46 Sign OS Freedom Open Letter +++ Fair Market App +++ Your Digital Rights

Tue May 10 16:02:09 UTC 2022

 = 46 Sign OS Freedom Open Letter +++ Fair Market App +++ Your Digital Rights =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202205.fi.html ]

In this Issue: an alliance of 46 entities - and counting - supports the
universal right to install any software on any device. Free Software is
being considered for inclusion in the EU Declaration of Digital Rights.
FSFE's transparency in public procurement app gets to EU Datathon
finals. Italian FSFE volunteers prepare tour.

 == 46 Entities Request the EU for the Right to Reuse Hardware ==

The EU is redefining their ecodesign criteria for environmentally
friendly electronics. The FSFE provided input by publishing an open
letter [1] demanding the right to install any software on any electronic
device. This right would allow to keep our devices longer, but it
requires manufacturers to follow certain rules. For example,
manufacturers must be required to unlock bootloaders on all devices,
including computers, tablets and phones; they must also publish full
specifications for every component on the device. This allows us and any
third party to better repair our devices, and even reuse parts of them.
The use of Open Standards is also necessary for devices to communicate
and operate with each other.

Initially 38 organisations [2] agreed on the necessity of these
conditions and signed the open letter before publication. It is still
possible to sign the letter and more than 45 organisations have now
signed. It speaks volumes that tech companies, right to repair
initiatives, and important environmental organisations support the right
to install any software on any device.

 == FSFE's App Prototype Shortlisted to EU Datathon Finals ==

The FSFE System Hackers created an application prototype [3] aspiring to
connect publicly available tendering and company data and to allow
analysis of this data. The goal of the app is to allow citizens and
experts to monitor suspicious market activity of public interest. The
project idea has been a success and made it to the top six out of 26
entries in the ‘transparency in public procurement’ challenge of the EU
Datathon 2022. Our team has now been invited to further develop the app.

 == Update: Digital Rights Declaration ==

The EU is in the process of discussing the Declaration of Digital Rights
and Principles. The European Parliament has now agreed on a common text
[4] recognising Free Software as a way to ensure transparency in
algorithms and artificial intelligence. The agreed text also stresses
the need for 'trustworthy standards and, wherever possible, open source
standards'. It encourages 'sustainable by design digital technologies
that are durable, repairable, and interoperable, both on hardware and
software level, and banning practices leading to premature
obsolescence'. The FSFE keeps monitoring the ongoing inter-institutional
dialogue trying to make sure that the Parliament proposal remains.

 == Update: AI Resolution Passed ==

The European Parliament passed a resolution [5] on Artificial
Intelligence (AI) with a huge majority. According to the resolution,
public procurement should require Free Software, where appropriate, with
the goal to encourage cross-border collaboration. The Parliament
acknowledges that Free Software can enhance investments and boost
innovation in AI technologies in the EU. The FSFE now urges the
Parliament to transfer its own position into the AI regulation.

 == Save the Date! ==

- On 12 May the FSFE Berlin [6] group has its regular monthly meeting.

- On 14 May the FSFE will have a booth in make-it.saarland in
  Saarbrücken, Germany and also our Policy Consultant Alexander Sander
  will give a talk ‘Innovation needs Free Software’ on Saturday and
  Sunday. On 19 May Alexander will discuss the challenges and
  perspectives of ethical and diversity-sensitive AI in the European
  context at the KIDD-Fachkonferenz panel in Berlin.

- On 20 May the FSFE Women [7] group has its regular monthly meeting. In
  the last meeting [8], the group discussed the legal structure and the
  blogging network of the organisation.

- On 2 June there is an author reading [9] of Ada & Zangemann [DE] in
  Cologne.

- On 14 June the FSFE local group Hamburg [10] has its regular monthly
  meeting.

- Lucas Lasota, FSFE Legal Project Manager, is conducting a seminar on
  digital sovereignty [11] at the Humboldt University of Berlin for the
  summer semester.

 == Past and Ongoing Activities ==

- On 4 May we held an online session about the future of Router Freedom
  in Austria [12]. The recording [DE] will soon be available in our
  Peertube instance.

- Max Mehl, FSFE Programme Manager, wrote a blog post [13] about a
  Python application he created for the FSFE infrastructure to automate
  reverse proxies for Docker containers, Docker2Caddy.

