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248 Zeilen
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<html newsdate="2014-03-06" type="newsletter">
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - March 2014</title>
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<body microformats="h-entry">
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<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter – March 2014</h1>
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<h2>The UK attempts to break free from vendor lock-in</h2>
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<p>The UK government is making progress towards less vendor lock-in. In
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January, they <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/01/30/uk-to-pick-odf-as-default-document-format/">published
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a few principles</a> for future government IT contracts. They want to break the
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dominance of the big software companies who provided the vast majority of
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software and services to the UK government.</p>
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<p>Now they are asking for comments on the standards they should use for
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"sharing or collaborating with government documents". Among other things, the
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government proposes to make ODF the sole standard for office-type documents.
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The FSFE has <a
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href="/freesoftware/standards/2014-02-uk-consultation-os.html">submitted comments
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on a proposal</a> by the UK government to use only document formats based
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on Open Standards in the future. <a
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href="http://standards.data.gov.uk/comment/929#comment-929">Microsoft
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also submitted a lengthy comment</a>, urging the government to include
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OOXML in its list of standards, to which <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/02/26/comments-on-uk-governments-consultation-on-document-standards/">
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we responded as well</a>.</p>
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<h2>Why Open Standards aren't enough: the minimal principle</h2>
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<p>Although a good data-format can only be an Open Standard, FSFE's <a
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href="http://www.intevation.de/~bernhard/">Bernhard Reiter</a> argues that
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this requirement alone is not enough. Originally written for last year's <a
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href="http://documentfreedom.org">Document Freedom Day</a> in German, the
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article <a href="/freesoftware/standards/minimalisticstandards.html">"The minimal
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principle: because being an open standard is not enough"</a> is now available
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in English. In a nutshell Bernhard argues that the data-format needs to solve a
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problem adequately: It should be a good fit from a functional point of view, as
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well as on a technical level. In order to judge this, there are a number of
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things to consider: efficiency, maintainability, accessibility, extensibility,
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learnability, simplicity, longevity and a few more. Two central questions posed
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are: How well does the data-format solve the problem and --more interesting--
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is there a simpler format that could solve the problem just as well?</p>
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<p>Read <a href="/freesoftware/standards/minimalisticstandards.html">the article</a>, <a
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href="/about/contact.html#community">discuss it on our public mailing lists</a>,
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and if you are a developer always ask yourself if it can be done simpler.</p>
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<h2>Lots of motivation for Free Software contributors</h2>
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<p>On February 14th, people all around the world followed <a
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href="/news/2014/news-20140211-01.html">our suggestions</a> to express their
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gratitude and appreciation to Free Software and its contributors on " I love
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Free Software" day 2014! Blog entries, e-mails to developers, a comic, a
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picture by the leadership of the German Green party, an #ilovefs festival,
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blogs dedicated to Free Software in general and developers in particular, and a
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lot of microblog messages were dedicated to Free Software. We were overwhelmed
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by the resonance.</p>
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<p>Contributors of Free Software projects work hard to ensure our freedom and
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on this day surely many of them gained new motivation. Thanks to everybody who
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participated in this year's #ilovefs campaign and if you have not been
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involved <a href="/news/2014/news-20140221-01.html">enjoy some of the many
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love declarations we collected</a>.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>On Document Freedom Day (March 26), FSFE and the Greens/EFA group in the
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European Parliament are <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/02/14/free-speech-crypto-and-free-software/">organising
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an event in the European Parliament</a> to discuss how cryptography can help us
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break the grip of the surveillance state. The draft program includes Werner
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Koch (of GnuPG fame, and one of FSFE’s founders), Karen O’Donoghue (Internet
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Society), French journalist Amaelle Guitton, and Swedish IT security expert
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Joachim Strömbergson.</li>
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<li>Free Software in the public administration: After a <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/canton-bern-parliament-votes-open-source">decision
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by the Parliament in the Swiss canton Bern</a>, the government has to
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implement a bill which lists six measures to support Free Software in the
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canton's public administrations. The Canaries <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/canaries-continue-save-open-source">
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are increasing their Free Software usage</a> and in <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/more-and-more-linux-riga-children-hospital">Riga
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they are using more Free Software in children hospitals</a>.</li>
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<li>Furthermore the European Parliament <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/02/05/european-parliament-calls-for-distributed-systems/">passed
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a resolution</a> that, among other things, highlights the need for
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decentralised services with strong privacy protections.</li>
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<li>With our <a href="/activities/android/android.html">Free Your Android
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campaign</a>, we ask developers to also publish their mobile applications
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in <a href="https://f-droid.org/">F-Droid, a Free Software repository for
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Android</a>. After talking with the LibreOffice developers about it, briefly
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before FOSDEM <a
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href="https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.libreoffice.impressremote">they
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published "Impress Remote" version 2</a>, a program to control your
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presentation. Thanks to Daniel Martí, Christian Lohmaier, and Norbert Thiebaud
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for the work.</li>
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<li>Fighting compulsory routers, raising awareness about "Secure Boot", a
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joint motion against software patents in the German Parliament, supporting a
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working group in the German parliament about Free Software, raising questions
