FSFE Newsletter - April 2017

press at fsfe.org press at fsfe.org
Wed Apr 5 19:39:36 CEST 2017 

 = FSFE Newsletter - April 2017 =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201704.pt.html ]

 == Free Software in the German OGP action plan ==

Last December, Germany joined the Open Government Partnership [1] and
now has until June 2017 to develop and decide on an action plan.
Increased transparency and continuous reporting, governmental
effectiveness and citizen-friendly administration are all part of the
goals of Open Government.

The FSFE has worked together with other organisations and the "working
group OGP" Germany to summarise the topic of Free Software in the Open
Government context and provide concrete action items, along with a short
but illuminating introduction into the topic and a vision for 2030. The
recommendations were submitted to the German government in March.

The proposal was the outcome of a workshop, held by the German
Government in February, with the contribution of numerous civil society
representatives, including the FSFE. By publishing our suggestions [2],
we hope to enable civil society actors worldwide to learn about the OGP
discussion in Germany and use these suggestions in other countries.

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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 https://fsfe.org/join [3]

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 == What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE ==

- In the Dutch elections, Freedomvote.nl [4], initiated by the Dutch
  FSFE group, compared party positions on digital freedom and not only
  helped voters to make up their minds, but also gave a taste of what to
  expect by the newly elected parties' digital policies.

- Last month, we welcomed as an associated organisation, Dyne.org - a
  non-profit think/do tank [5] with more than 10 years of expertise in
  developing Free Software tools and narratives for community
  empowerment.

- On March 7, Matthias Kirschner put the spotlight on LiMux [6] at the
  talk he gave at the 58. Netzpolitischer Abend [7] in Berlin, and on
  March 28, he shared his views with the audience at the
  ISCTE–University Institute of Lisbon in Portugal [8] concerning ways
  to empower people to use technology. Matthias also participated in a
  longer podcast in German about LiMux [9].

- On March 11-12, the FSFE returned to Chemnitzer Linux-Tage [10],
  Germany's biggest Free Software conference, held in the University of
  Chemnitz. We arranged an information booth and Max Mehl spoke about
  the developments around the EU Radio "Lockdown" Directive [11].

- On March 20, Olga Gkotsopoulou, Polina Malaja and Lusy Vaseva
  presented the FSFE's Position Paper for the endorsement of Free
  Software and Open Standards in Horizon 2020 and all publicly-funded
  research [12] and facilitated a discussion about the role of Free
  Software in Open Science at the Open Science Barcamp in Berlin [13].

- The winners of the 2016 Free Software Awards were announced by the
  Free Software Foundation [14] during the LibrePlanet 2017 conference.
  The Award for Projects of Social Benefit was given to SecureDrop, an
  anonymous whistleblowing platform, maintained by Freedom of the Press
  Foundation, while the Award for the Advancement of Free Software went
  to Alexandre Oliva, an advocate of Free Software and the GNU Project.

- The Vienna FSFE group held an information booth at Veganmania indoor
  festival 2017. [15]

- Jonas Öberg wrote about the the need to work more with governments and
  local municipalities [16] in order to encourage uptake of Free
  Software friendly policies in procurement and development of IT
  systems. The FSFE policy team has intensified its efforts in this
  direction and asks for everyone's support. [17]

- If you're interested in discussions about Free Software on Android,
  you can join FSFE's android mailing list [18], which Matthias
  Kirschner highlighted in his introduction to installing Signal without
  a Google account or Google Play [19].

- In February, we celebrated the "I Love Free Software day" for the 8th
  consecutive year [20]. People all over the world used the occasion to
  declare their love and affection not only towards their significant
  other, but to the whole Free Software community. This year's
  celebrations had everything: a FOSDEM photobooth in Brussels [21],
  letters and flowers for the German Parliament [22], light projections
  in the streets of Berlin [23] and Frankfurt [24], creative artworks
  [25], a bright program of IloveFS events, funny memes [26], songs,
  microblogging as well as longer blogposts from individuals,
  politicians and supporting organisations.

- Are you currently a student? Is an internship a compulsory part of
  your studies curriculum? Are you fluent in German and English and
  interested in the politics around Free Software? Then, check our new
  intern vacancy announcement [27], for a position in our office in
  Berlin, from June till October 2017. And don't forget, that we're
  still able to accept additional student interns for 2017. Apply now
  [28] and don't miss the opportunity to become part of a great
  international and diverse team, based in Berlin!

 == Get active ==

Fellowship elections 2017: According to our constitution [29], two seats
in the General Assembly [30] are reserved for elected representatives of
our Fellows. They serve two-year terms and one seat is up for re-
election every year. The electoral process 2017 covers the period from
April 10 till April 24. Eight candidates are running for office in the
FSFE's General Assembly. You can find the list of candidates, along with
their manifestos and background as well as the election schedule and
voting procedure, in our dedicated Fellowship Election 2017 page [31].
All Fellows eligible to vote will automatically receive an email with
all necessary information.

 == Help us improve our newsletter ==

If you see some news you think should be included, forward it to us. If
you'd like to share any thoughts, send them to us. The address is as
always newsletter at fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks to all volunteers [32], supporters [33] and donors [34] who make
our work possible.

your editors Jonas Öberg, Olga Gkotsopoulou, Lusy Vaseva FSFE

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Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 https://fsfe.org/join [35]

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  1: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/
  2: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170328-01.en.html
  3: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-04
  4: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170302-01.en.html
  5: https://fsfe.org/associates/associates.en.html
  6: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPd5N2Y5nuM
  7: https://digitalegesellschaft.de/2017/03/58-npa/
  8: https://ansol.org/FSFE-palestra
  9: http://www.pietcast.com/folge-0026-limux/
 10: https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2017/en
 11: https://fsfe.org/activities/radiodirective/index.html
 12: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/oscibar2017_session17
 13: https://www.open-science-conference.eu/barcamp/
 14: http://www.fsf.org/news/securedrop-and-alexandre-oliva-are-2016-free-software-awards-winners
 15: https://blogs.fsfe.org/franz.gratzer/2017/03/10/booth-veganmania-indoor-2017/
 16: http://blog.jonasoberg.net/policy-whys-that
 17: https://fsfe.org/fellowship/ams/join.php?ams=join
 18: https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/android
 19: https://k7r.eu/testing-signal-without-google-account/
 20: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170315-01.en.html
 21: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/whylovefs/gallery.en.html
 22: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/graphics/ilovefs-roses.jpg
 23: http://bit.ly/2ltZM4H
 24: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blixxter/32872437596/
 25: http://www.elektrollart.de/?p=4503
 26: https://blog.3rik.cc/2017/02/free-software-ergo-sum/
 27: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170321-01.de.html
 28: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170116-01.html
 29: https:///www.fsfe.org/about/legal/constitution.html#id-fellowship-seats
 30: https:///www.fsfe.org/about/team#general-assembly
 31: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Election/FellowshipElection_2017
 32: https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
 33: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join/nltr17
 34: https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
 35: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-04

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