How the Parliament of Asturias decided to sign the open letter demanding "Public Money? Public Code!" - an interview with Iyán Méndez Veiga

"The Parliament of Asturias commits itself to the international "Public Money, Public Code" campaign" - this is a quote from the first demand in a recent proposal brought by the Parliament of Asturias to its government. It is also the happy end of continuous lobbying efforts from Oviedo's local hackerspace "Pica Pica Hacklab", using the FSFE's campaign material mixed with their self-developed brand of social hacking. Meanwhile, the Parliament of Asturias backed up its words with deeds and officially signed the open letter of our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign - being the very first Parliament to do so. To shed light on this successful story and inspire local groups around the world, we conducted an interview with Iyán Méndez Veiga, member of Pica Pica Hacklab.

FSFE: You are a member of Pica Pica HackLab in Oviedo, Asturias. A hackerspace that refers to itself as "a collective of Eco Hackers". Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit what Pica Pica HackLab is and what you are doing?

Iyán Méndez Veiga: I am doing my masters-study in physics at the University of Ulm, Germany, but I am initially from Oviedo where I joined Pica Pica Hacklab five years ago. Pica Pica is a small organisation and we are focussing on spreading the word about the use and benefits of Free Software in our region. The whole project started ten years ago when the original members of Pica Pica noticed the lack of activities related to Free Software in our region and so they decided to do something. Just some weeks later, Pica Pica already organised its first workshop about Free Software.

Calling ourselves "eco hackers" is to emphasise that we also do some activities that are not usually related to hacker spaces or hacker labs. For example we are fighting against planned obsolescence. On our website you can find tutorials how to use your toner till its end and not until the printer claims you have to change it. Also we have workshops about technology and birds, using Free Software to live-record the sound of birds and later use the audio to identify them. Later this year we will also try to publish something similar about bats because we have been using Free Software to record bat sounds and recognise them. So Pica Pica mixes technology and environmental studies, and we like that mix.

Some of the Pica Pica Hacklab members at a regular meetup in 2016. (Picture by Iyán Méndez Veiga, CC-BY 4.0)

Currently Pica Pica has six active members. That seem like a small group, but a lot of people usually come to our introduction workshops. Also there is a lot of fluctuation. Meaning some people come, they are active for a while but then they go again. In the past, for example, a medical student preparing the MIR exam in Oviedo joined us. He was very interested in Free Software and he even gave a talk about hacking some medical devices. We always have our door open.

Do you think there is a good Free Software scene or culture in Asturias or in Oviedo in particular? I mean a hackerspace normally does not grow from nowhere.

I would say it is a not a big thing in Asturias. But we are trying to spread it more and more. So, although most communication happens via email, we try to meet as often as we can. Then, once a year, we have this big workshop about the introduction to Free Software which is split in two sessions. The first part is about the idea behind the Free Software movement and the second part is hands-on installing Free Software. But we do a lot of other activities, as well. For example, when it was the 30th birthday of FSF, we organised a party and we also did it with the 20th birthday of KDE. And we hosted the first FLISOL event in Europe in our city back in 2010 and we have been doing so for the last 10 years.

Thank you very much for this introduction, now let's talk about your latest success: you convinced the Asturian parliament to write a proposal to the government to support the FSFE's "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign. How did you first become aware of the campaign?

Well, we received an email from FSFE which came just in time because we were already working on a similar proposal to our government some years before the "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign. The first time we tried to convince the Parliament was in 2015, during the previous regional elections. We wrote a similar document back then and when we saw the European "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign coming up, we used the moment to merge the two initiatives and give it a second try. Then, after some preparation, we started to contact the politicians of the Parliament in Asturias in March 2018. That means, it took us almost one year of work until they finally voted "Yes" which happened in February 2019.

The proposal of the Parliament has three main items and the very first one is that the Parliament of Asturias supports the international "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative. So I would say, indeed, that the campaign's material served us a very good basis to get the Parliament's proposal.

The proposal of the Parliament has three main items and the very first one is that the Parliament of Asturias supports the international "Public Money? Public Code!" initiative.

