289 Zeilen
13 KiB
HTML
289 Zeilen
13 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
|
|
|
|
<html newsdate="2009-06-09" type="newsletter">
|
|
<version>1</version>
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>FSFE Newsletter - May 2009 </title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
<h1>FSFE Newsletter - May 2009</h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>May has been an hot month for us. Not only because the first real sunbeams
|
|
start showing up all-over Europe, but mainly because during the whole month
|
|
we run our first-ever voting process to elect a Fellow representative to FSFE
|
|
General Assembly (GA). Moreover, we published our call for applications as
|
|
coordinator and staff positions in our legal department, and our Austrian
|
|
team concluded its challenging and satisfying tour across the whole Austria,
|
|
by participating to "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt".</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Right now, while drafting this newsletter, Matthias Kirschner announced the
|
|
result of the election, therefore if you want to know who is the first Fellow
|
|
to sit at FSFE's General Assembly, just keep reading!</p>
|
|
|
|
<p align="right">Giacomo Poderi</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
|
|
<ol>
|
|
<li><a href="#1" name="TOC1">FSFE participates to eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#2" name="TOC2">Open Standards update in PDFreaders.org</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#3" name="TOC3">FSFE seeking legal department coordinator and staff positions</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#4" name="TOC4">Bernhard Reiter lectures at University of Stuttgart</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#5" name="TOC5">Looking for input on the backpack of your dreams</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#6" name="TOC6">The Fellowship interviews: Timo Jyrinki</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#7" name="TOC7">FSFE participates at "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt", Austria 8-9 May</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#8" name="TOC8">FSFE welcomes the launch of iUnika Libre UMPC at Libremeeting 2009, 13 May</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<strong>In the spotlight</strong>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#9" name="TOC9">Closing the Fellowship vote for the GA seat and announcing the result!</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<strong>It happened in the past</strong>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#10" name="TOC10">Introducing the FSFE newsletter</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<strong>Upcoming events</strong>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#11" name="TOC11">Fellowship Meeting in Berlin, 11 June</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#12" name="TOC12">Social event co-located with FSFE's GA, Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain, 20 June</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#13" name="TOC13">FSFE participates at "LinuxTag 2009", Berlin, 24-27 June</a></li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
|
|
<p></p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="1"/>FSFE participates to eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Fellowship posters lined the wall at this year's edition of eLiberatica
|
|
in Bucharest where FSFE president Georg Greve analysed the shortcomings
|
|
of wide-spread innovation policies in providing a balanced environment
|
|
for innovation, competition and governmental procurement in his speech
|
|
"Free Software 2009: challenges and opportunities." Organised once more
|
|
by an energetic team of volunteers, eLiberatica continues to be a very
|
|
important conference in the region, and we intend to participate in
|
|
the next one, as we participated in all previous editions.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="http://eliberatica.ro">http://eliberatica.ro</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="2"/>Open Standards update in PDFreaders.org</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>PDFreaders.org was launched less than six months ago, as a Fellowship project
|
|
to promote Free Software PDF readers for all the major platforms. Thanks to
|
|
the hard work of our Fellows and the cooperation with José E. Marchesi,
|
|
GNU PDF team, PDFreaders.org now includes an Open Standard (OS) page.
|
|
This is an easy to read and complete instructive page which explains the
|
|
nuances of the format from a standards perspective and provide
|
|
the technical-legal background for why we are able to support it.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="http://pdfreaders.org/os.en.html">http://pdfreaders.org/os.en.html</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="3"/>FSFE seeking legal department coordinator and staff positions</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Our organisation is slowly, but constantly growing. To manage the increasing
|
|
work load and managerial challenges, we recently started looking for an
|
|
Executive Director (ED) who would oversee the daily work of the organisation.
|
|
Similarly, our legal department, the Freedom Task Force (FTF), is becoming
|
|
a key actor in the European Free Software licensing area, as the success
|
|
of the "Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software"
|
|
shows. Therefore, we also started accepting application for coordinator
|
|
and staff positions for the FTF.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090515-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090515-01.html</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="4"/>Bernhard Reiter lectures at University of Stuttgart</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>On 7 May, Bernhard Reiter gave a talk at the University of Stuttgart about
|
|
"Professional Free Software in Economy and Politics" as part of the lecture
|
|
"Free/Libre and Open Source Software Engineering". A mixed public of 20
|
|
people, made by students, researchers, activists and interested persons
|
|
attended the lecture. Bernhard mostly focused on categories of Free Software
|
|
licenses, after having provided an overview of Free Software principles,
|
|
Open Standards and the problems of software patents.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="5"/>Looking for input on the backpack of your dreams</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>As a new item to add to our merchandise stock, we are planning to produce
|
|
a backpack, which should satisfy the taste and needs of hacktivists.
|
|
We would like to encourage the Fellows, an other interested people to give
|
|
their input to the details. How should the backpack you always dreamed
|
|
of look like? What should it absolutely have? And what not? We are thinking
|
|
of high quality material, so it might also be useful to know what price can
|
|
be considered reasonable. Feel free to send your ideas to:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="mailto:contact@fsfe.org">dus <AT> office <DOT> fsfeurope <DOT> org</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="6"/>The Fellowship interviews: Timo Jyrinki</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>This month, Stian Rødven Eide interviewed Timo Jyrinki for "The smallest
|
|
unit of freedom" series. Beside being a Fellow, Timo is also the team contact
|
|
for Ubuntu Finland, the friendly media face of Wikipedia Finland, and founder
|
|
of local advocacy project Vapaa Suomi (Libre Finland). In the interview,
|
|
Timo tells us about his interest in computer graphics, his involvement
|
|
as developer and translator in different projects and organizations. He
|
|
shared with Stian and with us his thoughts on user interfaces, the Free
|
|
Software situation in Finland and on how businesses should let the
|
|
community lead.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=58">https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=58</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="7"/>FSFE participates at "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt", Austria 8-9 May</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>As conclusive stage of the Austrian events started in March, our Austrian
|
|
team manned a booth at "Linuxwochen Eisenstadt", in Eisenstadt, Austria.
