Open source news

Open source news for your reading

Is Google coming back to open document formats in its apps?

For a company that's built on open source, Google sometimes doesn't give the open source world as much love as many people think it should. The company's support, for example, for OpenDocument has been less-than-stellar.

But that could be changing, according to an article from ComputerWorld UK. The article quotes Chris DiBona, Google's head of open source, who said "support for exporting ODS and ODT files in ODF 1.2 format (the one used by all modern suites including MS Office and LibreOffice) is now under development."

A reason for this move could be that more and more governments are adopting OpenDocument and, as the article states, "Google wants to sell Drive and Chromebooks into government-controlled markets and ODF is becoming a gating factor." With support from a company like Google, OpenDocument could make bigger inroads, and not just in government.

U.S. Marine Corps dumps Windows for Linux as the operating system for its new radar system

Many businesses run their mission critical applications on Linux. On the battlefield, "mission critical" takes on an entirely different meaning. That's one of the reasons the United States Marine Corps switched to Linux to run its new radar system. Originally, the system ran on Windows XP, but with XP reaching its end of life, the switch to Linux made sense. According to the article in the Capital Gazette, "Ingrid Vaughan, director of the program, said the change would mean greater compatibility for laptop computers used to control the system in the future."

The European Commission to update its open source policy

It's no secret that Europe is a hotbeds for open source, thanks in part to the European Commission embracing open source. To further the cause of open source, the Commission will be updating its open source policy.

The Commission is doing this to "make it easier for its software developers to submit patches and add new functionalities to open source projects." The policy will "clarify legal aspects, including intellectual property rights, copyright and which author or authors to name when submitting code to the upstream repositories." According to Pierre Damas (Head of Sector at the Directorate General for IT (DIGIT)), the changes to the policy will help the European Commission "to advance the use of open source." Damas added that "the policy can help nudge others to consider open source.”

Mesosphere announces data center operating system

One area in which open source has a deep footprint is in the data center. Mesosphere, a company built on Apache Mesos, is positioning itself to be a major player in that area according to an article by TechCrunch.

Mesosphere has just unveiled a new data center operating system that's built on open source components. According to TechCrunch, the operating system "operates on the scale of the entire data center, which means instead of controlling a single machine, the operating system sits on top of the data center". This operating system, the article continues, is "compatible with several versions of Linux including Red Hat, CentOS, Ubuntu, and CoreOS, as well public cloud infrastructure services from companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft." Learn more about it at Mesophere.com.

Inspiring the next generation of scientists with open data

Some people wonder what use all of the data collected by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is good for. An article by Notre Dame news points out, it can be used to educate and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Notre Dame University has begun a pair of projects that use the data that CERN made available via its Open Data Portal to develop "tools and programs for the early use of this data that could address some of the most fundamental questions about the origin and composition of the universe." In the program, "high school students and teachers unite to become particle physicists for a day, learning some of the basics of particle physics." From there, they use the tools Notre Dame developed to analyze a slice of the data. The article quotes Notre Dame physics professor Mitchell Wayne, who states: "These outreach programs help educate and inspire the next generation of scientists. They demonstrate the interesting and creative ways these data can be used by high school teachers and students."

Open Source Basics

Open Source Lebanese Movement on twitter, facebook and google plus

On twitter : @OpenSourceLB

On Facebook : @opensourcelebanon

After a brief reminder of Agile and open source values. We present a return of experience of managing open source communities (Aimed to produce) by adapting a kind of scrumban process to the community.
The challenge is to find a king of "OpenAgile" business and production model that make the Free (Freedom for customers), Open and agile in the middle of any institution strategy to make a better added value projects. 

[a central possible conflicting issue between Open Source and Agile is the first value Individuals and interactions over processes and tools* (in fact no! it depend by how we consider the tools in agile))]

Froo is free and open

A new mooc about Free and Open Objectives (http://froo.org)

Froo is Free.

and also
Froo (frü) n. Any item(s) that brings amusement, delight, diversion, pleasure, gratification or worldly enjoyment. <He bought her some froo for her birthday. We picked up a bunch of froo at the craft store.> Also, n. -froo·age.

