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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - April 2012</h1>

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<h2>Let us end all Free Software "projects" quickly!</h2>

<p>A "project" is always temporary, in the narrow sense of the
term. Some Free Software people use "project" to refer to long lasting
initiatives instead.  Your editor also did this, until Bernhard Reiter
convinced him to use different terms for people, the result they create, and
temporary concerted actions.  After several people in FSFE encouraged Bernhard
to write down his thoughts, he now published <a
  href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard/2012/03/lets-end-all-free-software-projects-quickly/">an
  article arguing</a>: By adopting the more widespread use of the term project,
Free Software initiatives will be more successful.  "Free Software is here to
stay, prepare your mind for this situation.", writes Bernhard.</p>


<h2>Corporate perk or monopolist bribery?</h2>

<p>Staff in the European Parliament are facing a challenge to their ethics.
A company is offering all of them a gift which could compromise their
independence. The company in question is Microsoft, and the gift is a bunch of
proprietary programs. Through the Parliament's administration, Microsoft is
offering staff (though probably not MEPs) gratis licenses to Microsoft
Office, Project, and Visio. This happens under the so-called "Home Use
Program".</p>

<p>The staff is working on regulations that also effect Microsoft, who is now
making a gift to them. Staff is usually the one who does all the legwork.  They are the
one who control access to our MEPs. FSFE asks the MEPs to tell their staff, and
the staff in their groups, not to accept Microsoft's gift. On the contrary,
they should push the administration into making Free Software tools available
that staffers can use to do their work, and urge the Parliament itself to
migrate to Free Software. Karsten Gerloff <a
  href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/03/23/corporate-perk-or-monopolist-bribery/">wrote
  about this in his blog</a> and will closeley monitor how the MEPs and
their staff in the European Parliament will react. We will keep you posted.</p>


<h2>Help for FSFE from Greece</h2>

<p>The election period for this year's Fellowship GA seat has ended on February
29th. To summarise the <a href="/news/2012/news-20120303-01.html">detailed
  election results</a>: Our new Fellowship representative is Nikos Roussos from
Greece. He will meet with <a href="/about/team.html">other members of FSFE's
  general assembly</a> in Lisboa at the end of April, to work on strategic
questions for the coming years. Thanks to Albert Dengg and Gert Seidl who also
stood for the Fellowship GA seat, and who want to continue their great work for
FSFE in their area.</p>


<h2>Something completely different</h2>

<ul>

  <li>Digital Restriction Management: In his article <a
    href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=325">"Like candy from a baby: PS
    Vita takes freedom from new generation"</a>, Sam takes the Sony PS Vita, as
  an example how owners of devices are restricted in what they can do with
  their computers.</li>

  <li>Guido Günther joined the Debian Project while completing his degree in
  physics at the University of Konstanz. He helped with development of Debian
  for new processor architectures, and co-initiated Debian’s Groupware
  Meetings. He also enjoys contributing to the GNOME project, and advanced Free
  Software virtualisation technologies. <a
    href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=547">Read more in the
    last Fellowship interview</a>.</li>

  <li><a href="/activities/elections/askyourcandidates/askyourcandidates.html">Ask Your
    Candidates:</a> in Germany, we asked the <a
    href="/activities/elections/askyourcandidates/example-questions.html">usual set of
    questions</a> and <a href="/news/2012/news-20120322-01.html">published the
    analysis</a>. Compared with the positive replies in the <a
  href="/news/2012/news-20120322-01.html">Berlin election</a>, the Saarland
election was a disappointment. Our press release also <a
  href="http://netzpolitik.org/2012/saarlandische-piraten-abhangigkeit-und-restriktive-lizenzen-sind-gutes-recht">resulted
  in discussions</a> if it is "the good right" of companies to restrict the
users.</li>
 
  <li>Fellow Anna Morris was interviewed by the BBC <a
    href="https://download.fsfe.org/audio/20120320-bbc5-interview-anna-morris.ogg">(Audio,
    starting at 17:13)</a> about a conference that she is organising in London
  for women in Free Software. In just a few minutes she discusses what Free
  Software is, what it is like being a woman in the Free Software movement, and
  how she first got involved.</li>

