Free Software Supporter Issue 68, November 2013

Free Software Supporter

Give freely this Cyber Monday: Introducing the 2013 Giving Guide

The Free Software Foundation is proud to announce our 2013 Giving Guide. The Giving Guide features gifts that will not only make your recipients jump for joy; these gifts will also protect their freedom.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/give-freely-this-cyber-monday-introducing-the-2013-giving-guide

Press release:

• https://www.fsf.org/news/2013givingguide

FSF campaigns manager speaks about free software at iD Programming Academy

From November 7th
Introducing new people to free software is an integral part of our mission at the FSF, so we were delighted when the director of a summer programming academy called and invited us to speak.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-campaigns-manager-speaks-about-free-software-at-id-programming-academy

LibrePlanet 2014 dates announced

From November 12th
LibrePlanet is the annual conference of the Free Software Foundation. The next conference conference will take place on March 22 and 23, 2014 in Cambridge, MA. There are still plenty of ways to get involved, including applying to join our Exhibit Hall or joining our new Volunteer Committee.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2014-dates-announced-session-proposal-deadline-extended

Avaneya releases libre game for GNU/Linux based on lost NASA archives

By Avaneya, from November 5th
Avaneya is a science fiction game for GNU/Linux currently under active development. The project has released a tool to convert imagery from NASA's Viking 1 mission, which resulted in the first ever photographs of the Martian surface, from a legacy format into PNG files.

• https://www.avaneya.com/content/news/News%20Release%20-%20VLR%20Debut.pdf

Rockstar vs. Google: software patents as a license for privateering

By FSF Europe, from November 7th
Rockstar, a consortium of companies formed to collect certain patents put on sale in the dissolution procedure of Nortel, has sued Google and other companies over seven of those patents.

• https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20131107-01.en.html

When DRM comes to cars

By FSF Europe, from November 14th
In its Zoe electric car, car maker Renault apparently has the ability to remotely prevent the battery from charging. And that's more chilling than it may sound.

• https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2013/10/31/renault-will-remotely-lock-down-electric-cars/

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

From November 27th
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.
The next meeting is Friday, November 29 from 2pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC). Details here:

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-29

After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of December's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: GNU Press ideas

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.
For this month, we are highlighting the Ideas page for GNU Press, which we use to solicit feedback about the FSF shop. This page has been a source of great ideas in the past and we invited you to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.

• https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Ideas#Store_suggestions

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Toolchain update

From November 18th
The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.
This month features significant improvements to GCC.

• http://nickclifton.livejournal.com/15001.html

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit https://www.fsf.org/events.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in December:

• Dec 02, 2013 TBD, Milan, Italy, "Richard Stallman to speak in Milan"
• Dec 09, 2013 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Vigo, Spain, "Software libre y administración digital/e-government"
• Dec 10, 2013 4:00pm to 6:00pm, Ourense, Spain, "El software libre en la ética y en la práctica"
• Dec 11, 2013 4:00pm to 7:00pm, A Coruna, Spain, "El software libre en la ética y en la práctica"
• Dec 12, 2013 6:00pm to 8:00pm, Fuenlabrada, Spain, "El Software Libre y Tu Libertad"
• Dec 13, 2013 3:00pm to 5:00pm, Madrid, Spain, "Software libre y libertad en educación"

• 
  

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

• https://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2013supporters.html

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

• Jeff Root
• Pierre-Alain Blanc
• Wesley Andres Watters
• Deb Nicholson
• Richard Fontana
• Fabián Rodríguez
• Will Rico and Cindy Fung
• Jon Howell
• Boone Gorges
• Simon Phipps
• Bruce Baumgart
• John Gilmore
• Etienne Grossmann

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.

Free Software Foundation encourages shoppers to 'Give Freely' with new Giving Guide

Free Software Foundation encourages shoppers to 'Give Freely' with new Giving Guide

