News
News Archive for 2017
The FSFE empowers users to control technology with its diverse activities and concrete engagement for
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19 December 2017 –
The REUSE Initiative has received an updated set of practices that simplify
the process of declaring copyright and licence information. To help
facilitate developers with updating their projects, the FSFE has also
published a tool that verifies whether a project is compliant.
12 December 2017 – Max Mehl
For more than two years the Free Software
Foundation Europe has worked on the issue of Radio Lockdown introduced by a
European directive which may hinder users to load software on their
radio devices like mobile phones, laptops and routers. We have informed
the public and talked to decision makers to fix critical points of the
directive. There is still much to do to protect freedom and IT security
in our radio devices. Read about the latest proceedings and the next
steps.
11 December 2017 –
Wear this t-shirt as an icebreaker to explain binary counting and Free Software
to your friends—and look good doing it!
07 December 2017
The yearly report of the Free Software Foundation Europe gives you a breakdown
in one document of important things we have done and achieved during the last 12
months. Read on to find out about our activities, the campaigns we have run, the
events we have visited or organised, the groups we have helped, and what
resources we counted on to do it.
06 December 2017 –
The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
released the source code and documentation of Basisregistratie Personen (BRP), a
100M€ IT system that registers information about inhabitants within the
Netherlands. This comes as a great success for Public Code, and the FSFE
applauds the Dutch government's shift to Free Software.
30 November 2017 – Polina Malaja
A new copyright proposal is currently discussed by the EU co-legislators. Part of this proposal is Article 13 which can hamper our ability to collaborate with each other online as it imposes new monitoring obligations and installation of arbitrary upload filters on every code hosting and sharing provider. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) today raises its voice to save code sharing and joins 80 other organisations in an open letter towards the EU Council.
16 November 2017 – Jonas Öberg
Earlier this year, after a public consultation, we took the decision to
change the name of our supporter program, the Fellowship of the FSFE,
and talk about our supporters by their true name: Supporters. This
is an exciting change for us, as it brings our Supporters much closer
to the organisation, by making them an integral part of the FSFE. Today,
with the change almost complete, we're also taking the opportunity to
say goodbye to the Fellowship Smartcard, which has been a part of
FSFE life for more than ten years.
14 November 2017 – Jonas Öberg
FSFE is a charity dedicated to empowering users to control technology.
We are working to build freedom in digital society. We operate in a lively
environment with volunteers from many countries. We are looking for
students who can join our team in Berlin for three months or more as a
mandatory part of their studies or before graduation.
14 November 2017 – Jonas Öberg
FSFE is a charity dedicated to keeping the power over technology in your hands. We are working to build freedom in a digital society and operate in a lively environment with volunteers from many countries. We are looking for an assistance supporting the office manager with for instance:
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09 November 2017
On 6 October, 32 European Ministers in charge of eGovernment
policy signed the Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment that calls for more
collaboration, interoperable solutions, and sharing of good practices
throughout public administrations and across borders. Amongst other things,
the EU ministers recognised the need to make more use of Free Software
solutions and Open Standards when (re)building governmental digital
systems with EU funds.
08 November 2017 – Jonas Öberg
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is proud to release its next version of our REUSE practices designed to make computers understand software copyrights and licenses.
07 November 2017 – Erik Albers
The members of the Free Software Foundation Europe held their General Assembly on October 15 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The annual meeting is held to discuss strategies for the upcoming year and set the course for the overall direction of the organisation. Amongst other things an overall Code of Conduct for the FSFE was adopted, Patrick Ohnewein was elected as the new Financial Officer, and six new members joined the association.
24 October 2017 – Erik Albers
From December 27 to 30, the 34th Chaos Communication Congress will be held in Leipzig. As in recent years, the FSFE is happy to host an assembly that includes an information booth and a meeting point for all Free Software enthusiasts and our friends to come together. We offer a stage and look for interesting self-organised sessions for our community. This is the corresponding call for participation.
13 October 2017
The FSFE and ContributorAgreements.org proudly present
the revised and updated Fiduciary Licence Agreement
2.0 (FLA-2.0) - a next-generation contributor agreement that makes sure
the contributed software always remains Free Software.
05 October 2017 – Polina Malaja
The FSFE, together with Open Forum Europe, asks the
EU policymakers to Save Code Share in the current on-going EU Copyright review.
Today we ask you to support our newest campaign Save Code Share
by signing an Open Letter
addressed to the EU policymakers.In this letter we request EU legislators
to preserve the ability to collaboratively build software online in current
EU Copyright Directive proposal.
13 September 2017
Digital services offered and used by public
administrations are the critical infrastructure of 21st-century
democratic nations. To establish trustworthy systems, government
agencies must ensure they have full control over systems at the core
of our digital infrastructure. This is rarely the case today due to
restrictive software licences.