- We published a short video: What is Free Software (Open Source)? EN
  [14], DE [15]. Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE, shared a
  blog post [16] on how the video came to be made. To reach to possibly
  new audiences, we also uploaded the video to proprietary platforms EN
  [17], DE [18] where you can upvote it to help new people learn about
  software freedom.

- „Nur ein Jahr länger…“ – Politik und Software rund um’s Smartphone
  [19] [DE], the talk by FSFE Programme Manager and sustainability
  expert Erik Albers at the Digital Social Summit 2022, is now available
  on our Peertube instance.

 == FSFE Local Groups ==

*Italy* | The Italian Translation team has worked on the PMPC brochure
[20] and it is now available in Italian. Friends of the team are kindly
proofreading the brochure.

The Italian volunteers are also preparing a summer tour around the
country to let people know that code paid for by the public should also
be publicly available. The first stop in the tour is Trento, on June
7th. Learn more about the plans in the mailing lists or chats of Milano
[21] and Sicily [22]. Meet the volunteers in the tour and get yourself a
copy of the freshly translated PMPC brochure!

*Zurich* | The local group in Zurich is working on persuading public
administrations to migrate to federated social networks. The group have
been discussing the idea since early April, and the project gained a
boost when many people and entities, including the European Union [23]
have been joining Mastodon. The group will meet [24] again on 18 May
2022.

*Netherlands* | Building on the Zurich group's idea, the Dutch team
brainstormed technical solutions [25] to automatically post Dutch
municipalities’ news to Mastodon. ‘What if we gather the RSS feeds of
345 Dutch municipalities and feed them to a Mastodon account?’ was a
question that caught attention. Fani Partsafyllidou, Project Manager at
FSFE, joined the last meeting. The next meeting [26] is on Wednesday 25
May 20:00 CEST.

 == Get Active ==

In the FSFE we want to empower users to control technology. But Free
Software also helps to achieve ecological sustainability. That is why we
joined the organising committee of the Bits & Bäume 2022 ('Bits and
Trees') conference which will take place from 30 September to 2 October.

Passionate about sustainable Free Software solutions? Please let us and
everyone else know at the conference! Submit a talk, a workshop or a
fine piece of art to Bits & Bäume 2022. The Call for Participation for
is open until 7 June [27].

 == Contribute to our Newsletter ==

If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter at fsfe.org. We're looking
forward to hearing from you! If you also want to support us and our
work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly
contribution [28]. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers,
supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.

Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou

Discuss this [29]

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  1: https://fsfe.org/activities/upcyclingandroid/openletter.fi.html
  2: https://fsfe.org/news/2022/news-20220427-01.fi.html
  3: https://ted.sehn.dev
  4: https://fsfe.org/news/2022/news-20220503-01.fi.html
  5: https://fsfe.org/news/2022/news-20220503-01.fi.html
  6: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Berlin
  7: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women/
  8: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women/Notes
  9: https://www.stadt-koeln.de/leben-in-koeln/freizeit-natur-sport/veranstaltungskalender/ada-und-zangemann-autorenlesung
 10: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Hamburg
 11: https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/beb04d451cf04f6db673/
 12: https://fsfe.org/news/2022/news-20220420-01.fi.html
 13: https://mehl.mx/blog/2022/docker2caddy-an-automatic-reverse-proxy-for-docker-containers/
 14: https://media.fsfe.org/w/xs29yhLxSP1uKLYkSeoKKp
 15: https://media.fsfe.org/w/ndxFckPP8yWhMfnPcsvEkM
 16: https://k7r.eu/short-history-of-the-what-is-free-software-open-source-video/
 17: https://youtu.be/EMi3PCW23yQ
 18: https://youtu.be/WAWrgKFkCpA
 19: https://media.fsfe.org/w/3C7v3X7Enfc7raZesFZKKv
 20: https://fsfe.org/activities/publiccode/brochure
 21: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Milano
 22: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Sicilia
 23: https://social.network.europa.eu/explore
 24: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Zurich/2022-05-18
 25: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Netherlands/2022-04-20
 26: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Netherlands/2022-05-25
 27: https://fsfe.org/news/2022/news-20220425-01.fi.html
 28: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
 29: https://community.fsfe.org/t/846