This post can be viewed online at https://www.fsf.org/news/2013givingguide.
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Wednesday, November 27, 2013 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced its 2013 Giving Guide, a resource for conscientious shoppers looking for geeky gifts that respect users' freedom. Many holiday shoppers will be turning to gadgets and online services as gifts for friends and family, but these gifts are often rife with proprietary software, anti-features, or Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), all of which restrict how the gift can be used. The 2013 Giving Guide, found at , can be used to find great presents that don't compromise the recipient's freedoms.
"The Giving Guide is a map through the minefield of restrictive electronics and Web services that many will be seeking as gifts this season, just as one might shop for fair labor products from worker-owned cooperatives, or environmentally friendly products from local sources. There's no need to sacrifice your freedom or the freedom of the people you care about," said Libby Reinish, campaigns manager for the FSF.
The FSF objects to products that run proprietary software, because they inherently take control out of users' hands. Waiving that control invites insecurity, surveillance, and sabotage, with harmful implications for both society and individuals.
"The best gifts come with no strings attached. Relentless advertising and a few nice features may make the new Windows 8.1 release and iPhones with iOS7 tempting. But gifting these products is rewarding socially irresponsible companies, and on top of that, encouraging recipients to support them in the future. Our Guide highlights better gifts for a better future," said John Sullivan, the FSF's executive director.

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 https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Ant vs Maven

Apache Ant

• Ant doesn’t have formal conventions such as a common project directory structure; you have to tell Ant exactly where to find the source and where to put the output. Informal conventions have emerged over time, but they haven’t been codified into the product.
• Ant is procedural; you have to tell Ant exactly what to do and when to do it. You have to tell it to compile, then copy, then compress.
• Ant doesn’t have a lifecycle; you have to define goals and goal dependencies. You have to attach a sequence of tasks to each goal manually.

Apache Maven

• Maven has conventions: in the example, it already knew where your source code was because you followed the convention. It put the bytecode in target/classes, and it produced a JAR file in target.
• Maven is declarative; all you had to do was create a pom.xml file and put your source in the default directory. Maven took care of the rest.
• Maven has a lifecycle, which you invoked when you executed mvn install. This command told Maven to execute a series of sequence steps until it reached the lifecycle. As a side effect of this journey through the lifecycle, Maven executed a number of default plugin goals that did things such as compile and create a JAR.

Apache Hadoop 2.2.0

Apache Hadoop 2.2.0 consists of significant improvements over the previous stable release (hadoop-1.x).

Here is a short overview of the improvments to both HDFS and MapReduce.

• HDFS Federation
  In order to scale the name service horizontally, federation uses multiple independent Namenodes/Namespaces. The Namenodes are federated, that is, the Namenodes are independent and don't require coordination with each other. The datanodes are used as common storage for blocks by all the Namenodes. Each datanode registers with all the Namenodes in the cluster. Datanodes send periodic heartbeats and block reports and handles commands from the Namenodes.
  More details are available in the HDFS Federation document.
• MapReduce NextGen aka YARN aka MRv2
  The new architecture introduced in hadoop-0.23, divides the two major functions of the JobTracker: resource management and job life-cycle management into separate components.
  The new ResourceManager manages the global assignment of compute resources to applications and the per-application ApplicationMaster manages the application’s scheduling and coordination.
  An application is either a single job in the sense of classic MapReduce jobs or a DAG of such jobs.
  The ResourceManager and per-machine NodeManager daemon, which manages the user processes on that machine, form the computation fabric.
  The per-application ApplicationMaster is, in effect, a framework specific library and is tasked with negotiating resources from the ResourceManager and working with the NodeManager(s) to execute and monitor the tasks.
  More details are available in the YARN document.

Getting Started

The Hadoop documentation includes the information you need to get started using Hadoop. Begin with the Single Node Setup which shows you how to set up a single-node Hadoop installation. Then move on to the Cluster Setup to learn how to set up a multi-node Hadoop installation.

Top 20 open source holiday gifts, how to attract more women to tech conferences, and more