11 September 2017 – Jonas Öberg, Kristi Progri
Our world is constantly changing, as are people's thoughts and perceptions. Since its founding in 2001, individuals engaged in the FSFE, from coordinators and volunteers to full-time employees, have come to develop their understanding of what FSFE is and what our shared values are. Sometimes the views expressed by individuals have been similar to one another, sometimes they have diverged.
08 September 2017
The FSFE and Open Forum Europe teamed up for an initiative
to show the implications of the proposed EU copyright reform for the
Free Software development ecosystem: Save Code Share.
As part of this initiative, today we release our White Paper which
highlights the ways in which the proposed Article 13 could unintentionally
harm the communities and the businesses built around Free Software.
06 September 2017 – Jonas Öberg
The FSFE launches today its best practises in licensing for Free and Open Source Software project. Targeted at developers and companies, these best practices show you how to make it clear to others what license your software is being distributed under, in a way which both computers and humans can understand.
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29 August 2017 – Erik Albers
Although digital issues are becoming increasingly important, general election coverage often miss them out. That is why the "Koalition Freies Wissen" ("Free Knowledge Coalition") created the "Digital-O-Mat", an online tool for voter information for the German federal election of 2017. The FSFE asked the participating parties about their positions on Free Software. CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP avoid clear statements and thus confirm the status quo, the Greens and the Left in contrast present themselves as supporters of Free Software.
11 August 2017 – Jonas Öberg
FSFE is a charity dedicated to keeping the power over technology in your
hands. We are working to build freedom in a digital society and operate
in a lively environment with volunteers from many countries. We are
looking for an intern to join our remote team for three to six months,
working with us on a project which seek to prepare the organisation
for the next 15 years of work.
26 July 2017
Check out our brand-new merchandise item for little Free Software supporters in our online shop: 100% organic and fair trade bibs. The slogan "I am a fork" is stitched onto the bib so that it will remain on the bib even after many wash cycles.
10 July 2017 – Polina Malaja
The FSFE submitted its comments for the upcoming
Tallinn Declaration for e-government drafted by the Estonian presidency
of the Council of the EU. Therein the FSFE asks the current Estonian
presidency to promote greater inclusion of Free Software in delivering
truly inclusive, trustworthy and interoperable digital services to all
citizens and businesses across the EU. The Tallinn Declaration will be
signed by EU ministers in October 2017, expressing member states' joint
vision for e-government and political commitment to follow the goals set.
The proposal for Tallinn declaration is open for public comments until 14 July.
The FSFE is asking organisations, companies, and individuals to let EU
ministers know how Free Software is important for transparent and accountable
e-government.
19 June 2017 – Polina Malaja
In April, the FSFE organised its annual
Free
Software Legal and Licensing Workshop (LLW): a meeting point for
legal experts from all over the world to discuss issues and best practices
surrounding Free Software licences. This year marks the 10th anniversary
of the LLW which was celebrated with the record number of participants:
120 top legal experts and technologists came all the way down to Barcelona
(Spain) to spend 3 full days discussing legal challenges around Free Software.
16 June 2017 – Max Mehl
Condividere le proprie conoscenze è un principio fondamentale nel movimento del
Software Libero, la collaborazione è un altro. Da oggi FSFE mette a disposizione dei propri sostenitori e volontari registrati una
una piattaforma per creare e gestire repository Git tramite una comoda
interfaccia web: git.fsfe.org.
13 June 2017 – Polina Malaja
The revised "new"
European Interoperability Framework (EIF),
adopted by the European Commission on 23 March 2017, gives specific guidance
on how to set up interoperable digital public services, and offers public
administrations concrete recommendations on how to improve interoperability
of their e-services.
25 April 2017 – Erik Albers
… Daniel Pocock! The election period for this year's Fellowship GA seat has ended on April 24, 2017. FSFE is proud to have such an interested and active community to have had seven outstanding candidates who were running for office this time. Now, Daniel Pocock is happy to take over the GA's Fellowship seat from former representative Nicolas Dietrich.
19 April 2017 – Erik Albers
North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populated state which is having its next general elections on May 14, 2017. For this election, a "coalition of Free knowledge" developed for the first time a
"Digital-o-Mat". The "Digital-o-Mat" is a tool to help those voters who are concerned about digital rights and freedoms, to decide about which party to vote for. Therefor, eight questions guide any user to choose his own preferences on important topics about the digital society - like questions about the use of Free Software, Open Data or Open Educational Resources. After filling them out, a user will see which party matches best with his own preferences and he can additionally browse detailed explanations on the party's positions.
