Older blog entries for mattl (starting at number 661)

GNU Project renews focus on free software in education

The new effort is based at http://www.gnu.org/education.

The newly formed GNU Education Team is being led by Dora Scilipoti, an Italian free software activist and teacher. Under her leadership, the Team has developed a list of specific goals to guide their work:

• Present cases of educational institutions around the world who are successfully using and teaching free software.

• Show examples of how free programs are being used by educational institutions to improve the learning and teaching processes.

• Publish articles on the various aspects involved in the use of free software by educational institutions.

• Maintain a dialogue with teachers, students and administrators of educational institutions to listen to their difficulties and provide support.

• Keep in contact with other groups around the world committed to the promotion of free software in education.

GNU and its host organization, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), emphasize that free software principles are a prerequisite for any educational environment that uses computers:

Educational institutions of all levels should use and teach free software because it is the only software that allows them to accomplish their essential missions: to disseminate human knowledge and to prepare students to be good members of their community. The source code and the methods of free software are part of human knowledge. On the contrary, proprietary software is secret, restricted knowledge, which is the opposite of the mission of educational institutions. Free software supports education, proprietary software forbids education.

In an article at http://fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-education-website-relaunch, Scilipoti adds insights about the project's organizing philosophy, current contributors, and progress so far. Of her basic motivation for being involved, she says, "As a free software advocate and a teacher, I always felt that the GNU Project needed to address the subject specifically and in depth, for it is in the education field that its ethical principles find the most fertile ground for achieving the goal of building a better society."

In her article, Scilipoti also highlights some of the free software success stories from around the world, especially Kerala, India, where the government has migrated over 2,600 of its public schools to free software.

While the Education Team has already compiled a collection of useful materials, they are also looking for more volunteer contributors. People who want to help, or who have information about instructive examples of existing use of free software in schools, should contact education@gnu.org.

"Education really is one of the most fundamental areas we need to focus on to achieve real social change," said Free Software Foundation executive director John Sullivan. "We need to be acknowledging and assisting schools that are doing the right thing, and helping those who aren't yet on board understand why those giveaway Microsoft Office, iPad, and Kindle deals aren't so great for classrooms after all. We're very thankful to all of the Team members for stepping up to meet this challenge. I hope others will be inspired by their work and join the effort."

The Education Team has also been working closely with GNU's Translation Team to make the new materials available in as many languages as possible. People interested in helping with the translation component of the project should see the information at http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.translations.html.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants — and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some, especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as "open source," which cites only practical goals such as making software powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are different at the deepest level. For more explanation, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.

About the GNU Operating System and Linux

Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom. See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html.

In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one, the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU GPL, making it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a complete free operating system, which made it possible for the first time to run a PC without non-free software. This combination is the GNU/Linux system. For more explanation, see http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.

Media Contacts

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

###

Syndicated 2012-01-30 16:48:43 from Free Software Foundation

The GNU Education Project

The gnu.org website has been enriched with a completely renewed section on education, at http://www.gnu.org/education.

It all began in December 2008 at the "Free Software Free Society" International Conference held in Trivandrum, India. During an informal conversation with Richard Stallman and attendees at the event, the topic of the role of free software in education was brought up and I was asked to take up the task of working on the education section of the Web site. As a free software advocate and a teacher, I always felt that the GNU Project needed to address the subject specifically and in depth, for it is in the education field that its ethical principles find the most fertile ground for achieving the goal of building a better society.

I joined gnu.org with a desire to do more than maintain the pages or add schools and free educational programs to the existing lists. I wanted to build a section structured so as to provide detailed descriptions of schools that have chosen to include exclusively free software in their curricula, and of free educational programs and resources employed in schools. I also saw the need to provide room for articles that would shed more light on the subject. The articles within the section would have to be arranged in a clear scheme so as to make it easy for visitors to find information.

