FSFE Newsletter - April 2019

Written by admin on 2019-04

This month's newsletter highlights the presence of the FSFE's campaign"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media and its growing popularity across Europe. You can find a short reminder of the news around the newly voted Copyright Directive, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Get Active section this month we remind you of the new open call the Next Generation Internet project we are part of has launched. Additionally you can find out about new events we are attending and the Web-a-thon we organise in Frankfurt am Main.

"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media

Our campaign Public Money? Public Code! has really taken off, as German media WDR and t3n picked it up earlier this month. The FSFE's initiative received prominent support in the media from various Bundestag members, as well as digital politics activists and publicists embracing the free licenses for software receiving money from public sector.

Additionally, t3n, who also supports the campaign, published an interview with the FSFE's Public Policy Manager, Alexander Sander on the way public sector, like the city of Barcelona, deploys Free Software in its administration and city solutions: "The city manages to "react to the digital transformation with appropriate digital solutions". "The government's agenda today is 70 percent determined by the proposals made through Decidim." says the Public Policy Manager. He believes that administrations could save money in the long term by using free-open source software: different communities might share programs and knowledge, new software would not have to be bought at high cost or completely redeveloped." Alexander Sander also mentioned Barcelona was the first major European city to support this action.

Please, feel welcome to also express your support by spreading the word and sharing our brochure

Copyright Directive was adopted

The European Parliament adopted the controversial Copyright Directive by 348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. Heated discussions about the introduction of upload filters ended up in protests of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets all across Europe. You can read our press release on the topic.

Join our community of freedom fighters: https://my.fsfe.org/support

Inside and Outside the FSFE

Pablo González, the FSFE's Madrid Coordinator, was present with an info booth between March 26th and 28th at the Taller de Periodismo de Datos in Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain. He met with local journalists, hackers and data researchers interested in the FSFE's initiatives and goals, and topics like Open Standards and privacy.
We also published our #ilovefs report where you can see only few of the pictures and graphics used during the day, as unfortunately, we couldn't include all the wonderful photos we saw. And you can also have insights on some numbers in statistics.
On 3 April, the FSFE's Policy Manager Alexander Sander was at the Open Platform for Open Data? in Vienna, Austria. There, he talked about the challenges and contradictions of the models public administrations face when deploying software, as well as provided ways forward on how to shape the open data debate in a way that systematically promotes the public interest.
Alexander Sander also made few other presentations on that topic at the Netzpolitischer Abend on 4 April in Vienna and on April 5th at the Grand Garage in Linz, Austria. A full video of his talk in Vienna is also available.
Marcus Moeller, the FSFE Switzerland Coordinator, gave a presentation promoting the sustainable use of electronic equipment for educational purposes and thus also promoting Free Software, on 6 April at the Open Education Day in Berne, Switzerland. His presentation was given in front of teachers, people engaged with school informatics, as well as people interested in introducing and promoting Free Libre Open Source Software, Open Content or Open Hardware at their school.
On 6 April the FSFE was present with an information and merchandise booth at another event - the 18th "Linux-Infotag Augsburg". The event took place in the premises of the IT faculty of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences.
On April 8th, The FSFE's Policy Analyst Alexander Sander and Programme Manager Erik Albers gave a presentation at Escola del Treball de Barcelona about our "Public Money?Public Code!" Campaign. The meetup, lead by Monica Bernardi from Dimmos, discussed public policies around Free Software, public money and how to leverage Free Software to push public administrations into the next level. You can also watch the full video from the event.

This month we had local FSFE supporter meetings in Hamburg, Bonn, Kiel and Zurich, Switzerland.

Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE

On 26 and 27 April, Max Mehl, the FSFE's Programme Manager, will give a keynote about Free Software as a solution to many pressing IT security problems at the Grazer Linuxtage. He will look at the pros and cons and use concrete examples to illustrate why security and openness are not contradictory. If you are close by, pay a visit to his talk at the Technical University Graz.
On 11 May, the FSFE will be present with a booth at T-Dose in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Visit the booth for interesting dicussions and chats about Free Software.
On 21 May, Erik Albers, the FSFE's Communication Manager, will talk at the Magdeburger Developer Days about how we can help ours and future generations to safe resources with the help of software.
Between 24 and 26 May, the FSFE will host a web-a-thon in Frankfurt (Main) with the intend to have a fruitful collective work on improving the FSFE's homepage. The web-a-thon will happen at the local Chaos Computer Club. Be there, or be square.

Get Active

Next Generation Internet Project - Open Call

Next Generation Internet Initiative: The third call of NGI Zero Discovery and NGI Zero PET opened up on April 1st 2019, with a deadline for submissions of June 1st 2019 12:00 CET.

NGI Zero Discovery is seeking for project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Search should not be a gatekeeper, a black box or a privacy nightmare. If the internet is the equivalent of a global brain, we need creativity and diversity in the pathways across that brain to unlock its true potential. Search and discovery are basic human needs for humans of all ages, and we would like to put powerful new technology in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all.

NGI Zero PET is seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Reliability, confidentiality, integrity and security should be the 'new normal' of the internet, something ordinary users should not have to worry about. Trust is one of the key drivers for the Next Generation Internet, and an adequate level of privacy is a non-negotiable requirement for that. The desire is to assist independent researchers and developers to create powerful new technology, and to help them put it in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all.

If your proposal ends up amongst the winners list, you will receive licensing advices and consultation from the FSFE team.

If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Also make sure to see your event in our next newsletter. Please use our new tool to announce it!

Thanks to our community, all the volunteers, supporters and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor,

Galia Mancheva