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.
Contact
FSF Europe: Georg C. F. Greve greve@fsfeurope.org phone: +49-40-23809080 fax: +49-40-23809081