35 years FSF +++ Participation at SFSCon +++ Technical job vacancy
Erik AlbersRead in our October newsletter about FSF's thirty-fifth anniversary, our upcoming participation at SFSCon, our technical job vacancy, and our other diverse community activities.
Congratulations to the FSF on its thirty-fifth anniversary
35 years ago, our sister organisation, the Free Software Foundation, was founded to work for users' freedoms to use, study, share, and improve software with the introductory line that "Our work will not be finished until every computer user is able to do all of their digital tasks in complete freedom". That is a promise that holds true even after thirty-five years of working for software freedom and inspiring countless people and many organisations to take a stand for user freedoms. The FSFE's President, Matthias Kirschner, recorded a congratulatory speech in which he reflected on the importance the FSF and our movement have had and continue to have over the years.
Participation at SFSCon
The South Tyrolean Conference for Free Software, SFScon, is one of the established annual conferences on Free Software in Europe. In recent years we have been represented with lectures, workshops and our information booth. Last year we also organised our Community Event in the context of SFSCON, so that we could meet our community and also many other interested people, and eventually reported about our work.
Due to the current situation, the 2020 edition of this event can only take place in blended mode: both online and at NOI Techpark, for a limited number of people. But of course, the FSFE is again contributing to the programme.
We have organised seven lectures in which legal issues are clarified and current political developments are analysed. Concrete practical questions concerning compliance, for example for SMEs, will be addressed, as well as questions about machine learning and problems which arise in the development of a "free" smartphone. Here you find more information on our track and the SFSCon2020
The biggest financial impact the FSFE faces in these times of physical distancing is the cancellation of Free Software conferences, including our own events. To keep the software freedom movement solid and alive, please consider donating a part of your conference budget to Free Software organisations, including the FSFE.
Technical job vacancy
The FSFE is looking for a working student to support our work to empower people to control technology. The person will work 10 hours per week in the Berlin office (home office possible at a later stage) and will support the FSFE's technical infrastructure by working closely together with our system administrators. Deadline to apply is Sunday, 15 November 2020. Please share this with others you know who might be interested.
Upcoming events
- At the OSSEU2020 Alexander Sander will talk about how Free Software enables global solutions for global problems.
- At the Privacy Week Alexander Sander will talk about our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and why Free Software helps to tackle a global crisis.
What have we done? Inside and outside the FSFE
- For the seventh episode of our Software Freedom Podcast we talked with Vincent Lequertier about transparency, fairness, and accessibility as crucial criteria for artificial intelligence (AI) and why it is important for our society to release AI software under a Free Software license.
- In his keynote at Software Freedom Kosova 2020 Alexander Sander, FSFE's EU Public Policy Manager, provided a brief overview of the FSFE's previous and ongoing activities to foster software freedom in Europe, on the levels of politics, legal work with enterprises, and general public awareness. The keynote was followed by a workshop two weeks later.
- At the "openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual Conference" (oSLO), Alexander Sander gave a talk about the advantages of using Free Software in the public sector, about what we have learnt from the corona crisis, and why it is even more important to use Free Software now than ever before.
- We are grateful to Lioh Möller who coordinated the FSFE country team Switzerland and welcome the new coordinator Gian-Maria Daffré with Ralf Hersel as vice-coordinator. The Swiss group is well known for their Free Software education portal Lernen wie die Profis (learning like a pro) and the news-zine and podcast gnulinux.ch.
- The Berlin coordinator Erik Grun together with Katja Jäger gave a talk about Free Software for the digital society in education at the re:publica campus in Berlin.
Contribute to our newsletter
If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking forward hearing from you!
If you also want to support us and our work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly contribution.
Thanks to our community and 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 native languages.
Your editors, Erik Albers and Alexander Sander