Why did you choose the Parliament and not the government or a ministry to influence with your agenda?

Some years ago Pica Pica HackLab tried to contact the President of Asturias, Javier Fernandez. Back then, in 2013, they created a committee of experts to give technological advise after the financial crisis. Alexis, first member of Pica Pica, wrote a letter to highlight that the committee was highly represented by Microsoft Ibérica (María Garaña, former president of Microsoft Ibérica was part of that comittee) and that this was probably not the best choice in the interest of our region. Obviously, there was a conflict of interest between what Asturias needed and wanted and what Microsoft wanted. So we wrote this letter to the President of Asturias and we were totally ignored. And we realised that it does not work very well to directly communicate with the government. In our experience, it is easier to contact the political parties that have representation in the parliament. And that is what we did this time.

Actually everything was going better when we had these face-to-face meetings. So as soon as we realised this, we started to do some kind of "social hacking"

How does this work in practice? Does it mean a lot of individual meetings with individual members from different parties or is there something like a public hour per week where you can talk with them?

It was a long process because when you start you do not yet have any good ways of contact like their phone numbers. So, everything was done via email at first. And then, as soon as we got some dialogue started, we sped things up and asked for meetings. Actually everything was going better when we had these face-to-face meetings. So, as soon as we realised this, we started doing some kind of "social hacking": the problem is that you cannot go to the Parliament of Asturias without an invitation. But once you have an invitation for a meeting with some of the politicians via email and you are inside the building, you can move freely. So we used the chance to knock on doors, office by office of politicians who did not yet reply or invite us, and this was a great chance to speak with these politicians directly and face-to-face even with a pending invitation.

Do you have a rough estimation of how many times you were going to the parliament?

I do not know exactly the number of meetings but I would say there were two important meetings. One with the first proposal with two or three political parties that were already going to vote yes. They agreed with the text of the initiative but the rest was not so sure. In these meetings we were actually trying to emphasise different aspects of "Public Money? Public Code!" depending on the direction the policial party is more aligned with. The idea behind this was that they are totally different parties but we want them all to vote in favour of the same thing. So we emphasised different benefits of Free Software to the different parties. For example the PP (conservative traditional party) was more interested in tax savings. But with the PSOE (labour party), which is also the governing party now, we tried to highlight the sharing aspect, so you can collaborate with other regions. If you develop something in one region, then you can share it later with the other regions. You do not have to invest again and again or to reinvent the wheel. Then we theorised that in the last elections it was a new party in our region that is more focused on transparency. We tried to convince them by highlighting that Free Software is the only kind of software that you can audit and that argument worked really well.

The idea behind was that they are totally different parties but we want them all to vote the same thing. So we tried to emphasise different benefits of Free Software to the different parties.

That means depending on the party's own directions and programs, you will use their own arguments for your causes?

Yes. The FSFE's campaign mentions four main advantages of using Free Software within public administrations. We used all four of them but with each party we emphasised one more than the others. That worked really well to convince them.

Did you also directly use the campaign's material like showing them the webpage or the video? Was the material useful for your purposes?

Yes. Actually the campaign's website is directly mentioned in the final proposal, in the very first item. So the web page was a big help for us. About the video I do not exactly know if it was shown but I would have done it because it is really effective.

Pica Pica Hacklab team in front of the Parliament of Asturias after the Parliament's decision to support Public Money? Public Code! (Picture by Marcos Suárez, CC-BY 4.0)

Which party was the first one to be convinced?

The parties that were more closely cooperating from the very beginning and were answering all the emails were Izquierda Unida and Podemos. Very early on, Izquierda Unida said that they were going to vote yes and they told us publicly that they were going to do that. So there was no mystery about their vote. It was different for Ciudadanos, PP and PSOE. I think Ciudadanos, by the end of the meetings, they were probably going to vote yes and they mentioned that they were going to vote yes. So we were quite sure about that, but regarding PSOE and PP we had no idea until the final vote.

