On 27 Nov 2000, Georg C. F. Greve wrote:
As we are currently seeing more mail than we can reasonably reply to without giving up everything else, we will try to answer some of the more frequently asked questions in this posting.
You've been slashdoted, remember?
Current plans of the FSF Europe:
About local organizations:
Our plans are to work together with local organizations like the FFII, AFUL or APRIL. They are doing important work, and we are not planning to replace them. Bernhard Reiter is member of the new FFII board and we are in contact with people from APRIL and AFUL. Our declared goal is to strengthen and unite.
Strenghten and unite? I always though GNU related things are most powerful when they're divided into smaller grops working for the same goal, with more or less coordination :)
About local representatives:
We are currently looking for people in other countries to become part of the FSF Europe and we have been contacted by a lot of people so far.
The FSF in the U.S. itself is not a "membership organization." It is rather an organization of selected individuals that have proven themselves to possess a deep understanding of the Free Software philosophy and a firm belief in the long-term goals of Free Software. It can easily be understood that being a member of such an organization requires a relatively high level of commitment.
<REALLY UNCOOL ATTITUDE IDIOCY=100%> Like what? I don't wnt to commit to an _evil_ anti-proprietarian group of people who think software should bree... yuck! </REALLY UNCOOL ATTITUDE> I'm planning to give a (dammit, I can't remember the word for 'standing in front of people like a professor and babblingsomething none of them even hopes to understand) about GNU in general.
As we seek to become the acknowledged sister organization of the FSF, we feel that we have to maintain the same level of commitment and philosophical awareness of the FSF itself.
Well... I'm not yet aware of GNU philosophy being a part of the dialectical materialism, but who cares. :)
For this reason we would like to get to know everyone who is interested in becoming part of the FSF Europe. Of course we have read or heard from a lot of the active members of the Free Software community before, but this is no substitute for getting to know you from personal email and discussions. We therefore ask you to be a little patient - talk to us, discuss things with us, let us know your personal take on things so we know who we are truly dealing with. At the same time this will give you a chance to really get to know us and our views and standpoints. Hopefully this will allow us to build the mutual trust that is neccessary for such a big project.
<CAPITALIST> TRUST?! You really want to trust someone?! </CAPITALIST> I definetly agree with this point.
If this seems overly cautious to you, please keep in mind that we seek to create an organization that will at least last as long as the FSF has so far (which is about 16 years).
So am I (OK, I'm a bit over 16, and a bit less below 16.5)
This requires doing things _right_ and we feel that anything less would not do it justice.
yup.. (OK, I'll stop agreeeing :))
But this does not mean that you have to become a member in order to help the FSF Europe. In fact there will be a lot of tasks we will need help with (see below).
I will skip the aprt about finances. I just am in a position where giving money just isn't the wisest thing to do (in other words, I'm poor, and my mother, being a ph.D. Chemist, has a word for never stating 'when I become welthy working on IRB (Rudjer Boskovic Institute)).
On other help:
We are extremely pleased with all the spontaneous offers of help we have been receiving. In general, discussing things with us, giving us your views and perceptions on things, as well as spreading the word and backing us, is a lot of help already.
I've already done most of that. And _I will_ keep doing it.
Although the amount of specific tasks that we can be helped with is rather small, that number will surely increase as we will need everything from web masters and admins to people helping with booths at shows.
ok
If you have any specific ideas as to how you might help us now, we would be very glad to hear them. Just because we haven't thought of it, doesn't mean that we won't consider it a good idea.
<EVIL> wow... appreciating another's view, I thoght it was just Voltaire's nightmare </EVIL>
Judging by the support all of you have given us so far, it seems quite likely that together we can build a stronghold for Free Software in Europe.
A _stronghold_? I think more like a fortress from what I've seen up to now.
On behalf of the FSF Europe team, Georg C. F. Greve greve@gnu.org
I agree with this part :)
Sinisa -- "Mors EULAe, libertas softwarei!"