FSF Europe calls for participation
December, 18th 2002
Essen/Hamburg
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) invites all companies,
organizations and research institutes interested in Free Software
projects funded by the European Commission to join their effort.
In April 2002 the FSF Europe issued a recommendation to the
European Commission about the benefits of Free Software for Europe
and a European information society. This recommendation was backed
by over 50 parties throughout Europe and was apparently heard by
the Commission.
Although there was originally no plan to deal with Free Software
within the 6th Framework Programme at all, the Information Society
Technologies (IST) Work Programme now contains a statement that
will give Free Software preferential treatment. This opens up all
parts of the 1725 million euro IST budget to Free Software.
"This decision is very important for Europe because the areas in
which the IST program seeks to further development may turn out to
be very fundamental and essential to people in Europe," says Georg
Greve, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "We will
now seek to help assembling consortia to address as many calls as
possible with Free Software. Also we will offer our assistance in
getting the consortia off on the right foot."
Interested parties can find more information at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/fp6/
On this page you will also find the address of the mailing list
where further information and discussion can be found.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. 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 FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
http://www.fsfeurope.org
Contact
FSF Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
phone: +49-40-23809080
fax: +49-40-23809081