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144 lines
7.7 KiB
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<html newsdate="2016-03-02" type="newsletter"> |
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<version>1</version> |
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<head> |
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - March 2016</title> |
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</head> |
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<body microformats="h-entry"> |
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<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter - March 2016</h1> |
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<h2 id="i-love-free-software-day-2016">"I love Free Software" Day 2016</h2> |
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<p>For the 6th time in a row we asked everyone to express their gratitude |
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and appreciation towards Free Software contributors on Valentine's Day. |
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Check out our #ilovefs 2016 report and see <a href="/news/2016/news-20160222-01.html">who got acknowledged |
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this year through countless blog posts, pictures, artwork, memes, personal |
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notes and many more</a>. Don't forget to mark next year's 14 February as |
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"I love Free Software" Day to continue this nice tradition of acknowledging |
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the people and hard work of everyone behind Free Software. We thank all |
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participants who found time to say "thank you" and for making #ilovefs |
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2016 such a success!</p> |
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<h2 id="no-cloud-went-viral">"No cloud" went viral</h2> |
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<p>Just before "I love Free Software" Day, <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/the-reddit-effect-more-orders-in-24-hours-than-usually-in-6-months/">thanks to a spontaneous Reddit post we received over 200 orders of |
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our promotional material</a> in the time span of 48 hours. In comparison, |
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in 2015 we had around 370 orders in total. After 24 hours we had more |
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orders than usual in 6 months. The majority of orders requested "no cloud" |
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material but beside that people also ordered our leaflet with basic |
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information about Free Software, the GnuPG leaflet, and our F-Droid leaflet.</p> |
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<h2 id="european-free-software-policy-meeting-2016">European Free Software |
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Policy Meeting 2016</h2> |
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<p>In the end of Janury we organised, together with Open Forum Europe, |
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<a href="/news/2016/news-20160205-01.html">a |
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pre-FOSDEM policy meeting in Brussels with the active Free Software |
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policy groups around Europe</a>. The purpose of the meeting was to learn |
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about each other's activities and exchange views, with an emphasis on public |
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policy related actions. In total, 19 organisations participated in the |
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meeting. In addition, Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda, and a representative of the IT department of the European Commission, Pierre Damas, |
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attended the meeting to present the work of EU institutions in the field |
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of Free Software.</p> |
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<h2 id="from-the-community">From the community</h2> |
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<ul> |
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<li><p>February was dedicated to the sweet love declarations to Free |
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Software in the light of #ilovefs day. Check out our #ilovefs 2016 report |
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above for more detailed information about different blogposts, and get |
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inspired for the next year's celebrations by following |
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<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/floriansnow/2016/02/13/make-your-own-personal-banner-for-i-love-free-software-day/">Florian Snow's idea for DIY #ilovefs banners</a>.</p></li> |
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<li><p>Paul Boddie combined retrocomputing with Python programming and |
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wrote how to <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1233">make Python |
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programs faster with Shedskin</a>.</p></li> |
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<li><p>Marcus Moeller gave tips about <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mmoeller/2016/02/03/getting-started-with-gnu-social/">getting started with the federated social network GNU social</a>.</p></li> |
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<li><p>Björn Schießle contemplated about the future of GitHub and |
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<a href="http://blog.schiessle.org/2016/02/12/the-next-generation-of-code-hosting-platforms/">the next generation of code hosting platforms</a>.</p></li> |
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</ul> |
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<h2 id="what-else-have-we-done">What else have we done?</h2> |
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<ul> |
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<li><p>After the adoption of the European Parliament's own-initiative |
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report "Towards a Digital Single Market" which included several positive |
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references to increase the use of Free Software in public sector, it |
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turned out that the meaning of "free" got lost in |
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translation. In particular the Italian version of the report referred to |
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Free Software as "gratis" as in free beer, instead of "libre" as in freedom. |
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We asked the staff of the member of the European Parliament Julia Reda |
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to help us and draw attention of the authors of the report to this mistake. |
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<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/now-italian-european-parliaments-dsm-report-speaks-about-freedom-not-price/">The mistake got fixed and the Italian version of the report |
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now rightfully refers to software freedom, and not the price</a>.</p></li> |
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<li><p>We've simplified a lot of our internal processes: no longer it is |
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necessary for someone helping us with our web pages or in other teams to |
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register a guest account in our systems. Instead they will now register |
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in the same system as our Fellows. It may not sound like much, but it's |
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a revolution in simplification which we're very happy with! Read about |
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how you too can |
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<a href="/contribute/">contribute to our work</a></p></li> |
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<li><p>We published a <a href="/news/2016/news-20160224-01.html">report of our work in 2015</a>. From teaching people to use encryption |
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for their e-mail, to changing the direction of policy on a European level, |
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FSFE worked hard in 2015 to empower users to control technology. We saw |
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a lot of improvements in how we work, and we ended the year positively |
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with a lot to look forward to in 2016. We want to thank everyone for |
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helping us making the world a better place!</p></li> |
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<li><p>As hinted at in the previous newsletter, we've teamed up with KDE, |
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Qt, VideoLAN and others who are organising QtCon 2016 in Berlin 2-4 |
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September 2016. We'll use the opportunity to host an FSFE summit during |
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QtCon, with more information forthcoming.</p></li> |
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</ul> |
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<h2 id="take-action">Take Action</h2> |
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<p>We still have plenty of "no cloud" stickers and other informational |
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material in stock! Help us to spread the word about software freedom in |
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your local community by |
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<a href="/contribute/spreadtheword.html">ordering our |
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leaflets, stickers, postcards and posters</a>.</p> |
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<h2 id="good-free-software-news">Good Free Software news</h2> |
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<p>The French government is reviewing its existing Free Software support |
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contract, signed in 2011, and <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/france-involves-public-draft-support-contract">asks Free Software communities and the |
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public to help them draft their next multi-year framework contract for |
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Free Software services and support.</a> Meanwhile, the French Parliament |
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has <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/france-assembly-encourages-use-free-software">approved a first draft law for a Digital Republic, which encourages |
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the use of Free Software by public administrations, and considers source |
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code of software developed by or for public administrations to be public information</a>. Schools in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/tallinn-schools-piloting-open-source-software">are gradually moving to Free Software after the city |
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administration decided to switch to Free Software</a> in January 2015. By |
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September 2015 more than 4000 workstations and laptops across the 50 |
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schools in Tallinn are running on Free Software. In Germany, <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/open-source-largest-german-pension-fund">Federal Pension Insurance, which is the largest in the country, is |
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increasing the use of Free Software by publishing a call for tender |
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seeking assistance for its Free Software-based services</a>.</p> |
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<p>Thanks to all the |
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<a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a> |
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, |
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<a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> |
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and |
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate donors</a> |
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who enable our work,</p> |
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<p>your editors Polina Malaja and Jonas Öberg <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p> |
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</body> |
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"/> |
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<date> |
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<original content="2016-03-02"/> |
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</date> |
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<followup>donate</followup> |
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<tag key="newsletter"/> |
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</html>
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