YH4F: Coding is over!

The second edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, the hacking competition for young Europeans has just ended. For the last six months, the participants have worked on developing their own personal Free Software projects.

Nearly 70 young people from across Europe signed up for the new edition of Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, a competition for European teenagers to develop their coding skills and win great cash prizes.

This second edition, which started last January, was accompanied by a new activity: a monthly meeting where participants had the opportunity to discuss their technical problems and learn some tips from different Free Software experts. These meetings have also been a way to keep in touch during the last months, and a way to support each other, promoting one of the principles of Free Software, the creation of community. These open and voluntary meetings allowed those attending to talk and connect with each other in smaller groups.

"The monthly meetings provide an opportunity to talk and connect with other participants and have helped to form friendships throughout the contest. It has been great to see how well these meetings have been received by the participants. And it is a really rewarding experience to be able to help young people from all over Europe to meet other Free Software enthusiasts!", says Bonnie Mehring, YH4F project manager.

After six hard working months of coding, it is now the turn of the YH4F jury to evaluate the participants’ submitted projects. The jury is composed by Free Software professionals with different background and technological skills, that will review the projects within the next weeks taking into consideration different criteria such as the originality of the idea, the creativity of the project or the quality of the code.

After the first round of voting the jury will decide which of the submitted projects could be considered for one of the cash prizes. Then, the owners of those projects will be invited to an online interview to present it and answer the jury questions. Afterwards the jury will decide on the prizes.

Brussels is awaiting!

In the coming weeks, the winners will be announced based on the judges' scores, and prizes will be awarded at the YH4F Awards ceremony in Brussels in mid October, to which all participants will be invited for an all-expenses-paid weekend.

Six winners will receive cash prizes ranging from €4,096 to €1,024 each, at a ceremony featuring top Free Software speakers.

Keep up to date to our next news to learn about this year amazing projects and the winners!

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EU Parliament intends to widen participation in the Interoperable Europe Board

Today the EU Parliament’s Committee responsible for the Interoperable Europe Act has adopted its final position. It is a step forward towards a more inclusive Interoperable Europe Board while it introduces clearer indicators and statistics to monitor the progress of the Act. This position must now be upheld during the upcoming trialogue.

Today the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) has voted on its final text of the Interoperable Europe Act which is an improvement of the Commission proposal. The EU Parliament has introduced the possibility for relevant stakeholders to participate with observer status in the Interoperable Europe Board meetings and activities, including within those, the Free Software community.

Furthermore, the EU Parliament has also followed our demand suggesting the introduction of clearer objectives and statistics, that will allow to evaluate and properly measure the progress of the activities that will fall under this Act. Especially, when it comes to monitoring the use and uptake of Free Software solutions among public administrations.

“The inclusion of relevant stakeholders and experts, such as the Free Software community, in the Interoperable Europe Board must be part of the final text of the Interoperable Europe Act. Likewise, proper monitoring and evaluation procedures need to be set up to improve and adapt the interoperability of Europe in the long run. We, therefore, call upon the EU Parliament, especially the rapporteur Ivars Ijabs, to safeguard its position during the upcoming trialogue and to not allow any backwards step”, mentions Lina Ceballos, FSFE Policy Project Manager.

The ITRE Committee has also voted with a large majority to enter the inter-institutional negotiations. This means that the European Parliament must now defend its position and anchor it to the final text which will be negotiated together with the Council and Commission in the coming weeks. This is of high importance bearing in mind that the latest compromise text of the Council is hindering the inclusion of relevant stakeholders in the governance structure of this Act.

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Cyber Resilience Act & Free Software: Parliament waters down its own position

The European Parliament today voted on its position on the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). While the position improves on the Commission's exemption to protect Free Software, it fails to introduce a proper protection . We call on the institutions to put the burden of liability only on those who significantly financially benefit from the market, while protecting developers and non-profit work.

The Commission’s proposal to exclude Free Software “outside the course of a commercial activity” would fail to address a large part of software that will not be covered but is deployed. At the same time, smaller and non-profit projects would be harmed as they would have to bear major costs.

Therefore we have already proposed a solution that will lead to more security while safeguarding Free Software:

1. Liability should be shifted to those deploying Free Software instead of those developing Free Software and
2. Those who significantly financially benefit from this deployment should make sure the software becomes CE-compliant

While the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), a committee for opinion in CRA, backed our demand and voted for the protection of Free Software developers in the Cyber Resilience Act, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) introduced less far reaching protections with today's vote. Regular corporate donations or contributions by corporate employees to a project could turn non-profit work into a “commercial activity”, and thus lead to liability.

Alexander Sander, FSFE Senior Policy Consultant explains: "With today's vote, the EU Parliament has watered down its own position. Placing the burden of liability on small or non-profit entities that rely on regular donations would harm the Free Software and thus society and business alike. Due to the lack of funding and resources to go through the proposed procedures to become CE compliant, some of these projects might have to stop completely. We call on the institutions to find a compromise that safeguards the Free Software ecosystem while shifting liability to those who significantly financially benefit from the deployment”.

Interinstitutional negotiations will start start soon and should be concluded this year if possible. You can read more here.

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"The world after Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. A new generation of the Internet?"

Join our symposium in Cologne on September 22 to discuss the role of decentralised social media platforms in our society!

More and more people are turning away from social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to alternatives like Mastodon and PeerTube. Why are they different? How are they changing the web? And how can you get involved in the Fediverse? Join our symposium and get an insight into these decentralised social networks through our talks and workshops on 22.09.2023!

