FSFE Newsletter - February 2017

on 2017-02

Why Open Science matters and the FSFE's position on Horizon 2020

"Open Science" is an emerging movement that asks to transfer the four freedoms that we practice in Free Software into science. Although it is still emerging, Open Science receives more and more strategic importance for decision-makers. In the eyes of financial ministers of the European Union, Open Science produces and uses a lot of Open Data, which in turn has the potential for big economic benefits. The "European Cloud Initiative", for example, is part of the European Commission's strategy for Open Science, intended for building a "competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe". It aims at strengthening Europe's position in data-driven innovation and is thus considered to become an important part of the European Digital Single Market. Or, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development puts it: "Encouraging the sharing and re-use of research data could generate more value for public money".

With this in mind, the FSFE targets Free Software to be part of this emerging field of European Open Science from the beginning. As all research, data processing and archiving nowadays heavily depends on software, it is a chance to jump on the bandwagon and define Free Software as a precondition of Open Science. As one course of action, we wrote a position paper for the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available.

The FSFE's position paper explains how Free Software and Open Standards are fundamental to Open Science and we therefore ask for all publicly-funded research in Europe to mandatorily use and develop Free Software and Open Standards. With the "European Cloud Initiative" in mind, we explicitly ask that "Data and software repositories and Data Management Plans (DMPs) must employ Free Software in order to ensure unfettered access to their contents and long term preservation".

Help us now to grow bigger and make a difference in 2017 https://fsfe.org/join

What else have we done? Inside and Outside the FSFE

To underpin the demands of the position paper we wrote for the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 (see above), we filed a Freedom of Information request to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation to ask about the use, development and release of (Free) software under Horizon2020. We will keep you updated about any response.
We published our annual report with insights about our policy work, campaigns and events in 2016 as well as a preview for 2017.
In August 2016, the FSFE joined the Advisory Board of The Document Foundation. Now, The Document Foundation opens up the LibreOffice Certification for Migrations and Trainings to members of not-for-profit organisations on their Advisory Board, including the FSFE.
We published a report of the first ever FSFE summit that happened in September 2016. The report includes reflections, impressions, pictures and the full schedule with links to the abstract, slides and video recordings of each talk, if available. If you missed the summit, this report is your chance to catch up on it.
The FSFE's assembly during the 33rd edition of the Chaos Communication Congress (33C3) was a big success thanks to our highly motivated team behind the booth and the high quality of 21 sessions in three days that have been realized by our session hosts. Read Erik's report and see the pictures for more insights.
Like every year, FSFE staff and many team members will be at FOSDEM and we have a big booth in the K building. If you come to FOSDEM take the chance to meet the FSFE or individual members.
"Barcelona Free Software" is a local group in Barcelona and an open space for coders and users who love Free Software. Following a team decision at the end of 2016, Barcelona Free Software now is an associated organisation of the FSFE.
Would you like to work with us in the FSFE or you know somehow who would like to? In 2017, we are looking for new student interns to join our team and who like to get to know a world full of Free Software.

Get active

February 14 is "I love Free Software day", the day to say thank you to all the people behind Free Software. Use this day to show your love for your favorite Free Software and check out our campaign page in advance to get some ideas and inspiration: https://www.ilovefs.org

Good Free Software News

The Paris Declaration on Open Government, introduced during the OGP Paris Summit last December, aims at establishing cooperation between countries and civil societies throughout 2017. The Declaration is composed of 21 collective action items with the accomplishment of open public procurement and formation of effective Free Software policies listed among them.

Do you think we have missed some news, or you'd like specific news to appear in the next newsletter? Please share this and any other feedback by writing to newsletter@fsfe.org

Thanks to all the volunteers, Fellows and corporate donors who enable our work,

your editors Erik Albers, Olga Gkotsopoulou and Fernando Sanjurjo, FSFE