FSFE Newsletter - November 2016Public consultation on our Fellowship

Since 2005, the FSFE has maintained two distinct brands: the FSFE and our Fellowship. While this made sense initially, we've grown increasingly uncomfortable with the way this created a separation between the Fellows and the FSFE as two separate entities, despite the fact that we're all working together! Accordingly, we've reduced our activities promoting the "Fellowship" as something distinct from the FSFE, and now talk more about "FSFE Groups" rather than "Fellowship Groups", for our local groups.

We now need to come to a decision on how to develop these brands in the future. Based on an initial discussion between our coordinators and in our core team, we've developed a proposal which you will find below: it essentially means that we would deprecate the Fellowship, and bring everything under the umbrella of the FSFE. As an important part of our community, your feedback is valuable to us. For this public consultation, we would be happy to hear your thoughts on the matter by the 30th of November 2016, after which we will provide a summary of the feedback received on which we will base our decision.

Any changes that stem from this proposal, in its current form or in the way we will shape it based on the feedback provided, will be put into practice during 2017. You can provide your feedback to contact@fsfe.org.

Please note that in the proposal below we use a term "Supporter" as a new alternative to "Fellow". We would very much like to hear your thoughts on this too. Other options suggested include "Patron", "Supporter", "Contributor", "Donor", and possibly other names you may think of too. There is also the option to keep the name "Fellow" as a term, and only deprecate "Fellowship".

PROPOSAL

The "Fellowship" and "Fellow" names are deprecated. Activities done in local groups or which were otherwise named in conjunction with the brand "Fellowship" shall be brought under the name of the "FSFE": an FSFE event, an FSFE local group, and so on.

Our "Community" is anyone who identifies as being a part of the FSFE, be that by supporting and encouraging our activities, contributing financially, or participating in the work. We want everyone to be a part of our community, regardless of their level of engagement.

Anyone who contributes financially with the intent of contributing regularly is a "Supporter" of the FSFE. The Council may set a minimum threshold for a regular contribution to account for transaction costs. Financially, our Supporters provide the solid foundation on which the FSFE stands: their regular financial contributions give stability to the organisation. We call our one-time contributors "Donors".

We encourage everyone who wants to be part of our activities to join one of our teams: either a topical team (as a translator, webmaster, or similar) or a geographical team (the Berlin team, the Nordic team, and so on). By joining one of our teams they become a "Team Member" of that team (system-hackers team member, translation team member).

EIF v.3 – citizens demand more Free Software, while businesses seek to promote true Open Standards

The European Commission (EC) has finally published the summary of the contributions received for its public consultation on the revision of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), a set of guidelines for public administrations to deliver their e-government services. The FSFE has previously submitted its comments and recommendations on the proposed draft. According to the results of the public consulation, the majority of respondents amongst citizens asked for more Free Software and Open Standards when revising the EIF, whilst respondents amongst businesses and private organisations asked the EC to "promote the use of (true) open standards and support of standards in new technologies". We hope the EC will follow the wishes of EU citizens and implement these recommendations in the revised EIF.

From the community

André Ockers wrote about his participation in the first FSFE Summit and 15th anniversary celebration, as well as Guido Arnold, who also blogged about his experience at the FSFE summit.

Björn Schießle blogs about the History and Future of Cloud Federation where he explains the concept of server-to-server sharing in Owncloud/Nextcloud and its development to a "federated cloud ID", which looks similar to an email address. Like email, "federated cloud" refers to a user on a specific server.

Are you interested in real-time communications? Daniel Pocock encourages you to become a speaker and participate at FOSDEM 2017, one of the world's biggest conferences addressing Free Software developers in particular.

Iain R. Learmonth presents PATHspider 1.0.0 and highlights the changes that have been incorporated to the latest version of this framework for performing and analysing existing network impairments.

David Boddie gives you a step-by-step explanation on how to build disk images for the operating system Inferno.

What else have we done?

The FSFE's current Vice-president Alessandro Rubini stepped down to focus on his work with the Free Software community in Italy. Taking over from Alessandro is Heiki Lõhmus, a student of aeronautical engineering from Estonia. Alessandro Rubini is a long time advocate of Free Software: as the FSFE's Vice-president, he has contributed with invaluable efforts to push for Free Software, not only in Italy but all over Europe. Heiki Lõhmus has actively lobbied the Estonian government to publish the software used for the Estonian elections as Free Software and now receives the baton for Vice-president of FSFE to carry on Alessandro’s excellent work.