- adj.  Delectable yet intangible expression to describe pleasurable sensory, verbal, emotional and or physical gratification. <The view of the mountains is froo. Satin feels froo against my skin. They were so froo for allowing all of her friends to crash her party. Pier One Imports is a froo place to work.>  Also, adj. -froo·er, -froo·est.

- v.  1. To delight and amaze by promoting unintentional pleasure. <My boyfriend frooed me with a new tennis bracelet.> 2. To decorate in such a manner that the entire sensual experience is overwhelmingly pleasurable. <We were frooing the flower arrangement when she walked in. I frooed the curtains by tying some froo bows on them.> Also, v.  froo·ing, frooed.

And that definiton fit well with my vision of "Free Libre Open Source and Agile".

From Values to principles : Ideas about Agile teams and Open Source Communities business and management model.

From Values to principles : Ideas about Agile teams and Open Source Communities business and management model.

After a brief reminder of Agile and open source values. You will see a return of experience of managing open source communities (Aimed to produce) by adapting a scrumban process to the community.
The challenge is to find a king of “OpenAgile” business and production model that make the “Free” (Freedom for customers), Open and agile to make a better added value projects.

INTRO'S AND CASES

Agile Tour 2014 - Beyrouth

Agile Tour 2014


Is the second Lebanese edition of the biggest international Agile event: the Agile Tour. This conference focuses on agile project management, leadership, creativity, innovation, people-centric approaches, continuous improvement, and fun. Through a selection of 14 talks, presentations, workshops, and games, you are invited to discover and experiment with the different aspects of the Agile mindset. T his community event is organized by Agile Lebanon and hosted by top professionals from Lebanon and abroad (France, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Egypt), all of whom are eager to share their passion with you.

TOOLS: ownCloud; sync & share your files, calendar, contacts and more.

With ownCloud you can sync & share your files, calendar, contacts and more. Access your data from all your devices, on an open platform you can extend and modify.

Protect

ownCloud gives you control over your data. You decide what is shared with who and for how long.
More about security

Access

Access your data from your web browser, Android or iOS devices and your laptop and desktop.
More features

Extend

Add apps, external storage, or your own code! Join the friendly open source community and get started!
Get involved

SSDs vs HDDs

Review the 2 industry–leading data storage devices

For decades there was only 1 efficient option to keep data on a computer – working with a hard drive (HDD). Then again, this sort of technology is currently demonstrating it’s age – hard drives are actually loud and sluggish; they can be power–ravenous and frequently create a great deal of warmth during intense procedures.

SSD drives, on the contrary, are really fast, consume far less energy and they are far less hot. They provide an exciting new solution to file accessibility and storage and are years ahead of HDDs in relation to file read/write speed, I/O operation and also energy effectivity. See how HDDs stand up against the newer SSD drives.

Read more http://eurabiahosting.com/ssd-vs-hdd/ 

By EurabiaHosting a Free Libre Open Source Web hosting company

Free libre hosting Application Installer

You can easily install web applications such as Joomla and WordPress with one single click of the mouse using our a App Installer. Find out more about it visit :

• 
   Take a Tour

Correcteur grammaire (fr)