  <li>FSFE's volunteers and staff have been quite busy with <a
    href="http://documentfreedom.org">Document Freedom Day</a> in the last
  weeks. We will send out <a
    href="/news/2012/news-20120321-01.html">the handcuffs</a> and write a report what
  happend all over the world. In the preperation we have <a
    href="/freesoftware/standards/minimalisticstandards.html">published an article by FSFE
    co-founder Bernhard Reiter</a>. He discusses what makes a good data format,
  and argues that Open Standards are good, but that we need to push further
  still. His central question to data formats is "Can we make it simpler?" The
  article is in German, and we are looking for <a
    href="/contribute/translators/translators.html">translations</a>.</li>

  <li>FSF <a
    href="https://www.fsf.org/news/2011-free-software-awards-announced">
    announced the Free Software Awards</a>. Big thanks from FSFE to Free
  Software hacker Yukihiro Matsumoto and <a href="http://health.gnu.org/">GNU
    Health</a>.</li>

  <li><a
    href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/all-icelands-public-administrations-moving-towards-open-source">Iceland
    launched a project</a> to encourage migration of the public administration
  to Free Software. Your editor is already looking forward to a report about
  this at <a href="http://fscons.org">FSCONS</a> in Gothenburg.</li>
   
  <li>A selection from the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">Fellowship planet
    aggregation</a>:

  <ul>

    <li>Free Software, nothing for marketing? And which is the most powerful
    brand in Free Software? Timo Jyrinki writes about <a
      href="http://losca.blogspot.de/2012/03/on-brands-marketing-and-technical.html">
      brands, marketing and technical details</a>.</li>

    <li>Hugo Roy is <a
      href="http://blog.hugoroy.eu/2012/03/28/cyberlawconf-avec-lawrence-lessig/">organising
      an event at Sciences Po on 6th April</a> (in French). Beside others
    Lawrence Lessig, author of "Code and other laws of Cyberspace" will talk
    about "The Character of Cyberlaw Battles".</li>
    
    <li>Birgit Hüsken explains <a
      href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/birgit.huesken/?p=122">how to knit the
      Fellowship plussy</a>.</li>

    <li>Fellow Number 1, Mario Fux, <a
      href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mario/?p=179">wants to set up a local
      association</a> in Randa, Switzerland to keep the local Free Software
    activities running.</li>

    <li>And Mirko Böhm writes about about <a
      href="http://www.agile-workers.com/web/2012/03/managing-trust-in-mixed-commercial-and-volunteer-open-source-communities/">managing
      trust in mixed commercial and volunteer Free Software communities</a>.
    </li>

  </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2>Get Active: Leaflets to free others mobile!</h2>

<p>Our <a href="/activities/android/android.html">Free Your Android</a>
campaign, got a lot of attention. Beside preparing his exams, Torsten Grote
gave interviews for the German newspaper <a
  href="https://www.taz.de/Kampagne-fuer-offene-Mobilsysteme/!90036/">"Die
  Tageszeitung"</a>, <a
  href="http://on3.de/element/13543/freie-software-fuer-android-handys-weg-mit-den-fesseln#/element/13543/freie-software-fuer-android-handys-weg-mit-den-fesseln">radio
  interviews</a>, and held a first installation party for <a
  href="http://foebud.de">FoeBud e.V.</a>. Also at <a
  href="http://blog.romal.de/2012/03/fsfe-cebit-stand-uberlebt.html">our booth
  at Cebit</a>, <a
  href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/birgit.huesken/?p=105">Chemnitzer Linux-Tage</a>,
as well as <a
  href="http://blog.schiessle.org/2012/03/26/ruckblick-auf-den-augsburger-linux-infotag-2012/">Augsburger
  Linuxinfotage</a> a lot of people showed interest in this campaign. We would
like to get more people involved in this campaign. We ask you to promote the
campaign with leaflets and posters in your local Free Software user group, your
hackerspace, company, university, school, or your favourite bar. Please write
an e-mail with a postal address to <a
  href="mailto:contact@fsfe.org">contact@fsfe.org</a>, and we
send you some leaflets and posters to promote it.</p>


<p>Thanks to all the <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and
<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">donors</a> who enable our work,<br/>
<a href="/about/people/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="/">FSFE</a></p>

<p>-- <br />
<a href="/index.html">Free Software Foundation Europe</a><br />
<a href="/news/news.rss">FSFE News</a><br />
<a href="/events/events.rss">Upcoming FSFE Events</a><br />
<a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
<a href="/contact/community.html">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>

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