Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon

Wed May 15 10:11:42 UTC 2019

This article arrived in my mailbox this morning. It's a lovely read!
Thank you to the author, and to Christine Prayon.

Je mer, 2019-05-15 je 06:50 +0000, press at fsfe.org skribis:
>  = Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon =
> 
> [ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-02.en.html ]
> 
> Yesterday, political satirist Christine Prayon was awarded the 10,000
> Euro Dieter Hildebrandt Prize of the City of Munich for demanding
> political or decidedly socio-critical political satire. Prayon is
> donating the prize money to the Free Software Foundation Europe.
> 
> The jury states [1], among other things, that the award recipient Prayon
> "[...] does not simply accuse - she unmasks, and we are her witnesses".
> Prayon herself used her thank-you speech to put the finger on one of
> Munich's sore spots: Prayon describes the former genius, progressive
> process of making Munich independent of the providers of proprietary
> software and letting the complete administration run on a free system.
> Prayon then criticised the switch back to proprietary systems.
> 
> The migration of workstations back to proprietary software will cost
> Munich almost 50 million Euros over the next six years. A further 37
> million Euros will have to be invested in implementation projects. The
> Free Software Foundation Europe already criticised the migration-project
> in the past. The migration will not solve existing organisational IT
> problems in the day-to-day administrative business. At the same time new
> dependencies on manufacturers of proprietary software will arise and
> license fees will be paid to the proprietary manufacturers instead of
> using these funds in tax payers' best interest for the further
> development of the software and the cooperation with other
> administrations. The systems become less transparent and no longer
> comprehensible for citizens. Further information on the migration plans
> of the City of Munich can be found here [2].
> 
> Munich is thus turning against the trend: in other administrations, Free
> Software is being used with overwhelming success. Since the French
> government decided to start using more Free Software back in 2012,
> between 0.6% and 5.4% more companies using Free Software have been
> created in France every year; between 6.6% and 14% more people find
> employment in the IT sector every year. In Barcelona, 70% of the budget
> for the development of new software is used to create Free Software.
> Contracts have so far been awarded to 3,000 companies, 60% of them SMEs,
> mostly from the region. In collaborative projects, more and more cities
> are working on common software solutions and jointly develop them,
> saving costs and sharing risks.
> 
> The Free Software Foundation Europe has launched the campaign "Public
> Money? Public Code!" to convince other administrations to switch to Free
> Software and support them in their migration. As part of the campaign,
> we published the specialist publication "Public Money Public Code -
> Modernising Public Infrastructure with Free Software". The brochure aims
> to answer questions from decision-makers about the benefits of using and
> developing Free Software for the public administration.
> 
> More information about the campaign and its supporters can be found on
> our campaign website at publiccode.eu [3], and the brochure can be found
> here [4].
> 
> The Free Software Foundation Europe would like to take this opportunity
> to thank Christine Prayon for her commitment to Free Software and her
> generous donation.
> 
>  1: https://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/Kulturreferat/Kulturfoerderung/Preise/Dieter-Hildebrandt-Preis/2019.html
>  2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-01.html
>  3: https://publiccode.eu/
>  4: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure
> 
>   == About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
> 
>   Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
>   control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
>   lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
>   restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
>   understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
>   fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
> 
>   The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
>   Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
>   It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
>   adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
>   provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
>   in Europe.
> 
>   http://fsfe.org
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