"Case Studies" is the place where we currently present cases of schools that are successfully using and teaching free software. We talk about their experience, the problems they encountered and how they solved them, their motivations, the benefits they gained, and their involvement in and contributions to free software. We do not attempt to build an exhaustive database of schools committed to free software — that is already being done on other Web sites. Instead, in this initial stage we focus on schools whose motivations for the use of free software are on the ethical side rather than centered solely on the technical or economic advantages. We found a few cases, one of which is a school in Argentina: an elementary teacher with limited technical skills managed to get her school to migrate all computers to GNU/Linux by showing decision makers at the school that the use of nonfree software was in contrast with the moral values promoted by the institution.

These cases are part of the data we gather during our observation work. They serve as material for thought in our search for a method to be presented as an educational model that will highlight the impact of free software on society and will be effective to bring its values into the education field.

We also intend to talk to schools that may not have completely grasped the importance and the implications of teaching free software and its ethical principles. We want to support and encourage them in all possible ways.

"Educational Resources" contains educational free software as well as other resources such as free (as in freedom) printed or digital educational materials, and institutions that offer degree courses on the various aspects of free software. As with schools, our aim is not to build exhaustive listings, but to highlight instructive examples.

For educational free software, we report on specific programs that show how software freedom benefits the educational process, with an emphasis on the ethical implications of the use of technology. We base our work on the philosophical grounds of the GNU Project.

A good example of a free program that we present is the case of Tux Paint, used by a school in India to teach students as young as eleven how to put into practice the four freedoms, including freedom 1 — the freedom to study and modify the program. This case alone debunks the myth that being a developer is a requirement to exercise software freedom; it provides evidence that software freedom lives not in the realm of abstract theories but can be exercised by all users, including children.

In the "Education Projects" subsection we mention other groups around the world who are working in the education field and share the principles of the GNU Project. Among others, we mention the Free Software Foundation Europe Education Project and IT@School, the Indian project from the government of Kerala that migrated more than 2,600 public schools to free software.

The section also contains a FAQ page, where we answer the most common issues and questions that we receive; the Education Team page, in which we present in detail our goals, our motivations, and our positions; and a Table of Contents for easy reference.

On the main page, under the title "In Depth", there is a growing list of links to articles that we publish which go deeper into the subject.

By no means do we consider our work finished. On the contrary, it is a starting point. What we have done constitutes a solid foundation for further work. We remain in close contact with people from India since the work being done there in the education field is significant — probably the most successful case in the world of free software implementation on a large scale in schools is found in the state of Kerala. There is also important progress in Latin America and in some regions of Spain; we plan to work on those cases soon.

Many people ask us why we think it is important that educational institutions use and teach free software. They wonder: "What does free software have to do with education?" It is important to note that one of the key concepts at the root of the free software movement is that knowledge is a resource to be shared in freedom so that it can be spread for the benefit of all. Similarly, the whole educational process is based on the sharing and dissemination of knowledge; it is not possible to educate where sharing is forbidden. As Richard Stallman explains:

The source code and the methods of free software are part of human knowledge. The mission of every school is to disseminate human knowledge. Proprietary software is not part of human knowledge. It's secret, restricted knowledge, which schools are not allowed to disseminate. (From a speech at the University of Pavia, Italy, in September 2007, when receiving an honorary degree in Engineering.)

So we would reverse the question: why would a school want to dishonor its duty by bringing nonfree software to the classroom?

The education section thus tends to emphasize the political importance of using and teaching free software and its positive impact on society, a point of view which is shared by all members of the Education Team:

Matteo Gamba is an Italian student of Mathematics at the University of Turin. He came in contact with free software at high school during an awareness program carried out by NGO Hipatia. With other fellow students at the school, he founded the group GURI to promote the principles of the GNU Project and fight against the growing practice of treating knowledge as property.

Matteo is an active member of Hipatia and currently working to elaborate an educational method to transmit the social and ethical values of free software to students. He says, "We need to elaborate a new educational paradigm to get across to the students the social and ethical values of free software."

Matias Croce is an Argentine student of Information Technology Engineering at the National Technological University in the Province of Mendoza. He first knew about free software at his Faculty and became involved by joining local free software groups. He later participated in the foundation of a project based at the Faculty to promote free software. The group organizes events in Mendoza, such as the FSD and FLISoL, the largest free software event in Latin America. Matias contributed the final structure of the new section and the layout of its pages.