WEEKLY NEWS Top 20 open source gifts for the holidays Our annual open source gift guide features something for every budget. See what's hot this year. How to attract more women to tech conferences? Anti-harassment policies can thwart inappropriate behavior and other tips. How a hackathon can transform your community Lessons from a recent Vermont hackathon. Open gaming platform Ouya matches funds for game developers Ouya is matching funds for game developers up to $250,000. The Federal Trade Commission sets its sights on Patent Aggression Entities Update on U.S. patent reform efforts. Your opinion counts! Take the FLOSS 2013 survey Survey will assess where the open source community stands today. How civic hackers can build apps that last Document your project more than you think you need to and other tips. Munich tries to quit Microsoft, The Weather Channel goes open source, and more Stories you may have missed from around the web. FROM THE ARCHIVES Beer: The open source beverage of choice By Mark Caron Discovering hidden influencers that make and break project success By Michael Lennon and Eva Schiffer OPEN SOURCE EVENTS Are you planning an open source conference, seminar, meeting, webinar, or some other event in 2014? Raise awareness about your event by submitting it to our events calendar for all of our readers to see and share. Check out the events calendar to see other upcoming open source events and submit your own! It's important to grow interest in the Linux kernel among college students. Using these specific training activities, it's easier to get college students involved. Want to write a book in five days? Plan a book sprint. Here's how the Google Summer of Code Doc Camp did it, and you can too. Prepare students for a rapidly changing world by teaching with open source. That's the advice from school IT director Gregg Ferrie, who outlines ways to use open source in the classroom. Thank someone who has helped you with an open source project, send them an eCard. ENTERPRISERS PROJECT Join the open source dialogue about the future of CIOs. HBR Article: Be yourself, but carefully How to be authentic without oversharing. Finding and retaining talent in a tight IT job market Red Hat CIO Lee Congdon shares tips for keeping employees engaged. Enterprisers Project week in review Salesforce revamps software for mobile as users flock to tablets; Southwest to be first with gate-to-gate WiFi service; and other stories you may have missed. Feedback is a gift. In the Age of the Enterpriser, user input is a gift. Find out how feedback can be used to foster collaboration and garner support for technology initiatives. Are you Enterpriser? Here's how we define it.

Open Source: A Platform for Innovation

http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/11/open-source-a-platforinnovationm-for-innovation/

Posted via Blogawayhttp://www.wired.com/insights/2013/11/open-source-a-platforinnovationm-for-innovation

How to grow younger Linux developers, using cats and dogs to explain SELinux, and more

WEEKLY NEWS The Linux kernel community learns how to grow more penguins As core Linux kernel developers grow older, there's a very real concern about ensuring younger generations are getting involved. How did the Outreach Program for Women work out for the Linux kernel this year? Very well. The intern group ranked among the largest contributors to Linux kernel 3.12. Free and open source software is winning in the Italian Public Administration Free software and comparative evaluation gaining momentum in the Italian PA. Open hardware for education with littleBits library of electronic modules Five reasons why littleBits is exciting and different. Andy Hunt: What are you going to invent next? The next big idea is going to come from you. Owning and occupying knowledge and learning in the 21st century Maybe the millennial's mind is not the problem. Inspiring words from a Citrix open source exec, using GitHub for beehive building, and more Stories you may have missed from around the web. FROM THE ARCHIVES The impact of open source on business and social good By Aseem Sharma Want to understand open source? Live with its developers By Bryan Behrenshausen OPEN SOURCE EVENTS Here's what's coming up in December: Open Source Conference 2013 is the largest conference on Enterprise Open Source & IT Innovation in the Benelux. The conference is Dec. 6 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Check out the events calendar to see other upcoming open source events and submit your own! Using illustrations of cats and dogs, we explain how the SELinux primary model works. These cartoons will leave you smiling, and help you understand SELinux. Creating higher education syllabi could become easier with the new open source Salsa application. The creators are seeking collaborators across the higher education spectrum. Which office suite do you use? Tell us in our latest poll and see how you compare to other Opensource.com readers. Ever have a hard time explaining "open source" to someone? Forward them this primer to teach them about the open source way. ENTERPRISERS PROJECT Join the open source dialogue about the future of CIOs. Think like a theme park What IT can learn from a theme park. The new IT-HR Partnership An interview with Merv Tarde, vice president of IT and CIO at Interstate Batteries. Enterprisers Project week in review From the positive impact of more women CIOs to a "colossal" IT project for the American-US Airways merger, see what you may have missed in Enterpriser news. What can CIOs learn from Magic Johnson? The next generation of CIOs can learn an important lesson from the way the NBA legend played the game, says Build-A-Bear Workshop Chief Information and Interactive Officer Dave Finnigan.

How Open Data Empowers Citizens of Poorer Nations

New Scientist (11/13/13) Niall Firth 

In developed countries, government-run websites can be used as forums for citizens to access data on crime, health, and transport, or comment directly on a variety of issues. However, in the developing world, infrastructure is often fragile and checks on institutional power and corruption are not always strong, making access to the same type of data difficult. In South Africa, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group is using open source software to launch a site that helps citizens familiarize themselves with their local politicians in advance of next year's national elections. The site will present information about the candidates and will be designed to work on mobile devices. In Nigeria, the Budgit website forced the government to repeal its decision to remove fuel subsidies, using official data to create easy-to-understand infographics to illustrate exactly how much money the government was wasting every year. In India, Transparent Chennai uses government data to empower poor residents who usually get overlooked. The World Wide Web Foundation is leading a two-year project to study the impact of the open data movement. Although the report shows the developing world still lags behind the West, the difference such data can make in terms of accountability and transparency there cannot be overstated, says foundation researcher Tim Davies.

