Celebrate I Love Free Software Day +++ Interoperable Europe Act adopted
Once again, FOSDEM did not disappoint! Meeting the Free Software community in Brussels is always one of the best moments of the year! And just before we meet again to celebrate I Love Free Software Day with the news of the Interoperable Europe Act being adopted! This newsletter also includes our first interviews with 2023 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants… and more!
Table of contents:
- I Love Free Software Day 2024: Join an event!
- Interoperable Europe Act adopted, close monitoring vital
- Meet Jannes and Aaron, YH4F 2023 participants
- The FSFE partners with the Edulife Foundation to introduce Italian students to Free Software
- NGI: € 21.6 million in grants for Free Software
- Take action: Help us spread the word about Router Freedom!
- Quote of the Month
- Contribute to our Newsletter
I Love Free Software Day 2024: Join an event!
On 14 February Free Software communities around the world gather to celebrate developers, maintainers, and contributors of Free Software projects. Take part in one of the many events across Europe that celebrate the contributors to our favorite type of software: Free Software!
On this day we reach out to those people behind Free Software and say “Thank you” for their work and help throughout the year.
Visit the activity’s website to learn more about “I Love Free Software Day 2024: Forging the Future with Free Software”.
Interoperable Europe Act adopted, close monitoring vital
The Interoperable Europe Act has been adopted, on 6 February, in plenary with 524 votes in favour, 18 against, and 97 abstentions. Although some of the potential of the regulation got undermined, the Act as a whole is an important opportunity for Free Software and its community to contribute to an interoperable Europe. The FSFE will closely monitor its implementation.
Meet Jannes and Aaron, YH4F 2023 participants
Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants in the 2023 edition! We are starting this series of interviews talking with Jannes and Aaron: both worked on projects related to school education, and it is particularly interesting to see how these two projects approached different aspects with a similar spirit.
The FSFE partners with the Edulife Foundation to introduce Italian students to Free Software
In the framework of the ITS Academy LAST project, the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Edulife Foundation, the operational partner of ITS Academy LAST, have developed a two-year agreement to deliver educational content to students about Free Software legal aspects, policy, and public awareness.
NGI: € 21.6 million in grants for Free Software
The Next Generation Internet (NGI) Zero consortium, of which the FSFE is a partner, has just unveiled the NGI0 Commons Fund. This new public fund will award 21.6 million euro to small and medium R&D projects developing Free Software technologies that can improve the Internet.
Take action: Help us spread the word about Router Freedom!
Since several countries have officially introduced the possibility for users to use their own routers, we want to encourage people to try out and enjoy this freedom. We need your help to design, publish, and print materials that can be used on booths and at other in-person events, so people can talk about and collectively learn about using their own routers.
- Leaflet: If we raise 3,000 euros, we can cover the costs for the design and printing of a new leaflet with a nice and intuitive design for the decision tree, as well as with basic information about Router Freedom. As are all our information materials, it will also be available under a free license on our website.
- Sticker: As a thank you for your help, did you know that you can order our Router Freedom sticker for free to show off on your liberated router/modem?
Quote of the month
I believe Free Software needs a voice at the national as well as the EU level in politics: Software does not exist in an isolated bubble, it’s heavily dependent on the ecosystem that it lives in. In my opinion Free Software as well as open standards are key to creating a society that provides equal access.Isabel Drost-Fromm (Software Engineer and Member of the Apache Software Foundation)
Contribute to our Newsletter
We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.
Your editors,
Ana and Tommi