Introducing FSFE's new president, vice president and executive team
During its General Assembly in Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain, the
members of FSFE elected new coordinators for several of the
organisation's activities, including strategy, legal and executive
coordination.
"The new team will continue FSFE's highly successful work with the
same long-term vision. We will work hard to justify the trust
which the Free Software community is putting into FSFE", says the
new president, Karsten Gerloff.
He continues: "Georg Greve and his team have done splendid work
over the past eight years, building FSFE out of nothing into an
organisation that is highly respected and trusted as an expert
group on Free Software, and as a reliable partner in policy making
and negotiations."
The newly elected Vice President Fernanda Weiden comments: "FSFE
has strong roots in the community. The people in this organisation
have a deep understanding not only of technology itself, but also
of its social and political aspects. Together, we can continue to
develop cutting-edge thinking on how we as a society handle
knowledge, and how we can best make the most of technology."
Christian Holz, appointed Executive Director, says: "Coming from a
business background and having worked with Free Software since the
early nineties, I am excited to become more involved in FSFE. The
team is highly motivated, and we have wonderful volunteers who
support our actions and cause."
Adriaan de Groot, FSFE's designated Freedom Task Force Coordinator:
"As Free Software has become mainstream, education and advice on its
legal aspects are getting more important every day. With the FTF, we
will continue to protect the interests of Free Software projects and
we stand ready to assist the community wherever our help may be
required."
Matthias Kirschner, newly hired to coordinate the Fellowship and the
German team, comments: "The Fellowship is key to building awareness
for Free Software in our society. It has become a magnet for smart,
dedicated people who care about Free Software, and an important
pillar for FSFE's financial stability. We will support FSFE's Fellows
and help them to make an impact wherever they are."
FSFE's founder and former president Georg Greve will remain in the
organisation as a volunteer. He expresses his full support for the new
team. "There is no doubt in my mind that these extraordinary people
are a dream team to ensure both continuity and change towards a
better, larger, and more successful FSFE. The past months of work to
prepare the ground with and for them have been a pleasure, and I look
forward to all the many achievements for software freedom this team is
going to bring about."
More information on the new team:
Karsten Gerloff http://fsfe.org/about/gerloff/
Fernanda Weiden http://fsfe.org/about/nanda/
Christian Holz http://fsfe.org/about/holz/
Adriaan de Groot http://fsfe.org/about/adridg/
Matthias Kirschner http://fsfe.org/about/kirschner/
A personal blog entry by Georg Greve:
http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=354
The new team is available for comments:
Karsten Gerloff +49 176 9690 4298
Fernanda Weiden +41 764 0218 66
Christian Holz +49 178 8359 482
Adriaan de Groot +31 6 2856 1142
Matthias Kirschner +49 176 2952 0450
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries
and involved in many global activities. Access to software
determines participation in a digital society. To secure equal
participation in the information age, as well as freedom of
competition, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues
and is dedicated to the furthering of Free Software, defined by
the freedoms to use, study, modify and copy. Founded in 2001,
creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org
Press contact: gerloff at fsfeurope.org
[We are working on a translation into Spanish which will be sent to the
Spanish Fellows later]
Dear FSFE Fellows,
FSFE's Spanish team is proud to invite you to a team meeting in order to
set the group's agenda for next months. It will take place on 20th of
June (16:30 h.) alongside FSFE's 2009 General Assembly in Residencia La
Cristalera[0] near Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid[1].
After the meeting, attendees will meet FSFE's General Assembly members
for a social event[2] at La Cristalera's gardens. This is a great
opportunity to get to know each other, to continue thinking about the
bits and bytes of freedom and to enjoy an entertaining evening with
friends and Fellows.
Recent events related to Free Software in Spain put issues of software
freedom into the focus of the media. FSFE's Spanish Team feels it is
time to dive deeper into action, and as a consequence a series of events
and projects are now being started, leading up to an official
presentation of FSFE and its Spanish Team in November.