View Full Article

Delving Into Digital Learning

Inside Higher Ed (11/12/13) Carl Straumsheim

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on Monday announced its Simon Initiative, which will publicly launch the world's largest student learning database to determine best practices and standards for the use of technology in the classroom.  The university is forming a council of higher education leaders, education technology experts, and industry representatives to guide the initiative.  The effort will build on the work of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center and its research partners, as well as the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, says CMU president Subra Suresh.  The Simon Initiative has four main goals, which are to share rich data worldwide, assist teachers with teaching, speed innovation through startup companies, and improve residential students' educational experience.  "Now is the right time to bring all this together in a new and unique way, and also tie it to developments all around the world," Suresh says.  The Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center has gathered more than 500,000 hours of student data and studies on technology-enhanced courses, and wants to enable global researchers to contribute their own data and help create a common format that will improve data usability for scholars in all disciplines.   "Advances in learning science and technology offer transformative potential in education and training nationwide," says U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/11/12/carnegie-mellon-u-launches-initiative-improve-student-learning-technology

LibrePlanet 2014 dates announced and session proposal deadline extended

Dear Pascal,
LibrePlanet is the annual conference of the Free Software Foundation, and the theme of this year's event is "Free Software, Free Society." The conference will take place on March 22 and 23, 2014 in Cambridge, MA. LibrePlanet is an event at the intersection of politics and technology. Free software activists, hackers, users, academics, policymakers, and other interested people gather at LibrePlanet for a weekend of learning about the latest project developments, thinking about how to advance software freedom, and meeting amazing like-minded peers.
As previously announced, there are three ways to get involved in the upcoming conference: answer our Call for Sessions, apply to join our Exhibit Hall, or join our new Volunteer Committee. The deadline for session proposals has been extended to 22:00 UTC (17:00 EST) November 22, 2013.
We're looking for session proposals that build on the theme by critically engaging with the connection between free software and other movements. The most successful proposals will strive to be accessible to an audience of various backgrounds, be engaging and dynamic, and feature a diverse array of presenters, including those of underrepresented genders and races.
If you are not interested in submitting a proposal, but would like to share a quick idea for a workshop, topic, or a speaker you’d like to see at LibrePlanet, please add your thoughts to our conference brainstorm page.
Sincerely,
William Theaker
Outreach & Communications Coordinator=1&jid=128797&qid=5818981&h=349a81154d116692.

How to write your book using Linux, making Docker work on Fedora, and more

WEEKLY NEWS How to write your book using Linux Writing a more complex, long-form work using desktop Linux was remarkably simple, Steven Ovadia says. Why I love OwnCloud: Answer to Dropbox lock-in Wanting to avoid cloud storage lock-in with Dropbox, Adam Clater details his switch to OwnCloud. Free and open source education materials for children and teens Tips for finding and using open source materials for learning. Rebuilding Ecuador's economy with open source principles Project seeks to transition Ecuador into a society of free and open knowledge. Hacking government procurement with a new RFP The new RFP in government should be "Request for Partnership." Then, now, and the future of open source fonts Three things necessary for the future of free fonts. Weekly wrap-up: Facebook introduces open source Presto, a visit to Valve, and more Stories you may have missed from around the web. FROM THE ARCHIVES Open government, what is it really? By Pia Waugh We the People: Seceding from open government? By Melanie Chernoff OPEN SOURCE EVENTS Here's what's coming up in November: Forum PHP 2013 is billing itself as "the most important international talks cycle dedicated to the language and its ecosystem in France." The forum is Nov. 21-22 in Montrouge, Paris, France. Open Source Licensing in an Agile Environment is a webinar scheduled 9 a.m. EDT on Nov. 20. Check out the events calendar to see other upcoming open source events and submit your own! Docker is generating a lot of interest in the Fedora community. Red Hat principle software engineer Alexander Larsson

explains the steps being taken to make Docker work on Fedora.

