Discussion September 2017

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

38 participants
27 discussions

FSFE-in-2020: Who are we?
by Jonas Oberg 14 Oct '19

14 Oct '19

Hi everyone, I wanted to point you to this open internship position at the FSFE: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170811-01.en.html As you know, when the FSFE was founded, we put together a document describing our self conception. That was 16 years ago, and while I believe it to still be relevant, we'll be looking at making a new committment towards a revised organisational identity later this year. As a part of this work, we're looking for an intern to support the process for 3-6 months, working closely with me and others in the FSFE on analysing how the different groups within and outside of the FSFE perceive the organisation's identity, which will then work towards understanding how aligned they are, and supporting a renewed committment towards a self conception. We've already started the work, and will be looking for someone who could jump on board quite soon indeed, so don't wait to send this to someone you think might be interested! Work description and other application details on the page above. Sincerely, -- Jonas Öberg, Executive Director Free Software Foundation Europe | jonas(a)fsfe.org Your support enables our work (fsfe.org/join)

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Talos II (FSF RYF candidate)
by Timothy Pearson 16 Sep '18

16 Sep '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Just wanted to pass this along from the FSF on this side of the pond in case you haven't seen it yet: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-talos-ii-a-candidate-for-re… - -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJZuEx+AAoJEK+E3vEXDOFbEI4H/ii1wPQbq6xhZF0F5hcS3Kfi 03oE0E1Xaj5IV2FM30sExO/Lf8I5jl+VQnVdrsiCoIIqBev4DcfxA/vfJ4SUY24y hmbwzafi8g2zffaLSICIChiAEEcDHlaQniTU4S6wxNWv4RyIUrkEYvqUvwRNnpUv g69V8VxYUqcjnHtZVpu9gwAmPgc1TXNW508i4fnMP3EHX1DEmW5pBLmRvPvGsRor 9th3F/ezacfqkPlkuWmL2YLb7wRvTzTJw6CMXInpKDyK+kQCMvL3Tgyp2HFZcCm7 skpS+uconvRQhpp/InVYYCh/e6CrHznpxyEhvug0elX0lZDpqvmv1Hv0sTY3mEU= =WEgY -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[UK] Information about the think tank Doteveryone
by Jonke Suhr 23 Mar '18

23 Mar '18

Hey everyone, I received a request to add Doteveryone [1] to our list of supporting organizations for Public Code, however I'm not sure if they are truly an NGO like the other organisations on our list. They are a registered charity, however I'm not sure what that entails so I wanted to ask if anyone who knows a lot about the UK could pitch in with some information (I CC'd Daniel so maybe he can forward this mail). After I asked Catherine this: > could you write a few words about how your organisation relates to Free Software and Open > Source? I'm unfamiliar with your organisation and not sure if will fit with our campaign. She replied: > Doteveryone is a thinktank fighting for a fairer internet. We want to ensure that people and society benefit from technology in a fair and responsible way. Our Responsible Tech work is around how technology development - in public and private sectors - can be done ethically and thoughtfully, with appropriate business models which reflect the values of those involved directly or otherwise. The Public Code declaration is perfectly aligned with this. As an example, last year we worked on technologies for end of life care [2] within the UK health system, and the importance of open source (and open standards) to avoid vendor lockin and exploitative pricing in software used in the NHS was part of our commissioning recommendations. [3] I'm concerned about their commitment to Free Software, should I still add them? Best regards, Jonke [1] https://doteveryone.org.uk/ [2] https://projects.doteveryone.org.uk/improvingcare/index.html [3] https://projects.doteveryone.org.uk/improvingcare/pages/commissioning.html

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FSFE launches a new campaign today: Public Money? Public Code!
by Erik Albers 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

Dear list, some news portals already picked it up and every FSFE supporter received a message about it in his inbox: today in the morning we launched a new campaign "Public Money Public Code". For the campaign we published an open letter [1] together with 31 organisations in which we call for lawmakers to make it mandatory to publish all publicly financed software under a Free Software licence. Among the initial signatories are CCC, EDRi, KDE, Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, openSUSE, Open Source Business Alliance, Open Source Initiative, The Document Foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland, as well as several others. Prominent support we also got from Edward Snowden, who says: "Right now, the blueprints for much of our most critical public infrastructure are simply unavailable to the public. By aligning public funding with a Free Software requirement -- "Free" referring to public code availability, not cost -- we can find and fix flaws before they are used to turn the lights out in the next hospital." You find the whole press-release here: https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170913-01.en.html Now it is up to you! Please help and join us by signing this letter and ask your friends and colleagues to do likewise: https://publiccode.eu/#action Why is this important? Public institutions spend millions of euros every year for the development of new software for them. But the public sector's procurement choices play a significant role in determining which companies are allowed to compete and what software is supported with taxpayers' money. This means, that changing policies in public procurement will have a huge positive impact on the Free Software community. The open letter will be sent to candidates for the current German Parliament election and, during the coming months, until the 2019 EU parliament elections, to other representatives of the EU and EU member states. Since it is our public money, it should be our public code as well! This mail can and shall be copied and forwarded. Best regards, Erik [1] https://publiccode.eu/openletter/ -- No one shall ever be forced to use non-free software Erik Albers | Communication & Community Coordinator | FSFE OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x8639DC81 on keys.gnupg.net