The Free Software Foundation Europe, the Centre for Civic Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Adult Education Centre Cologne are organising this free event. It is aimed at multipliers in political education, teachers, representatives of public institutions and educational establishments, as well as all interested parties. Prior knowledge and experience of decentralised social networks is not necessary, as the programme will include an overview of various decentralised services, often referred to as "Fediverse". Other topics include the potential and problems of decentralised services and their role for a democratic society. Three workshops will deal with the practical use of Fediverse services, the operation of own instances and the transfer of knowledge about decentralised social networks in an educational context.

The event will be held in German. Participation is free of charge, but online registration is required. We look forward to your participation!

Event dates and registration

Date: 22.09.2023 Time: 10:00 - 16:00 Location: FORUM Volkshochschule im Museum am Neumarkt, Cäcilienstraße 29-33, 50667 Cologne, Germany Registration: https://registration.fsfe.org/FediverseFachtag

Programme

10:00 - 12:00: Definition and fundamentals (plenary) Keynote: The infrastructure of the open society in the digital age - Katharina Nocun (publicist) Input: What is the Fediverse? Overview and delimitation - Tobias Diekershoff (friendica developer) Input: Potentials and problems of centralised and decentralised services - Stephanie Henkel (moderator at dresden.network) Discussion and Q&A session 12:00: Break for exchange and lunch snack 13:00 - 16:00: Practice and parallel workshops Practical input: From the everyday life of a Fediverse administrator - N.N. Workshop 1: Decentralised networks as a subject of political and school education - Björn Friedrich (Studio im Netz e.V.) Workshop 2: Using decentralised services for individuals and institutions - Katharina Nocun and Tobias Diekershoff Workshop 3: Running your own Fediverse instance - N.N. Closing panel: The future of the Fediverse - Katharina Nocun, Björn Friedrich, Tobias Diekershoff, Stephanie Henkel

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Interoperable Europe +++ Cyber Resilience Act +++ AI Act

July is here and so is our newsletter! In this issue we have some updates on the latest status of the Interoperable Europe Act, the Cyber Resilience Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act. The competition YH4F has just ended.

Table of contents

1. Cyber Resilience Act: First committee backs FSFE demand to protect Free Software
2. IEA: EU Parliament advances in strengthening the role of Free Software, yet needs to improve...
3. … and Council to exclude relevant stakeholders from contributing to an Interoperable Europe
4. Artificial Intelligence: EU: Majority for AI Act – and safeguards for Free Software
5. Germany: questions about the status of dPhoenix
6. 'Youth Hacking 4 Freedom': second edition ended
7. Planet FSFE: check out latest community news
8. Get Involved - Become a translator
9. Take Action! Add our email addresses to your contacts
10. Quote of the month
11. Contribute to our Newsletter

Cyber Resilience Act: First committee backs FSFE demand to protect Free Software

The Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) launched a landmark decision to protect Free Software developers in the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

Read more about this

IEA: EU Parliament advances in strengthening the role of Free Software, yet needs to improve...

The two EP Committees for opinion, IMCO and LIBE, have adopted their texts on the Interoperable Europe Act. While both recognise the importance of Free Software for this regulation, the inclusion of the Free Software community in the Board remains uncertain. The wording on proper monitoring and evaluation goes in the right direction.

...and Council to exclude relevant stakeholders from contributing to an Interoperable Europe

The current draft from the Council on the Interoperable Europe Act is limiting the Interoperable Europe Board, and with this excluding relevant stakeholders from contributing to a more interoperable and innovative Europe. There is also a lack of improved wording in the area of monitoring and budgeting.

More info about this

Artificial Intelligence: EU: Majority for AI Act – and safeguards for Free Software

The European Parliament voted in favour of the AI Act with 499 votes in favour, 28 against, and 93 abstentions. Free Software is given safeguards; these rules must now be defended in the inter-institutional negotiations (also known as trialogue in which representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission agree on an final text) and transferred to the Cyber Resilience Act and the Product Liability Directive.

Read more about this

Germany: questions about status of dPhoenix

A Free Software office and collaboration suite for the public sector is one of the projects with which the German government aims to fulfil the goals of the coalition agreement in relation to Free Software. But a closer look at the project raises the question whether our long-term demands for 'Public Money? Public Code!' are actually met.

'Youth Hacking 4 Freedom' second edition ended

The second edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest has just ended. Almost 70 teenagers from all over Europe registered for this second edition that will have its award ceremony in October.

Check out the YH4F website for the latest updates about this competition!

Planet FSFE: check out latest community news

The FSFE planet is a aggregation of blog posts and thoughts of the Free Software community. Check out the latest posts about the FSFE booth in Veganmania in Vienna or the latest news from the KDE community.

Check out the latest posts

Get Involved - Become a translator!

Help us reach people in your country! Join our amazing group of volunteers who help translate our messages into their native languages. The Spanish translation team will also need an extra hand in the coming months as Spain holds the EU presidency for the second half of the year.

Check out how to contribute here

Take action! Add our email addresses to your contacts

Please remember to add contact@fsfe.org (and similarly with the rest of @fsfe.org email addresses) to your address book to ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box.

Quote of the Month

"The FSFE does great work to further software freedom locally, nationally and in the EU and I enjoy the podcast and the News RSS so it felt natural to become a supporter. I also want to be more involved with the free software community."

Einar Mostad; English teacher, musician, IT student

Contribute to our Newsletter

We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor, Ana Galán

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