FSFE
/
fsfe-website


								<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

								<html newsdate="2015-01-05" type="newsletter">

								  <version>1</version>


								<head>

									<title>FSFE Newsletter - January 2015</title>

								</head>


								<body microformats="h-entry">

									<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter – January 2015</h1>


									<h2>A revolution</h2>


									<p>

										The Earth has once again completed a full, customarily counted

										revolution. Here at FSFE we have been busy throughout 2014, working hard

										to ensure that users remain in control of their devices and that Free

										Software may once compete on a level playing field for public tenders.

										More information, including the extent of our limited success and our

										future prospects, on both these issues and our other frontiers may be

										found in our <a href="/news/2014/news-20141218-02.html">annual report for 2014</a>,

										penned by our President <a href="/about/people/gerloff">Karsten Gerloff</a>.

									</p>


									<p>

										In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of our activities in

										2014, Karsten finishes the report with a sneak peek of the challenges

										we are going to face and overcome in revolution 2015.

										For instance, we intend to build on the success of the

										<a href="http://freesoftwarepact.eu/">Free Software Pact</a> to spread

										awareness about Free Software among both the elected representatives of

										the European citizenry and the unelected bureaucrats of the executive

										branch.

									</p>


									<p>

										We also intend to invest more in our local volunteers and Fellowship

										groups. We are hopeful that not only will we reach a wider audience and

										have a greater impact with increased local participation, but this will

										also be much more fun for everyone involved.

									</p>


									<h2>Fellowship elections</h2>


									<p>

										FSFE has a bit less than 1500 <a href="/fellowship/">Fellows</a> or

										sustaining members. In addition to receiving

										<a href="/fellowship/about/fellowship.html#youget">certain benefits</a>

										useful for digital activists, all of them have a say in the governance

										of the FSFE. This right is exercised by

										<a href="/about/legal/constitution.html#id-fellowship-seats">electing</a>

										representatives to the General Assembly, the highest decision-making

										body of FSFE. Your temporary editor will have served his term as a

										Fellowship Representative by this spring, and hence a new Representative

										will be elected by the orderly Fellows from February 20th to March 6th

										2015, 12pm.

									</p>


									<p>

										Your outgoing Representative would like to take this opportunity to

										invite all our Fellows to partake in the elections. The General Assembly

										is responsible for making all strategic decisions for FSFE, and all

										Fellows, whether true idealists or business-minded pragmatists, have

										the same right to affect our future growth and direction, so please do

										so.

									</p>


									<h2>EU: the good and the bad</h2>


									<p>

										On December 17, 2014, the European Parliament adopted the EU budget for

										2015. We are very happy to report that thanks to the efforts of MEPs

										Julia Reda (Pirates) and Max Andersson (Greens), the Parliament has

										allocated up to a million euros to audit Free Software used by the

										European Parliament and Commission. We hope that the institutions

										concerned will closely work with upstream developers to best benefit

										the public. We also welcome

										<a href="/news/2014/news-20141219-01.html">further allocations</a>

										that aim to allow equal participation in the digital society.

									</p>


									<p>

										Unfortunately, we must still call upon EU institutions to make use of

										Open Standards and Free Software, as a recent study prepared for the

										Greens/EFA

										<a href="/news/2014/news-20141212-01.html">has found</a> that the EU

										Parliament falls woefully short of its democratic obligations to ensure

										transparency and openness. Among other shortcomings the parliamentarians

										lack access to a standards-compliant e-mail solution.

									</p>


									<h2>Something completely different</h2>


									<ul>

										From the planet aggregation:

										<li>

											Paul Boddie writes about the

											‘<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=802">unplanned obsolescence</a>’

											of early Fairphone devices, justifiedly arguing that Fairphone's

											decision to overlook or deprioritize hardware support for Free

											Software was unwise considering the abundance of information available

											on the lack of hardware support for Free Software.

										</li>

										<li>

											Otto Kekäläinen

											<a href="http://seravo.fi/2014/password-hygiene-every-mans-responsibility">writes</a>

											about password management while recognizing that people are not

											storage media. Otto's piece is an excellent read when taken with a

											pinch of salt.

										</li>

										<li>

											Nico Rikken contemplates the right to make bad choices in his piece

											‘<a href="http://nicorikken.eu/blog/optional-rights/">Optional rights</a>’.

										</li>

									</ul>


									<p>

										2015 will bring a new etiquette to our Fellowship Planet. A proposed

										draft will be presented to the Fellows for consultation at the earliest

										convenience.

									</p>


									<h2>Get active: spread free software</h2>


									<p>

										The gift giving season has just ended. No doubt you have a friend or

										relative unfortunate enough to have been given a computer bundled with

										non-free software as a gift. Help them install a free GNU/Linux

										distribution or <a href="http://www.replicant.us/">Replicant</a>.

									</p>


									<p>

										Thanks to all the <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a>,

										<a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and

										<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate donors</a> who enable our

										work,<br />

										<a href="/about/ojasild">Heiki Ojasild</a><br />

										Fellowship Representative, <a href="/">FSFE</a>

									</p>


									<!--/e-content-->

								</body>


								<sidebar promo="about-fsfe" />

								<author id="repentinus" />

								<date>

									<original content="2015-01-05" />

								</date>

								<followup>donate</followup>

								<tags>

									<tag key="newsletter"/>

								</tags>


								</html>

								<!--

								Local Variables: ***

								mode: xml ***

								End: ***

								-->