An open source disruption of education can be truly powerful and transformative in the world, but for that to happen, computer science educator Matt Jadud says this must happen first.

"American Idol" has perfected participation. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst outlines what open source projects and communities can learn from American Idol's success

---

Browse the library of free open source-related eBooks from Opensource.com.

ENTERPRISERS PROJECT Join the open source dialogue about the future of CIOs. Enterprisers Project Week in Review From IT spending to prized programmers, see what you may have missed last week in Enterpriser news. Meet the Enterprisers: Tom Soderstrom Jet Propulsion Laboratory CTO Tom Soderstrom explains how he fosters an environment of business-driven IT.

"Chief Lateral Thinking Officer." CIOs are responsible for more than ever. So is it time for a new job title? Here are a few suggestions from The Enterprisers Project. Check them out and share your C?O.

New Bucks for Bugs Program Focuses on Open Source Software, Internet Infrastructure

Dark Reading (11/07/13) Kelly Jackson Higgins 

The Microsoft- and Facebook-sponsored Internet Bug Bounty program pays as much as $2,500 for a new vulnerability detected in key open source platforms, and offers a minimum reward of $5,000 to researchers who uncover working flaws in sandbox technologies, as well as bugs in the Internet's underlying infrastructure. "This program provides direct incentive for people to raise the quality of [software] flaw analysis," notes security researcher Dan Kaminsky. An Internet bug found under the program is only deemed worthy of compensation if it affects multiple products or a significant number of users, or is severe or novel. Researchers receive two rewards, one for bug discovery and another for correction. Veracode's Chris Wysopal says Microsoft and Facebook's collaboration reflects the pressing need for key players to counteract the black market for bugs, while also benefiting open source projects. Facebook's Alex Rice says the program is complementary to existing bounty initiatives, and covers areas of the Web that existing programs currently do not. "This bounty is a great way to support coordinated disclosure of critical vulnerabilities in shared components of the Internet stack," says Microsoft's Katie Moussouris. Kaminsky says the program "puts a stake in the ground that this is what a program should look like, these are the types of good bugs to pay for."

View Full Article

Out in the Open: Palm Pilot Inventor Wants to Open Source the Human Brain

Wired News (10/28/13) Klint Finley 

Computer scientist and Grok co-founder Jeff Hawkins has devised a unified theory of the brain's inner workings and produced algorithms for applying the theory to computer science. He also has open-sourced his work so anyone can freely apply the algorithms and software to the construction of their own machine-learning systems. This effort included publishing a white paper outlining Hawkins' theory and underlying math, and the release of the NuPIC open source platform, which includes Grok's algorithms and a software framework for building prediction systems. Grok produces a cloud-based service for monitoring IT infrastructure, and its ability to detect abnormal occurrences or alert the IT team of an impending failure is based on its mimicry of the brain's pattern-recognition systems. Grok's foundational cortical-learning algorithms attempt to realistically simulate the human neocortex and emulate its six-layer hierarchy. Grok's Matthew Taylor says NuPIC's uniqueness partly stems from its online learning capabilities, in which "as patterns change, it will forget the old patterns and remember the new patterns" in much the same way the brain adapts to change. NuPIC's potential applications besides IT infrastructure monitoring could include natural-language processing, machine vision, and robotics.