|
|
Although the event was smaller than the previous ones, our volunteers at
|
|
the booth presented our current work and merchandise to the visitors in
|
|
a friendly atmosphere. The Austrian team will soon make available pictures,
|
|
reports and slides concerning the whole series of events.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="8"/>FSFE welcomes the launch of iUnika Libre UMPC at Libremeeting 2009, 13 May</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Georg and Pablo Machón, President and Vice-president of FSFE, participated
|
|
at "Libremeeting 2009" which took place on 13 May, in Miraflores de la Sierra,
|
|
Spain. Central theme of this year was "business and free software
|
|
industry", and it is during the event that iUnika Gyy Minipc was launched.
|
|
The Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) weights 700 g, it is eco-friendly,
|
|
as it is made of bioplastic and is also capable of using solar power.
|
|
Thanks to the mediation of our Spanish team and our associate organisation,
|
|
the Free Knowledge Foundation (FKF), Iunika has committed to use only
|
|
100% Free Software for its product and, in accordance with the manufacturer,
|
|
will deliver with each unit our informative material and general Free
|
|
Software documentation.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="http://www.meeting.libre.org/libremeeting-2009">http://www.meeting.libre.org/libremeeting-2009</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="http://www.iunika.com/">http://www.iunika.com/</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2>In the spotlight</h2>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="9"/>Closing the Fellowship vote for the GA seat and announcing the result!</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>With the end of May it found conclusion a significant experience both for
|
|
us and for the Fellowship. The whole election process that brought us to
|
|
identify and to elect the first Fellow to seat at the General Assembly (GA)
|
|
reached an end. This experience required us to plan and implement a process
|
|
we were not familiar with and, at the same time, demanded the Fellows who
|
|
decided to candidate, to put themselves under scrutiny by other Fellows.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Torsten Grote, Jan-Hendrik Peters, Michel Roche and Björn Schießle were the
|
|
Fellows standing out from the the candidacy period in March.
|
|
During the whole month of May other Fellows had the chance to get to know
|
|
them through their blogs and the Fellowship portal, before making up their
|
|
minds and voting them.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Of particular interest in the whole process was the "Meet the candidates"
|
|
jabber meeting we run on 25 May. Starting from 20:30 and for the following
|
|
two hours Björn, Jan-Hendrik, Michel and Torsten answered to Fellows' questions.
|
|
The topic of the questions ranged from potential strategies for increasing
|
|
Fellowship's efficiency in spreading Free Software to the kind of commitment
|
|
the candidates would be able to provide when elected, from the Fellowship's
|
|
shortcomings and the strategies to improve it to the candidates' motivations
|
|
to run for the elections. The meeting was a success with nearly 30 Fellows
|
|
constantly present throughout the whole session and actively participating.
|
|
After the conclusion of the meeting, moderated by Matthias Kirschner,
|
|
some of the Fellows continued discussing informally on Free Software.
|
|
This kind of meeting will definitely become part of the official election
|
|
process for the Fellowship's seats and we will also set up similar
|
|
meetings more often. We hope you will participate!</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>It is now time to thank Björn, Jan-Hendrik and Michel for
|
|
their involvement in the process and to congratulate with Torsten Grote
|
|
for he is the first Fellow elected to represent the Fellowship at our
|
|
GA. Congratulation Torsten! See you in Miraflores de la Sierra!</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090601-01.html">Poll results</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Relevant links:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/election09">https://wiki.fsfe.org/election09</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="/news/2008/news-20081210-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2008/news-20081210-01.html</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090301-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090301-01.html</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2>It happened in the past</h2>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="10"/>Introducing the FSFE newsletter</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>May and June are usually the months for us to have our GA. It is during
|
|
the GA held five years ago, on 15 May 2004, that the core members decided
|
|
to improve the level of information we provided our public about our activities.
|
|
Thus it was decided to start publishing a monthly newsletter and this is
|
|
the first we ever published:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2004q2/000061.html">Press Release</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h2>Upcoming events</h2>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="11"/>Fellowship Meeting in Berlin, 11 June</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>The local Fellowship group will meet on 11 June in the NewThinkingStore at
|
|
Tucholskystraße 48. There will be discussions about Openstreetmap, "Linuxtag" and
|
|
our campaign regarding the "Bundestagswahl". Guests are welcome to join in! </p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Berlin">https://wiki.fsfe.org/groups/Berlin</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="12"/>Social event co-located with FSFE's GA, Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain, 20 June</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>On Saturday 20 June in Miraflores de la Sierra, in Spain, we will organise
|
|
a social event co-located with our GA, which will take place in the same
|
|
place on 19-21 June. Check our news page for the details of the event as
|
|
they will be published shortly.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="13"/>FSFE participates at "LinuxTag 2009", Berlin, 24-27 June</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>We will participate with a booth at "LinuxTag 2009" which takes place at
|
|
Berlin's Expo Center. The crew of our booth will explain visitors the
|
|
importance of Free Software for society and economy.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="http://www.elinuxtag.org/2009/">http://www.elinuxtag.org/2009/</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on</p>
|
|
<a href="/news/newsletter.html">https://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html</a>
|
|
|
|
<p>You can join the Fellowship and find how to support us on</p>
|
|
<a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</a>
|
|
<a href="/contribute/contribute.html">https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html</a>
|
|
|
|
<p>You can order our merchandise at</p>
|
|
<a href="/order/order.html">https://fsfe.org/order/order.html</a>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|