The Spanish Group will present the aims, procedures and the agenda,
followed by a round table to discuss the next steps. You are invited to
participate and to help shaping the future of Software in Spain and
Europe towards more freedom.
The agenda for the meeting:
16:30 h. Reception
17:00 h. FSFE's Spanish Team presentation
18:00 h. Round Table
20:00 h. Social Event together with GA members
[0] http://www.lacristalera.com
[1]
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=40.8142&lon=-3.7615&zoom=14&layers=B000FTF
[2] http://fsfe.org/news/2009/ga2009.en.html
mfg
Thomas Jensch, Intern - Zurich office
--
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) (http://fsfe.org)
Join the Fellowship of FSFE! (http://fellowship.fsfe.org)
Your donation powers our work! (http://fsfe.org/donate)
----- Forwarded message from Thomas Gramstad <thomas(a)efn.no> -----
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 16:22:41 +0200 (CEST)
From: Thomas Gramstad <thomas(a)efn.no>
To: efn-listen(a)ifi.uio.no
Subject: Teach Copyright Right! (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 08:00:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: Electronic Frontier Foundation <membership(a)eff.org>
Subject: Teach Copyright Right!
Dear Thomas,
Last week, the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation -- a
nonprofit mouthpiece for the entertainment and software industries
-- unveiled plans to spread its protectionist ideas to the
nation's schools and libraries through the distribution of a
curriculum titled "Think First, Copy Later." "Think First, Copy
Later" and other intimidating educational materials were produced by
the MPAA, RIAA, Business Software Alliance, and other content holders
to scare students into believing that making copies is wrong.
EFF knows that the creators and innovators of tomorrow don't need more
intimidation. What they need is solid, accurate information that will
help them make smart choices about how to use new technologies.
That's why EFF is launching the free, Creative Commons-licensed
"Teaching Copyright" curriculum and website to help educators explore
copyright issues in their classrooms. These materials encourage
students to discover their legal rights and responsibilities --
including how to make full and fair use of technology that is
revolutionizing learning and the exchange of information.
The debates over copyright and technology -- whether they take
place in classrooms, pressrooms or courtrooms -- should be based
on facts, not fear. Help EFF in our ongoing efforts to educate the
public -- including smart, creative and inquisitive young people
-- about the purpose and limits of copyright law.
Please donate to EFF today!
http://secure.eff.org/teachingcopyright
Sincerely,
Electronic Frontier Foundation
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Andreas Tolf Tolfsen
<ato(a)fsfe.org>
Take what you can share - share what you take.
- Don't take what you can't share
Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: simo <simo.sorce(a)xsec.it>
Sent: 28 May 2009 20:11
To: list(a)akfoerster.de
Cc: discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
Subject: Re: [thomas(a)efn.no: Teach Copyright Right! (fwd)]
On Thu, 2009-05-28 at 20:28 +0200, list(a)akfoerster.de wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, dem 28. Mai 2009 schrieb Andreas Tolf Tolfsen:
>
> > "Think First, Copy Later."
>
> A good counter-slogan could be "Think And Copy Always!".
A better one, could be:
"Think and discard what you are not allowed to copy"
(If related to software)
Simo.
_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
Discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) Newsletter - April 2009
Do you know one thing that makes Free Software sustainable? You! Yes, it
is your support that allows us to operate across the whole Europe and at
different levels to promote and defend Free Software principles.
Amongst other things, your donations made possible the planning and
coordination of the Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop. They
allowed the Austrian team to participate in many public events across
the whole Austria and to continue having an intern in our Zurich office.
We finished the accounting work for the last year and we published our
financial figures. Take a look at them to see how we use your donations.
I want to conclude by introducing a couple of changes in the newsletter.
I hope they will improve your 'reading experience' of FSFE's ongoing
work. First, "In the spotlight" is a new section where I will treat in more
details a selected news. Second, since time passes by and the events
pile up, I will pick-up a noteworthy item from the past and mention it
under the "It happened in the past" section.
