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Urgent Call to Action: Save Free Software this September
by Alexander Sander 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Hello all, In the context of our https://savecodeshare.eu/ campaign we just published this call to action: https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180905-02.html - We would be happy if you spread this message to your networks: Call to Action: Save Free Software this September Free Software is at risk! On the 12th of September the EU is getting ready to vote on a "Copyright Reform" package, which undermines the foundations upon which Free Software is built. The proposed Article 13 of the EU Copyright Directive targets every online service that allows its users to upload and share content with each other, including code hosting platforms. Let's call upon European policy makers to delete the threat posed against Free Software in the Copyright Directive. The widespread reuse of Free Software is a foundation of the Internet, as code can be used, studied, shared and improved by each user. It would be wrong to take this freedom for granted. Since most of the internet medium is compiled and reused as Free Software, the ruling would dismantle the media ecosystem. We are getting ready for the EU's vote on a "Copyright Reform" package, in order to remove a section of its terms and conditions that looks to hamper Free Software development and code-sharing. Every Internet user, who shares information, media, and code with the public, has been targeted in the proposed directive. The idea in Article 13 is that Free Software is a cause for copyright violations and that, therefore, upload-filters should be created by internet platforms. There are even a variety of types of governmental organisations, facilitated and powered by Free Software. In fact, on just one of the major code hosting platforms, over 128 government organisations from over 17 European governments have, in total, licensed 4594 instances of Free Software on code-hosting platforms, at the time of writing. [1] They are, as follows: Open Government initiatives, Cutural heritage directories, Ecology research departments and agencies, Digitalisation projects, Emergency Services, Information Systems, Election Services, Transport networks, Education institutions, Energy services, Mapping and Geographical research institutes, Statistical bureaus, Business departments, Law courts, Security groups, and Departments of Finance. So, for those inside the EU, now's the time to do your bit and to communicate with an MEP, who represents your country, in order to notify your support for Free Software in the face of Article 13 in the Copyright Directive. Do that at https://saveyourinternet.eu, where there are tips on who and how to address and send your message. When you're ready, you can even use a tool [2], created by EDRi and Open Media, to directly call and e-mail your MEP. Let's call upon European policy makers to delete the threat posed against Free and Open Source Software in the Copyright Directive. Best regards, Alex [1] https://government.github.com/community/ [2] https://www.liberties.eu/en/news/copyright-campaign-call-your-mep/14733 -- Alexander Sander - EU Public Policy Programme Manager Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-151 923 472 12 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join)

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Conference Bits&Trees
by Bernhard E. Reiter 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Hello, there is a conference https://bits-und-baeume.org/en that aims to bring together several approaches for sustainability in the physical and digital world. I've learned about it only a few days before the closing of the CfP and submitted three proposals: a) Talk about "How to improve the world on many topic with limited personal resources" which is a rough translation of Mit wenig Einsatz, bei vielen Themen die Welt verbessern -- Mit System handeln und andere überzeugen b) an 8 minute provocative stand-up about "It is in your best interest to pay for software, services and newspapers!" rough translation of Meine These ist: Es ist in Deinem Interesse für Software, Dienste, Newsticker und Zeitungen zu bezahlen! c) a workshop about We set up Email-Cryptography -- End-to-End with OpenPGP got easier a) and b) are being planned in German, though I could do English as well. As you are English readers, do some of you plan of going there? If more people are interested I could do a translation of my abstracts for a) and b) and send it here. I don't know how the organizers react towards wishes from the audience, what I've heard is that they would like more Free Software people to bring in their experiences. Thought I'd let you know. Best Regards, Bernhard -- FSFE -- Founding Member Support our work for Free Software: blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard https://fsfe.org/donate | contribute