The FSFE sent three recommendations for actions to foster the use and implementation of Free Software (in German) to the new government that is currently being formed in the state of Berlin.

The local FSFE group in Rhein/Main was present at a street festival (Rotlintstraßenfest) in Frankfurt to promote the FSFE and explain and inform the people about Free Software.

The system hackers have decided to decommission our (very) old pad service. They invite anyone who's interested in the FSFE offering a pad service to get in touch to setup a new team which can create a new pad service.

From October 24 to 27, the FSFE's President Matthias Kirschner and the FSFE's Policy analyst Polina Malaja participated in several community events in Greece. They gave talks in the National Technical University of Athens, in the Athens Hackerspace (in Greek) and in the National Hellenic Reseach Foundation (in Greek).

On October 4-6, the FSFE participated with a booth in the LinuxCon + ContainerCon Europe 2016, which took place in Berlin.

The "FreieSoftwareOG" represented the FSFE with a booth in Offenburg (in German).

Take action!

Please read the proposal for the Fellowship brand above and send your comments or thoughts to contact@fsfe.org.

Good Free Software News

The public procurement authority of the French state renewed its two contracts for free software support services provided for ministries and other governmental agencies. Both contracts were awarded to the French free software services provider Linagora and were originally initiated in 2012. More good news from France and the city of Nantes, where the switch to LibreOffice last April has lowered the IT costs by EUR 1.6 million and will keep saving the public administration EUR 260 000 per year.

The FSFE in the Press netzpolitik.org [DE] Berliner Koalitionsverhandlungen als Chance für Freie Software. netzpolitik.org [DE] Urheberrecht: USA erlaubt Tüfteln an eigenen Geräten. PCMAG [EL], The President of the FSFE in Athens. Business news [EL], GFOSS: Talks about Free Software. Greek Union of Computer Engineers [EL], Free Software Day with the FSFE President Matthias Kirschner. epixeiro.gr [EL], Free Software, Open Access and Enterpreuneship Day. Help us to improve our newsletter

Do you think we have missed some news, or you'd like specific news to appear in the next newsletter? You have been reading about the FSFE in the press and would like to share this with us? For this and any other feedback, please share it by writing to newsletter@fsfeurope.org

Thanks to all the volunteers, Fellows and corporate donors who enable our work,

your editors Erik Albers, Olga Gkotsopoulou, Jonas Öberg and Polina Malaja, FSFE

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Heiki Lõhmus takes over FSFE vice-presidency from Alessandro Rubini

Alessandro Rubini has stepped down as Vice-president of the FSFE. Alessandro, an electronic engineer with Ph. D. in a computer science, brought invaluable insight to the internal discussions within the FSFE and has worked tirelessly to push the Free Software envelope in Italy and the rest of Europe.

Alessandro has left the vice-presidency to concentrate on his work with the Free Software community in Italy, but he remains an active member of the FSFE and continues contributing his time generously to the organisation.

Taking over from Alessandro is Heiki Lõhmus, a student of aeronautical engineering from Estonia. Heiki started collaborating with the FSFE when he "discovered some Estonian-language gibberish on fsfe.org purporting to be a translation of an English original, which it definitely was not". He quickly became involved in the translation process and became the translation coordinator.  

He also represented the FSFE community in its board from 2013 to 2015. During his time in the post, he managed the transition to a new way of valuing contributions, ensuring volunteers and paying members of the organisation enjoy the same benefits for their contributions.

Beyond his work at the FSFE, Heiki has actively lobbied the Estonian government to publish the software used for the Estonian elections as Free Software. "Estonia is the only country in the world where it is possible to vote over the Internet" says Heiki, and relying on proprietary software to do so is a security risk and does not inspire much trust. Heiki works along with other activists to get the software published under a free license.

Heiki is an enthusiastic member of the FSFE and we are sure he will carry on Alessandro's excellent work.

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Berliner Wahlversprechen umsetzen und Freie Software im Koalitionsvertrag verankern

In dieser Woche steht das Thema Netzpolitik auf dem Programm der aktuellen Koalitionsverhandlungen in Berlin. Die Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) fordert die Koalitionäre dabei auf, die in ihren Wahlprogrammen und bei den Wahlprüfsteinen der "Koalition Freies Wissen" gemachten Versprechungen im Koalitionsvertrag zu verankern und Berlin damit zu einem europäischen Vorreiter in Freier Software zu machen. Dazu gibt die FSFE drei konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen.

