(Y)our recent successes towards software freedom in Europe (despite the crisis)

The spread of Covid-19 brought dramatic and drastic changes for us and our societies. And thus shed light on the global need for global solutions like Free Software is. A short summary about the recent successes towards software freedom in Europe we achieved together with your help and despite the crisis.

The spread of Covid-19 brought dramatic and drastic changes for us and our societies. One of the things most of us experienced was to stay at home or in quarantine. Apart from severe consequences people have been facing, suddenly many people also have been forced to work from home. In response, our community was quick and eager in helping people to stay in control of technology. In the very beginning already, our community members gathered knowledge and wrote a guide to freedom respecting online collaboration and communication tools into our wiki.

In our official channels, the FSFE focused early on highlighting that global problems need global solutions. And on explaining why only Free Software creates global solutions and cooperations. We received positive feedback and we luckily have seen tremendous success with our message: the European Union, the World Health Organsation and the EU eHealth Network followed our arguments and they now recommend to any COVID-19 contact tracing app development to be published as Free Software. Many countries followed their recommendations, for example StoppCorona in Austria, PrivateTracer in the Netherlands, the Corona Warn App in Germany or eRouška in Czech Republic.

This is a huge success for software freedom! And it is a result of our daily work we all persistently invest in Free Software advocacy. Since almost 20 years the FSFE is part of an ever growing freedom respecting community in Europe. We gather reliable expertise and consultancy and continuously explain the public and political representatives the benefits of software freedom. Now, in the face of the crisis, national and international players finally seem to realize the advantages of Free Software.

Free Software creates global solutions.

Health care apps as Free Software

Hopefully, the decision to publish Covid-19 health care apps as Free Software alone helps to change mindsets of decision-makers in the long run. But also the viral effect the preceding discussions and decisions had are priceless. In international and national major news agencies they reported about health care apps to become Free Software and the benefits involved. In several countries we have seen a coalition of scientists, data protection agencies, ministries and politicians who argued in favor of software freedom. And every time they do, more people understand why software freedom matters for our society. And any time more people understand the importance of software freedom, it is likely some of them join our cause.

These developments are part of the success of our work and they show that even in dramatic crisis you can help people to understand the benefits of controlling technology. On the other hand there is still a lot to do. Many countries still encourage the use of proprietary tracing apps. In other countries - for example the Corona Warn App developed in Germany - the tracing apps themselves are Free Software but they depend on proprietary "Exposure Notification Framework" only accessible by installing the proprietary Google Play services. Also you need to use a proprietary app market to install the app itself. Then what is all freedom worth if the solution depends on third-party proprietary blobs? And if you have to use proprietary software to install them?

Public administrations for Free Software

If we take a look at the big picture and away from the COVID-19 apps, many administrations recently have announced to follow our road to freedom. Hamburg wants to focus more on Free Software, Munich commits to "Public Money? Public Code!", the Netherlands commit to Free Software by default, the Spanish Municipality of Benigànim signs our Open Letter of the "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and the German city of Bühl uses Free Software to connect their citizens. We like to help them on their journey and ask more to join! We like to make sure people understand that this is a long term activity and offer help and guidance.

Now is a good time to raise awareness about our topic within new audiences. Based on the shoulders of our long term work, the recent successes and the public discussions about Free Software we like to speed up the path towards a Europe build on Free Software. Please help us to convince more decision-takers and to supply them with good material to understand the benefits of Free Software.

Join us as a supporter and help us with a financial contribution so we can boost our work, repeat our recent successes and help people understand why Free Software is important for our future:

Join us as a supporter and make our success your success!

The FSFE wishes you all an enjoyable and healthy summer in (software) freedom.

PS: A financial support towards the FSFE is tax-deductible in some countries. They say it is good for your karma in any country around the globe.

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