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Let us keep being friendly with each other (aka some words from your list-admins)
by Erik Albers 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Dear all, Exchanging opinions and discussing them in public is very important for our community. Sometimes, discussions can become emotional and sometimes debaters use a too offensive language although, possibly unintentionally. In the last days we have seen some heated debates coming up on this list and individual messages of those discussions have already been brought to the attention of your list-admins. It also came to our attention that some of the more offensive messages were sent from mail accounts that joined this list just recently. The list administration would like to help bring back a good tone and discussion culture by moderating the discussion if necessary and for now we set new subscriptions to the list on moderation. But much more important for our discussion culture will be what you bring into it. A successful method that works for many people is, that if you are upset, then consider to keep your mail as a draft overnight and re-read it before sending it the next day. Also it might help to keep your audience in mind: This list has several hundred subscribers and is archived publicly on the Internet and indexed by search engines. Generally the best advice is to always keep in mind that: The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and its community aim to offer a friendly and peaceful environment for every participant at the FSFE's events, online and offline. All participants should at all times feel at ease to do so without fearing any form of attack, reprisal or harassment. We ask everybody to be respectful and considerate towards each other, especially when attempting to provide constructive criticism. Thank you very much and looking forward to many fruitful and friendly discussions, Erik for the list-admins -- No one shall ever be forced to use non-free software Erik Albers | Communication & Community Coordinator | FSFE OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x8639DC81 on keys.gnupg.net

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Re: Free Software economics
by Bernhard E. Reiter 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Hi Paul, [deliberately breaking the thread, so this does not get drowned in unrelated stuff, only quoting a bit] Am Freitag 31 August 2018 15:35:21 schrieb Paul Boddie: > Unfortunately, the "for exposure" culture encourages people to overstretch. It is just one out of several motivations to develop Free Software or participate actively in a community. In general I think the good effects of "for exposure" are exaggerated in society, it seems to be a problem of modern social media. ut the "for exposure" argument is overblown in other parts of society as well, it is a general problem of modern social media. Just think about influencers. > In one case in the Python community, someone who had been "all over" every > topic of concern eventually burned out: > > http://jessenoller.com/blog/2015/9/27/a-lot-happens It is sad to read. We can find many examples. When making policies and organisating, we need to keep looking out for a work/volunteer/life balance. Doing this for Free Software is quite similiar to other job or honorary positions. > since this kind of "noble volunteerism" meshes with a popular flavours > of capitalism, such people and the lessons they have for us are readily > forgotten, their misfortune seen as "regrettable" but somehow an acceptable > cost to bring about other people's success. At least not here. We must teach people how to keep the balance, make good choices and we need to make sure that the structure in society allows for people to grow, be happy. Hopefully even catching them, if they stumble and fall. > I mention this particularly because it may help some people to understand > why people become so aggrieved and feel mistreated. It is one reason to become aggieved, there are others as well. However when being in such a state it is more important to watch out for oneself and leave the situation which causes this sort of stress. And while surrounding people maybe empathic, they also need to be clear to draw a line and sometimes to end the situation to protect themselfs and this person in an emotional difficult situation. == Professional offerings for Free Software > There most certainly are professional offerings, yes. But then again, there > are people like Werner whose PGP libraries are being used by billion dollar > corporations as the foundation of their businesses' operational viability, > and yet it apparently took security scares in other cryptographic libraries > and Edward Snowden's remarks to crack open wallets and get things funded at > a more tolerable level. The publications of Edward Snowden were a wakeup call for some. It maybe sad that it sometimes has to make headlines before people take some action. However I believe that the growing numbers of supporters of FSFE also support our mission because they like what we are explaining it to more policy makers and companies why funding better Free Software is in their own best interest (while being better for society as well). > I am arguing against the zero-sum game played by various businesses, > the result of which is a shoal of little fish whose only defence is not to > be big enough to be noticed by the big (proprietary) fish that everybody > else has to deal with. This seems to say that many Free Software businesses could do something in a better way. While I agree that offerings could be better, this would also take customers to be willing to buy those offerings. It is a circle and if we want it to grow, we can act at any situation. (This is why I had started paying for Free Software many years ago.) > From conversations I have had over the years, I sometimes wonder whether > certain companies regard their Free Software competitors as worse enemies > than the proprietary vendors and solutions they should all be doing their > best to defeat. So that game of divide and rule continues, of course. To me it seem natural that the small company offering something similar to yours is often seen as competitor. However there are business associations where the same companies are working together. E.g. the Open Source Business Alliance in Germany. From personal experience I can say that it is a challenge to cooperate with many companies, just size would not get you the contracts. (My company does cooperate as much as we can, this is why I know it is difficult.) Best Regards, Bernhard -- FSFE -- Founding Member Support our work for Free Software: blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard https://fsfe.org/donate | contribute