Those are the biggest parties, so you needed them or at least one of them to succeed. Since you knew the small parties are going to vote in favour you further concentrated your efforts on the big ones?

Yes, of course. We sent a lot of emails to them before the voting, but they never replied... It was good to get the yes from Izquierda Unida and Podemos. But without the the PP or PSOE we would not have succeeded. And so, on the election day we were all watching the parliamentary session with tension.

And then you were successful, congratulations! Can you briefly explain what it is that the Parliament actually voted on and what it means?

I do not know how to legally translate this proposal. I would say something like non-binding motion or proposal or something like that. So there is the first item, it does not involve the government because it is says: "the Parliament of Asturias supports the European campaign of 'Public Money? Public Code!'". Meanwhile they followed their accepted proposal and are officially listed as signatories of the open letter of the campaign.

Then, the other two items are more related to the government. It basically takes the message from the "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and although it is not mandatory, it asks the government to use Free Software in public administrations. So it is not a law, it is not binding, but it is an intention.

I think for the first time, a lot of politicians understood what Free Software is.

Is there a legal obligation for the government to reply to it?

I am not a legal expert, but I would say no. I think what was more useful about this is that, I think for the first time, a lot of politicians understood what Free Software is. At least now they know the movement, they know the concept, they know the issues with proprietary software. And our representatives in the parliament are now aware of that.

But also it serves as a very good basis for us. We are not naive and we know that this proposal is not like the last step but more like the first one. But we can use it for the ones that will come next. For example, we are in elections period and our idea is to ask the parties somehow to reflect this motion passed on their proposals for the next government. Then, once we have the new government by the end of next month, we will start working again with the Parliament and remind them of this decision. And if it is not PSOE again who is governing we can directly speak with the governing party and remind them that they agreed on fostering Free Software and ask them what are the things they are going to do regarding points two and three of the proposal. And if they do nothing, we will be there to let them know that we do not forget and we want them to do something about it.

We know that this proposal is not like the last step but more like the first one. But we can use it for the ones that will come next.

Do you think the elections will change something in the current government in Asturias?

To be honest, I do not know which party will win. The current governing party is the only party which voted no. So concerning Free Software any new party is supposed to be better. But we know that it is one thing to vote yes when you are in the opposition and often it is totally different when you are governing and you have to do something about it. So let us wait to see what happens.

We wish you good luck with this and thank you very much for this very interesting interview!

Interviewer: Erik Albers

With our Public Money? Public Code! campaign, the FSFE demands that publicly financed software developed for the public sector shall be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. In order to help understand our call and its benefits, we run a series of interviews that highlight good examples and use-cases as best practices.

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FSFE Newsletter April 2019

This month's newsletter highlights the presence of the FSFE's campaign"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media and its growing popularity across Europe. You can find a short reminder of the news around the newly voted Copyright Directive, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Get Active section this month we remind you of the new open call the Next Generation Internet project we are part of has launched. Additionally you can find out about new events we are attending and the Web-a-thon we organise in Frankfurt am Main.

"Public Money? Public Code!" in German media

PMPC in German media

Our campaign Public Money? Public Code! has really taken off, as German media WDR and t3n picked it up earlier this month. The FSFE's initiative received prominent support in the media from various Bundestag members, as well as digital politics activists and publicists embracing the free licenses for software receiving money from public sector.

Additionally, t3n, who also supports the campaign, published an interview with the FSFE's Public Policy Manager, Alexander Sander on the way public sector, like the city of Barcelona, deploys Free Software in its administration and city solutions: "The city manages to "react to the digital transformation with appropriate digital solutions". "The government's agenda today is 70 percent determined by the proposals made through Decidim." says the Public Policy Manager. He believes that administrations could save money in the long term by using free-open source software: different communities might share programs and knowledge, new software would not have to be bought at high cost or completely redeveloped." Alexander Sander also mentioned Barcelona was the first major European city to support this action.

Please, feel welcome to also express your support by spreading the word and sharing our brochure

Copyright Directive was adopted

The European Parliament adopted the controversial Copyright Directive by 348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. Heated discussions about the introduction of upload filters ended up in protests of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets all across Europe. You can read our press release on the topic.

