FSFE Newsletter - July 2017
The FSFE now provides Git hosting for its supporters
Sharing one's knowledge and enhancing collaboration are core principles of the Free Software community. Therefore, the FSFE is happy to now provide its supporters and registered volunteers a platform to create and manage Git repositories with a comfortable web interface under git.fsfe.org.
With git.fsfe.org, the FSFE allows its supporters to share and collaborate on a platform that fully respects their freedoms. And while users are free to use this platform for their private purposes, we encourage every activist and local group of the FSFE to host code they are using for their FSFE activities, and to share minutes or other documents of FSFE group meetings, as well as any other publicly interesting information. This way, we would like to facilitate and stimulate collaboration, feedback and creativity inside our pan-European community.
Official teams and working groups of the association of the FSFE will also strive to migrate as much code and relevant files as possible to this new platform. For example, future website development, promotional material, and helpful scripts for the organisation's day-to-day work. For Git beginners we explain the service in detail in the FSFE wiki. Advanced users are welcome to help extending guides for the most common Git workflows.
Find us and use, study, share and improve at git.fsfe.org.
Help us grow and make a difference in 2017 https://fsfe.org/join/nl2017-07
What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE
- Estonia has taken over the presidency of the Council of the European Union and now has asked the public to comment on their proposal for the "Tallinn Declaration" - a set of policy proposals for the European digital government - to be signed by the EU ministers in October. The FSFE has provided its comments in the first round of public consultation on the proposal, while participation in the second round for comments is currently open for everyone. We encourage you to participate and reuse our arguments to foster Free Software and Open Standards in the European public digital infrastructure. The deadline for comments is 14 July.
- As part of our Free Your Android campaign, the FSFE explains and promotes the use of the Free Software app repository F-Droid. Torsten Grote, member of the General Assembly of the FSFE and initiator of our FYA-campaign, shares some insights about how F-Droid is bringing apps to Cuba.
- Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom? The FSFE community, including the FSFE's Fellowship representatives, has been discussing this question on our public discussion list. Feel free to join the discussion.
- In Zurich there was a kick-off meeting for a local Food Computer group including the FSFE Fellowship representative, Daniel Pocock, and a travel sponsorship by the FSFE for Anisa Kuci to participate.
- The FSFE's program manager, Max Mehl, visited the FSFE local group Rhein/Main in Frankfurt, Germany, and gave a talk about "Public Money, Public Code".
- The FSFE team France was present with a booth at the Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre (RMLL) - also known as Libre Software Meeting (LSM) - in Saint-Etienne where our long-time supporter Cryptie also gave a talk about "From theoretical crypto to practice: gloups, something is missing".
- The FSFE local group Berlin was present with a booth at the Maker Faire to explain visitors why tinkering heavily depends on Free Software.
- The FSFE local group Milano, Italy, together with Game Over Milano, celebrated the International Day Against DRM to inform about the threats of DRM concerning HTML5, ebooks, music, games and much more.
- The FSFE local group Offenbach, Germany, was present with a booth at the Bended Realities Festival to inform about the connection of Free Education and Free Software.
- The FSFE local group Munich held a workshop about "What is Free Software?" with a special focus on people who have little or zero knowledge about software.
Not to be missed! Upcoming events with the FSFE
- SHA is the name of a non profit outdoor Hacker camp taking place on August 4th to 8th, close to Amersfoort in the Netherlands. The FSFE country team Netherlands and friends will be present with a dedicated FSFE village. If you happen to be around, pass by and join one of the various sessions, talks, workshops, projects or help singing the Free Software song.
Help us to improve our newsletter
If you see some news you think that should be included, forward it to us. If you'd like to share any thoughts, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to all the volunteers, supporters and donors who make our work possible.
Your editor,
Erik Albers
[**] In the picture: R2D2, who was visiting the FSFE booth during Maker Faire in Berlin.
Do you have a nice picture of a FSFE booth (and crew) that you like to share with our community? Please send it to contact@fsfe.org. We love booth pictures <3