Free software activists and allies are fighting for net neutrality rules country by country, and we've had important victories in the US and India during the last year and a half.

Now Europeans are fighting for the same rights. The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) has followed the US and India by releasing draft net neutrality protections that would cover all countries in the EU. But they've left huge holes allowing some instances of neutrality-violating known as zero-rating (allowing access to certain sites or applications without affecting a customer's allotted data usage) and traffic throttling (intentionally slowing Internet service). Thankfully, we have a chance to fix this: BEREC has asked the public, along with industry leaders and entrepreneurs, to give feedback on its draft rules.

BEREC accepts comments from everyone, not just Europeans. Even if you don't live in Europe, it's important for the global free software community to take action in solidarity with Europeans; winning net neutrality there will set an important precedent.

Wherever you live, submit a comment now, demanding strong Net Neutrality protections for Europe. You can use the submission form created by our allies at savenetneutrality.eu. The form does not depend on proprietary JavaScript to work, but if you'd prefer to use email, you can send your comment to NN-Consultation@berec.europa.eu instead.

Do you administer a Web site or keep a blog? If so, we encourage you to join savenetneutrality.eu's symbolic "slowdown" by adding a loading icon that simulates an Internet slow lane in a future without net neutrality.*

Net neutrality is important to maintain free speech and a healthy economy on the Internet. But it's also crucial for free software's continued growth and success. Here's why:

Media distribution giants that use Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and proprietary software to control what's on your computer have also been fighting to control the network. Without net neutrality, DRM-laden materials could be easier to access, while DRM-free competitors could be stuck in the slow lane. Web-based free software projects like GNU MediaGoblin could also suffer the slow treatment while competitors like YouTube shell out big bucks for speedier service. The bottom line -- an Internet where the most powerful interests can pay for speed advantages could push free software projects off the map and make it harder for decentralized projects to flourish. That's not good for free software, and it's not good for other innovative voices for change in the digital world.

Tell BEREC now: Europe needs real net neutrality.

^* We recommend the animated gif version at the bottom of the page. As of the time of writing, the JavaScript version is freely licensed, but it does not work with LibreJS, so it is less friendly to those committed to preserving their freedom and security online. Don't know what we're talking about? Learn more about our Free JavaScript campaign and the LibreJS browser extension.

Participate in supporting the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

Our samples are usually about sixty to seventy respondents, and self-selecting -- from their responses, we can say with confidence that LibrePlanet attendees feel we're doing a decent job organizing the conference. The questions "How much did you enjoy the sessions you attended, compared to those at other conferences you have attended?" and "How likely is it that you will return to LibrePlanet next year?" received an average of about 3.5 out of 4 each of the last three years.

Here are some more takeaways:

• Many LibrePlaneters want a quieter space where they can socialize and hack after the conference programming ends for the day. We organize parties after sessions wrap up, and will continue to do so, but parties aren't everyone's cup of tea. We're exploring ways to provide a comfortable, after-hours space in future years.

• Our community tends to prefer that the sessions start at 9:45, not earlier. 9:45 is a little on the late side for a conference, but many attendees like to stay up late hacking, and need their sleep.

• We have many newcomers each year at LibrePlanet -- about half of survey respondents say they are attending for the first time. Newcomers seems to have a good experience. About two-thirds of respondents answer yes to "If you are a beginner or intermediate hacker, did you find enough activities to match your skill level?" This is encouraging: one of the conference's core purposes is to provide a welcoming stepping-stone to our community.

• It's important to have more coffee than we think we need. In years when we run out early, we hear about it on the survey.

Designing a good survey takes practice and, yes, people to give feedback on the survey's design. Though we keep a few core questions the same year-to-year, we adjust each survey based on things we've learned, like:

• Don't use two-part or "double-barreled" questions. For example, one year, we tried to refine the question "If you are a beginner or intermediate hacker, did you find enough activities to match your skill level?" by rephrasing it as "Are you a newcomer to the free software community? If so, did you find enough sessions that were accessible and engaging for you?" Some people responded to the first part of that compound question, and some responded to the second part, making the results not very useful.

• The survey has a subtler, secondary purpose: It shows attendees that we care about the LibrePlanet experience, and gives them a space to reflect on it. Easy access to the survey -- online and on paper -- helps achieve this.

It's important to us to make LibrePlanet better every year, and we appreciate your help. The community doesn't just provide feedback -- we do the planning, but you supply presentations, hallway conversations, and new projects to discuss each year.

We are working to finalize the dates for LibrePlanet 2017. Join the LibrePlanet announcements list on the conference site to receive updates. In the meantime, you can:

• Watch recordings of the 2016 sessions.

• Help us bring new people to the conference by making a donation to the scholarship fund.

• Participate in the year-round LibrePlanet community on the libreplanet-discuss mailing list and the #libreplanet Freenode IRC channel.

We hope to see you at LibrePlanet 2017!

You are invited to the 2016 GNU Hackers' Meeting, which will take place in Rennes, Brittany, France, August 18-20, 2016 and is hosted by Inria (map).

The GNU Hackers' Meeting is a friendly, semi-formal forum to discuss technical, social, and organizational issues concerning free software and GNU. This is a great opportunity to meet GNU maintainers and active contributors. This meeting will feature:

• a dinner on the evening of the 17th,
• public talks on the 18th and 19th,
• an exploration of Brittany during the day on the 20th, followed by a GNU maintainers-only session in the evening.

The call for participation is open now. You are encouraged to submit proposals for GNU-ish presentations, including title, abstract, and duration of sesion to ghm2016@gnunet.org.

To register, follow these instructions.

You will find full details on the meeting, including a detailed schedule TBA, here.

Join the FSF and friends Friday, June 17th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

Participate in supporting the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.