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Re: terminating memberships responsibly (was: please be excellent to each other (Re: application for FSFE e.V. membership and resignation))
by Bernhard E. Reiter 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

Hi Daniel, [while I am quoting from this mail which I understand you have intended to be public, I only quote and respond on the points I believe the public can understand. My aim is to protect you, me and others from writing something in anger that afterwards cannot be retracted from public archives.] Am Dienstag 28 August 2018 22:05:05 schrieb Daniel Pocock: > On 28/08/18 09:27, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote: > > any organisation(+) reserves the right to exclude members that heavily > > obstruct the way it works. There is a point where this has to be done > > just so that people can go seperate ways. > > I would agree with that, but normally that involves a process of > mediation and then a specific communication with the member about it. What I've noticed in the e.V. interaction were that many people gave you feedback and offered help in getting your positions heard and acted upon. I did so on a number of occasions by mail. From what came out of if, I can only conclude that I was not good enough in helping you personally into the group and understand how it works. I'm sorry for this. > The FSFE constitution requires a member be given a reason for exclusion > and an opportunity to appeal. Those processes were not followed. [..] > It was attempted in [..] > an administrative motion tacked onto the last page of a 9 page notice > (attached), reading "The current Fellowship representatives' membership > ends immediately after the this extraordinary General Assembly." The other interpretation of the May assembly, that we wanted to be extra clear what happens to the existing fellowship representatives, so they are treated with respect and not having their term terminated by a formal oversight. In the end this documented that you and Mirko could stay longer (than some legal interpretations implied). > If people had differences of opinion with me, there have been many > opportunities to discuss that with me at events but for the record, I'd > like to make it clear no other member ever did so. Unfortunately we did not meet at events, because I rarely make it to events these days being a Dad, instead I wrote several emails stating my disagreement (or agreement) with your points. > However, even though I agree with you for the general case that a member > may need to be excluded from time to time, in this case we are talking > about an elected representative. As you can see from the email of our care team: You are sometimes perceived as being offensive and making information public that others trusted you with in private without a good reason they can understand. If a large majority of e.V. members believe this to be a major problem they could formally exclude you, no matter how you have become a member of the e.V. . So far, they haven't. > Also, it is not correct to moan about a democratically elected > representative "obstructing" anything: it is their responsibility to > speak up. An elected representative would have no reason to exist > otherwise, would they? It is helpful to have a different view on things, but if it is getting highly unconstructive I believe that a large majority has to make sure that other people's, ways of working and views within the organisation are protected as well. Speaking up in itself is not a virtue, bring up important points and convincing others to do something about them is. > So why is FSFE afraid to allow the full community to vote for president > or allow anybody from the community to nominate for the role of president? Essentially, because we are not a "state". I've explained this elsewhere. We cannot say who is part of the "demos". If we are open to everybody, we would have the majority opinion which for instance would mean a certain proprietary operating system on desktops. And FSFE is about a smaller group in society trying to convince others about Free Software, otherwise we would be unnecessary. > I feel a duty to see out the term for the benefit of those people > who don't have a voice in our general meetings or don't even get invited. Are you really helping other fellows by bringing up a number of motions where many others signalled you that this is a formal style that would not help the intended course? What do the heating and repeating formal discussions like this one do to help FSFE get better to help people get educated about Free Software? Everybody's opinion is invited in FSFE, and then we need to find a course of action making practically the best out of our limited resources. I am human, you are human we all are humans, we are making mistakes. Now we are here. It seems to not work out between you and FSFE, so my suggestion is let us agree on this and split. Best Regards, Bernhard -- FSFE -- Founding Member Support our work for Free Software: blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard https://fsfe.org/donate | contribute

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Let's make FSFE great again!
by Matthias Hager 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

So some elements of the GA thought they were smarter than the community and spent the last 12 months making up petty little conspiracies to try and snuff out the elected fellowship representative? Here's a tip: when you give a man a job to do, don't mess him around like that. Now we all knows why so much unpleasantness has been spilling over into public lists. It is not one person, it is the stink of an elite right under our noses. Drain the swamp! Not just Matthias, the whole GA needs to go. Wish I could be at the GA meeting in Berlin but FSFE is not worth the effort. mh Sent using Zoho Mail

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application for FSFE e.V. membership and resignation
by Daniel Pocock 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

This e-mail contained information published in error and is no longer available.