Giacomo Poderi
1. Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April
2. FSFE at WIPO's 3rd Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property
3. FSFE amicus brief to European Patent Office on Software Patents
4. The Fellowship interviews: Myriam Schweingruber
5. FSFE welcomes Thomas Jensch, new intern for Zurich office
6. Fellowship vote for GA seats - the election is ongoing
7. Renewal of Fellowship services
8. PDFreaders.org enjoys continued success
9. FSFE invades Austria
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
10. FSFE - Income and Expense 2008
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
11. The first Fellowship Smartcards
UPCOMING EVENTS
12. FSFE at eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May
1. Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April
The second European Licensing and Legal Workshop was a resounding
success. On 23 and 24 April, legal experts and interested parties in
Free Software licensing gathered in Amsterdam for a vibrant event
organised by our Freedom Task Force (FTF) and sponsored by Bender von
Haller Dragsted, Blackduck, Canonical, HP and Mozilla. Harald Welte,
from gplviolations.org, says from his blog: "I have to admit that it was
a big surprise to me that the constructive atmosphere and the quality of
the presentations, panels and hallway discussions has even improved beyond
the already exceptional level last year". Indeed, the conference was
considerably bigger than in 2008, and planning is already under way for
an enhanced and even larger event in 2010.
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2009q1/000233.html
2. FSFE at WIPO's 3rd Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property
>From 27 April to 1 May, FSFE's President Georg Greve, participated to
the "Committee on Development and Intellectual Property: Third
Session" (CDIP/3) at World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO). In preparation to that meeting, Georg published "The case for
a World Innovation Policy Organisation", reflecting on the current
significance of the WIPO Development Agenda and how it should relate
to international issues such as the one of software patents. Issues
that Georg raised at CDIP/3 as three formal intervention on FSFE's behalf
throughout the week.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=321http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=327http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=333http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=340http://fsfe.org/projects/wipo/
3. FSFE amicus brief to European Patent Office on Software Patents
Along with many other organisations, FSFE submitted its comments to
the European Patent Office (EPO) on the patentability of software,
responding to a request of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. In the
submission, FSFE explains why software patents are harmful for
innovation, competition and economy, based also on the rationale of
the work done at WIPO's Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)
in March.
http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/epo-response-042009.htmlhttp://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=302
4. The Fellowship interviews: Myriam Schweingruber
Myriam Schweingruber is the Fellow interviewed for "The smallest unit
of freedom" series. Myriam is a devoted Free Software advocate with a
flair for convincing people. Having worked as a translator, a school
teacher and a pharmacist, Myriam is quite experienced in the art of
communication, and gives a clear impression of trustworthiness. In the
interview she tells us about her experiences with Whilhelm Tux,
Amarok, KDE, FSFE and Free Software in general.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=46
5. FSFE welcomes Thomas Jensch, new intern for Zurich office
We are happy to welcome Thomas Jensch as our new intern in the Zurich
office. Thomas is a political science student at the University of
Leipzig in Germany. His job during the next 8 months will be to help
us in administrative work and to support the President in coordinating
his various activities. Once again, welcome on board Thomas!
Doing an internship at FSFE is an exciting and formative experience.
If you want to be our next intern, take a look at:
http://fsfe.org/contribute/internship.html
6. Fellowship vote for GA seats - the election is ongoing
The voting period for the first seat at our General Assembly (GA)
reserved to a Fellow is approaching. The four candidates: Torsten
Grote, Jan-Hendrik Peters, Michel Roche, and Björn Schiessle presented
themselves to the whole Fellowship. You can get to know them by
visiting their blogs and our wiki election page. The approaching and
important dates are: the entire month of May as the voting period and
the 1 June 2009, when we will announce the results. All our Fellows
already received an e-mail containing information and instructions on
the voting procedures.