"Berlin hat sich in den letzten Jahren in der IT-Branche zu einem wichtigen internationalen Standort entwickelt. Wenn Berlin dieses Know-How weiter bündeln will, wird es höchste Zeit, dass sich diese Ambition auch in einer fortschrittlichen Hauptstadtpolitik widerspiegelt", so Erik Albers von der FSFE. "Dazu hat die sich formierende Koalition tatsächlich beste Chancen, da sie in wesentlichen Punkten zur Förderung und Verwendung Freier Software und offener Standards übereinstimmen."

Um die koalierenden Parteien an ihre Gemeinsamkeiten und Chancen zu erinnern, versendet die FSFE heute drei konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen an die derzeitigen Koalitionäre von SPD, Die Grünen und Die Linke:

Eigenentwicklungen des Landes Berlin sowie in Auftrag gegebene Software unter einer freien Lizenz veröffentlichen. Entwicklung einer langfristigen Strategie, um die Verwaltung Berlins auf Freie Software umzustellen. Die Förderung des Einsatzes von Open Educational Resources (OER) und Freier Software in den öffentlichen Bildungseinrichtungen Berlins.

Diese drei Handlungsempfehlungen sind direkt aus den von den Parteien fomulierten Zielen vor der Wahl abgeleitet und in ihrer Übereinstimmung zusammengeführt. Grundlage dazu sind die Wahlprogramme sowie die Antworten auf die Wahlprüfsteine der "Koalition Freies Wissen".

SPD, Die Grünen und Die Linke sind sich einig, dass von der öffentlichen Hand beauftragte und finanzierte Software grundsätzlich unter einer freien Lizenz veröffentlicht werden soll. Die SPD hatte bereits in ihrem Parteitag 2012 formuliert, dass „Neue Software-Lösungen, welche für die Berliner Verwaltung eigens entwickelt werden, sollen dann auf freien Lizenzen aufbauen“. Die Linke stellt in ihrer Antwort auf unsere Wahlprüfsteine klar, dass "für alle zukünftigen Beschaffungen wollen wir auf die Nutzung freier Software drängen.". Und auch Die Grünen antworten, dass "Softwareentwicklungen von und für Behörden stets mit Quellcode unter einer freien Lizenz veröffentlicht werden [sollen], damit alle von ihnen profitieren und sie einfach weiterentwickelt werden können".

"Zu einer zukunftsweisenden IT-Strategie gehört, dass das Land Berlin fortan sowohl Eigenentwicklungen als auch Auftragsarbeiten unter freier Lizenz veröffentlicht. Wir fordern die sich bildende Regierung auf, so bald wie möglich die rechtliche Grundlage dafür zu schaffen und geeignete Vorgaben zu machen." sagt Erik Albers von der FSFE. "Zugleich ermutigt die FSFE die neue Koalition dazu mit gutem Beispiel voran zu gehen und erste Freie-Software-Projekte umzusetzen. Die Softwarelösung für das Berliner Haushalts-, Kassen- und Rechnungswesen bietet sich dafür exemplarisch an. Die FSFE unterstützt dabei gerne mit fachlicher Expertise."

Außerdem sind sich die koalierenden Parteien einig, dass die Verwaltung Berlins auf Freie Software umgestellt werden soll. Die SPD hatte wiederum auf ihrem Landesparteitag 2012 bereits „das langfristige Ziel" beschlossen, "eine Umstellung auf freier Open Source Software für die Verwaltung durchzuführen, wie sie beispielsweise die Stadt München seit nun mehr zehn Jahren erfolgreich betreibt“. Die Grünen versprechen in ihrem Wahlprogramm, „den Einsatz von offener und freier Software sowie ressourcenschonender Informationstechnik (Green IT) bei hoher IT-Sicherheit zum Standard" zu machen und Die Linke fordert in ihrem Wahlprogramm, "die öffentliche Verwaltung soll auf Open Source Software umgestellt werden".

Schließlich empfiehlt die FSFE der entstehenden Koalition ihre Übereinstimmung in der Förderung von Open Educational Resources dazu zu nutzen, von Beginn an eine nachhaltige Strategie zu verfolgen und die Verbreitung von OER mit der Verwendung Freier Software zu verknüpfen. Beides muss zusammen gedacht werden, wie das Bündnis Freie Bildung in ihrem Positionspapier deutlich herausarbeitet.