Leonardo Favario, an Italian student of Information Technology Engineering, and Raghavendra Selvan, a lecturer in Bangalore who teaches Digital Image Processing using GNU Octave, helps with editing our videos.

I myself am of Italian descent born in Argentina and currently based in Italy. I hold a BA in Education and a BA in Translation from the Faculty of Languages of the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. I also completed part of a course of study in Fine Arts at the same university.

I had heard about the existence of a free operating system long ago, but had never paid much attention to it due to my lack of interest in pure technical matters. It was only in 2006, after watching the video of a speech by Richard Stallman, that I understood there is actually much more than just technical issues at the root of the free software movement. I became aware of the importance of spreading the word about software freedom and joined AsSoLi and the Italian GNU Translators Team with that purpose in mind. With a background in the Humanities and Arts, my interest is focused almost exclusively on the philosophical and political aspects of free software.

We invite people who share our goals and our views to join us. We need help in spotting special cases of schools and free programs, write reports, talk to schools, edit and convert audio visual materials to free formats, do graphic design, and more. Our contact address is education@gnu.org.

Syndicated 2012-01-30 16:14:32 (Updated 2012-01-30 17:37:24) from Free Software Foundation

And now for some completely different ways to give to the FSF

Of course, the most obvious way to give money to the FSF is to become an associate member -- associate members are individuals who make scheduled financial contributions to support our work. In return, they get some benefits, and we get to keep doing what we do.

But that's not the only way people give money to the FSF!

• You probably already know about online donations made with a credit or debit card, but did you know the FSF also accepts payments via PayPal? Not only that, but did you know we even worked with PayPal a couple of years ago to change their conditions, to remove proprietary software? You can even become an associate member, using PayPal, and pay us each month from your regular bank account.

• Don't forget, many employers offer donation matching schemes -- you might be missing out on a way to increase, and in many cases double, your contribution, just through your employer.

• If you use credit cards, you might like to consider signing up for a card that sponsors the FSF -- we get $50 when you do, as well as 0.3% of all the retail transactions you make with the card. Of course, credit cards are not a decision to make lightly, since they can involve loss of privacy and increased debt, so think carefully before getting one.

• Along those lines, if you have a VISA card you can donate via the VISA Giving Program.

• Do you have a car you no longer use, because it's trapped under a mountain of snow, or that you just don't use anymore now that you've switched to GNU/Linux because you're no longer driving to the electronics store to get viruses taken off your computer? We'll take it! We've partnered up with a company that'll take your old car at no cost to you -- and when they sell it, you'll get a tax receipt for the value.

• Did you get any unwanted presents for Christmas this year? Do you really need to hang on to that "ULTRA R@RE!!!" VHS copy of Dunston Checks In? If now is a good time to clear some junk from your life, why not sell it on eBay? If you sell your item via eBay Giving Works you can donate a percentage (from 5% to 100%) of your eBay sale direct to the FSF! To get things going, you can buy something from this box of OpenMoko FreeRunner spares we found in a closet at the office. I'm going to try and convince people in the FSF office to sell some of their own unwanted gifts too.

• Do you ever wish the FSF could be at more events around the world? Well, you can donate your unwanted frequent flyer miles to us! This is actually a little complicated, and unfortunately not tax-deductible, but contact us and our resident frequent flyer expert (that's John Sullivan) will figure out the rest.

• Associate members get a 20% discount on FSF merchandise and free entry to the LibrePlanet 2012 conference in March. If you're not a member yet, you're missing out on all the extra goodies you can buy... don't have every one of our books, every t-shirt and every sticker? I hope you'll also get yourself a stuffed gnu toy or two, a couple of signed art prints, some buttons, a keychain, a pin for your shirt collar, one of our hooded sweatshirts and a selection of our finest reference cards. Instant geek cred can be yours at http://shop.fsf.org/!

• Popmoney and Flattr are new ways to give us a little (or a lot) of money quickly.

