FSFE Newsletter - June 2016

[press at fsfeurope.org]

 = FSFE Newsletter - June 2016 =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201606.sv.html ]

 == FSFE co-signed letter on net neutrality ==

FSFE together with 72 organisations signed a letter to the EU telecom
regulators in support of strong net neutrality rules[1] in the on-going
negotiations for the guidelines on the implementation of the recently
adopted EU Regulation 2015/2120. The Regulation creates a basis for
strong net neutrality, and FSFE together with other organisations from
all over the world asks the Body of European Regulators of Electronic
Communication (BEREC) and the 28 national telecom regulators to uphold
these rules and to establish strong net neutrality guidelines around
Europe.

 == From Free Software misunderstandings to software at CERN - FSFE busy at events ==

The past month was full of events and talks, with FSFE staff and team
members being present on several occasions. Talks and presentations make
a large part of our work to reach out and communicate our message to
people from different backgrounds.

FSFE's president Matthias Kirschner gave a short talk during Re:publica
TEN[2] about how to counter Free Software misunderstandings. He also
participated as a speaker at the Croatian Linux Users' Conference DORS /
CLUC[3] in Zagreb, Croatia, where he gave a keynote about "The long way
to empower people to control technology".

During the foss-north conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, FSFE's vice
president Alessandro Rubini gave a talk on "Time in Software and
Hardware - how time is handled in the Linux kernel and in the White
Rabbit network at CERN", and FSFE's executive director, Jonas Öberg,
presented a talk about the "State of Free Software in Europe (and
elsewhere)".

German Coordinator Max Mehl gave a talk about Radio 'Lockdown' Directive
during the Wireless Battle of the Mesh v9, in Porto, Portugal, and your
co-editor Polina Malaja gave an overview on the same topic during the
Wireless Community Weekend 2016in Berlin, Germany.

Last but not least, FSFE's Austrian coordinator Peter Bubestinger gave a
talk about Free Software in schools[4] at the Open Source Conference
Albania OSCAL.

 == From the community ==

Torsten Grote gives an overview of recent security innovations in
instant messaging in his blogpost about "Briar - Next Step of The Crypto
Messenger Evolution"[5]. Briar is aiming at becoming a peer-to-peer
messenger which is entirely Free Software: it utilises end-to-end
encryption with forward secrecy and does not require its users to
disclose their metadata (i.e. the content of their address-books and how
frequently they talk to their contacts). These criteria will help in
offering a secure and privacy-friendly messenger that is available for
everyone to use freely.

-
Elena Grandi described her experience with OpenPandora[6], a handheld
game console and a mobile personal computer. On this occasion, Elena
also anticipated the pros and cons of the successor device Pyra.

-
Diderik van Wingerden blogged about his perception of future innovations
and the role of Free Software in it by compiling a list of sources that
helped him in "Shaping a vision of the future"[7].

-
Our executive director Jonas Öberg wrote about the Videorooter project
and its automated testing of algorithms[8]. The code is now connected to
Github repositories and automated tests of algorithms are run every time
someone improves the code.

-
Björn Schießle read the coalition contract of the new government in
Baden-Württemberg, a state of Germany, and analysed how they promise to
promote Free Software[9] (German).

-
Christian Widerström made an overview of the upcoming activities and
events that the Austrian FSFE team will be participating in[10]
(German).

-
The project "Sustainable use of older laptops with Linux and Free
Software", mainly run by Fellow Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann, has been given
the RWE Sustainability Award[11]. The project helps people to migrate to
Free Software and to make use of their old hardware with a proper
GNU/Linux installation (German).

-

 == What else have we done? ==

How to successfully campaign for Free Software in a way that is
appealing both for the general public and politicians? FSFE teamed up
with the Peng! Collective[12] and learned from the latter's experience
in campaigning during a weekend-long workshop. FSFE's Fellowship
Representative Mirko Boehm summarised the outcome of the workshop in his
blogpost[13].

