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