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From December 27 to 30, the FSFE will host an assembly during the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress (33C3) including an information booth, self-organised sessions and a meeting point for all friends of Free Software to come together, share or simply relax. We are looking forward to organise sessions in the name of our assembly and we will book proper rooms or offer our assembly itself. Sessions can be inspiring talks, hands-on workshops, community/developer/strategy meetings or any other public, informative or collaborative activity. Topics can be anything that is about or related to Free Software. We welcome technical sessions but we also encourage to give non-technical talks that address philosophical, economical or other aspects of/about Free Software. We also like sessions about related subjects that have a clear connection to Free Software for example privacy, data protection, sustainability and similar topics. Finally, we welcome all backgrounds – from your private project to global community projects. If you are interested, read more about our call for participation.

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FSFE Newsletter - October 2016Words from your editors

After some changes to the FSFE's internship program in early September, we're happy to be able to announce an opening for a technical intern with the FSFE. We're seeking an intern who can work with us for three months in our Berlin office, learning about Free Software and the FSFE, while at the same time contributing to rewriting parts of our technical infrastructure.

In the coming months, we'll announce more internship opportunities and a good way to get to know about them is to read this newsletter regularly. Be sure to check out our section on taking action below for some news about our merchandise sale and information material (we'd love to send you more, if you've run out!).

The Summit

We're still not over how cool it was to see so many from our community join the FSFE Summit in September. It was a good experience and we're keen to repeat it. One of the highlights was the ending keynote where Julia Reda called out proprietary software as a threat to democracy. Be sure to view the keynote and some of the other talks from the Summit, either on our YouTube channel, or from our download server where you can get the available videos in webm format.

We also celebrated the FSFE's 15th birthday in C-Base with a ceremony where we honored many of our local heroes from around Europe. C-Base has kindly provided a recording of the ceremony if you're interested in hearing the story of some of our heroes, all of whom you can find working in one of the FSFE's teams today.

Are you our next technical intern?

As mentioned, we are looking for a technical intern to join our team for three months, taking part in rewriting and implementing a new account management system. This internship is based in Berlin, starting the 1st of January 2017 or as otherwise agreed. It's compensated with a basic salary, the details of which you can read together with other information in our call for a technical intern. We look forward to seeing your application!

From the community

David Boddie described the experiences he had exploring alternative operating systems and in particular, Inferno.

Michał ‘mina86’ Nazarewicz offered a handful of useful Python tricks and tips

Jonas Öberg blogged about code availability, or code contributions and introduced the changes to the FSFE internship program. Subscribe to our newsletter, if you haven't done already, in order to receive the latest news about all the open internship vacancies in the FSFE!

Elena "of Valhalla" explains the differences between accepting candy from strangers and using gratis software from random sources.

Polina Malaja blogged about the challenges of the EU Copyright reform.

Florian Snow shared his memories from the 3 days of the FSFE Summit in Berlin, inside and outside the BCC.

Other news

Matthew Garrett, board member of the FSF, wrote an article stressing the necessity of full user control over Internet-connected devices, outlining some necessary practices for IoT.

What else have we done?

Polina Malaja, FSFE's policy analyst and legal coordinator, together with the FSFE's legal counsel Carlo Piana, participated in a workshop on the interactions of Free Software and standardisation, organised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in Sophia-Antipolis, France. During the workshop, they worked to push for adoption of strong copyleft licenses and to resolve some of the tensions around patents.

Continuing the practice of being present in events organised by other communities, the FSFE was present with an Info-booth at the Rotlintstraßenfest in Frankfurt am Main. A big thanks to the Fellowship group Rhine/Main for making this possible!

Take action! We have recently collected, sorted and taken stock of some leftovers of the merchandise we had in previous years, and we've put these items online. For most of the older items, we only have a few available, so this is your chance to order some vintage FSFE merchandise at a reduced price (look out for the red numbers!) If you're starting to run out of informational material about free software, now may also be a good opportunity to get some more. Order some stickers, posters and flyers from our promotional material page and we'll get them to you as soon as possible so you can help us spread them around your company, your school, the local library, at events, or anywhere else where you feel people should know about free software. If you're not already a Fellow of the FSFE, you should consider joining. Our work wouldn't be possible without the contribution of our Fellows and volunteers! The FSFE in the Press [DE] by Patrick Beuth, Zeit Online, HP sabotages its own customers [DE] by Stefan Krempl, Heise, Free Software Summit: Campaign for "Public Software" in Public Administrations

Thanks to all the volunteers, Fellows and corporate donors who enable our work,

Your editors, Jonas Öberg and Olga Gkotsopoulou FSFE

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