Join our community of freedom fighters: https://my.fsfe.org/support

Inside and Outside the FSFE

Pablo González in Medialab Madrid

Pablo González, the FSFE's Madrid Coordinator, was present with an info booth between March 26th and 28th at the Taller de Periodismo de Datos in Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain. He met with local journalists, hackers and data researchers interested in the FSFE's initiatives and goals, and topics like Open Standards and privacy. We also published our #ilovefs report where you can see only few of the pictures and graphics used during the day, as unfortunately, we couldn't include all the wonderful photos we saw. And you can also have insights on some numbers in statistics. On 3 April, the FSFE's Policy Manager Alexander Sander was at the Open Platform for Open Data? in Vienna, Austria. There, he talked about the challenges and contradictions of the models public administrations face when deploying software, as well as provided ways forward on how to shape the open data debate in a way that systematically promotes the public interest. Alexander Sander also made few other presentations on that topic at the Netzpolitischer Abend on 4 April in Vienna and on April 5th at the Grand Garage in Linz, Austria. A full video of his talk in Vienna is also available. Marcus Moeller, the FSFE Switzerland Coordinator, gave a presentation promoting the sustainable use of electronic equipment for educational purposes and thus also promoting Free Software, on 6 April at the Open Education Day in Berne, Switzerland. His presentation was given in front of teachers, people engaged with school informatics, as well as people interested in introducing and promoting Free Libre Open Source Software, Open Content or Open Hardware at their school. On 6 April the FSFE was present with an information and merchandise booth at another event - the 18th "Linux-Infotag Augsburg". The event took place in the premises of the IT faculty of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. On April 8th, The FSFE's Policy Analyst Alexander Sander and Programme Manager Erik Albers gave a presentation at Escola del Treball de Barcelona about our "Public Money?Public Code!" Campaign. The meetup, lead by Monica Bernardi from Dimmos, discussed public policies around Free Software, public money and how to leverage Free Software to push public administrations into the next level. You can also watch the full video from the event.

Escola del Treball de Barcelona

This month we had local FSFE supporter meetings in Hamburg, Bonn, Kiel and Zurich, Switzerland. Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE On 26 and 27 April, Max Mehl, the FSFE's Programme Manager, will give a keynote about Free Software as a solution to many pressing IT security problems at the Grazer Linuxtage. He will look at the pros and cons and use concrete examples to illustrate why security and openness are not contradictory. If you are close by, pay a visit to his talk at the Technical University Graz. On 11 May, the FSFE will be present with a booth at T-Dose in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Visit the booth for interesting dicussions and chats about Free Software. On 21 May, Erik Albers, the FSFE's Communication Manager, will talk at the Magdeburger Developer Days about how we can help ours and future generations to safe resources with the help of software. Between 24 and 26 May, the FSFE will host a web-a-thon in Frankfurt (Main) with the intend to have a fruitful collective work on improving the FSFE's homepage. The web-a-thon will happen at the local Chaos Computer Club. Be there, or be square. Get Active

Next Generation Internet Project - Open Call

Next Generation Internet Initiative: The third call of NGI Zero Discovery and NGI Zero PET opened up on April 1st 2019, with a deadline for submissions of June 1st 2019 12:00 CET.

NGI Zero Discovery is seeking for project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Search should not be a gatekeeper, a black box or a privacy nightmare. If the internet is the equivalent of a global brain, we need creativity and diversity in the pathways across that brain to unlock its true potential. Search and discovery are basic human needs for humans of all ages, and we would like to put powerful new technology in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all.

NGI Zero PET is seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euros - with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential. Reliability, confidentiality, integrity and security should be the 'new normal' of the internet, something ordinary users should not have to worry about. Trust is one of the key drivers for the Next Generation Internet, and an adequate level of privacy is a non-negotiable requirement for that. The desire is to assist independent researchers and developers to create powerful new technology, and to help them put it in the hands of future generations as building blocks for a fair and democratic society and an open economy that benefits all.