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Is organisational identity the key to all of this?
by Jonke Suhr 30 Aug '18

30 Aug '18

Hey all, Daniel wrote on February 1st 2018: > Understanding where the organization will go beyond the extinction of > the fellowship representative is critical. The Identity review process, > championed by Jonas Oberg and Kristi Progri, is actively looking at > these questions. Please contact Kristi[5] if you wish to participate > and look out for updates about this process in emails and Planet[6] > FSFE. Kristi will be at FOSDEM[7] this weekend if you want to speak to > her personally. You should all have this email, but I'm attaching it again just in case. The email refers to a blogpost dating September 20th 2017 (almost one year already): https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170911-01.html In which it says: > As we work on this for the next few months, there will be several > opportunities for all parts of our community to be heard: we will ask > individuals to participate in interviews, sometimes directly, > sometimes by asking for people who are interested in participating. > We’ll conduct surveys circulated through our community and > newsletter, and we will share our findings regularly, on our web > pages, and on our team wiki. This is the wiki page: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/FSFE-in-2020 As far as I can tell, the last edits were sometime in late 2017. I participated in the survey and I had a very nice phone interview with Kristi, I still hope we will eventually see some results. You can see the kinds of questions I was asked on the wiki page. Maybe it's still possible to participate, I don't have any information on that. Personally, I would like to see a better form of governance for the FSFE, I know that it's extremely difficult. I view the "FSFE in 2020" initiative as a form of democratic outreach to the FSFE community as a whole, which IMHO should be embraced and built upon. Cheers, Jonke

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The take-away message?
by Joe Awni 30 Aug '18

30 Aug '18

I see the same patterns showing up in this discussion again and again. Most reasonable, sane, and modern people would have quietly excused themselves from fruitless communication. I would like to do the same, but my obligation will not allow it. I've been privately corresponding with a number of folks from the discussion-list. We suspect that not everyone understands the contemporary context or history of this software movement and therefore could be forgiven for kind-of defaulting to just-a-private-German-club status where a dozen legal members are in absolute charge. This seems to be the direction the office in Berlin would be most pleased with. But, as I said before, in that case I would consider them domain-name-squatters. We need the answer to a basic question from paid staff: Besides the obvious recent trend of taking offense at the suggestion that you should do, claiming that most people don't actually want you to do, or just hoping that this discussion will fade-away, soon, what do you consider your job at FSFE to be? And before you try to flame-bait me into a discussion about your feelings I include this disclaimer: I am not responsible for your feelings weather they be true or not, and I am not willing to see the discussion diverted into minutia. I have to protect myself; I have already been victim of physical bullying while attending Free Software events. You can read my thread for more info on the beat-down in Brussels at FOSDEM 2016. Therefore, I apologise in-advance, I will not be physically attending any meetings or naming individuals.

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Re: application for FSFE e.V. membership and resignation
by Jonas Öberg 29 Aug '18

29 Aug '18

Hi Daniel, I'm not subscribed to this list, so I didn't see your email until it was forwarded to me. However, as you're indirectly implicating me in your comments, I would like the opportunity to respond in the same thread: > With well over half of the funds now coming from the corporate sector > and the two most senior staff enjoying lengthy periods of paternity > leave in 2018, people are also asking whether it is reasonable for > volunteers to contribute their time and personal funds at all. One of the senior staff you mention in this ought to be me. I have been, and am, on parental leave. I am not, however, employed by the FSFE any more, and for all practical purposes, I've not been employed by the FSFE since my parental leave started. The FSFE pays neither salary nor make any other contribution to staff who's on parental leave. Separately, I think it's excellent to see the corporate sector giving back to the community to fund the FSFE. I would hope more corporations would do the same. Best, Jonas

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