Every week, free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. We had an exciting month working on the Directory with our wonderful stable of volunteers. These folks show up week in and week out to improve the Directory. It's also important to note the valiant efforts of those volunteers who can't make an appearance at the meeting proper, but still plug away at Directory entries during the week.

This month saw our backlog of entries reduced by 75%, but the big news is that the Directory welcomes, and is lucky to have David_Hedlund as a Directory intern this summer.

One area that will see improvement is the introduction of a dedicated and tailored IRC bot addressing the specific needs of the Directory. This will better highlight the Directory meetings both before and during. Work is also going to be done this summer on the entry import scripts, which among other things allow for the importing of full repositories into the Directory.

If you would like to help update the Directory, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).

We've had great success with the United States Senate voting in support of net neutrality! Congratulations and thank you to everyone in the US for contacting your congresspeople, and all of you who helped spread the word.

However, it's not over yet. Here are more actions you can take if you're in the United States.

Now that the (CRA) has passed the Senate, it moves to the House of Representatives. Just as we asked you to call your senators, now it's time to call your House representatives. Find their contact info here and use the script below to ask them to support the reinstatement of net neutrality protections.

The timing hasn't been set for future votes and hearings yet, but that's no reason to wait: make sure your representatives know how you feel.

Looking for a sample script?

Hello,

I live in CITY/STATE. I am calling to urge you to support net neutrality.

I hope REPRESENTATIVE will do the right thing and vote for the CRA to overturn the FCC's repeal of net neutrality protections.

Thank you for your time.

Want some bonus points?

If your senator voted in support of the CRA, call and thank them for their work. (See a list of senators and their votes here.)

• Call your senator directly. Find their number here.

• Or, dial the Senate at (202) 224-3121 and they will connect you.

We'll be updating you as things develop.

Share on social media!

Tell your friends by sharing on social media! Use the hashtags netneutrality and freesoftware.

Net neutrality in the US is a global issue

Even if you don't live in the US, what happens with net neutrality here still matters to you.

When companies -- and free software projects -- within the US are burdened by extra fees being charged by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), everyone in the world loses access to these pages and services. For example, blocking VoIP services in one country affects communication at a global scale. Access to the tools we use to build, download, and share free software are at risk when net neutrality is no longer there to protect them -- and users -- from ISPs controlling access to those sites.

Read these posts by the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Want to know even more? Check out these posts from the FSF.

• It's not over! Take action for net neutrality today!
• OneMoreVote is needed to save net neutrality Free software needs net neutrality! This is our LAST CHANCE to save it
• Protect software freedom: Support net neutrality

Looking for more ways to support digital rights? Consider becoming an [FSF member][12] today!

• artanis-1.2.5
• emms-5.0
• fontopia-1.8.4
• freeipmi-1.6.2
• gama-2.00
• gcc-8.1.0
• gnudos-1.11.4
• gnupg-2.2.7
• gnurl-7.60.0
• guile-cv-0.1.9
• libidn2-2.0.5
• librejs-7.14.1
• linux-libre-4.16.11-gnu
• mcsim-6.0.1
• nano-2.9.7
• octave-4.4.0
• parallel-20180522
• wget-1.19.5

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the URL https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to us at maintainers@gnu.org with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. Every Friday we meet on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

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.

When a user comes to the Directory, they know that everything in it is free software, has only free dependencies, and runs on a free OS. With over 16,000 entries, it is a massive repository of information about free software.

While the Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world for many years now, it has the potential to be a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help! And since it's a MediaWiki instance, it's easy for anyone to edit and contribute to the Directory.

40 years ago, American management consultant Marilyn Loden first coined the term "glass ceiling" to describe invisible career barriers for women at a panel discussion. Despite the passing of two generations, Loden notes that the matter is still very alive, which readily displays how insidious a problem we have. To honor Loden's contribution, this week's theme for the Directory meetup is business software.

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 Directory Meeting pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting. To see the meeting start time in your time zone, run this in GNU bash: date --date='TZ="America/New_York" 12:00 this Fri'

Help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. Every Friday we meet on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

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.

When a user comes to the Directory, they know that everything in it is free software, has only free dependencies, and runs on a free OS. With over 16,000 entries, it is a massive repository of information about free software.

While the Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world for many years now, it has the potential to be a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help! And since it's a MediaWiki instance, it's easy for anyone to edit and contribute to the Directory.

During this week in 1928, Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in the cartoon Plane Crazy. However, his first appearance before the public was officially in the short Steamboat Willie, since it was released first. 70 years later, Mickey became infamous in a new way: as the derisive namesake of the US Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998, which extended, and thereby harmonized the US and EU length of copyright.

To honor this dubious milestone, the theme of the Directory meeting is graphics and drawing software. One immediate item that needs a refresh is GIMP. The other big drawing projects could be helped by adding screenshots and updating the entries. Of course, if you know of any projects that aren't listed, we hope you will take the time to add them to the Directory.

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 Directory Meeting pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting. To see the meeting start time in your time zone, run this in GNU bash: date --date='TZ="America/New_York" 12:00 this Fri'