If your proposal ends up amongst the winners list, you will receive licensing advices and consultation from the FSFE team.

Contribute to our newsletter

If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Also make sure to see your event in our next newsletter. Please use our new tool to announce it!

Thanks to our community, all the volunteers, supporters and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor,

Galia Mancheva

Join our community of freedom fighters: https://my.fsfe.org/support

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#ilovefs Day report 2019

On Wednesday 14th of February, we acknowledge and celebrate the annual "I love Free Software Day". It is the day to express your love for Free Software and gratitude for your favourite pieces of Free Software. The Free Software Foundation Europe would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated and helped making this day a special one for everyone involved.

Loving Free Software #ilovefs

What happened in numbers and pictures

We counted hundreds of Tweets and posts both on Twitter and the Fediverse, and we are happy to announce that participation again has increased. Some were inspired to come up with their own visuals, while others decided to use our balloons and posters to decorate and remind those in the offline world about the importance of Free Software. And about the importance to send a big thank you at least once a year to all those Free Software solutions that we all use on a daily basis.

Spreading love for Free Software offline #ilovefs

People from Wikimedia spreading love for Free Software in Berlin

People from all over the world were showing their love with blog posts, news items, photos and artworks showing and encouraging others to join using the hashtag #ilovefs. As a result, Twitter, the Fediverse and even Facebook were flooded with love messages by people tagging their favourite Free Software projects. Thanks to our former intern and current volunteer Jan Weymeirsch who wrote a scraper to collect and analyse the data, we have concrete numbers and visuals to support them:

Participation in #ILoveFS on Social Media through time

Overall 667 distinct #ilovefs posts on Twitter and Fedeverse were counted, made by 530 individual accounts, mentioning at least 231 projects and developers. Posts on Twitter were coming from at least 230 different locations from all over the world in 16 different languages. In addition, there were many more "I love Free Software" posts that did not use the hashtag #ilovefs and cannot be part of this analysis, though.

#ilovefs participation on Twitter, Fediverse and Reddit

The Free Software community at its best

The important takeaway from all these numbers is the community feeling that it generates; that such a diverse group of people can share common values and attitudes towards software. It shows how much we all love sharing, using, studying and improving software for a better digital and analogue world!

#ilovefs by @Elektrollart

There were also projects and individuals from all over the world dedicating special blog entries or news items, and we would like to share some of them with you. Unfortunately, we are not able to highlight all of them but pick just a few. There was a student from Nepal who used the occasion to spread the word and explain IloveFS-day and the Free Software concept to those who are still unfamiliar with it.

The Open Project platform

The OpenProject went even further by expressing their affirmation for Free Software by integrating a #ilovefs banner into their platform.

Befriended communities like Wikimedia Deutschland, Open Source.com, Open Fest Bulgaria, LibreOffice and Percona, as well as the news site Pro-Linux reminded their readers and appealed to their communities to join the celebration and spread the love and gratitude.

Our friends from Barcelona Free Software organised a very cheerful meet up at a local bar and imbued everyone with the love for Free Software vibe.

A Cheers from the Free Software Community in Barcelona

We are also happy about companies getting active with spreading the word about Free Software and #ilovefs, and Zalando hosted a special event dedicated to the "I love Free Software" Day, hosted at their premises in Berlin. There were some interesting discussions with speakers sharing their reasons for using, loving and developing Free and Open Source solutions.

#ilovefs panel by Zalando

Save the date!

Sonja planting the #ilovefs seeds

In case you missed your opportunity to thank your favourite project, mark February 14 as "I Love Free Software Day" in your calendar for next year. But remember, you can always and without any special occasion create an opportunity to express your gratitude and appreciation throughout the entire year. You do not need a special day, as there is simply no wrong time for that!

We would like to thank everyone involved in and contributing to this day, as well as the countless developers, translators, community managers, artists and anyone else involved in Free Software.

We hope that this year's "I love Free Software Day" has further planted the seeds of Free Software passion in all of you, just like Sonja planted hers.

