Ada goes to Italy - ice cream included!

Join the first reading of the book 'Ada & Zangemann' in Italian! Celebrate with us the Software Freedom Day 16 September listening to the story of Ada while eating homemade ice cream.

Together with the Bergamo Linux User Group, the FSFE is celebrating the Software Freedom Day with the Italian Free Software community. On September 16th, we will be celebrating this occasion with the first Italian reading of the book ‘Ada & Zangemann – A tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream’, a reading for people from 6 to 106 years old. Moreover, there will be a workshop afterwards for the little ones and free home-made ice cream, courtesy of a FSFE volunteer.

Event date

Date: 16.09.2023

Time: 14:45 - 18:00

Location: Biblioteca Centro Cultura Tullio Carrara, Piazza Italia, 24027 Nembro, Italy

Programme

14:45 – 16:15 - Reading of the book

From 16:15 onwards - Workshop for kids

Ada & Zangeman – A tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream

The illustrated book 'Ada & Zangemann - a tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream', written by Matthias Kirschner and illustrated by Sandra Brandstätter, tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process realises how crucial it is for her and others to control technology.

"Ada & Zangemann proves that the argument for software and hardware freedom is simple: We should be able to do what we want with our stuff... Electronics freedom means more learning and less waste, as Ada shows. Kids and adults alike will be entertained by this book, charmed by its illustrations, and inspired by Ada’s engineering spirit and impassioned activism."

- Elizabeth Chamberlain, Director of Sustainability, iFixit

"Ada & Zangemann is not only a utopian and charming story about Free Software and computers, but it is one about self-empowerment and also about joy in technology... it may well be an eye-opener for adults, too."

- Dr. Constanze Kurz, Spokesperson, Chaos Computer Club (CCC)

The book is currently available by the following publishers:

• in English by No Starch Press can be ordered from your preferred book store world-wide with the ISBN 978-1-718-50320-5.
• in German by O'Reilly Germany / Dpunkt Verlag (affiliate link - the FSFE gets 12%) and can be ordered from your preferred book store with the ISBN 978-3-96009-190-5.

The book is published under a Creative Commons By Share Alike licence, and we are working on making the story of Ada available in other languages. As this process takes time and a lot of work, it would be great if you could fill in this short survey to check which languages you are interested in, so that we can better prioritise.

The book is also a great gift for our loved ones, as well as a donation to libraries and schools to arouse more people's interest in tinkering with hardware and software, and encourage them to shape their own technology!

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The Netherlands: Important points for the election

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to empower users to control technolgy to digital civil rights, transparency and control over technology. It does this by promoting Free Software (also known as Open Source Software). In addition, Free Software promotes innovation and prevents vendor lock-in. Digital sovereignty is only possible with Free Software.

Our society is becoming increasingly digital, so it is crucial that public values are also safeguarded in the digital domain. The upcoming elections and term of office are an opportunity to take important steps on current themes such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital commons.

FSFE asks parties to work on the following action points:

• Strengthen the 'open, unless' policy that requires government to choose Free Software by default This is crucial for transparency and digital sovereignty, so embed this policy in legislation. Support governments in selecting and developing Free Software with a central expertise center. Identify government tasks where control and explainability is necessary and ensure this by applying the principle of ‘Public Money? Public Code!’.
• Encourage wise reuse of software by investing in digital commons to make sure others can benefit from the improvements. Support the adaptation and development of these joint Free Software solutions with knowledge and financial resources. Use the European knowledge network and the space of European digitization funds for this.
• Improve the oversight and transparency of algorithms in government use. The further filling of the national algorithm register is a first step in this respect. In addition, increase transparency by publishing the training data and source code of those algorithms under a Free license, as we have argued before.
• Pupils and parents should not be forced to use proprietry software that often even spies on them. Place additional requirements on IT solutions for knowledge and educational institutions to help them maintain sovereignty in a digital world. Support institutions in the use of Free Software to prevent vendor-lock in and to promote independent digital skills.
• Stop wasting energy and strategically important raw materials by extending the life of electronics. Make sure that the end of support does not mean the end of the service life. To this end, empower consumers and businesses to repair hardware and replace software with Free Software that they control themselves. This call has been supported by the signatories of our open letter 'The universal right to install any software on any device'.

