Free Software Foundation Europe

"Software freedom in Europe" is the yearly report of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). In one document, it gives you a breakdown of important things the FSFE has done and achieved during the last 12 months. In the 2018 report, you will read about our electoral campaigns, our input on the European Union's copyright reform, and about our successful outreach in demanding publicly financed software be made publicly available under a Free Software licence. You will also get insights about the events we (co-)organised and about our community and groups that helped us with these achievements. Finally, we will display some numbers showing what resources we counted on, and giving an outlook for the next year.

In the context of the 35th Chaos Communication Congress happening from December 27th to 30th in Leipzig, the FSFE is happy to host an assembly again, acting as an information booth and a meeting point for our friends and all friends of Free Software. As in previous editions, we offer attention and a stage for self-organised sessions by and for our community, and this is our call for participation.

In October Microsoft took a big step concerning its software patents by joining the LOT Network (LOT stands for "License on Transfer") and the Open Invention Network (OIN). This is a clear sign of progress on the long road to handing control of technology to the people, and the FSFE encourages Microsoft to take additional steps in this direction.

De Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) heeft voorafgaand aan de komende verkiezing voor de Landdag in Hessen met behulp van een "Digital-O-Mat" de posities van de partijen ten aanzien van Vrije Software onder de loep genomen. Opvallend zijn met name de zwaarwegende verschillen tussen de huidige coalitiepartners. Terwijl de CDU zich voor de status quo uitspreekt presenteert Bündnis 90/Die Grünen zich als ondersteuner van Vrije Software en spreekt zich expliciet uit voor het door de FSFE gepropageerde grondbeginsel "Publiek Geld, Publieke Code!" van de gelijknamige campagne uit.

Oskari is a Free Software platform for browsing, sharing and analysing geographic information from distributed data sources. Its development is coordinated by the National Land Survey of Finland and is organised through the Oskari network with over 38 organisations from both the public and private sector. Oskari was awarded second prize in the cross-border category of the European Commission's Sharing and Reuse Awards Contest 2017 and is currently going through incubation phase to become an official Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) Project. To shed light on best practices regarding Free Software developed by public funds, we have conducted an interview with Timo Aarnio, GIS Expert at the National Land Survey of Finland’s SDI Services department.