrativia

   [110]Donations ([111]previous report)
          We did not chase donations and (what a surprise ;-) nobody sent
          a  cent to FSF France in the past months. The good news is that
          we did not spend any money either.

          Cyril  Bouthors  and  Noémie  Roche [112]worked hard on the tax
          deductibility issue. The papers were sent to the administration
          and we are waiting for their answer.

          Volunteers: Olivier Berger, Raphaël Rousseau, Frédéric Couchet,
          Loïc Dachary, Noémie Roche, Cyril Bouthors.

   Business Cards
          A new set of 200 business cards was produced for future events.

          Volunteers: Frédéric Couchet

   [113]Loïc Dachary

   Updated: $Date: 2001/08/21 23:47:22 $ $Author: loic $

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