This was an important month for Free Software. Not only was Software Freedom
Day held (as always) on the 20th, but this years marks the 25th anniversary of
the GNU Project. Celebrations took place across Europe and our Fellows
continued to support Free Software in local areas with enthusiasm and passion.
Other important events took place. On the policy level, FSFE engaged with
representatives of the World Bank to explain why Free Software continues
to be important in both economics and politics. On the legal level, meetings,
speeches, panels and training events continued to build infrastructure for the
future.
Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. The GNU's 25th Birthday in Berlin, Germany
2. The smallest unit of freedom: A Fellow - Sean Daly
3. Reach the people - Software Freedom Day in Berlin, Vienna and Utrecht
4. Fellowship events throughout Europe
5. Free Software for World Bank financed projects
6. Freedom Task Force activites - GPLv3 in The Netherlands, panels in Italy and speeches in Berlin and Winterthur
7. European Legal Network special interest group meetings in London and Brussels
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
8. FSCONS 2008, Gothenburg, Sweden (2008-10-24 to 2008-10-26)
9. NLUUG Autumn Conference and CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Ede, Netherlands (2008-11-06 to 2008-11-07)
1. The GNU's 25th Birthday in Berlin, Germany
The GNU-project turned 25 on the 27th of September. FSFE and the Berlin Fellows
were at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to pop a cork and have a party. The
event started at 3pm with some champagne and music to celebrate. A great time
was had by all!
2. The smallest unit of freedom: A Fellow - Sean Daly
"In Europe, Microsoft's foot-dragging in complying with the 2004 Monti
Decision concerned me, and I saw that with very few exceptions, the
mainstream and tech media seemed not to cover fully all that was going on,
in particular the important role of the intervenors like Samba and the
FSFE. I felt that since traditional journalists were missing a vital part
of the story, perhaps it was time for a nontraditional journalist to step
up and report on that part."
Read the whole Fellowship interview: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/interviews
3. Reach the people - Software Freedom Day in Berlin, Vienna and Utrecht
On Saturday the 20th of September, FFII and FSFE's Fellowship group from Berlin
had a barbecue and manned an information booth. At the booth they explained
what Free Software is and why it is important for society. Meanwhile, Vienna's
Fellows celebrate the annual "Software Freedom Day" in a Pub called Pint Pub
in Vienna. The highlight of the event was the performances of the bands "Club
Valat" and "Klaus (from Fadin' to Whiteout)". Finally, in The Netherlands,
Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator at FSFE, delivered a keynote
speech at the Dutch Software Freedom Day event at Liefland College, Utrecht.
4. Fellowship events throughout Europe
The Fellowship Group in Berlin met on the 11th of September at their usual
venue, the New Thinking Store on Tucholsky Strasse. In Vienna the local
Fellowship group invited Shane Coughlan, FTF Coordinator, to deliver a speech
entitled "The Professionalisation of Free Software. Where we are going next."
The new Zurich Fellowship group also had a meeting, once again getting together
at the FSFE Zurich office to discuss ways of spreading the word about Free
Software in Switzerland and to generally have a good time. In Lille, a
Fellowship stand was manned at the "Braderie de Lille" (Lille's flea market)
by our very own French intern, Benjamin Morant, and Rainer Kersten from the
Duesseldorf office.
5. Free Software for World Bank financed projects
FSFE president Georg Greve delivered a course as part of the annual
"Procurement of Information systems in World Bank-Financed Projects"
course at the International Training Center (ITC) of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Turin, Italy. As in the
past years, the course provided insights to the World Bank project
managers on the economic and political basics of Free Software, as
well as practical issues such as licences, business models and best
practice examples.
6. Freedom Task Force activities - GPLv3 in The Netherlands, panels in Italy and speeches in Berlin and Winterthur
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 University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
on the 19th of September. This event is sponsored by NLnet. He also represented
FSFE on the 'NESSI Open Source Working Group' panel at the OSS 2008 conference
in Milan to explain Free Software and the reasons behind Free Software licences.
