Re: [fsf-community-team] [inquiry] EC - closed is part of the openness definition

[Matthias Kirschner]

hi Simon,

* Simon Bridge <address@hidden> [2010-04-02 20:01:01 +1300]:

> > Just a short note: FSFE is also working on this, see
> > - Press release: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100330-01.en.html,
> > - Analysis on EIF http://fsfe.org/projects/os/eifv2.en.html, and
> > - Blog Entry from FSFE's president Karsten Gerloff
> >   http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=324
> > 
> > Best wishes,
> > Matthias
> > 
> 
> Great - this is what we are here for.
> In NZ, electronic submissions are not given much weight. We told
> activists to organize in-person submissions where the opportunity
> arises, or post written submissions. What is it like in Europe?

>From our experience it is the same in Europe. 

That's why we are sending letters to politicians and civil servants, we
are calling them to talk about our concerns and if possible have
meetings with them. For example in the case above we are contacting the
CIOs, having phone calls, or I for example had a meeting in the German
ministry of interior. 

At the beginning it is difficult to get the right contacts. You have to
build up a reputation of being the sensible guys you can talk to. That
takes a lot of time and you have to get over some disappointments.

I often had to say to myself that it took more than 20 years to build a
Free operating system, so it is fine if task XY to promote Free Software
also takes some years :) 

Best wishes,
Matthias

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