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Copyright Directive – EU safeguards Free Software at the last minute

The European Parliament adopted the controversial Copyright Directive by 348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. Today's vote marks the end of years of debate in the European Union. Heated discussions about the introduction of upload filters ended up in protests of tens of thousands people in the streets all across Europe. In a last minute action back in September 2018, the European Parliament adopted an amendment and pushed it through the trilogue to at least protect Free and Open Source Software.

“We are glad we were able to raise awareness and understanding of what drives software development in Europe nowadays among many policy makers. The exclusion of Free Software code hosting and sharing providers from this directive is crucial to keep Free Software development in Europe healthy, solid and alive. we are dismayed that the EU missed the opportunity to renew copyright to a reasonable extent. As upload filters are now introduced, we urge the European Commission to avoid filtering monopolies by companies this directive actually intended to regulate. We call on the European Commission to promote the dissemination of Free Software filter technologies, including financial support, for instance within the framework of research programmes Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe.” says Alexander Sander, Policy Manager of the Free Software Foundation Europe.

The Free Software Foundation Europe and Open Forum Europe started a campaign to “Save Code Share” in 2017. More than 14.000 people supported our call with an open letter which requests EU legislators to preserve the ability to collaboratively build software online in current EU Copyright Directive proposal.

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FSFE Newsletter March 2019

This month's newsletter highlights the new project the FSFE recently joined and the funding opportunities it offers, that you may want to take advantage of. You can get the latest updates on the Copyright Directive reform and the hottest news regarding Article 13, as well as a short summary of what else has happened during the past month. In the Editor's choice section this month you can find interesting news on developments with the Radio Equipment Directive, and find out who else have expressed their support for our "Public Money? Public Code!" campaign and what they have to say about it.

European Commission Next Generation Internet Initiative

Next Generation Internet Initiative

The European Commission launched an initiative called "The Next Generation Internet" and the FSFE is part of its NGI0 consortium. The Initiative's purpose is to create technologies for a better internet where the individual user's best interests are the top priority. In other words, internet technologies that respect human rights and important values like privacy, openness, transparency, cooperation, and protection of data. To help achieve these objectives, the Initiative runs two branch projects, led by the NLnet Foundation, in order to award grants to applicant technologies that attest to those ideals. The FSFE's role is to provide Free Software licensing recommendations and consultation in these projects:

NGI0 PET deals with technologies that enhance privacy and trust on the Internet. It awards grants to applicants that can provide people with new instruments to keep their data on the Internet confidential, while still being able to act freely and independently online.

NGI0 Discovery, deals with technologies that enhance the ability to search for information on the Internet. The project confers grants to applicants that can help strengthen how we search for and discover content on the internet in such a way that supports important social values, such as freedom of expression, privacy, and transparency. The best suited solutions would ensure that searching for information is less centralised with as few intermediaries as possible.

All granted technologies will be based on and be made available as Free and Open Source Software.

The NGI0 consortium acts as a sort of advisory body for successful applicants and assists them with their technologies in specific areas, such as security and accessibility. In this context, the FSFE facilitates their software licensing, advising them on how to properly apply best licensing practices, and making sure their technologies are licensed and compliant.

Calls for applications for both projects are renewed every 2 months. They are currently in the midst of their 2nd call, the deadline of which is 1 April 2019. The first call, which ended in February, resulted in over a hundred submissions from countries not only from Europe, but also from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. If you are interested in getting funding to develop your relevant technology, you can apply here.

Copyright and Article 13 - What happened and what's next

Save Code Share

Despite uncertainties and controversies along the way, the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive seems to be reaching the end of the road. There are many steps to finalise a legal text in the EU, but now the EU Member States and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on a consolidated text. The next step is for the Directive to be voted in the plenary session at the end of March/in early April. As reported, the original proposal could have regulated the platforms software developers use, cooling incentives to innovate and making software more fragile in Europe. It was in response to this that the OpenForum Europe and the FSFE started the SaveCodeshare.eu campaign. Together we wrote letters, petitions, and held meetings and events in Brussels and in EU member states.