The FSFE is happy to elaborate on these points.

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"Back to school" for EU and German policy+++Ada available worldwide

September brings the resumption of EU politics and the mid-term of the current German government, and we look at them from a Free Software perspective. ‘Ada & Zangemann' can now be ordered internationally, and you can help us translate our 'What is Free Software' video into more EU languages. And remember - rooting your device does not void its warranty.

Table of contents

1. Halftime for the German government: Thank you for the fine words, now let the deeds speak!
2. Liability, Interoperability & Free Software in EU: what we are expectingstrong>
3. ‘Ada & Zangemann’ - available now in English worldwide
4. Unleash the potential of your phone: Rooting your device does not void its warranty
5. "Take Action! Contribute to translate our ‘What is Free Software’ video"
6. Chaos Communication Camp 2023: back to the grounds!
7. foss-north videos and more conferences on the way!
8. Join us as an intern and make the difference!
9. Quote of the month
10. Contribute to our Newsletter

Halftime for the German government: Thank you for the fine words, now let the deeds speak!

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with an alliance of civil society and the Free Software industry, calls on the German government to implement a sustainable digital policy and to provide the necessary funds in the federal budget now.

Liability, Interoperability & Free Software in EU: what we are expecting

After the summer recess, EU institutions are resuming their activities at the end of August. In the coming months, we expect to see the adoption of legislation that could have an impact on Free Software: the Cyber Resilience Act, the Product Liability Directive, the AI Act, and the Interoperable Europe Act. What does all this legislation mean for Free Software and its community?.

‘Ada & Zangemann’ – available now in English worldwide

From 29 August the English version of the book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" is available internationally. The book tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software and realises how important it is for her and others to control technology.

Unleash the potential of your phone: Rooting your device does not void its warranty

As users we sometimes face the issue of rooting our devices. We may want to regain control of our device or we may want to keep using a device with an outdated operating system. But we are afraid of losing our legal warranty. Let’s be clear: Just rooting your device and installing new software will not void the statutory warranty.

Take Action! Contribute to translate our ‘What is Free Software’ video

If you read our email, you already know this. We want to translate our video "What is Free Software" into more European languages! This video explains in less than 3 minutes why Free Software is important, and each translation costs about 250 Euros. Therefore, all contributions until the end of September will be used to help our community in Europe to get the video in their native language. Help us spreading this message or making a small contribution to support this campaign!

"Chaos Communication Camp 2023: back to the grounds!"

One of our most favourite events was back this summer: Chaos Communication Camp 2023! This event brings together technologists, activists, and enthusiasts to discuss, share, and celebrate technology, privacy, and freedom in Brandenburg, Germany. This year, the Free Software Foundation Europe joined the campers as part of the 'Bits und Bäume' village.

Take a look at our talks from the event and see what else we did.

foss-north videos and more conferences on the way!

🇸🇪 Last April we attended foss-north (link!!), where FSFE co-organised a track on political, social and legal issues around Free Software,. Among other great speakers, there was a keynote by Lina Ceballos, on the Interoperable Europe Act. It took some time, but finally we have the videos of this event! Watch all the interesting talks from the comfort of your own home! And we hope to see you there next year (as a speaker or as a participant 😉)

🇷🇸 You can also join us in our next events! We will be participating in the Balkan Computer Congress - BalCCon2k23 in Novi Sad, Serbia, talking about Device Neutrality and NGI (8-10 September). 🇵🇹 The NGI innitiative will be also explained in Festa do Software Livre" in Aveiro, Portugal, where we will also talk about Router Freedom (16-17 September) and also there but a few days later (30 Sept) we will discuss Device neutrality at the "Encontro Nacional de Estudantes de Informatica”.

🇮🇹 On September 16, we will be celebrating Software Freedom Day in Nembro (Italy) with the first reading in Italian of the book ‘Ada & Zangemann’, and in Cologne (Germany) we will discuss the role of decentralised social media platforms in our society (22 Sept).