• If BitCoin's your thing, 1PC9aZC4hNX2rmmrt7uHTfYAS3hRbph4UN will be of use to you. Note that since we are using a single address for receiving all contributions, we are not providing full anonymity. Further, we support the idea of people being able to donate anonymously, but we can't speak to the security or soundness of Bitcoin in the long-term.

• If you work in the kind of place where bringing all your GNU Press books and shirts to work is a fun thing to do, maybe you work at a place that should be featured on our list of Corporate Patrons, too?

• If you're already working for one of our Corporate Patrons, you probably have job openings at your company. You should prod your HR department to list them on our job board, the only Web site that lists exclusively free software jobs. We know this can be a great resource, and we just need a little more help to get it going.

• Finally, many companies have donation schemes via their local United Way offices -- if yours does, you can donate to the FSF!

We've added many new ways to give money recently, but we're sure there are other ways we haven't even considered yet. If you have an idea, let us know at donate@fsf.org.

Thanks for your support!

Syndicated 2012-01-26 22:36:55 from Free Software Foundation

Part 4: Brett Smith wants to do more for you!

← Read previous appeals — Become an associate member for just $120 or $10/month at my.fsf.org/.

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is one of the main tools the FSF provides to help protect computer user freedom. Every programmer can use the GPL as the license for software they write. When they do, they guarantee all the software's users permission to use, share, and change the program as they see fit.

In xkcd comic 225, two ninjas, conspiring to stop the GPL at its source, break through Richard Stallman's ceiling and awaken him in the night. As you would expect, Stallman jumps alert, drawing a katana with a shing and revealing himself as a true GPL ninja. (Of course, the real-life Stallman is too peaceful to threaten someone with even a butter knife, but you get the metaphor.)

I must confess, when I first saw in our office archives the katana someone sent as a gift to Stallman after reading that comic, I didn't think much of it. But over time, I saw some oddities in and around the office that made me start to think there might be something more to it. For example, I noticed that GPL violation reports (about people distributing GPL software but claiming users don't have the rights guaranteed to them) submitted to us over the past few years, some about rather large corporations, have quietly been resolved. For reasons unknown to me, corporations would simply fix the issues and start following the GPL, without anything coming into the public light.

This alone isn't anything that should seem unusual. After all, Brett Smith has been the FSF's license compliance engineer for several years now. Surely he's just a regular guy from Kentucky, experienced at his job, and not some sort of secret agent. Right?

Wrong.

Brett Smith is a GPL ninja

It took me a while to figure it out, but once I examined the evidence in front of me, I realized it was the only logical conclusion.

The first hint is the sheer volume of Brett's output. This past year alone, he answered hundreds of complex licensing questions from the public, wrote some widely read and timely posts for the FSF's blogs, coded up Python scripts during breaks, and dashed across the country to give input to policy makers. Despite the pressure he worked under, he managed to do it all in a timely fashion and with the kind of poise that makes you think, "I bet this kid is cool enough to beat a lie detector test."

Even when he's not working, hearing about Brett's hobbies reinforces the idea he's some sort of free software samurai warrior. He hacks on personal projects like dtrx, an all-purpose archive extraction tool. He knows some Japanese and has taken a couple of long trips to Japan. Lately he's been getting into amateur radio -- he's already got a call sign (KB1WJE).

Proprietary software companies love to talk about how they hire "ninjas." Well, don't worry, we've got ninjas too.

But we are six short of having seven samurai

Despite Brett's skills, the battle to defend freedom and the GPL is a job too big and too important to be left to a single ninja. And there is a lot more that Brett wants to do. He could take even more license violation reports head on, or publish more educational material to teach the way of the GPL ninja to a new generation.

Plus Brett has racked up more vacation time than anyone I know, and he would love to take another long vacation to Japan one of these days.

You don't have to take just my word for all of this. Here's what a couple of our colleagues at other freedom-friendly organizations have to say:

Brett has brought a very professional, constructive approach to working with me on the license. Without his dedication and patience the new GPL compatibility approach would not have succeeded.