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an FSFE hackathon?
by Daniel Pocock 24 Nov '17

24 Nov '17

Hi all, Has there ever been an FSFE hackathon? How would people feel about having such an event, or even a few small hackathons in parallel? Are there tasks that would be useful to FSFE and can be completed in one or two days, either by an individual or small teams? Would anybody have ideas about obtaining prizes, t-shirts or other support for hackathon participants? Hackathons can be particularly useful for potential Outreachy and GSoC interns to become familiar with the free software community and also for them to complete small pieces of code that help mentors identify which candidates to shortlist. Regards, Daniel

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Good examples where Free Software was used in development countries
by Bjoern Schiessle 11 Nov '17

11 Nov '17

Hi all, in October I will give a talk about how Free Software can help to export wealth and knowledge to development country in order to empower them. For this I'm looking for some good examples. In the past there was the "One Laptop per Child" initiative. But I don't know how active they are today, didn't heard a lot about it for a long time. Then I remember a example where a small region wanted to have programs translated to their native (traditional) language but because it was a tiny market proprietary software vendors refused to provide translation so they started using GNU/Linux where they could add the translation by them self. I'm no longer sure about the region, I think it was somewhere in Spain. Does someone here remember/know it? Do you have any other examples where Free Software was used in education or economy to grow a region/country? Thanks! Björn -- Björn Schießle <schiessle(a)fsfe.org> Free Software Foundation Europe (https://fsfe.org) Coordinator Germany www: http://www.schiessle.org gnupg/pgp key: 0x0x2378A753E2BF04F6 fingerprint: 244F CEB0 CB09 9524 B21F B896 2378 A753 E2BF 04F6

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New FOSS email webamin
by Ioli Papadopoulou 15 Oct '17

15 Oct '17

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Is lack of software freedom a valid reason for refusal?
by Carsten Agger 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

I imagine a number of situations: * Suppose I'm unemployed and dedicated to only using free software - I'm offered a job where I'll have to use Windows and Microsoft Word. If I refuse the job because of software freedom. Can I still be claim unemployment benefit? * I'm an unemployed programmer and get offered at job where I have to *write* proprietary software - I refuse because I won't participate in taking users' freedom. Can I still be claim unemployment benefit? * I want to park my car in the city, but it's only possible to pay by downloading one of two proprietary apps (real-world situation in Copenhagen) on my smartphone. Can I refuse to pay an eventual fine on the grounds that I couldn't pay? ... etc. I think the ideal must be for the lack of software freedom to *always* be accepted as a valid reason to refuse a given piece of software, but pragmatically, it may not always be possible (especially, many people like to have jobs and may prioritize that above not using/writing proprietry software).

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Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?
by Erik Albers 02 Oct '17

02 Oct '17

Hi all, Maybe you noted in the Newsletter May [1] a pro and contra between our Executive Director and our Fellowship representative: On the FSFE's Planet, we had an interesting dialogue popping up between our executive director Jonas Öberg who argues that sometimes you can use proprietary software to further free and open source software [2] although you should be aware about the risk of backfiring. And Daniel Pocock, our new Fellowship representative, answered with "the risk of proprietary software" [3] and that "no deal might be better than a bad deal", meaning that if you cannot achieve something with Free Software you should consider just doing without it. In our European core team we are having a lively discussion now about the pros and cons of using proprietary software platforms like Facebook, Meetup, Twitter and alike to send out our message of software freedom. You may have noticed that the FSFE for example runs a Twitter-account. We do this under some rules but in particular under the rule that these "services are an addition to the FSFE's communication channels and not a replacement. The teams have to make sure to always provide the information accessible by using Free Software without pushing people to create accounts on proprietary platform." Means that every information on a proprietary platform is only a mulitiplication of information that is given somewhere else, accessible and created with Free Software. Now I would be interested what you think? Do you think that - although the use of proprietary platforms is ethically not supportable - the chances of convincing new people to use and further Free Software are worth the punishment? Or do you think that our message should not occur on platforms like Facebook or Twitter at all, because it contradicts our efforts in getting people to use decentralized services, run with Free Software and therefore potentially harm us in the long run? Thank you for sharing your opinions on this, Erik [1] https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201705 [2] http://blog.jonasoberg.net/using-proprietary-software-for-freedom/ [3] https://danielpocock.com/risks-of-using-proprietary-software -- No one shall ever be forced to use non-free software Erik Albers | Communication & Community Coordinator | FSFE OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x8639DC81 on keys.gnupg.net

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community feedback on GA meeting agenda?
by Daniel Pocock 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

Hi all, A draft agenda was recently circulated for the GA meeting with a deadline of 1 October for any changes. As one of the fellowship representatives, I have put forward a number of proposed motions that attempt to gain consensus on some of the issues discussed on FSFE mailing lists recently. Does anybody have any topics they would explicitly like to draw attention to for the GA agenda? Would people like to see the agenda available publicly, possibly on the wiki? The minutes of past meetings are already public[1] Regards, Daniel 1. https://fsfe.org/about/legal/legal.en.html

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Discussion September 2017