http://www.scribens.fr/

GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back

GNU community members and collaborators have discovered threatening details about a five-country government surveillance program codenamed HACIENDA. The good news? Those same hackers have already worked out a free software countermeasure to thwart the program. According to Heise newspaper, the intelligence agencies of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, have used HACIENDA to map every server in twenty-seven countries, employing a technique known as port scanning. The agencies have shared this map and use it to plan intrusions into the servers. Disturbingly, the HACIENDA system actually hijacks civilian computers to do some of its dirty work, allowing it to leach computing resources and cover its tracks. But this was not enough to stop the team of GNU hackers and their collaborators. After making key discoveries about the details of HACIENDA, Julian Kirsch, Christian Grothoff, Jacob Appelbaum, and Holger Kenn designed the TCP Stealth system to protect unadvertised servers from port scanning. They revealed their work at the recent annual GNU Hackers' Meeting in Germany. You can view a video announcing the discovery on fsf.org. Please be sure to share this with everyone you know who cares about bulk surveillance. We must fight the political battle for an end to mass surveillance and reduce the amount of data collected about people in the first place. On an individual level we have to do everything we can to thwart the surveillance programs that are already in place. No matter your skill level, you can get involved at the FSF's surveillance page. Ethical developers inside and outside GNU have been working for years on free software that does not keep secrets from users, and programs that anyone can review to remove potential vulnerabilities. These capabilities give free software users a fighting chance against surveillance. Now, our community is turning its attention to uncovering and undermining insidious programs like HACIENDA. Free software and its ideals are crucial to putting an end to government bulk surveillance. Share this news with your friends, to help make people aware of the importance of free software in fighting bulk surveillance. Jacob Appelbaum of the TCP Stealth team gave a remote keynote address at the FSF's LibrePlanet conference this year. Watch the recording of "Free Software for freedom: Surveillance and you." Libby Reinish and Zak Rogoff Campaigns Managers

Richard Stallman's TEDx video: "Introduction to free software and the liberation of cyberspace"

Are you in search of an easy way to explain to others what free software is and why it matters? Or are you perhaps wondering why you yourself should be concerned about computer-user freedom? If your answer is yes, then this TEDx talk by FSF president Richard Stallman (RMS) is what you're looking for! Watch this video on FSF.org RMS was invited to give a TEDx talk at "FREEDOM (@ digital age)" in April and took the opportunity to explain the fundamentals of the free software movement to the general public. In this speech, RMS introduces the issue and makes the stakes clear; he explains what a computer is and who controls it, what the various implications of free software and of proprietary software are for you, the user, what you can do to stop being a victim, what the obstacles to computer-user freedom are, and how you can make a difference. The TEDx talks are "designed to help communities, organizations, and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences." At these events, screenings of videos, like this one, "or a combination of live presenters and TED Talks videos — sparks deep conversation and connections at the local level." We hope you share the recording, to help raise awareness and inspire conversations and connections in your own circles, and introduce a friend, loved one, or acquaintance, to this "first step in the liberation of cyberspace." If you watch any TEDx talks on YouTube, please remember to use a free program like youtube-dl instead of your browser, because watching YouTube in your browser requires proprietary JavaScript. Many thanks to Théo Bondolfi, François Epars, Florence Dambricourt, and the TEDxGeneva core-team for making this speech possible. Thank you to Ynternet.org and HEG-GE for hosting and supporting the event, and to Sylvain & Co., La Belle Bleue, and Jus de Fruits Suisses, ProLibre, and the Fondation Emilie Gourd, Piguet Galland & Cie., Lifelong Learning Programme, Hes.so Genève, My Big Geneva, and Smala for their support. Sincerely, Jeanne Rasata Assistant to the President P.S. RMS does not draw a salary from the FSF, but your donations do support the coordination of events and videos like this. We'd love to produce more introductory videos. Can you donate $25 today?