View Full Article

Why children should learn to code, beware of security vulnerabilities, and more

WEEKLY NEWS Open source made me the man I am Open source developer Matt Spinelli inspires in this essay, saying: "Within 48 hours of your life you could help dozens of companies and their employees." Beware of security vulnerabilities: What you don't know can come back to haunt you Do you know the importance of monitoring open source for vulnerabilities before, during, and after using it? Rami Sass explains. 10 ways to contribute to an open source project without writing code Get involved no matter your skill set. Teaching with open source presentation service Reveal.js "It's what the cool kids are using." 10 tools to help open source cities maintain transparency Improve communication with city governments. Open source under the hood of the U.S. electrical grid Learn about the OpenDNP3 project. Weekly wrap-up: Motorola announces open hardware phones, Cisco open sources H.264 codec, and more Stories you may have missed from around the web. FROM THE ARCHIVES Homeroaster crafts a pumpkin spice latte the open source way Adam Strong The secret ingredient in open source Jason Hibbets OPEN SOURCE EVENTS Here's what's coming up in November: The OW2con'13 is the fifth edition of the annual community event. The international conferences is Nov. 12-14 in Paris-Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. Linux Symposium strives to be one of best internationally represented Linux events. It takes place Nov. 18-21 in Ottawa, Canada. Check out the events calendar to see other upcoming open source events and submit your own! Open source geek (and father) Burr Sutter explains why he believes children should learn to code even if they don't have a future in IT. Closed source is better than open source in certain situations, says OpenLogic founder Rod Cope. Here are seven reasons that will leave you shaking your head. Reporting bugs is a chance to contribute back to the open source project you're working on. Here's a user guide for open source project bug submissions. Opensource.com is accepting articles. Here's how you can contribute. ENTERPRISERS PROJECT Join the open source dialogue about the future of CIOs. When to try new technology IT Chief Technology Officer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory says look for "Return on Attention." Kickstart(er) your enterprise Four lessons enterprises have learned by putting crowdsourcing to work within their companies. Meet the enterprisers: Cynthia Stoddard NetApp CIO Cynthia Stoddard shares her approach for the expanding role of CIO. Are you an enterpriser? The new Enterprisers Project is taking a look at how today's IT leaders are making it easier for enterprises to respond to business opportunities. Find out if you're an enterpriser.

Re: Free Software Award Nominations

The deadline to submit nominations for the Free Software Awards is this Wednesday, November 6, 2013. If you have a free software hero or know of an organization doing amazing work with free software, show your appreciation by nominating them. But hurry! Email award-nominations@gnu.org to submit your nomination today!
Sincerely,
Libby Reinish
Campaigns Manager
Is there someone who you think has advanced the progress of free software, someone you think of as a free software hero? How about a great project that uses free software principles, like copyleft or free culture, to benefit society? Now is your chance to nominate them for a Free Software Award.
Don't delay, nominations are due on November 6. To nominate an individual for the Award for the Advancement of Free Software or a project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit, send your nomination along with a description of the project or individual to award-nominations@gnu.org.
The free software movement is powered by dedicated individuals and has fostered many incredible projects that are making a difference in the world with the help of free software tools and principles. You can read more about the awards and past winners in our official announcement.
What are you waiting for? Take a few minutes to give props to people and projects that have changed the world. Your nominations will be reviewed by our awards committee and the winners will be announced at LibrePlanet 2014.

Award for the Advancement of Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.

Award for Projects of Social Benefit

Nominations are also open for the 2013 Award for Projects of Social Benefit.
This award is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, to a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life.
We look to recognize projects or teams that encourage collaboration to accomplish social tasks. A long-term commitment to one's project (or the potential for a long-term commitment) is crucial to this end.
This award stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity. We have deliberately chosen this broad criterion so that many different areas of activity can be considered. However, one area that is not included is that of free software itself. Projects with a primary goal of promoting or advancing free software are not eligible for this award, though we honor those projects with our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software.
We will consider any project or team that uses free software or the philosophy of software freedom to address a goal important to society. To qualify, a project must use free software, produce free documentation, or use the idea of free software as defined in the Free Software Definition. Work done commercially is eligible, but we will give this award to the project or team that best utilizes resources for society's greater benefit.

Nomination Requirements

In the case of both awards, previous winners are not eligible for nomination, but renomination of other previous nominees is encouraged. Only individuals are eligible for nomination for the Advancement of Free Software Award, and only projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award.
Award recipients will be chosen by a committee of previous winners and FSF president Richard Stallman.
Please send your nominations to award-nominations@gnu.org, no later than Wednesday, November 6, 2013. Please submit nominations in the following format:

• In the email message subject line, either put the name of the person you are nominating for the Award for Advancement of Free Software, or put the name of the project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.
  
• Please include, in the body of your message, an explanation (forty lines or less) of the work done and why you think it is especially important to the advancement of free software or how it benefits society, respectively.
  
• Please state, in the body of your message, where to find the materials (e.g., software, manuals, or writing) which your nomination is based on.
  