🇩🇪 In Germany, we will be at PITS 2023- Public-IT-Security (21 Sept), in Berlin and then at Bitkom ( Sept 27) with a talk about the Cyber Resilience Act.

🇨🇭 And if you are around, celebrate with us the 40th Anniversary of GNU! On September 27, at the Volkshaus in Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) join the GNU community to celebrate this occasion, and help build a future where users' computing freedom extends further than ever.

Remember that you can find all the information about these and other events in fsfe.org/events.

Join us as an intern and make the difference!

Have you heard about Free Software and you want to know more about it? Are you already a Free Software advocate and do you want to help to bring software freedom to our society? Then our paid internships are for you!. Learn by doing and gain knowledge an0 technical skills through an internship with us.

Quote of the Month

"It's a hit -- in the first week my kid has read this book 3 or 4 times already, and says this book explains my work on software freedom finally in a way that's easily understandable".Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy, talking about the book Ada & Zangemann:a tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream.

Contribute to our Newsletter

We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor, Ana Galán

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The story of Ada, available now in English worldwide

From 29 August the English version of the book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" is available internationally. The book tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software and realises how important it is for her and others to control technology.

“Ada & Zangemann" not only inspires children to tinker and create, but the tale also helps adults understand the importance of controlling the technology on which our society depends. Aimed at readers aged 6 to 106, the book, written by Matthias Kirschner and illustrated by Sandra Brandstätter, is published under a Creative Commons By Share Alike licence, making it a great gift for our loved ones, as well as a donation to libraries and schools!

"What a fun read! I recognize myself in Ada at many moments."

- Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director, The Tor project

"Such a powerful message on what a community can achieve."

- Nikos Roussos, Tech Lead, Greenpeace International

You can make a big difference by helping us to reach more people about software freedom with the book. For example:

• Suggest the book to your public library. Often you can recommend new books to libraries.
• Donate the book to a public library. This is a good option for cases when a library does not have the budget to buy the book, but you can afford it. Your copy will make many people happy.
• Give your feedback to book-stores about the book, so they recommend it to others.
• Write a review if you bought the book online so you help to reach a wider audience.
• Offer schools, youth clubs, your hackerspace, or your family and friends to read the book there. The tale is a good way to talk about software freedom. These slides can be used as a background while you read with a projector.

"An uplifting parable for our greed- and power-infused times."

- Dan Gillmor, Director of News Co/Lab, Arizona State University

The book is currently available by the following publishers:

• in English by No Starch Press can be ordered from your preferred book store world-wide with the ISBN 978-1-718-50320-5.
• in German by O'Reilly Germany / Dpunkt Verlag (affiliate link - the FSFE gets 12%) and can be ordered from your preferred book store with the ISBN 978-3-96009-190-5.

This book is licensed under the free cultural license Creative Commons CC-BY-SA. You can share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format. You can adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Several volunteers from the FSFE and other organisations started with community translations of the book which can be found in the book's git repository.

"I love this book and I love that it can be shared and translated and adapted easily because licensed freely under a Creative Commons license (BY-SA)."

- Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, Founder Creative Commmons

Join the first reading of Ada & Zangemann in Italian! Celebrate with us on September 16th Software Freedom Day listening to the story of Ada while eating homemade ice cream.

Support FSFE

Halftime for the German government: Thank you for the fine words, now let the deeds speak!

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with an alliance of civil society and the Free Software industry, calls on the German government to implement a sustainable digital policy and to provide the necessary funds in the federal budget now.

FSFE draws a negative mid-term balance for the digital policy of the German government. Together with 20 actors from civil society and the Free Software industry, the FSFE demands: The Federal Government and the coalition parties in the Bundestag must now urgently implement their digital policy promises from the coalition agreement. They must provide sufficient funding for this in the 2024 budget. Civil society must also be more closely involved in the decision-making process. It is high time to put Germany on a sustainable, inclusive digital policy course. The government must not squander its last chance to do so in this parliamentary term.