http://wiki.fsfe.org/election09http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html
7. Renewal of Fellowship services
The work on the new Fellowship technological infrastructure is going
on. Last month, we completed the migration from the old Fellowship
portal to the new site http://fellowship.fsfe.org (for more
information about moving your data: http://wiki.fsfe.org/OldPortal)
and we activated the new home page, registration procedure and account
management pages. You can find an overview of the active Fellowship
services at http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipServices and stay informed
about their status following the "Fellowship News" blog at:
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/news/http://fellowship.fsfe.org/news.rss
8. PDFreaders.org enjoys continued success
PDFreaders.org was launched less than six months ago, as a Fellowship
project to promote Free Software PDF readers for all the major
platforms. Since then, the website has become a formidable success,
gaining the attention of several vendors of proprietary PDF readers,
including Adobe, as well as much positive response from the community.
April saw yet another increase in traffic after an RSA security
conference, where Mikko Hypponen research officer at F-Secure referred
to PDFreaders.org in light of the recently disclosed vulnerabilities
present in Adobe Reader. Our volunteers managed to translate
PDFreaders.org into 15 languages and our Fellows are continuously
updating it. New readers have recently been added and a major update
concerning Open Standard is approaching!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10224449-83.htmlhttp://pdfreaders.org
9. FSFE invades Austria
Continuing the "Linuxwochen Österreich Tour" started in March, our
Austrian team spread Free Software principles to major Austrian events
for the whole April. The tour consists of six events, four of which in
April, for a total of nine days booth and six talks. Peter
Bubestinger, Deputy Coordinator Austria, held five of the speeches and
David Ayer, Austrian team member, held the one in Linz. The themes of
the talks ranged from Free Software in schools and education to future
scenarios on Free Software usage. These are the April stages of the
tour: "FLOSStag 2009", 15 April, Danube University Krems; "Linuxwochen
Wien", 16-18 April, Vienna; "Liwoli 2009", 23-25 April, University for
Art and Industrial Design Linz; "LinuxTage", 25 April, Graz.
SPOTLIGHT
10. FSFE - Income and Expense 2008
We recently published our financial figures for 2008. This has been an
intense year and as the previous ones it confirmed the growth of our
work's breadth. With 245,000 and 68,000 EUR respectively, donations
and the Fellowship programme confirmed to be vital to the sustainment
of our organisation. Once more, we would like to express our gratitude
to anyone who decided to donate or to become a Fellow. This allows us
to run our projects and to work for the diffusion and defence of Free
Software. With a total income of 383,221 EUR and an expense of 303,419
EUR, 2008 concluded with a very positive balance and this will allow
us to empower our organisation as we were planning to do since some
time now.
To manage and coordinate the ever growing base of employees and
volunteers working for us at local, national and international level
we decided to look for an Executive Director as a full-time
employee. A similar figure will also be hired to coordinate the
Fellowship programme and to overview our German area, where most of
the Fellows and our donors come from. The activities of our Freedom
Task Force (FTF) will also be strengthened and finally, we will
investigate the possibilities to extend our policy work on EU and UN
levels. We hope you will continue to follow and to support us!
http://fsfe.org/about/funds/2008.html
Relevant links
http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.htmlhttp://fellowship.fsfe.org/http://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090414-01.html
IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
11. The first Fellowship Smartcards
It was only April 2005 when we prepared and delivered the first batch
of 250 Fellowship Smartcards. Since then, many more people joined the
Fellowship and many more Smartcards have been delivered.
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/card.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
12. FSFE participates to eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May
Georg will talk about the challenges of the traditional
standardisation system, the role of patenting and the mechanisms that
allow us to cope with legal issues at eLiberatica 2009. One of the
biggest events discussing Free Software in Eastern Europe.
http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/index
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html
You can join the Fellowship and find how to support us on
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/joinhttp://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
DFEY is having a Logo Competition.
Top Prize: £40
First Runner Up: £10
Brief for Entries
=================
* Should be easily recognisable, visually pleasing and easily reproduced
in different mediums.