GNU Radio controls the ISEE-3 Spacecraft

An original drawing of the ISEE The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, or ISEE-3, was launched in 1978 by NASA to monitor activity on the sun. After three years of observation, NASA repurposed the satellite, which soon became the first spacecraft to visit a comet. The mission ended in 1999, when NASA abandoned ISEE-3 to orbit the Sun, despite the fact that twelve of the satellite's thirteen instruments were still working. In 2008, when it was discovered that the satellite was still transmitting a signal and would fly close to Earth, NASA realized that they no longer had the funding or equipment to reinitiate contact. So a volunteer group of scientists, programmers, and engineers organized the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, which was crowd-funded with over $150,000 in donations, and set out to contact the spacecraft, fire its engine, and bring it closer to Earth to resume its original mission. To do this, the group turned to GNU Radio, a free software toolkit for implementing software-defined radios and signal processing systems. Modifying the software to communicate in the 1970s satellite protocol, members of the reboot project were able to gain access to the spacecraft and fire its thrusters in early July, and will soon attempt to move the satellite into an orbit close to Earth. You can support GNU Radio by making a donation through the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund. To get more involved, attend the annual GNU Radio Conference, to be held this year between September 15th and 19th in Washington, D.C. The successes of the ISEE-3 Reboot project demonstrate the importance of developing, maintaining, and promoting free software. With dozens of contributors and thousands of users, GNU Radio is written to be shared, learned, and improved by anyone, anywhere -- unlike the lost proprietary communications equipment used by NASA. This is the second time we've lauded the use of free software for space exploration in the last two years. Read our 2013 blog post about the choice of GNU/Linux as the operating of the International Space Station. "This openness to inquiry, collaboration, and 'standing on the shoulders of giants' is at the heart of all science," wrote John Gilmore, a founding member of the GNU Radio project, in an email to the FSF. "The GNU Project has institutionalized those principles in a vast community of software authors and users. And GNU's legalized freedom and sharing [...] enable many people to use it and contribute to it -- such as these volunteers." Alex Patel

Volunteers translate Email Self-Defense guide into Spanish, Romanian, and more

When the FSF launched our guide to personal email encryption last month, it was enthusiastically received by English-speakers looking for an easy way to get started fighting bulk surveillance. Our community then came together to translate it and bring it to speakers of six more languages. Today we're launching the second round of translations: Spanish, Romanian, Italian, and Greek. This guide started as an effort of the FSF and some skilled graphic and Web designers, but it's become a worldwide effort by free software activists translating in more than ten countries. This kind of teamwork is what our movement is all about, and the FSF is thrilled to facilitate it. The Free Software Foundation provides the infrastructure and professional management for our community of translators, and rigorously researches and refines the material in Email Self-Defense. We also maintain Edward, the multilingual encryption reply bot program. We've spent a lot of time and energy on this guide so far, and we want to spend more, but we need resources. Can you donate to help us recoup some of the cost we've put into creating this guide and fostering a community around it? Your donation will also enable us to make technical infrastructure improvements to EmailSelfDefense.fsf.org to make it easy to translate into more languages, and hopefully let us add a set of instructions for using encryption on mobile devices. Our goal is to make email encryption approachable for people speaking any language and using any device, while also using the guide to deliver a clear message about the importance of free software. If you'd like to create a version for a language that we haven't published yet, or help maintain one of the existing translations, please send an email to campaigns@fsf.org telling us about your experiences with translating. We're also looking for people to join the GNU.org translation team and create translated versions of Richard Stallman's article "How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?" The article makes the point that, to fight bulk surveillance, we need to reduce the amount of data that is collected about our lives in general (both by government and private entities). Thank you for being such a supportive community, and coming forward to help us with this project. We're happy to be making it easier for you to protect your privacy and put up a defense against surveillance. Please email us at donate@fsf.org if you'd like to donate in Euros. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manage

UK Government chooses Open Document Format | Free Software Supporter - Issue 76, July 2014

