This article arrived in my mailbox this morning. It's a lovely read! Thank you to the author, and to Christine Prayon.
Je mer, 2019-05-15 je 06:50 +0000, press@fsfe.org skribis:
= Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-02.en.html ]
Yesterday, political satirist Christine Prayon was awarded the 10,000 Euro Dieter Hildebrandt Prize of the City of Munich for demanding political or decidedly socio-critical political satire. Prayon is donating the prize money to the Free Software Foundation Europe.
The jury states [1], among other things, that the award recipient Prayon "[...] does not simply accuse - she unmasks, and we are her witnesses". Prayon herself used her thank-you speech to put the finger on one of Munich's sore spots: Prayon describes the former genius, progressive process of making Munich independent of the providers of proprietary software and letting the complete administration run on a free system. Prayon then criticised the switch back to proprietary systems.
The migration of workstations back to proprietary software will cost Munich almost 50 million Euros over the next six years. A further 37 million Euros will have to be invested in implementation projects. The Free Software Foundation Europe already criticised the migration-project in the past. The migration will not solve existing organisational IT problems in the day-to-day administrative business. At the same time new dependencies on manufacturers of proprietary software will arise and license fees will be paid to the proprietary manufacturers instead of using these funds in tax payers' best interest for the further development of the software and the cooperation with other administrations. The systems become less transparent and no longer comprehensible for citizens. Further information on the migration plans of the City of Munich can be found here [2].
Munich is thus turning against the trend: in other administrations, Free Software is being used with overwhelming success. Since the French government decided to start using more Free Software back in 2012, between 0.6% and 5.4% more companies using Free Software have been created in France every year; between 6.6% and 14% more people find employment in the IT sector every year. In Barcelona, 70% of the budget for the development of new software is used to create Free Software. Contracts have so far been awarded to 3,000 companies, 60% of them SMEs, mostly from the region. In collaborative projects, more and more cities are working on common software solutions and jointly develop them, saving costs and sharing risks.
The Free Software Foundation Europe has launched the campaign "Public Money? Public Code!" to convince other administrations to switch to Free Software and support them in their migration. As part of the campaign, we published the specialist publication "Public Money Public Code - Modernising Public Infrastructure with Free Software". The brochure aims to answer questions from decision-makers about the benefits of using and developing Free Software for the public administration.
More information about the campaign and its supporters can be found on our campaign website at publiccode.eu [3], and the brochure can be found here [4].
The Free Software Foundation Europe would like to take this opportunity to thank Christine Prayon for her commitment to Free Software and her generous donation.
1: https://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/Kulturreferat/Kulturfoerderu... 2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-01.html 3: https://publiccode.eu/ 4: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.
http://fsfe.org _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release
This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
It’s hard not to see Prayon continuing her satire through her donation of the prize money. She doesn't keep the money given from the same City of Munich responsible for the defeat of free software. The question is: was FSFE chosen because of its fight or the lack thereof? Either way, FSFE should refuse taking that money. It's money coming from the 50 + 37 = 87 million deal of City of Munich against Free Software.
Regards, Besnik
On Wed, 15 May 2019 12:11:42 +0200 Carmen Bianca Bakker carmenbianca@fsfe.org wrote:
This article arrived in my mailbox this morning. It's a lovely read! Thank you to the author, and to Christine Prayon.
Je mer, 2019-05-15 je 06:50 +0000, press@fsfe.org skribis:
= Free Software in Munich - FSFE thanks cabaret artist Christine Prayon =
[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-02.en.html ]
Yesterday, political satirist Christine Prayon was awarded the 10,000 Euro Dieter Hildebrandt Prize of the City of Munich for demanding political or decidedly socio-critical political satire. Prayon is donating the prize money to the Free Software Foundation Europe.
The jury states [1], among other things, that the award recipient Prayon "[...] does not simply accuse - she unmasks, and we are her witnesses". Prayon herself used her thank-you speech to put the finger on one of Munich's sore spots: Prayon describes the former genius, progressive process of making Munich independent of the providers of proprietary software and letting the complete administration run on a free system. Prayon then criticised the switch back to proprietary systems.
The migration of workstations back to proprietary software will cost Munich almost 50 million Euros over the next six years. A further 37 million Euros will have to be invested in implementation projects. The Free Software Foundation Europe already criticised the migration-project in the past. The migration will not solve existing organisational IT problems in the day-to-day administrative business. At the same time new dependencies on manufacturers of proprietary software will arise and license fees will be paid to the proprietary manufacturers instead of using these funds in tax payers' best interest for the further development of the software and the cooperation with other administrations. The systems become less transparent and no longer comprehensible for citizens. Further information on the migration plans of the City of Munich can be found here [2].
Munich is thus turning against the trend: in other administrations, Free Software is being used with overwhelming success. Since the French government decided to start using more Free Software back in 2012, between 0.6% and 5.4% more companies using Free Software have been created in France every year; between 6.6% and 14% more people find employment in the IT sector every year. In Barcelona, 70% of the budget for the development of new software is used to create Free Software. Contracts have so far been awarded to 3,000 companies, 60% of them SMEs, mostly from the region. In collaborative projects, more and more cities are working on common software solutions and jointly develop them, saving costs and sharing risks.
The Free Software Foundation Europe has launched the campaign "Public Money? Public Code!" to convince other administrations to switch to Free Software and support them in their migration. As part of the campaign, we published the specialist publication "Public Money Public Code - Modernising Public Infrastructure with Free Software". The brochure aims to answer questions from decision-makers about the benefits of using and developing Free Software for the public administration.
More information about the campaign and its supporters can be found on our campaign website at publiccode.eu [3], and the brochure can be found here [4].
The Free Software Foundation Europe would like to take this opportunity to thank Christine Prayon for her commitment to Free Software and her generous donation.
1: https://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/Kulturreferat/Kulturfoerderu... 2: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190515-01.html 3: https://publiccode.eu/ 4: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.
http://fsfe.org _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release
This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
Hi Besnik,
On May 15, 2019 1:48:07 PM GMT+02:00, Besnik Bleta besnik@programeshqip.org wrote:
It’s hard not to see Prayon continuing her satire through her donation of the prize money. She doesn't keep the money given from the same City of Munich responsible for the defeat of free software.
Yes, indeed. It is very nice of her to use that money to support Free Software and a great connection to her talk about Munich's "progressiveness".
FSFE should refuse taking that money. It's money coming from the 50 + 37 = 87 million deal of City of Munich against Free Software.
Actually, awards typically come out of different budgets, so no need to worry. But even if it came from the nonfree software budget, wouldn't it be best to take some of that money and spend it on promoting Free Software instead?
Happy hacking! Florian
Le 15/05/2019 à 13:48, Besnik Bleta a écrit :
was FSFE chosen because of its fight or the lack thereof? Either way, FSFE should refuse taking that money. It's money coming from the 50 + 37 = 87 million deal of City of Munich against Free Software.
Hi, the last point isn't a problem for me, but the first is a good concern. I think that if FSFE doesn't know how to use this huge amount of money, it could consider ask her to give it to another similar organisation. For example, I think that the most urgent fight by now is https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2018/11/28/antiterrorism-censorship-macron-teams-up-with-the-web-giants-to-set-up-mass-surveillance/
If this law become reality, Europe will be China and all fights of any organisation in every domain going in another way than the "world company" way would be threaten by censorship.