* Should echo themes of Digital Freedom, Technology, Young People and
Education.
* All entries must be licenced under Creative Commons Zero Licence
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0
* Should be submitted in SVG format, though high resolution bitmap might
be acceptable.
* Ideally, should be created solely using free software but entries
created using non-free software will be accepted.
* Ideally, shouldn't use that many different primary colours.
* Have been emailed entry to logo(a)dfey.org with the SVG or other image
file attached by 23:59, 31st May 2009
Eligibility of Entrants
=======================
* Anyone can enter, regardless of age, geographic location etc.
* There is no limit to the number of entries per entrant
How to Enter
============
1. Take a moment to read http://nw.dfey.org/wiki/Logo_Competition
2. Send an email to logo(a)dfey.org with the SVG or other image file
attached by 23:59, 31st May 2009.
3. Include a statement that you have read and understand you are "are
licencing this piece of work to us under the Creative Commons Zero
Licence v1" (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0)
4. Please include your name and (if desired) a link to your blog/website
etc.
5. Your entry will be processed and uploaded on to the Entries page.
http://nw.dfey.org/wiki/Logo_Competition/Entries
-----------------------
Winners will be decided upon through a Schulze Method voting system.
More information at http://nw.dfey.org/wiki/Logo_Competition
-----------------------
About DFEY
==========
DFEY (Digital Freedom in Education and Youth) is a group formed in
response from a growing need to encourage and promote young people's
involvement with the free software and technical communities by creating
a social space to make it more comfortable for young people to get
involved with LUGs and other technical groups.
Find out more and get involved at www.dfey.org
--
www.tdobson.net
----
If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
still has one object.
If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now
has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw
If you were wondering when the newsletter would come back, stop
wondering - it's back! We apologise for the delays in delivering the
newsletter over the past few months and assure you that our monthly
newsletter will now resume the task of updating you regularly about
FSFE activities.
This month's newsletter has been specially extended to include items
for the first quarter of 2009. Starting from the next month onwards,
the traditional format of the newsletter will be back: one month, one
newsletter!
I am pleased to take over the role of newsletter editor that
previously belonged to Reinhard, Shane and Ciaran. I'll do my best to
keep up their good work and to improve upon it. If you have any
suggestions or comments, do not hesitate to contact me at: poderi <AT>
fsfeurope <DOT> org
Giacomo Poderi
1. FSFE at the international workshop on "Regulation of the Internet", 31 March
2. FSFE statements at 13th Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents, 23-27 March
3. DFD 2009, global day for document liberation, 25 March
4. FSFE at the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage, 14-15 March
5. Happy Birthday to FSFE!
6. FSFE brings Free Software to CeBIT 2009, 03-08 March
7. Fellowship vote for GA seats - Call for nominations: the candidates
8. Regular Fellowship meetings and special KDE release parties
9. Meetings of the special interest groups
10. FSFE engages in the EU browser case
11. FSFE presence at FOSDEM 2009, 07-08 February
12. The Fellowship interviews: Colin Turner and Enrico Zini
13. The Fellowship launches the Free PDF Readers campaign
14. FTF publishes "Building legal infrastructure for your Free Software project"
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
15. European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April
16. FSCONS Fellowship meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, 15 April
17. Voting procedures for the Fellowship seat at the General Assembly
1. FSFE at the international workshop on "Regulation of the Internet", 31 March
Free Software Foundation Europe's (FSFE) President Georg Greve represented
the organisation by participating in the workshop entitled "Technical
Regulation of the Internet: From Standardisation to Behavorial and Societal
Norms", which was held in Paris on the 31st March. The main topic of the
workshop was the relevance of standardisation processes in the context of
'open innovations'. In relation to this event, Georg wrote an article
entitled "Considerations on Innovation and Competition Policy".