Free Software Supporter Issue 76, July 2014 Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 81,589 other activists. That's 1,228 more than last month! TABLE OF CONTENTS FSF congratulates UK Government on choosing Open Document Format Interview with Tox.im Introducing Tyler Livingston, a summer Licensing Team intern Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is crucial to free software Seattle free software event this fall: Call for Participation now open Welcome Jessica Tallon, GNU MediaGoblin's second full-time hire European Commission distorts market by refusing to break free from lock-in LibrePlanet featured resource: Community toolkit GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 18 new GNU releases! GNU Toolchain Update Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events Thank GNUs! Take action with the FSF! FSF congratulates UK Government on choosing Open Document Format From July 29th If you live in the UK, you'll soon be able to fill out government paperwork with your freedoms intact. The British government announced last week that Open Document Format (ODF), HTML, and PDF will be the official file formats used by all government agencies. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-congratulates-uk-government-on-choosing-open-document-format Interview with Tox.im From July 21st In the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works, we conducted an email-based interview with David Lohle from the Tox project, an all-in-one communication platform and protocol that ensures users full privacy and secure message delivery. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-tox Introducing Tyler Livingston, a summer Licensing Team intern From July 21st Tyler Livingston is one of the Licensing Team's summer interns. In this post he discusses the importance of free software and his personal interests. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/introducing-summer-licensing-intern-tyler-livingston Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is crucial to free software From July 14th Net neutrality, the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, is crucial for free software's continued growth and success. The FCC has asked members of the public, along with industry leaders and entrepreneurs, to tell it why Internet Service Providers should be banned from traffic discrimination. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tell-the-fcc-net-neutrality-is-crucial-to-free-software Seattle free software event this fall: Call for Participation now open From July 1st The Seattle GNU/Linux Conference (SeaGL), a free software conference taking place on October 24 and 25, has just announced Karen Sandler, executive director of Software Freedom Conservancy, as a keynote speaker and opened its Call for Participation. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/seagl-call-for-participation-now-open Welcome Jessica Tallon, GNU MediaGoblin's second full-time hire By Deb Nicholson and Chris Webber, from July 28th Jessica Tallon, who originally joined GNU MediaGoblin last year as part of the Outreach Program for Women, has recently been working on federation support in the project. http://mediagoblin.org/news/welcome-jessica-tallon.html European Commission distorts market by refusing to break free from lock-in By FSF Europe, from July 8th The European Commission has recently renewed its commitment to a proprietary desktop and secret file formats. The Commission is refusing to get serious about breaking free from vendor lock-in, and is ignoring all available alternatives. In doing so, the EU's civil service fails to practice what it preaches. https://fsfe.org/news/2014/news-20140708-01.en.html Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory From July 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, August 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-august-1 After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of August's weekly meetings as they are scheduled. LibrePlanet featured resource: Community toolkit 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 our Community toolkit, which collects information about software that can be used by nonprofits, community groups, and individuals to advance the cause of free software. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource. https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Community_toolkit Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org. GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 18 new GNU releases! 18 new GNU releases in the last month (as of July 26, 2014): coreutils-8.23 cssc-1.4.0 datamash-1.0.5 denemo-1.1.6 emms-4.0 gcc-4.9.1 gettext-0.19.2 gforth-0.7.3 gnudos-1.3 gnuhealth-2.6.1 gnupg-1.4.18 gnupg-2.0.25 gsrc-2014.07.06 nano-2.3.6 parallel-20140722 ucommon-6.1.9 unifont-7.0.03 xorriso-1.3.8 To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror. This month, we welcome Mose Giordano as a new co-maintainer of AUC-TeX, James Cloos as a new co-maintainer of a2ps (following his work on GNU enscript and trueprint), and Assaf Gordon as the author and maintainer of the new package datamash. Thanks to all. Also, please consider attending the GNU Hackers' Meeting https://www.gnu.org/ghm/, in Munich this year, August 15-17; attendance is gratis, but pre-registration is essential (and needs to be done immediately). A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html. As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments. GNU Toolchain update From July 14th 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 updates to binutils and GCC, including a new test coverage program called gcov-tool. https://nickclifton.livejournal.com/16681.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 July: Aug 1, 2014, 3:00PM to 5:00PM, Bogota, Colombia, "El software libre en la ética y en la práctica" Other FSF and free software events Aug 15 to 17, 2014, Munich, Germany, GNU Hackers' Meeting Aug 19, 2014, 7:00PM to 8:30PM, Boston CiviCRM meetup -- August 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/2014supporters.html This month, a big Thank GNU to: Norman Richards Michael Henderson Zachary Tatum 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. # Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

FSF news and actions

 