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about Free Software in several elections, organising compliance workshops,
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and lots of talks and events. Read the <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/german-fsfe-activities-in-2013/">2013 summary
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from FSFE's German team</a>.</li>
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<li>With the end of the support for Microsoft Windows XP, and a low adoption
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rate of Windows 8 it is a good time to convince people to switch to
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GNU/Linux. Our sister organisation <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-the-fsf-bury-windows-8">FSF
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wants to improve online resources for helping people to achieve this, and
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demonstrate GNU/Linux to new audiences</a>.</li>
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<li>They also published an <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-joerg-henrichs-of-supertuxkart">interview
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with Joerg Henrichs of SuperTuxKart</a>.</li>
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<li>As every year FSFE was present at FOSDEM with a booth. This year with a
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lot of new posters, leaflets, stickers, t-shirts, and our Fellows <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2014/01/29/fosdem-2014-fsfe-fellowship-and-speaking-schedule/">gave
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lots of talks</a>.</li>
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<li>What has happened with Free Software in schools and universities? Read <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/02/free-software-in-education-news-%E2%80%93-january/">the
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new Free Software in education news</a>.</li>
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<li>From the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>: </li>
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<ul>
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<li><a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2014/02/05/fsfe-in-the-news/">Carsten
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Agger gave an interview</a> for the Danish newspaper about software patents
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and the European Parliament election.</li>
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<li>The Fellowship group in Aarhus/Denmark which Carsten coordinates, is <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2014/02/22/opening-reception-at-open-space-aarhus/">moving
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their meetings into the new hackerspace</a>.</li>
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<li>Henrik Sandklef wants to better understand his students, read why he
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learned Haskell to achieve that in part <a
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href="http://sandklef.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/understanding-my-students-or-why-i-started-learning-haskell-part-i/">1</a>,
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<a
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href="http://sandklef.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/understanding-my-students-or-why-i-started-learning-haskell-part-ii/">2</a>,
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and <a
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href="http://sandklef.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/understanding-my-students-or-why-i-started-learning-haskell-part-iii/">3</a> of this blog series.</li>
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<li>Fellow Iain Learmonth <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/irl/2014/02/06/debian-med-sprint-2014/">reported
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from the Debian Med Sprint 2014</a> in Stonehaven, Aberdeen.</li>
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<li><a
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href="http://computerfloss.com/2014/02/brown-dogs-barbers-crowdfunding-book-computer-science/">
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Karl Beecher is writing a computer science book</a> for everyone.</li>
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<li>Karsten made a proposal <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/01/30/transparency-in-eu-policy-making-a-modest-proposal/">for
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more transparency in EU policy making</a>.</li>
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<li>Having been inspired by the prospect of chat integration within
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Roundcube, <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=741">Paul Boddie set
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out to install a suitable XMPP server</a>.</li>
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<li>Daniel Pocock writes about about JitMeet a web application from the Jitsi team.</li>
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<li>Erik Albers now published his article <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2014/02/20/eigene-geraetehoheit-als-bedingung-der-privatsphaere/">The
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right to control your own devices as a requirement for privacy (in
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German)</a> in his blog, after it was published in the book <a
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href="https://netzpolitik.org/2014/wir-verschenken-unser-buch-ueberwachtes-netz-der-sammelband-zum-nsa-skandal/">Snowden
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surveillance book by netzpolitik</a>.</li>
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<li>Isabel Drost-Fromm argues that <a
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href="http://blog.drost-fromm.de/posts/on-being-aggressively-public.html">if
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something didn't happen on the mailing list it didn't happen at all</a>.</li>
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<li>Our intern Max Mehl wrote <a
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href="http://blog.max-mehl.com/2014/wirklich-sichere-whatsapp-alternativen/">about
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secure alternatives to WhatsApp (in German)</a>, covering surespot,
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Telegram, ChatSecure, TextSecure, and Kontalk.</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: Participate in Document Freedom Day!</h2>
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<p>There has been so many news about Open Standards in this edition. Do you
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want to help us to promote them? If so, Document Freedom Day on 26 March is a
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good occasion for that. Last year <a
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href="http://documentfreedom.org/news/2013/news-20130419-01.html">we had 59
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events in 30 countries all over the world</a>. This year Sam Tuke and the
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DFD campaign team aim for 75 events, but they need your help.</p>
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<p>Either organise a small event or educate your friends and colleagues through
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other ways about Open Standards. You can now <a
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href="https://documentfreedom.org/how-add-event">register your event</a> or
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<a href="https://documentfreedom.org/en/promotion.en.html">order promotional
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packs with new materials</a>, including multilingual posters and leaflets,
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flyers, and stickers, as well as <a
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href="https://documentfreedom.org/en/products">new t-shirts</a>.</p>
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<p>Thanks to all the <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate donors</a> who enable our work,<br/>
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<a href="/about/people/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p>
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<!--/e-content-->
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</body>
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"><!--
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<h3>FSFE News</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/">Press Releases</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/newsletter.html">Newsletters Archive</a></li>
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<li><a href="/events/">Upcoming Events</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/">Planet Blogs</a></li>
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<li><a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a></li>
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</ul>
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--></sidebar>
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<author id="kirschner" />
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<date>
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<original content="2014-03-04" />
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</date>
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<followup>donate</followup>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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