To extend the reach and effectiveness of the existing pdfreaders.org
website we would like to add a mobile site that will make suggestions
for Free Software PDF readers to use based on the detected mobile
browser and operating system. This will likely involve a new mobile PDF
Readers site that is optimised for viewing on mobile devices.
If you're able to help with this project, please let one of the
following mailing lists know:
web(a)fsfeurope.org
pdfreaders(a)lists.fsfe.org
The existing pdfreaders.org website has been hugely successful since
it's creation in 2009. It receives thousands of visits from the public,
is linked to by many Government websites around the world, and has for a
long time been one of the highest ranking websites in search engine
results for search terms relating to PDF.
Thanks,
Sam.
--
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org
Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org
Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org
FSFE is in contact with Green Party MEPs who are planning to raise
questions about the PDF Readers campaign in European Parliament.
If you have contact with UK based Green MEPs who may be interested in
supporting this, please let Eszter Bako <eszter(a)fsfe.org> know so that
we can increase the impact of thee issue when it is addressed in
parliament.
Thanks!
Sam.
--
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org
Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org
Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org
--
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org
Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org
Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org
= Summary 3-9 October =
During three days this week I spent most of my time working on following
up the UK PDF Readers campaign, contributing to a paper on ebooks, and
implementing Piwik at fsfe.org.
= Detail =
== Policy ==
- Sent feedback to Diego (intern) on paper on current state of FS and
ebooks (formats, software, and servers)
== Fellowship ==
- Welcomed new UK Fellow
- Received YaCy presentation from Michael Christen for local delivery
== Web ==
- Discussed FSFE use of Piwik and, implemented JS tracking on fsfe.org
== PDF Readers ==
- Sent Agnus council in response to PDF Readers letter to mailing-lists
(scanned and OCRd)
- Continued discussion on PDFR lists about aim of campaign, replied to
questions
- Forwarded FSF news about GNUPDF being demoted from high-priority
project
== Other ==
- Gave feedback on Fellowship referrers statistics
- Continued to make FSCONS travel arrangements
= Preview =
- Process latest PDF Readers council responses
- Collaborate with Open Source Consortium on UEFI Secure Booting
- Work on YaCy 1.0 release announcement
- Send talk proposal to Scottish Cross Party meeting on Digital
Participation
- Edit "who owns Free Software article"
Thanks,
Sam.
--
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org
Contact the British team: uk(a)fsfeurope.org
I have received a letter from the Chief Executive of Angus Council (Scotland)
in response to our request that they remove advertising for Adobe Reader.
It would be great if someone on the list would give a nice response. The email
address to use is chiefexec(a)angus.gov.uk. If in doubt about what to say, send
a draft for comments before sending the final copy to the Council. Let others
know when you _begin_ drafting so that there is no duplication of effort.
Here is the full text of the email, painlessly scanned using gimagereader.
----
Dear Mr Tuke
Advertising for Proprietary Software
Thank you for your recent letter concerning the placement of Adobe Acrobat
Reader download links on our Council website. By adding these links, the
Council is simply providing access to a single free product to facilitate
proper viewing of the website without any expectation of commitment to any
further product or services. However, I can see why it might appear that we
are promoting Adobe’s product above others.
The Council generally uses Adobe Acrobat to create and optimise its PDFs and
therefore is confident that the Adobe Reader will render these adequately.
Output is actively tested using this and it would be unfeasible for the
Council to test all our output documents with numerous different products.
While I understand the freedom that completely free software provides, we do
not feel that the vast majority of site visitors are interested in access to
source code and the rights to adapt it. As such, the Adobe product provides a
number of other important features, such as:-
» Plug-ins for all major browsers.
» Compatibility with all major operating systems.
» Easy installation through OS and browser detection.
» Regular security updates.
» Accessibility features.
It would be time consuming for the Council to investigate numerous other
products for their suitability simply to recommend them as alternatives so we
utilise what we know provides an acceptable level of functionality for site
visitors.
Having said all that, the Council will act on your suggestion and add text to
clarify that other PDF readers are available. However, we will not be linking
to the PDFreaders.org site that you provided as we do not consider that it
offers the genuine range of options that most site visitors would be interested
in.
Yours sincerely
Richard Stiff
*Chief Executive*
--
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org
Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org
Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org