Information about the previous awards can be found at https://www.fsf.org/awards. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the LibrePlanet conference, tentatively scheduled for March 2014, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Model learning

@NMHS_Principal: A Model of Learning Objectives http://t.co/7DPfUqUM26 Shared via TweetCaster

Free Software Supporter - Issue 67, October 2013

Free Software Supporter

Issue 67, October 2013
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 71,727 other activists. That's 1,011 more than last month!
View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/october
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

• Subscribe: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Free Software Foundation opens nominations for the 16th annual Free Software Awards
• LibrePlanet 2014: Calling all presenters, volunteers, and exhibitors
• Global celebration for the GNU System's 30th anniversary
• FSF joins thousands in DC to tell NSA: "Stop Watching Us!"
• Interview with Andrew Ziem of BleachBit
• Introducing Ben, the licensing team's fall intern
• Introducing the Licensing and Compliance Lab's fall intern: Albert Sten-Clanton
• Recognizing an inspiring woman for Ada Lovelace Day: Audrey Tang
• LibreJS reaches version 5.4
• Introduction to the Command Line restocked!
• Cambridge, MA Software Freedom Day recap
• September 2013 - Biot, France - RMS at Sophia Antipolis
• How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?
• Help plan next year's LibrePlanet conference by joining the LP2014 planning committee!
• Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
• GNU Guix: The most important free software project you've never heard of
• GNU's novel proposal: putting privacy first
• GNU Octave – a great time saver
• GNU MediaGoblin summer of awesome wrapup
• Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
• LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2014 conference brainstorm
• GNU Toolchain Update
• Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
• Thank GNUs!
• Take action with the FSF!

Free Software Foundation opens nominations for the 16th annual Free Software Awards

From October 3rd
Is there someone who you think has advanced the progress of free software, someone you think of as a free software hero? How about a great project that uses free software principles, like copyleft or free culture, to benefit society? Now is your chance to nominate them for a Free Software Award. Nominations are due on November 6.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/who-takes-free-software-to-new-heights

Press release:

• https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-opens-nominations-for-the-16th-annual-free-software-awards

LibrePlanet 2014: Calling all presenters, volunteers, and exhibitors

From October 18th
If you're passionate about free software, the Free Software Foundation wants you to be a part of LibrePlanet 2014. We're excited to announce three new ways to get involved in next year's conference: answerour Call for Sessions, apply to join our Exhibit Hall, or join our new Volunteer Committee.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2014-calling-all-presenters-volunteers-and-exhibitors

Press release:

• https://www.fsf.org/news/libreplanet-2014-seeks-session-proposals-volunteers-for-annual-free-software-conference

Global celebration for the GNU System's 30th anniversary

From October 1st
GNU supporters around the world gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GNU System's initial announcement on September 27th, 1983. In a livestream watched by hundreds of people, GNU founder Richard Stallman announced protecting privacy and security -- minimizing the harm done to users as they interact over a network -- as one of the GNU System's new priorities. In total, twenty-one groups held events in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/global-celebration-for-the-gnu-systems-30th-anniversary

FSF joins thousands in DC to tell NSA: "Stop Watching Us!"

From October 28th
On Saturday, October 26, 2013, the FSF joined more than three thousand privacy advocates in Washington, DC, to call for an end to mass surveillance conducted by the NSA.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-joins-thousands-in-dc-to-tell-nsa-stop-watching-us

Interview with Andrew Ziem of BleachBit

From October 29th
This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works. In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Andrew Ziem, the lead developer of BleachBit -- free software designed to help you free disk space and guard your privacy.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-andrew-gziem-of-bleachbit

Introducing Ben, the licensing team's fall intern

From October 8th
Ben recently started working at the FSF as this fall's licensing intern. In this post, he writes about what brought him to free software and his interest in copyleft.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/introducing-ben-the-licensing-teams-fall-intern

Introducing the Licensing and Compliance Lab's fall intern: Albert Sten-Clanton

From October 16th
Al recently started working at the FSF as this fall's licensing intern. In this post, he writes about his experiences with software freedom and accessibility software.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/introducing-the-licensing-team-fall-intern-albert-sten-clanton

Recognizing an inspiring woman for Ada Lovelace Day: Audrey Tang

From October 15th
To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, FSF campaigns organizer Kẏra writes about Audrey Tang, a Haskell hacker and personal inspiration.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/recognizing-an-inspiring-woman-for-ada-lovelace-day-audrey-tang

Help plan next year's LibrePlanet conference by joining the LP2014 planning committee!

From October 16th
LibrePlanet is an annual conference of the Free Software Foundation, and we rely heavily on the support of volunteers to help plan the conference and get the word out, both online and through word of mouth.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-plan-next-years-libreplanet-conference-by-joining-the-lp14-planning-committee

LibreJS reaches version 5.4

From October 23rd
GNU LibreJS, a Web browser extension that protects users by identifying proprietary JavaScript and encourages people to write to Web masters about free JavaScript, has reached version 5.4.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/librejs-reaches-version-5.4

Introduction to the Command Line restocked!

