Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon

press at fsfe.org press at fsfe.org
Wed May 15 06:50:25 UTC 2019


 = Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-02.nl.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


More information about the Press-release-nl mailing list