[Fsfe-ie] FSFE Newsletter - December 2009

Free Software Foundation Europe press at fsfeurope.org
Thu Jan 14 16:38:00 CET 2010


FSFE Newsletter - December 2009

Despite the temperatures dropping below zero all over Europe and the
Christmas holidays approaching, FSFE kept working as usual for software
freedom. The major news of December are that we have begun to
restructure our website, added Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as webmaster deputy
coordinator, and published a statement on the EC's settlement with
Microsoft in the browser antitrust case. Read on to learn more about
what we did in December.

Moreover, let us offer you our best wishes for a great and Free 2010!

							Giacomo Poderi

1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the public sector, 21 Dec
2. Restructuring FSFE's website
3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson
4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster deputy coordinator
5. November Fellowship grants

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software is excluded from interoperability

IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST

7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information

UPCOMING EVENTS

8. Election for Fellowship GA representative



1. Fellowship Jabber meeting: What do your taxes buy? Free Software in the
   public sector, 21 Dec

Various Fellows participated in an interesting jabber meeting on Free
Software in the public administration. Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's
president, chaired the meeting and brought his sound experience on the
topic into the chat-room. The ISO standardization process, Open
Standards, procurement rules in the Netherlands, and Free Software in
the Swiss Federal Court and Munich were discussed for nearly two
hours. As usual the conversation went on much longer in an informal
way, after the official closure of the meeting.

 http://blogs.fsfe.org/blog/2009/12/18/what-do-your-taxes-buy-free-software-in-the-public-sector-fellowship-jabber-meeting-dec-21/


2. Restructuring FSFE's website

In order to make FSFE's work more accessible, the web team this month
started work on a major restructuring of fsfe.org's content and
usability. The website wasn't originally designed to include so many
documents and information related to so many different domains: from
the legal to the political, from the educational to the community
oriented and more. The time has now arrived to improve its structure,
and so that it can reflect the diversity and quality of FSFE's
work. The web team's goal is to make our website easier to browse and
to read, and make it possible to find information much faster. If you
would like to help...join the web team!
 
 http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/web/index.en.html
 http://home.e-tjenesten.org/~ato/2009/12/restructuring-fsfe-website
 

3. The Fellowship interviews: Simon Josefsson

This month, Stian Rødven Eide interviewed Simon Josefsson. Simon is a
Fellow and 'old' established GNU hacker with interest in security, who
in November received the Nordic Free Software Award. His contributions
to the Free Software world include such ubiquitous projects as GnuTLS
and Libssh2. In the interview, Stian and Simon talk about differences
between proprietary and Free Software in relation to security issues,
discuss encryption, DNS and different projects that Simon is involved
in, such as GnuTLS, GNU SASL and GSS. Read the interview at:

 http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=98


4. FSFE welcomes Andreas Tolf Tolfsen as core team member and webmaster
   deputy coordinator

After contributing to FSFE's web team for three years, Andreas Tolf
Tolfsen has taken on the role of webmaster deputy coordinator within
FSFE, becoming part of the European core team. Andreas is a Norwegian
Free Software activists with years of experience on web design and web
technologies. Together with Reinhard Muller, webmaster coordinator,
Rolf Camps, deputy coordinator, and the web team, Andreas' first big
challenge will be the restructuring of FSFE's website. At the same
time, he will work on the setting up of a Norwegian country
team. Welcome on board Andreas!

 http://www.fsfe.org/about/team.html
 http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=79


5. November Fellowship grants

The Fellowship grants project we launched in November generated a
great response in the Free Software community. We received many
outstanding applications by activists coming from all over Europe:
choosing the first three people to receive the grants was not easy at
all. Finally, Alexjan Carraturo from Italy, Ferdinand Thommes from
Germany and Matija Šuklje from Slovenia stood out from the evaluation
process due to their lasting and diverse contributions to Free
Software. We welcome them in the Fellowship!

 http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
 http://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html


IN THE SPOTLIGHT

6. FSFE welcomes greater user choice in browsers, warns that Free Software
   is excluded from interoperability

FSFE congratulated the European Commission on pushing Microsoft to
give users greater choice between different browsers. The settlement
that the Commission reached on the Microsoft's browser case is an
improvement from the scenario that FSFE criticised this October.

In early 2010, Microsoft will provide the users of its operating
systems with a ballot screen that should make it easy for users to
chose between different web browsers. The screen will suggests various
browsers available on the market, Free Software ones included.

This settlement relates to only one of the two issues that Microsoft
currently faces with the EU Commission. FSFE also congratulates the
Commission for the decision to keep open the investigation on
Microsoft's refusal to let other products interoperate with its own
desktop programs. Microsoft has offered a voluntary commitment, but
FSFE warns that this will not be enough for real competition to
develop.

 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091216-01.html

Relevant links:
 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1941
 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091008-01.html
 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091006-01.html


IT HAPPENED IN THE PAST

7. Samba team receives Microsoft's interoperability information

During December 2007, as a consequence of the drawn-out EU vs Microsft
antitrust case, the Samba team was finally able to receive Microsoft's
network interoperability information. The specifications were
requested with a one-time access fee of 10.000 EUR for full access to
crucial information. This event marked an important victory for
competition in the IT market. It was a great achievement for Free
Software, FSFE and the Samba team.

 http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2008q1/000193.html


UPCOMING EVENTS

8. Election for Fellowship GA representative

During the whole month of February 2010 it will be possible to vote
for the second Fellowship representative in FSFE's General Assembly
(GA). Fellows will soon have the chance to declare their candidature
and to vote again for participation in FSFE's highest decision-making
body. We encourage you to run for the second seat!

 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090601-01.html
 http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html



You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html

You can join the Fellowship or find how to support us on
http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
http://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html

You can order our merchandise at
http://fsfe.org/order/order.html

Copyright 2009, Free Software Foundation Europe <pr at fsfeurope.org>.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in
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