From October 30th
By popular demand, we have restocked Introduction to the Command Line. This manual introduces new users to free software, by encouraging them to play with the command line. The book was written during the 2009 LibrePlanet conference in collaboration with FLOSS Manuals.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/introduction-to-the-command-line-restocked

Cambridge, MA Software Freedom Day recap

From October 11th
Software Freedom Day organizer Deb Nicholson shares pictures from SFD 2013 in Cambridge, MA, and explains why it was the best SFD event yet.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/cambridge-ma-software-freedom-day-recap

September 2013 - Biot, France - RMS at Sophia Antipolis

From October 11th
RMS was at the Sophia Antipolis technological campus, in Biot, on September 19, to deliver his speech "a free digital society" to a diverse audience of students, local government officials, engineers, and researchers.

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20130919-biot

How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?

From October 14th
In his latest Wired article, Richard Stallman discusses the relationship between surveillance and modern democracies, and calls for us to "reduce the surveillance capacity of the systems we use."

• http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/10/a-necessary-evil-what-it-takes-for-democracy-to-survive-surveillance/

Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

From September 28th
Richard Stallman took the GNU system's 30th anniversary celebrations as an opportunity to warn us how, in spite of the great advances made by the free software movement, computer-user freedom is today under greater and more varied threats. In his article, he reminds us of what is at stake, and calls on individuals and institutions alike to do right by themselves and society, by choosing free software.

• http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/why-free-software-is-more-important-now-than-ever-before/

GNU Guix: The most important free software project you've never heard of

By Russell James at examiner.com, from October 1st
Popular GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat get all the attention, while Guix, the more important (for freedom lovers) new package manager and associated free software distribution of the GNU system, is virtually unknown -- even among enthusiasts.

• http://www.examiner.com/article/gnu-guix-the-most-important-free-software-project-you-ve-never-heard-of-1

GNU's novel proposal: putting privacy first

By Simon Phipps at InfoWorld, from October 11th
Simon Phipps and FSF executive director John Sullivan discuss software freedom and the future of GNU.

• http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/gnus-novel-proposal-cloud-puts-privacy-first-228599

GNU Octave – a great time saver

By Adam Carlson from October 25th
Design engineer Adam Calson writes about his experiences with GNU Octave and how it makes his job easier. The FSF supports the work of GNU Octave through its Working Together for Free Software Fund. Please consider donating below.
Donation link:

• https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=10

Article:

• http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319905

GNU MediaGoblin summer of awesome wrapup

By Christopher Allan Webber, from October 6th
Chris Webber writes about the progress made by GNU MediaGoblin contributors from the Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code programs.

• http://mediagoblin.org/news/summer-of-awesome-wrapup.html

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

From October 30th
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.
The next meeting is Friday, November 1 from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here:

• https://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-november-1

After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of November's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2014 conference brainstorm

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.
For this month, we are highlighting the LibrePlanet 2014 brainstorm page, which collects ideas for workshops, topics, or speakers for next year's conference. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.

• https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2014/Conference_brainstorm

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Toolchain update

From October 21st
The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.
This month features improvements to support for ARM and MIPS architectures.

• http://nickclifton.livejournal.com/14813.html

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit https://www.fsf.org/events.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in November:

• Nov 01, 2013 05:30 PM, Dublin, Ireland, "A free digital society"
• Nov 12, 2013 11:00 AM, San Francisco, CA, "Richard Stallman to speak in San Francisco"
• Nov 17, 2013 05:30 PM, Mountain View, CA, "Richard Stallman to speak in Bay Area"
• Nov 29, 2013, Lincoln, United Kingdom, "Richard Stallman to speak in Lincoln, United Kingdom"
• Nov 30, 2013, London, United Kingdom, "Software freedom, Internet freedom, and bitcoin"

Other FSF and free software events

• Nov 13, 2013, 4:30 PM, New York, NY, "Eben Moglen on 'Snowden and the future'"

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

• https://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2013supporters.html

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

• Kailash Balnac
• Jesse Noller
• Laurent Watteau
• Philipp Weis
• Lukasz Milewski
• Edward Fahner

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.

Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://www.fsf.org/join. If you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email signature like:
I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom! https://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (https://www.fsf.org/volunteer). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section (https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.