[Fsfe-ie] "About IFSO" blurb for end of our letters/emails

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

When I spoke to Crowley, I'm not sure if he knew that "free" to us means
"freedom".  McGuinness knew free software was something about doing things
openly and collaborating.  One thing that we should be doing to help explain
this to people we talk to is end all communications with an "About IFSO".


Here's a suggestion.  It says all I think we'd want to say, but it doesn't
read as well or as interesting as it could.  This isn't urgent, so it can
just sit in minds/inboxes until people have time+interest.  After my draft,
I've pasted the "About Us" blurbs used by FSFE and FFII for reference.

This would be a good candidate for a wiki page I think.


About IFSO

IFSO was founed in January 2004 to protect and promote software which comes
with permission to run, study, modify, and redistribute it -- Free Software.
IFSO would like to see more widespread use of Free Software, such as the
GNU/Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and the
OpenOffice.org office suite.  We would also like to see the encouragement of
businesses based on the development, implementation, and support of Free
Software.  So that Free Software can continue to flourish, IFSO works to
prevent new legislation from restricting the writing of Free Software.  The
Software Patents directive is the largest such proposed restriction, but
copyright and other laws also need watching.


About the Free Software Foundation Europe:

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable non-governmental
organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to
software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the
Freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in
the Free Software definition- allow equal participation in the information
age. 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.  The FSFE was founded in 2001 as
the European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.


About FFII:

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit
association registered in Munich, which is dedicated to the spread of data
processing literacy. FFII supports the development of public information
goods based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 300
members, 700 companies and 50,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act
as their voice in public policy questions in the area of exclusion rights
(intellectual property) in data processing. 


Or the alternative FFII blurb:

FFII campaigns to promote competition and innovation in the field of
software development. They seek a positive environment for the development
of information goods, based on copyright, free competition, and open
standards.

More than 700 companies and 60,000 registered supporters have entrusted the
FFII to act as their public voice in the area of exclusion rights
(intellectual property) in data processing; and the FFII/Eurolinux petition
against software patents now has over 330,000 signatories.


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Have you signed up to help FSF Europe yet? http://www.fsfe.org/