-
FSFE's Austrian team did a great job by being present with booths at
Linuxwochen Wien and Grazer Linuxtage (German)[14] and the local group
in Berlin was present at the OpenTechSummit in Berlin, Germany.

-
Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann gave an interview about the importance of Free
Software in Open Educational Resources[15] (German).

-
Getting active for Free Software and doing this by working for the FSFE
is increasingly attractive and we receive a lot of applications for our
internship program each month. However, most of the applications we get
do not make the cut. In his blogpost, our executive director Jonas Öberg
gave a few hints about how to succeed with your internship
application[16] and make it to the FSFE team as an intern.

-

 == Take Action ==

Become a volunteer to maintain our blog platform! If you are interested
in devops or system administration, we now offer an opportunity to
polish your skills and learn new tricks by hosting a blog platform for
thousands of our volunteers!

FSFE's blog platform is a service we provide to our volunteers to give
them a place to write about their explorations of Free Software and
their work in the FSFE. For a while, the service has been in dire
straits and in need of an upgrade[17]. Thanks to our wonderful
volunteers who already stepped up and proposed their help in maintaining
the platform, the service will be kept alive.

If you are interested in joining our blog platform team, get in touch
with our blog team at blog-hackers (at) lists.fsfe.org.

 == Good Free Software news ==

The Hungarian government published a decree promoting the use of Free
Software and Open Standards in public administrations[18]. The country's
Ministry of Interior is bound to start a central licence registry for
software used by the public sector and report yearly on the progress
made in use of Free Software and Open Standards. Meanwhile, France
revised its interoperability guidelines which from now on recommend ODF
as a standard communication format between public administrations and
citizens[19]. Sweden's Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) is
determined to adhere to its Free Software strategy and to sustain the
Free Software solutions it uses[20], according to the planned updates of
the strategy to be published in June. As stated by the Social Insurance
Agency, Free Software maximises value of IT by allowing its efficient
use.

Thanks to all the volunteers[21] , Fellows[22] and corporate donors[23]
who enable our work,

your editors Polina Malaja and Erik Albers, FSFE[24]

-- 
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>

  1. https://akvorrat.at/sites/default/files/20160502_nn_berec_civilsocietyletter_signed.pdf
  2. https://re-publica.de/16/session/freie-software-missverstandnisse-gekonnt-aufklaren
  3. http://2016.dorscluc.org/activity/29/#activity
  4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/pb/?p=165
  5. https://blog.grobox.de/2016/briar-next-step-of-the-crypto-messenger-evolution/
  6. http://social.gl-como.it/display/3e3ce0df12572dd2557bdda693148259
  7. http://think-innovation.com/blog/shaping-a-vision-of-the-future/
  8. http://blog.jonasoberg.net/automated-testing-of-algorithms/
  9. http://blog.schiessle.org/2016/05/10/freie-software-im-koalitionsvertrag-baden-wurttemberg/
 10. https://blog.widerstroem.com/weblog/4/veranstaltungen-oesterreich-2016-part-i
 11. https://blogs.fsfe.org/wromey/2016/05/06/projekt-nachhaltige-nutzung-auch-alterer-laptops-mit-linux-und-freier-software-erhalt-den-rwe-nachhaltigkeitspreis/
 12. https://www.pen.gg/
 13. https://creative-destruction.me/2016/05/04/how-to-campaign-for-the-cause-of-software-freedom/
 14. https://blog.widerstroem.com/weblog/2/linuxwochen-wien-grazer-linuxtage
 15. http://open-educational-resources.de/podlove/file/502/s/download/c/select-show/OER027.mp3
 16. http://blog.jonasoberg.net/are-you-the-fsfes-next-intern/
 17. http://blog.jonasoberg.net/blogs-and-other-infrastructures/
 18. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/hungary-increase-use-open-source-software
 19. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/france%E2%80%99s-rgi-v2-recommends-odf
 20. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/sweden%E2%80%99s-insurer-open-source-maximises-it-efficiency
 21. https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.sv.html
 22. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
 23. https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.sv.html
 24. https://fsfe.org/index.sv.html