FSFE's activities have been varied over the last month. It's promising to see the increase of Fellowship activities across Europe. We are looking forward to seeing more local groups appear and to hearing about their activities on all levels. One of the most important parts of supporting Free Software is sharing knowledge in your own community.
To contribute in spreading the word you can visit this page: http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/contribute
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. Speeches about SELF, Free Software and licensing at FKFT 2. Local Fellowship meetings 3. New interns for FSFE 4. Students' union organizes talk on political aspects of Free Software 5. FTF releases training documentation on the SELF platform 6. Zurich Fellowship meeting - 2008-08-15 7. 'Who Owns Free Software? The Copyright and Patent Debate' speech at OSiM World, Berlin - 2008-08-17 8. Official launch of GPLv3 in The Netherlands - 2008-08-19
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
9. First Fellowship meeting in Stuttgart - 2008-08-22 10. Fellowship's stand at the Braderie de Lille, Lille (France) - 2008-09-06 and 2008-09-07
1. Speeches about SELF, Free Software and licensing at FKFT
FSFE was present at the FKFT conference in Barcelona during July to talk about the SELF project, Free Software and licensing. FSFE president Georg Greve delivered a talk on the 16th of July to provide insight on how the SELF project has helped advance the state of the art, and how the work done in the SELF consortium will provide lasting benefit to the Free Software community. The speech was entitled 'How SELF helped building structures for freedom'. This was followed by a talk entitled 'Licences that support freedom' delivered by Shane Coughlan, the FTF coordinator of FSFE. The events in Barcelona concluded with a lunch for Fellows of FSFE and Free Software friends in Barcelona from 14:00 until 16:00 on the 17th of July with FSFE's Georg Greve, Jonas Öberg and Shane Coughlan.
2. Local Fellowship meetings
Local Fellowship meetings have recently taken place in Dublin, Brussels, Zurich, and Lille. At these meetings, Fellows have discussed the status and needs of projects they're involved with, what local political problems need work, and how to improve the Fellowship itself. In addition, these initial meetings plus discussions on FSFE's public mailing lists are contributing to the planning of larger, regular meetings. The UK, Belgium, and Ireland are likely locations for these to begin in.
3. New interns for FSFE
Stian Rodven Eide and Johannes Tiemer are FSFE's new interns in Göteborg. Stian's primary task is organising the Free Software part of FSCONS and a booth to present FS and FSFE at the European Social Forum in Malmö in September. Johannes studies Economics in Kiel (Germany). His main task consists of compiling studies and analyses - among others about the Swedish market for Free Software. Benjamin Morant is working as Georg's assistant at the FSFE Office in Zürich (Switzerland). He is organising a booth during the Braderie de Lille (France) in September and is drawing cartoons about the all-day life within the FSFE.
We also would to thank Irina, who during her internship helped with organising conferences and many administrative tasks. She was an invaluable contact point for our activities.
4. Students' union organizes talk on political aspects of Free Software
The students' executive committee (AStA) of the University of Bochum, Germany, organized a lecture on essential ideas and political issues of Free Software with Bernhard Reiter. The event took place on the 23rd of June and formed part of a series of lectures on IT and information security. Particular attention was paid to the questions whether software choices constitute political decisions, which benefits arise from the use of Free Software and why MS Word is not the proper file format to be used when sending documents to others. The lecture was followed by an inspiring discussion with the audience (about 20 students). The AStA - being elected by the students' parliament - represents the entire students' body and therefore is the ideal board to promote Free Software in the environment of a University. After all, Free Software complies best with academic traditions of sharing knowledge. Special thanks go to Moritz Schulte for organizing this event.
5. FTF releases training documentation on the SELF platform
FSFE's Freedom Task Force has begun to release its current Free Software training documentation in SCORM elearning format through the SELF Platform: http://beta.selfplatform.eu/SELF/collectionview/ Select 'Introduction to Free Software and Open Standards' in the left hand menu and then choose 'The strategic implementation of Free Software in business' when the option is presented. FSFE will be releasing one section of the course per week until all of our existing material is freely available on-line.
6. Zurich Fellowship meeting - 2008-08-15
There was a Fellowship meeting at the FSFE Zurich office from 18:00 until 19:30 on Friday the 15th of August. Some free (as in beer) beer was provided for the around 10 Fellows and FSFE staff that attended. Ways of spreading the word about Free Software in Switzerland were discussed, and the evenings host, Shane Coughlan, told about Akademy '08 and the Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) which got quite some attention on that very conference. He even held his promise of not talking about licenses.
7. 'Who Owns Free Software? The Copyright and Patent Debate' speech at OSiM World, Berlin - 2008-08-17
Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, delivered a speech entitled 'Free Software licenses and other questions' at OSiM World at Berlin on the 17th of August. The talk examined the question of ownership, the goal of owning creative work, benefits to consumers and the community and the relationship between ownership and Free Software licences.
8. Official launch of GPLv3 in The Netherlands - 2008-08-19
Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, hosted a three hour workshop entitled 'Licensing questions and Legal issues in the light of GPLv3' for the launch of the GPLv3 at the Univesity of Tilburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands on the 19th of August. This event is sponsored by NLnet.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
9. First Fellowship meeting in Stuttgart - 2008-08-22
There will be a Fellowship meeting at the Unithekle, Allmandring 17, 70596 Stuttgart on Friday the 22th of August at 19:00. This is the first Fellowship meeting in Stuttgart and all Fellows and Free Software supporters nearby are invited to attend. It will be a good chance to get to know each other in person, discuss the possibility of future Fellowship meetings in Stuttgart and to generally have a good time. Further information: Bjoern Schiessle (schiessle@fsfe.org) or on the web: http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipGroup/Stuttgart
10. Fellowship's stand at the Braderie de Lille, Lille (France) - 2008-09-06 and 2008-09-07
The so-called "Braderie de Lille" (Lille's flea market) is a big outside-event which has taken place every year since the 12th century during the first week-end of September. chtinux, a Linux User Group which is installed around there, has proposed to the Fellowship to take part in the Braderie. The FSFE, and especially the Fellowship's stand, will get much visibility, since millions of people of numerous nations take a walk on Lille's streets. Come to discover this beautiful city and to eat some Braderie's culinary specialities like clams ! And above all, come in order to support the Fellowship ! Fellowship's stand will be situated on Place du Vieux Marché aux chevaux. If you want more information about this event please send an email to Benjamin: morant@fsfeurope.org
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
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