29 March 2017
According to our constitution, two seats in the General Assembly are reserved for elected representatives of our Fellows. They serve two-year terms and one seat is up for re-election every year. The current representatives are Nicolas Dietrich and Mirko Boehm; Nicolas's term is coming to an end and his seat will be up for re-election this April.
The election period runs from April 10 to April 24, 2017, with eight candidates eligible for election. The list of candidates, along with their manifestos and background, can be found at the election wiki page.
In addition, a moderated hustings will be held on March 30, 5:30 PM UTC to 7:30 PM UTC in #fsfe at irc.freenode.net. Detailed schedule and instructions may be found at the election wiki page.
All orderly Fellows eligible to vote will also receive detailed voting instructions by e-mail in due course.
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28 March 2017
Today the civil society "working group OGP (Open
Government Partnership) Germany" (Arbeitskreis OGP Deutschland) published its
input for a German OGP action plan. The goal of the Open Government actions
is to increase transparency, citizen friendlyness, reporting, and
effectiveness of governments and administrations. The input, which was
already handed over to the German Government on 20 March, consists of 30 Open
Government topics, including a section about Free Software.
15 March 2017
On Tuesday 14th of February, the "I Love Free
Software" day was celebrated for its eighth consecutive year, in what
can now be called a tradition. This day has become a special day for
people all around the world to declare their love and affection not
only to their partner but also to the whole Free Software
community.
02 March 2017
Today FSFE Netherlands, NLnet, ISPConnect, and Open
Source & Overheid launch Freedomvote.nl to help inform voters in
the upcoming Dutch general election, which is held on 15 March 2017.
Freedomvote.nl provides guidance to voters on the topic of digital freedom,
based on eight questions.
01 March 2017 – Björn Schießle
On 15 February 2017, the city council of Munich, Germany convened
to discuss the future of their LiMux project. In its public
session, the plenary voted to have the city administration develop
a strategy to unify client-side IT architecture, building atop a
yet-to-be-developed "Windows-Basis-Client". A translation of the
complete decision is included further down.
14 February 2017
In celebration of the "I love Free Software" day on
February 14, the Berlin Reichtag has been illuminated with the message
"Give Free Software A Chance" last weekend. On numerous buildings and
symbolic places in Berlin other messages have been projected. "Build
Free Software - Not Walls" could have been read on the Berlin Wall, and
the Federal Ministry of Finances has been decorated by the slogan
"Public Money, Public Code". Thereby, activists draw attention to the
importance of larger appreciation of Free Software.
14 February 2017 – Polina Malaja
Building on the experience from last year's successful
pre-FOSDEM meeting, the Free
Software Foundation Europe and OpenForum Europe recently
continued the tradition of bringing together active Free Software groups
a day before the FOSDEM event, in order to discuss public policy related
actions at both the EU and the national levels. This year, the meeting
focused on encouraging exchanges of views between individual citizens
and decision-makers, by providing practical first-hand information on topics
relating to Free Software in public policy.
09 February 2017 – Max Mehl
It's time to say "thank you" on 14th of February, the "I love Free
Software" Day 2017. The Free Software Foundation Europe asks all Free
Software users to use the traditional day of love to think of the
hardworking people contributing to the Free Software we all depend on.
As every year there are many ways for people to participate in this
campaign.
27 January 2017
The Chaos Communication Congress is Germany’s biggest annual meetup of hackers and political activists. This year has been the 33rd edition ("33C3") and FSFE has been present with an assembly, a booth and 21 sessions about Free Software. Read a visual report of our activities along some pictures by Erik Albers.
18 January 2017 – Jonas Öberg
FSFE is a charity dedicated to empowering users to control technology.
We are working to build freedom in digital society. We operate in a lively
environment with volunteers from many countries. We are looking for
students who can join our team in Berlin for three months as a mandatory
part of their studies or before graduation.
Iscriviti ai nostri aggiornamenti per email. I nostri esperti ti
informeranno sulle notizie più recenti, gli eventi, le attività e su come partecipare (la nostra Privacy Policy).
10 January 2017
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) files
Freedom
of Information (FOI) request to the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General
for Research and Innovation, asking for information related to the use,
development and release of software under Horizon 2020, the biggest
EU research funding programme.
09 January 2017
It has been a busy year for the FSFE. Upholding the principles of
Free Software and protecting citizens' from being exploited
are ongoing challenges we tackled from a variety of angles.
We (and by "we", we mean the staff and volunteers at the FSFE) pored
over hundreds of pages of policies and legislations, looking for loopholes
through which Free Software could be attacked.
05 January 2017
The Free Software Foundation Europe calls for Free
Software and Open Standards to be considered as a vital part of Open
Science for all publicly-funded research in Europe. You can help us by
sharing our position paper. Read more about the position paper and how
you can promote Free Software in science.