[EUFSF] Re: Other countries (was: Re: FSF UK?)

[Pim van Riezen]

On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Frederico S. Muñoz wrote:

> Having said all this I really would like to know exactly what it takes
> for an org to become an associate or something... because the truth
> is, I'm trying to think of the best way to get things going here
> (note: getting things going is spreading the news, adverstising the
> FSFE, discuss forms of particpating, etc. I'm *not* in any way taking
> the lead on anything or voluntearing for anything. I think you got my
> point), and as such I would like to have feedback on what steps to
> take. If not, then the FSFE will prolly reach 2040 and we will still
> be happily oblivious of it's existence.
>
> As an addenda, and before anybody asks the perenial question 'What
> have *you* contributed to the free-software community?', I'll answer:
> very little. Just testing, translating, web pages, debian
> maintanership and little more.

An interesting question may also be, and I'm bound not to be the only one
with that question, is there any way businesses can help? In .nl, a large
portion of the Free Software mindshare is actually vividly alive in the
ISP community. I and my team at Vuurwerk have already for all practical
purposes set a GPL policy. I know that other of the "hacker ISPs" that are
doing good business currently do much of the same. Let's just name XS4All
and Cistron as examples.

We are talking commercial enterprises with leverage and an actual
conscience as well as a fair amount of devotion to the Free Software
movement. And not in the ESR sense. To me, and many others working in
businesses like ours, the Cathedral/Bazaar arguments just illustrate
side-effects that are actually quite positive, but not the point of why
we're doing this. We are a business sector that couldn't exist if the
software it depended upon weren't Free in the speech sense.

The individuals working for such companies, and usually most layers of
management along with them, see this inherent need for freedom in software
and are bound to do their utmost best to actively support such a movement,
possibly financially, but along that in many other ways (infrastructure,
exposure) if they have a way to channel their efforts.

Just my few cents.

Cheers,

Pim van Riezen
Coordinator Development
Vuurwerk Internet