Source files of fsfe.org, pdfreaders.org, freeyourandroid.org, ilovefs.org, drm.info, and test.fsfe.org. Contribute: https://fsfe.org/contribute/web/
https://fsfe.org
You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
152 lines
7.4 KiB
152 lines
7.4 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
|
|
|
<html newsdate="2020-03-27"> |
|
<version>1</version> |
|
|
|
|
|
<head> |
|
<title>FSFE in times of Corona: How a virus affects us</title> |
|
</head> |
|
|
|
<body> |
|
|
|
<h1>FSFE in times of Corona: How a virus affects us</h1> |
|
|
|
<p>Among all the serious diseases and deaths it |
|
causes, the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its accompanying COVID-19 disease also |
|
keep the FSFE and the whole Free Software community in suspense. For |
|
our community and other charitable organisations we would share our |
|
experiences and lessons learnt from the Corona crisis.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>First of all, we are glad that we can fall back on years of |
|
experience with remote collaboration crossing borders and continents. |
|
Since its foundation, the FSFE has had its roots in all over Europe, |
|
working together with people and organisations in various time zones. |
|
Luckily, we are trained to use asynchronous communication tools. But |
|
the FSFE as an organisation and community still has to deal with new |
|
challenges and serious drawbacks that make our work for Free Software |
|
much harder. Your help is needed to balance these!</p> |
|
|
|
<h2>Office activities mostly continue as normal</h2> |
|
|
|
<p>For the FSFE’s 9 staff members, albeit the long-term experience with |
|
remote collaboration, the current situation still causes a few |
|
disruptions. Although we have a long history of having some employees |
|
working from elsewhere, the majority used to work in our main office. |
|
Until recently, e-mail and mailing lists, XMPP for text chats, |
|
collaboration tools like Nextcloud and Wekan, and Jitsi for phone and |
|
video conferencing were sufficient for effective collaboration. But |
|
since the situation in Europe has gotten quite severe, we asked all |
|
staff members to work from home to reduce the probability of infecting |
|
each other. So instead of connecting only 2-3 parties with each other |
|
for our daily short meetings, we now have up to 9 persons who should be |
|
able to be on a call to coordinate our activities.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>Like in the past, we’ve settled so far with using Jitsi, a Free |
|
Software application for audio and video conferencing. To our utmost |
|
delight, it scales very well for audio-only conferences and makes even |
|
longer conversations hassle-free. We are also going to test Mumble, a |
|
VoIP application which has more features and a focus on good audio |
|
quality, and Nextcloud Talk. Unfortunately, for video conferencing with |
|
more than 4 participants, we did not find a suitable Free Software |
|
solution yet which we can self-host on our aged and limited server |
|
hardware.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>But there are also processes which cannot be conducted normally |
|
nowadays. Unfortunately, we had to temporarily stop sending out <a |
|
href="/contribute/spreadtheword">information material</a> and <a |
|
href="/order/">merchandise articles</a> which usually is a great way to |
|
spread the word about Free Software and inform about activities like <a |
|
href="/activities/android/">“Free Your Android”</a>, <a |
|
href="https://publiccode.eu/">“Public Money? Public Code!”</a>, the <a |
|
href="/news/2019/news-20191113-01.html">campaign against DRM</a> and <a |
|
href="/activities/activities.html">many more</a>.</p> |
|
|
|
<h2>Physical distancing contradicts our typical work</h2> |
|
|
|
<p>Apart technical challenges, the biggest impact we face is the |
|
cancellation of Free Software conferences, our own events, and |
|
scheduled FSFE team meetings. Booths and talks have been one of the |
|
main channels over which we informed people about Free Software and the |
|
FSFE’s work. Losing those also means a heavily limited visibility of |
|
our organisation, and thereby also a loss in new <a |
|
href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=corona-news">supporters and |
|
donors</a> for our cause. In the case of our events, like the annual <a |
|
href="/activities/ln/llw.html">Legal and Licensing |
|
Workshop</a> or the <a |
|
href="https://registration.fsfe.org/Digitale-Verwaltung-2020">“Public |
|
Money? Public Code!” conference</a>, it is a even more direct financial |
|
burden due to already invested work and non-refundable costs. </p> |
|
|
|
<p>But also the cancellation of working group meetings like the |
|
webmasters or country teams hurt us as a community. These have been a |
|
great opportunity to meet each other, efficiently coordinate activities |
|
for the benefit of Free Software, and of course also to have fun |
|
together and motivate each other. The restriction of in-person meetings |
|
hits the FSFE local groups even more. Most groups meet once or twice a |
|
month to discuss Free Software issues and plan activities on a regional |
|
level. </p> |
|
|
|
<p>We are working on mitigating these effects and providing alternative |
|
options for meetings and remote collaboration. On the one hand, local |
|
groups adapt by meeting virtually and continuing to coordinate their |
|
activities for the promotion of software freedom asynchronously. On the |
|
other hand, we offer various ways to stay informed about Free Software |
|
and the FSFE’s activities while staying home. Our <a |
|
href="/news/podcast.html">Software Freedom Podcast</a> regularly |
|
features inspiring people and topics ranging from political to |
|
community to legal issues. On our <a |
|
href="https://media.fsfe.org/a/fsfe/videos">Peertube</a> |
|
and <a |
|
href="https://www.youtube.com/c/FreeSoftwareFoundationEurope">Youtube</a> |
|
video channels we collect talks by FSFE community members and otherwise |
|
thrilling material for hours of binge watching.</p> |
|
|
|
<h2>Your help is needed</h2> |
|
|
|
<p>Large parts of our usual operations are limited, but since we are |
|
based on digital widespread cooperation, we are still effective. |
|
Especially at times like these, it is important to monitor the rapid |
|
developments and advocate for Free Software for remote schooling and |
|
collaboration. Our ongoing activities like <a |
|
href="https://reuse.software/">REUSE</a>, <a |
|
href="/activities/routers/">Router Freedom</a> or the <a |
|
href="/activities/ngi/ngi.html">Next Generation Internet project</a> |
|
are not dormant either, and we will intensify the communication with |
|
the public via established and new channels.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>The FSFE and other Free Software groups have the slight advantage of |
|
having long-term experience with remote collaboration over e-mail, |
|
instant messengers and conferencing services. However, as many other |
|
charity organisations, we suffer from a limited visibility and |
|
community interaction which usually are the foundation of our work. |
|
Additionally, the expected economic distortions will seriously affect |
|
mostly all economic areas and will have unforseeable effects on our |
|
supporters, donors, and eventually ourselves.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>We and other Free Software organisations do need your help to get |
|
through this phase reasonably well. If you can, please consider <a |
|
href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=corona-news">joining us as a |
|
supporter</a> or, if you already are one, increasing your contribution |
|
or making a |
|
<a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=corona-news&period=o">one-time |
|
donation</a>. If you cannot, please spread the word among your friends |
|
and colleagues; and we hope that your situation will improve soon.</p> |
|
|
|
<p>In these difficult times specifically, but also in general we would |
|
like to thank the volunteers who form the foundation of the FSFE with |
|
their invaluable contributions, and the <a |
|
href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=corona-news">supporters and |
|
donors</a> who enable our work for Free Software. Thank you!</p> |
|
|
|
</body> |
|
|
|
<discussion href="https://community.fsfe.org/t/fsfe-in-times-of-corona-how-a-virus-affects-us/413" /> |
|
|
|
<tags> |
|
<tag key="front-page"/> |
|
<tag key="internal">Internal</tag> |
|
<tag key="corona">Corona</tag> |
|
</tags> |
|
|
|
</html>
|
|
|