[Fsfe-uk] FSFE Newsletter

[Free Software Foundation Europe]

Welcome to FSFE's October newsletter.  This month, issues of 
interoperability, sustainable ICT and Free Software in education 
have been receiving attention.  There are also changes inside FSFE, 
with the Fellowship reviewing its infrastructure and long-term 
projects like the FTF European Legal and Technical networks continuing 
to expand.  Exciting times indeed.

You may notice that the newsletter has a slightly different format 
this month.  We would appreciate any feedback or comments you have.  
They can be sent directly to address@hidden
                                        - Shane, FSFE Zurich Office

1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over
2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school
3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin
4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE
5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow
7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness

Forthcoming events:
8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden


1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over

The European Commission and Microsoft have agreed that Microsoft is 
finally in compliance with the obligations contained in the 2004 
Commission ruling against the Seattle company.  The Commission had 
ruled that Microsoft distorted the market by failing to provide 
interoperability information for their products.  Microsoft 
subsequently appealed against the Commission's decision and lost 
at the European Court of First Instance.  Part of the ruling requires 
reasonable and non discriminatory terms for interoperability 
information and related patents. One reason for this was the 
intention to enable Free Software projects like Samba to access 
the information, and our legal experts are currently assessing 
whether the agreed conditions meet these requirements. What is 
certain is that Microsoft will not appeal against the judgment of 
the Court of First Instance, which has become final and definitive. 
Please visit fsfeurope.org for updates.

  http://www.fsfeurope.org/


2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school

As reported in an earlier newsletter, the "BG Rechte Kremszeile" public
school in Austria has switched to Free Software.  Recently the school 
organised an event to report their experience with the switch. Three 
speakers from the FSFE and the Vienna Fellowship group were invited to 
talk about the general concepts of Free Software. A number of teachers 
and decision-makers from other schools attended the event and showed 
interest in the adoption of free solutions for their own schools.

  https://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000181.html


3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin, Germany

Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's German deputy coordinator, took take part in
 a panel discussion at the Sustainable-IT conference on the 18th of 
October. The topic was "IT sustainability -- international. How can 
software contribute to resource protection and a fair distribution of 
knowledge." 

  http://www.sustainable-it.org/


4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE

Sun has donated a T1000 server to FSFE's Fellowship.  "The work that 
the Free Software Foundation Europe undertakes is important for all of 
us. Sun is honoured to have donated a Sun Fire(TM) T1000 server, based 
on the GPL licensed OpenSPARC(TM) chip, to power the FSFE Fellowship 
site," said Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems, 
Inc.  Thanks to this new hardware FSFE is able to refocus the 
Fellowship's on-line presence and provide new services to all our 
supporters.

  http://www.fsfe.org/supporters/


5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
 
The Fellows of FSFE are discussing the future of the Fellowship portal.
Since 2005, the fsfe.org portal has sought to provide tools for Fellows
to communicate and collaborate.  The current discussion is about what
services are most important to the Fellows today and what tools would
be useful for the future.  The discussion is covering the use of 
forums, calenders, mailing lists and other services.  You can add your 
view by joining the list:

  https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion


6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow

FSFE's Freedom Task Force has been busy building pan-European legal 
and technical networks.  The goal is to strengthen the legal 
foundation of Free Software through building connections between 
professionals and researchers active on the continent. The networks 
now have 45 legal experts and 25 technical specialists, and contain 
contacts in Canada, the USA, Singapore and Taiwan.  To learn more 
visit the website:

  http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/network.html


7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness

Ciaran O'Riordan has been busy in Brussels.  Along with the usual meetings
about ODF, O'Riordan has been to Helsinki and Florence to talk about GPLv3
and has been writing about this in his blog.
 
  http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes


Forthcoming events:


8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden

On the 8th of November, the FSFE and its Freedom Task Force (FTF), in 
collaboration with the Internet Academy in Sweden, will give a course 
on Strategic implementation of Free Software in businesses. The course 
will take place in Stockholm, Sweden and given predominantly in Swedish.

  http://www.internetacademy.se/strategi.html



You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html

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