http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=309
2. FSFE statements at 13th Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents, 23-27 March
Georg Greve participated in the 13th Session of the Standing Committee
on the Law of Patents (SCP) of the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO), in Geneva. On behalf of FSFE, he made important
statements on the issues of patents and standardisation, patents and
future works, exceptions and limitations of patents. If you want to
know what is going on at WIPO, Georg wrote a roundup on the SCP/13
with many links and pointers to background information at
http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=302
3. DFD 2009, global day for document liberation, 25 March
Thanks to the hard work made by Ivan Jelic and the support provided by
FSFE, once again it has been possible to celebrate the global day for
document liberation. Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a collaborative and
volunteer driven effort to educate the public about the importance of Free
Document Formats and Open Standards in general. 273 teams of which 82 were
new ones and 72 countries with at least one team are the numbers of the
DFD 2009. The DFD team is currently gathering and organising all the
information about this year's activities. These will be published on the
DFD web pages. If you have material about local document liberation
activities, please send an e-mail to: contact AT documentfreedom.orghttp://documentfreedom.org/
4. FSFE at the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage, 14-15 March
Isabel Drost, Dirk Zemisch and Rainer Kersten managed a FSFE booth at
the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage on the 14th and 15th March. The event was a
big success, with about 2600 visitors in all. The FSFE booth received
visits from many interesting visitors, and the team enjoyed the
friendly atmosphere at the event. FSFE will surely be at Chemnitzer
Linux-Tage 2010 to repeat the experience. If you are interested in
helping us to manage this or any of our other booths, please contact
us. It's hard work, but lots of fun!
http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/booth/booth.html
5. Happy Birthday to FSFE!
On the 11th March, FSFE celebrated its eighth birthday. Established in
2001, the Foundation has constantly contributed to the diffusion of
Free Software principles in Europe. For the past eight years, its work
has ranged from the educational to the political, and from the
technical to the social. A rich history of achievements that FSFE
intends to keep up, while addressing new challenges for the benefit of
Free Software. To mark the occasion, we published a special interview
with Georg Greve, founder and current president of FSFE. The interview
traces the origins of the Foundation and its main achievements.
Enjoy the reading and once again...Happy Birthday to FSFE!
http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=27http://fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090311-01.html
6. FSFE brings Free Software to CeBIT 2009, 03-08 March
For the first time, FSFE participated at this year's CeBIT expo in
Hanover, the largest computer expo in the world. FSFE was there with a
booth and three talks held by Bernhard Reiter, Shane Coughlan and
Georg Greve. The volunteers at the booth were kept busy during the
entire expo, helping to spread Free Software principles and explain
them to the public. Bernhard, German chapter coordinator, conducted a
speech entitled "Free Software, the sustainable alternative". Shane,
Freedom Task Force (FTF) coordinator, discussed "the strategic
implementation of Free Software in business". Georg challenged the
public not to be afraid of turning to Free Software and explained
clearly why there is little to fear, but a lot to gain in making the
chance, with a speech entitled "To dare more freedom!".
Georg: http://streaming.linux-magazin.de:8080/cos09/di02.ogg
Shane: http://streaming.linux-magazin.de:8080/cos09/do08.ogg
7. Fellowship vote for GA seats - Call for nominations: the candidates
In March, the candidacy period was open for Fellows to candidate for
the election to their first reserved seat at FSFE General Assembly
(GA). We are happy to announce that the Fellows running for the
election are: Torsten Grote, Jan-Hendrik Peters, Michel Roche and
Bjoern Schiessle. Soon they will present themselves to the Fellowship
so that other Fellows will have the chance to form their opinion about
the vote. There will be a two months period for the voting process, which
will conclude in time for the next GA in Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain,
19-21 June.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090301-01.html
8. Regular Fellowship meetings and special KDE release parties
In the first quarter of 2009, the Fellowship proved to be as lively as
ever. Regular meetings happened in Germany, Austria and Sweden. The
Fellows met in Augsburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Gothenburg and Vienna.