-- Luis Villa, on the Mozilla Public License 2.0

This year we managed to announce the acceptability of CC0 for usage with software and its compatibility with the GPL. Licensing issues are complex, and this probably couldn't have happened if we hadn't been able to take advantage of the excellent knowledge and skills of Brett Smith.

-- Christopher Allan Webber, on Creative Commons' CC0 Public Domain Dedication

Here is how you can help Brett do more:

• Become an associate member. Average donations of members are $169/year, and memberships start at $120 or $10/month. When you donate $500 or more, you can be listed on our Thank GNUs web page: https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom?referrer=2992

• Donate any amount you can: https://my.fsf.org/donate

• Add our fundraising widget to your site or blog: https://my.fsf.org/associate/widget

• And simply let your friends and co-workers know about our fundraiser! http://www.fsf.org/appeal/2011/we-want-to-do-more-for-you

Sincerely,
Josh, Brett, Donald, Jasimin, Jeanne, John, Martin, Matt, Peter, Richard, and Ward

Syndicated 2012-01-20 23:23:14 from Free Software Foundation

GNU spotlight with Karl Berry (December 2011)

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list. Nearly all GNU software is available from ftp.gnu.org, or preferably one of its mirrors. You can use the URL ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

Several GNU packages are looking for maintainers and other assistance. There's also a general page on how to help GNU, and information on how to submit new packages to GNU.

As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Syndicated 2012-01-05 17:32:50 from Free Software Foundation

Free Software Foundation

• The FSF advocates for free software ideals as outlined in the Free Software Definition, works for adoption of free software and free media formats, and organizes activist campaigns against threats to user freedom like Windows 7, Apple's iPhone and OS X, DRM on ebooks and movies, and software patents.
• We promote completely free software distributions of GNU/Linux, and advocate that users of the GNU/Linux operating system switch to a distribution which respects their freedom.
• We drive development of the GNU operating system and maintain a list of high-priority free software projects to promote replacements for common proprietary applications.
• We build and update resources useful for the free software community like the Free Software Directory, and the free software jobs board. We also provide licenses for free software developers to share their code, including the GNU General Public License.

Syndicated 2011-12-19 21:13:51 (Updated 2011-12-20 21:37:49) from Free Software Foundation

Help

• Problems logging in?
• To access your FSF associate membership account, you can log in at: my.fsf.org.
• Contact the Free Software Foundation.

Syndicated 2011-12-19 21:12:56 from Free Software Foundation

We want to do more for you!

Help us raise $300,000 for free software by January 31st.

With your support this past year, we made a difference and accomplished a great deal for free software around the world. But we don't just want to repeat this in 2012 — we want to make an even bigger impact, and we need your help to do it.

To reach our fundraising goal, we need to raise just $229,000 more over the next seven weeks. If we meet this goal, we will be confident that our existing program expenses will be covered for the remainder of the year, and we can focus on how best to start doing more.

You can help us get there by joining — an FSF membership is $120/year, which is $10/month or 33 cents per day. Note that while you can contribute $10 or more automatically each month, we cannot yet automatically collect your 33 cents each day.

Who we are and what we do

• Last year we helped arrange over 110 events around the world, including our annual LibrePlanet conference.
• We responded to well over 14,000 email requests from our members, reporters, and the broader public.
• We gathered tens of thousands of signatures, and broke stories on computer user freedom into the mainstream media.
• We helped people learn about getting started with free software, and ran educational advocacy campaigns about the efforts of major corporations to eliminate free software.
• We took in over 100 new copyright assignments for the GNU Project, replied to over a thousand free software licensing questions, and provided important distribution and development infrastructure for GNU developers.
• We offered feedback to organizations and standards bodies, and gave guidance on legislation and policies being enacted around the world.
• We run a store and publishing company out of our office, shipping freely licensed books, printed t-shirts, and stickers to dozens of countries.

But we want to do more — a lot more. And the only way that can happen is if you help us grow.