This was followed by a speech entitled 'Free Software licenses and other
questions' at OSiM World at Berlin on the 17th of September another talk
entitled 'The strategic implementation of Free Software in business' at
the OpenExpo conference in Winterthur, Switzerland, on the 25th of September.
7. European Legal Network special interest group meetings in London and Brussels
FSFE's legal project - the FTF - coordinated a special interest group meeting
in London to discuss business processes and supply chain management. Another
meeting was held in Brussels on the 29th of September to discuss software
patents and other legal issues. These meetings were held for members of the
European Legal Network, and it is hoped that the discussions prompted by
them will lead to greater understanding and support for Free Software by
European legal decision-makers.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
This is only a partial list, and only contains events where our presence
has been confirmed at time of drafting this newsletter. For a more complete
list of events FSFE will be involved with, please consult
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/
8. FSCONS 2008, Gothenburg, Sweden (2008-10-24 to 2008-10-26)
For 2008, FSCONS is a collaboration of FSFE, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia
Sweden. There will be three tracks (Free Culture, Free Software, Free Content),
each lead by one of the main organisers. Topics will range from modern kernel
design over citizen journalism all the way across to licensing in the 21st
century.
http://www.fscons.org/
9. NLUUG Autumn Conference and CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Ede, Netherlands (2008-11-06 to 2008-11-07)
The FSFE will be attending the NLUUG Autumn Conference on Thursday 6th
November. This year's theme is 'mobility'. Feel free to come to our booth
and ask about Free Software! Shane Coughlan, Freedom Task Force coordinator
at FSFE, will also deliver talk entitled 'The strategic implementation of
free software in business' at the CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2008
at the same location on the following day, Friday 7th November. The successful
implementation of Free Software requires an understanding of the best policy
and processes applicable to its context. Shane will discuss how FSFE's legal
project and its European Legal Network have engaged with this issue by
producing generic market knowledge for supply and purchasing contracts,
work flow documents and deployment methodology. The location for both
conferences is Hotel en Congrescentrum De Reehorst, Ede, Netherlands.
http://www.nluug.nl/events/nj08/index.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
FSFE for Freedom Not Fear
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) supports Free Software so
that every
citizen can play an independent, active and responsible part in our
information society. However, censorship of content, violations of the
principle of 'Net Neutrality' and increasing online surveillance do not
fit with these goals. FSFE is therefore appealing for participation in
the world-wide day of action "Freedom Not Fear" [1], which takes place
this Saturday, the 11th October.
"Free Software grants us the right to use such software for any purpose,
to study it, to adapt it to our needs and to release improved versions
to the public. However, if our civil rights are more and more curtailed
by questionable legislation, we may end up with the absurd situation
that we cannot make use of these four freedoms without breaking the
law", warns Matthias Kirschner, German Deputy Coordinator for FSFE.
In Germany, the main demonstration for "Freedom Not Fear" day starts at
14:00 at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany. The event is organised by
AK Vorrat (German Working Group on Data Retention [2]) and is being
supported by over one hundred organisations in Germany alone.
Demonstrations are also taking place in 21 other countries around the
world, such as in the cities of Paris, Stockholm, London, Sofia and
Luxembourg, among many others. Artistic events related to the day of
action will take place in Rome and Zürich, and discussion events are
planned for Washington, D.C. In the Netherlands, events are taking
place under the banner of "Volksopstand 2008" (Peoples' Revolt 2008)[3].
In The Hague, a demonstration is planned in the square front of the
second chamber of the Dutch Parliament, and afterwards various related
activities such as a 'privacy market' and discussion workshops will
take place.
More information on events planned worldwide can be found on the
"Freedom Not Fear" web site [4].
[1]
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/242/144/lang,en/
[2] http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
[3] http://www.volksopstand2008.nl/
[4]
http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2008/International_…
About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the
information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the furthering
of
Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study, modify and
copy.
Founded in 2001, 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
FSFE.
FSFE's homepage can be found at http://www.fsfeurope.org
You can reach the FSFE switchboard from:
* Belgium: +32 2 747 03 57
* Germany: +49 700 373 38 76 73
* Sweden: +46 31 7802160
* Switzerland: +41 43 500 03 66
* UK: +44 29 200 08 17 7