Article 13 now excludes “open source software development and sharing platforms” from its scope (see article 2(5)) in the provisional agreement. This one unintended consequence has at least been avoided. From a wider perspective, no matter how the vote turns out, we were able to raise awareness and understanding of what drives software development in Europe today among many policymakers. We explained how the software ecosystem operates, the pervasive use of Free and Open Source software licenses, and the commercial nature of Free and Open Source Software.

Join our community of freedom fighters: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-03

Inside and Outside the FSFE

Freedom is also about diversity.

The four universal freedoms of Free Software offer fertile soil for emancipating technologies without restrictions towards gender or any other backgrounds. However, women have traditionally been and still are under-represented in those bodies and communities shaping these technologies. It is time to change that. On March 8, the International Women's Day, we used the occasion to share the FSFE's ongoing efforts to improve gender balance and ensure gender equality. As a way to help ensure that in the FSFE everyone can, at all times, feel at ease to participate without fearing any form of attack, reprisal or harassment, we adopted a Code of Conduct and installed a CARE team. To further support the aims of the CARE Team, we welcome Gabriel Ku Wei Bin as a new member. On February 23rd Alexander Sander, FSFE's policy analyst, spoke about our Public Money - Public Code campaign at the "Winter Kongress Digitale Gesellschaft" in Zurich, Switzerland ( watch the video ). At the same event, Marcus Moeller, the FSFE's Coordinator for Switzerland, and Michel Ketterle presented the next version of Freedomvote. Freedomvote is a campaign and a Free Software that enables local groups to run political and electoral campaigns by themselves. FSFE local groups have already been using it to run campaigns in the Netherlands in 2017 and in Switzerland in 2015 Katharina Nocun, Internet activist and FSFE Freelancer, together with Basanta E. P. Thapa from Fraunhofer Fokus presented the ongoing Public Money - Public Code campaign and our new expert policy brochure, and used this occasion to talk about ways public procurement can be modernised. The presentation took place on March 5th at c-base in Berlin, hosted by the Netzpolitischen Abend - (Watch the video) From March 16th to 17th, FSFE's booth and staff could be spotted at the Chemnitzer Linuxtage in Chemnitz, Germany. Erik Albers, FSFE's Programme Manager, gave a workshop about F-Droid, G-Droid, and the most useful Free Software apps to help people use more Free Software on their mobile phones. Another place you could inform yourself about the FSFE and have a chat with our supporters was at the the Dutch Linux Usergroup NLLGG on March 16th, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. FSFE supporter André Klöpfel was interviewed (DE) by Deutschlandfunk Marktplatz about how to install a Linux Distro for beginners. This month we had local FSFE supporter meetings in Madrid, Hamburg, Frankfurt (Main), Berlin and Bonn. Editor's choice

EU Radio Lockdown Directive

Protect freedom on radio devices: raise your voice today! - Alert on an upcoming threat from a new EU regulation. In this entry Max explains in greater detail how a single article in the EU Radio Equipment Directive has the capacity to make installing a custom piece of software on most radio devices (like WiFi routers, smartphones and embedded devices) impossible. Read his blog to find out how you can contribute to the better development of events. Public Money? Public Code! campaign in EDRi's Newsletter EDRigram: "Publicly funded software has to result in public code." Read their opinion on our initiative. Do not miss: upcoming events with the FSFE Pablo González, FSFE's local Coordinator Madrid, will be present with an info-booth from March 26th to 28th at the Taller de Periodismo de Datos in Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain. Pass by to get to know local Madrid supporters and the FSFE. Get Active

We have a cool tool for announcing events and promoting them on our website and social channels. If you would like us to include your event in our next newsletter and website, feel welcome to try out the event submission tool.

Contribute to our newsletter

If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, send them to us. As always, the address is newsletter@fsfe.org. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks to our community, all the volunteers, supporters and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editor, Galia Mancheva

Join our community of freedom fighters: https://fsfe.org/join/nl2019-03

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