The Free Software Foundation is a staff of ten dedicated and effective individuals, working with a global network of volunteers and supporters of the free software movement. Our president, Richard Stallman, does not receive a salary from the FSF. Every person and function in our organization is pushed to its capacity, and to do more, we need to grow.

Each week until the end of our fundraiser on January 31st, we will be presenting you short focus pieces detailing our work and our desire to do even more for you!

The goal of our fundraiser is to raise $300,000 for free software. Our goal as an organization is to spend your donations wisely and effectively, so that we can do our very best on your behalf at defending the rights of computer users around the world and encouraging free software development.

How you can help

• Join: https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom
• Donate: https://my.fsf.org/donate
• Add our fundraising widget to your site or blog: https://my.fsf.org/associate/widget
• And simply let your friends and co-workers know about our fundraiser!

Sincerely,

Josh, Brett, Donald, Jasimin, Jeanne, John, Martin, Matt, Peter, Richard, and Ward

PS. If you are in the US, please call your representatives this week to stop the Internet blacklist legislation, SOPA, from becoming a law!

Syndicated 2011-12-15 22:22:29 (Updated 2011-12-15 23:37:27) from Free Software Foundation

Help us make LibrePlanet 2012 a success!

Since 2009, the Free Software Foundation has run an annual conference in the Boston area for free software developers, activists, and the FSF's own associate members. This conference grew out of a smaller members-only event which ran successfully for six years.

The conference has featured many free software luminaries over the years, including FSF president Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen of the Freedom Box Foundation and Software Freedom Law Center, EFF co-founder John Gilmore, GNOME Foundation executive director Karen Sandler, Jeremy Allison of the Samba project, Selena Deckelmann of PostgreSQL, Máirín Duffy of Fedora, and veteran GNU developer Rob Savoye.

We are planning the upcoming conference in the midst of our annual winter fundraiser, the time of year when we work the hardest at inviting new people to become FSF associate members. Our associate members are the most important means of financial support for the Free Software Foundation -- individuals in our community, making a financial commitment to software freedom. Because we want the conference to be an opportunity for these free software supporters to meet each other, our associate members can attend the conference without charge.

At last year's event, I promised we would make this conference bigger and better than ever before. As I and the other staff work hard to bring some of the pioneers of our community together, we are relying on your contributions to help make the financial aspect of this event possible, without hanging ugly corporate banners everywhere.

We just need 100 new members, and the conference is paid for entirely. Funding is necessary for us to provide a comfortable venue, devote enough staff time to promote it and have it run smoothly, and offer other features like audio and video recordings of the talks for future use.

• Chip in by becoming an associate member.

• Already a member? Thank you! If you can, give a gift membership or three, or make a one-time donation. A gift membership is especially great if you have a friend who's on the fence about coming to the conference.

• Finally, please join the mailing list for updates and be the first to get your ticket for LibrePlanet 2012.

Syndicated 2011-12-14 17:14:18 from Free Software Foundation

LibrePlanet 2012 conference announced: March 24th-25th

Previous LibrePlanet conferences have featured many free software luminaries, including FSF president Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen of the Freedom Box Foundation and Software Freedom Law Center, EFF co-founder John Gilmore, GNOME Foundation executive director Karen Sandler, Jeremy Allison of the Samba project, Selena Deckelmann of PostgreSQL, Máirín Duffy of Fedora, and veteran GNU developer Rob Savoye.

"At last year's event, I promised we would make this conference bigger and better than ever before." said Matt Lee, FSF campaigns manager, "All signs point to us making good on that promise."

The conference is open to the public with purchase of a ticket, but associate members of the Free Software Foundation can attend as a benefit of their financial contribution. A goal of one hundred new associate members has been set in order to fund the conference, and new and existing members are encouraged to contribute online at http://www.fsf.org/associate.

More information on the conference, including a mailing list for updates and speaker announcements, is available at http://www.fsf.org/events/libreplanet-2012.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some, especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as "open source," which cites only practical goals such as making software powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are different at the deepest level. For more explanation, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.

Media Contacts

Matt Lee
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x24
campaigns@fsf.org

Syndicated 2011-12-14 17:14:00 from Free Software Foundation