They talked about Free Software, participation to events, planned future
activities, and most importantly, they got the chance to get to know
each other better. Additionally, at the end of January, special
Fellowship events were held in Berlin, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich to
celebrate the release of KDE 4.2, in cooperation with the KDE community.
We are happy to see the community growing and being active and we would
welcome similar meetings taking place all around Europe.
http://techbase.kde.org/Events/KDE42ReleaseParties#Europe
Zürich KDE 4.2 launch event speeches: http://sss2009.blip.tv/#1830788
9. Meetings of the special interest groups
On the 24th February and the 24th March, two FSFE Freedom Task Force
legal special interest groups meetings took place. The first meeting
was at the law firm Kemp Little's offices in London, while the second
one was hosted in Frankfurt, at the offices of attorneys WilmerHale.
Both meetings discussed linking and were reserved to the members of
the European Legal Network: a professional network of legal experts
facilitated by the FTF.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/network.html
10. FSFE engages in the EU browser case
FSFE declared its support the European Commission's antitrust
investigation against Microsoft and has requested to be admitted as an
interested third party. In January, the European Commission DG
Competition issued a statement of objections regarding Microsoft's
tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to the Windows Operating System
product family. This action built on a complaint originally submitted
by Opera. FSFE provided valuable support to the Commission in the
previous European Commission antitrust case from 2001 to 2007. FSFE
hopes to join the new investigation and will provide all the required
expertise to the Commission.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090227-01.html
11. FSFE presence at FOSDEM 2009, 07-08 February
As in past years, FSFE participated in the Free and Open Source
Development European Meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels. The event promotes
the widespread use of Free Software, provides Free Software developers
and communities with a place to meet, to get in touch with other
projects, and to promote the development and the benefits of Free
Software solutions. We set up a booth where we informed people about
our recent activities, the Fellowship of the FSFE and Free Software in
general. We also sold our merchandise articles. The booth included a
special FTF desk to discuss licensing issues with FOSDEM participants.
http://www.fosdem.org/2009/
12. The Fellowship interviews: Colin Turner and Enrico Zini
For the "Smallest unit of freedom" interviews series, we present you
Colin Turner and Enrico Zini. Colin works as a scientist and teacher
at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. He has been
advocating Free Software in schools and universities for many
years. Enrico is a prominent Italian Debian developer. He has been
involved in many different projects relating to Free Software and he
is deeply concerned about social issues. Both are long time Fellows.
Colin Turner http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=17
Enrico Zini http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=7
13. The Fellowship launches the Free PDF Readers campaign
The Fellowship of FSFE is proud to announce its latest initiative:
pdfreaders.org, a site providing information about the Portable
Document Format (PDF) with links to Free Software PDF readers for all
major operating systems. Hannes Hauswedell and Jan-Hendrik Peters
worked hard during the past months. Thanks to all the feedback
received from Fellows and interested people, they managed to improve
the beta version of the website and to make it ready for a great
launch in February. Help us spread the word!
http://pdfreaders.org/http://fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090202-01.html
14. FTF publishes "Building legal infrastructure for your Free Software project"
In January, FTF released an important guide to help Free Software
projects to understand the relevance of having a formal legal
infrastructure and how to set it up. Written as a quick and easy
guide, the document is spreading fast and receiving good feedback from
the Free Software community.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/building-legal-infrastructure.html
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
15. European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April
FSFE announced the second European Licensing and Legal Workshop which
will take place at the Hotel Okura on the 23rd and the 24th of April
2009 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090323-01.html
16. FSCONS Fellowship meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, 15 April
On the 15th of April, Fellows and other interested parties are invited
to attend an open planning meeting and get-together to discuss FSCONS
2009. The meeting starts at 19:00 in Delirium Cafe, Kronhusgatan 2B.
17. Voting procedures for the Fellowship seat at the General Assembly
Information on the voting procedures and about the candidates' profile
are under processing while I'm writing this newsletter. They will
appear shortly, stay tuned!
http://fsfeurope.org/news/news.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.html
You can find how to support FSFE on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/contribute.html
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