Two years ago, the German government launched a good and widely praised digital policy programme, promising a change of course and a more successful, sustainable and inclusive digitisation. Unfortunately, halfway through the legislative period, this change of course is still a long way off. So far, the government has launched only a few projects and is planning to make painful cuts in next year's budget. This threatens to lead to a failure of digital policy at the end of the legislative period, and to long-term damage to society and the economy.

FSFE calls for Free Software in German administrations

Halfway through its term in office, the German government has failed to live up to its promise in the coalition agreement to prioritise Free Software (also known as Open Source) and open standards in the digitisation of the administration. Isolated steps in the right direction, such as the establishment of the Centre for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS), are to be thwarted in the 2024 budget. Public procurement law has not been modernised to facilitate the tendering and procurement of Free Software. There are still no public statistics on the procurement of Free Software by administrations.

Instead, the federal government continues to rely largely on proprietary software. More than three billion euros of budget funds are earmarked for the proprietary “Oracle cloud”, while the already too small funds for digital sovereignty of currently 48 million euros are to be cut by almost half in the new budget. At the same time, the government seems to regard Free Software as expendable in ensuring digital sovereignty. The proprietary Federal Client (Bundesclient) developed on the government’s behalf by the ITZ Bund is in blatant contradiction to the government's declared goal of strengthening Free Software and thus true digital sovereignty.

Johannes Näder, FSFE’s Senior Policy Project Manager, explains: "The German government must stand by its promises in the coalition agreement and decide that Free Software will be procured and developed as a priority for the administration in the future. The principle 'Public Money? Public Code!' must become the guiding principle of German digital policy: Publicly financed software developed for the public sector must be Free Software. This is the only way the government can achieve a sustainable, innovative digitisation of Germany that benefits everyone and empowers citizens to control technology.".

Under the slogan "Public Money? Public Code!", the Free Software Foundation Europe has long been calling for the sustainable digitisation of the German administration through the use of Free Software. The fact that the corresponding plans from the coalition agreement have not yet been implemented has recently also been criticised within the government parties.

"Within the next two years, important steps need to be taken to digitise the German administration. The German Government has only two years left to fulfil the promises made in the coalition agreement. Digital sovereignty can only be guaranteed through Free Software. The government must therefore modernise public procurement law in line with ‘Public Money? Public Code!’ and finally publish statistics on the share of Free Software in development and procurement in the administration. Last but not least, a fully-fledged Free Software working environment should be made available to public authorities in a timely manner. For this to succeed, the budget for digital sovereignty must be increased and consistently used for Free Software," demands Johannes Näder.

Free Software and "Public Money"?

Free Software gives everyone the right to use, study, share, and improve applications for any purpose. These freedoms ensure that similar applications do not have to be programmed from scratch every time and, thanks to transparent processes, others do not have to reinvent the wheel. In large projects, expertise and costs can be shared and applications paid for by the general public are available to all. This promotes innovation and saves taxpayers money in the medium to long term. Dependencies on vendors are minimised and security issues can be fixed more easily. The Free Software Foundation Europe, together with over 200 organisations and administrations, is therefore calling for “Public Money? Public Code!” - If it is public money, it should be public code as well. More information on the initiative is available on the “Public Money? Public Code!” website.

A broad alliance

The following organisations from civil society and the Free Software industry published press releases on 29.08.2023 with their respective analyses and digital policy demands to the German government:

• AWO Bundesverband
• betterplace lab
• Bits & Bäume
• FifF
• BUND
• Germanwatch
• Wikimedia Deutschland
• Chao Computer Club e.V.
• Deutscher Naturschutzring
• Institut für Ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung
• D64 Zentrum für Digitalen Fortschritt
• DAASI International
• Do-FOSS
• Free Software Foundation Europe
• future_s
• Innovationsverbund Öffentliche Gesundheit e.V.
• Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland
• Open Source Business Alliance
• #cnetz
• German Unix User Group
• Gesellschaft für Informatik
• VITAKO
• Rat für Digitale Ökologie

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