News 

• US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good
• To help Reset the Net, FSF launches guide to email protection
• Tehnoetic wireless USB adapter now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
• FSF condemns partnership between Mozilla and Adobe to support Digital Restrictions Management
• » More news

Blog Posts 

• Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 18
• Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is crucial to free software
• Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: July 11
• Seattle free software event this fall: Call for Participation now open
• » More blog posts

Take Action

• Tell W3C: we don't want the Hollyweb!
• Stand up for your freedom to install free software; sign the pledge against Restricted Boot
• Protect your freedom and privacy; join us in creating an Internet that's safer from surveillance
• Free a computer from Windows
• » More campaigns

Why is Docker the new craze, what is OpenStack, and more

WEEKLY NEWS Why is Docker the new craze in virtualization and cloud computing? People are getting excited about Docker Open source's identity crisis Software freedom is a matter of life and death What is OpenStack? OpenStack 101 Inception team launches DevOps at Red Hat Kickstart a DevOps culture It's better to share with functional programming Journalist turned developer Is making your product free and open source crazy talk? Making money from open source? FROM THE ARCHIVES IRS turns over a new leaf, opens up data By Beth Noveck Open Course Library's best resource: introductory college course materials By Carolyn Fox OPEN SOURCE EVENTS Here's what's coming up in July: O'Reilly OSCON 2014, covering the open source stack in its entirety, is scheduled for next week, July 20-24 in Portland, Oregon. OpenEdJam, a 3-day event focused on open education resources, is scheduled for July 25-27 in San Antonio, Texas. EuroPython 2014 is scheduled for July 21-27 in Berlin, Germany. Check out the events calendar to see other upcoming open source events and submit your own! OSCON 2014 is next week! If you're still on the fence about whether to attend this influential open source conference, head over to the site to read our interviews with some of the speakers and grab a 20% discount on tickets. Building relationships with customers is essential for a business' survival. To maintain those relationships, a CRM system is a must. Check out 5 of the top open source CRMs. What should we teach high schoolers about Internet safety? We've got some great starting points for 21st century high school classroom debate and discussion, with a focus on open source, ethics, and privacy. ENTERPRISERS PROJECT Join the open sourced-dialogue about the future of CIOs. Don't lose your cool over shadow IT Look at it as an opportunity Are you using OpenStack? How Aetna is using OpenStack 3 things your CIO should know about marketing Advice from marketing executives Having challenges hiring developers? Try hiring people for who they will become.

Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is crucial to free software

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to be convinced that Net Neutrality is worth saving. The agency has asked members of the public, along with industry leaders and entrepreneurs, to tell it why Internet Service Providers should be banned from traffic discrimination. This comment window is one of the best opportunities we've had to make an impact. Comments are due tomorrow, July 15, 2014. Submit your statement in support of Net Neutrality right away using the Electronic Frontier Foundation's free software commenting tool. Net neutrality, the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, should be a basic right for Internet users. It's also crucial for free software's continued growth and success. Here's why: Media distribution giants that use Digital Restrictions Management and proprietary software to control what's on your computer have also been fighting for years to control the network. Without Net Neutrality, DRM-laden materials could be easier to access, while DRM-free competitors could be stuck in the slow lane. Web-based free software projects like GNU MediaGoblin could also suffer the slow treatment while competitors like YouTube shell out big bucks for speedier service. The bottom line--an Internet where the most powerful interests can pay for huge speed advantages could push smaller free software projects right off the map and make it harder Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality will help free software flourish Activists have worked for years to get to this moment. Over the last several months, things have really heated up--with Internet freedom lovers camping out outside of the FCC, serenading FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler with a special version "Which Side Are You On?" The comments flooding in to the agency have jammed the phones and crashed the FCC's email servers. And yet, Chairman Wheeler still thinks he can get away with ignoring overwhelming public outrage and wrecking the free Internet. We have to keep up our historic momentum in order to convince a cable-industry sympathizer like Chairman Wheeler to listen to the public and protect Net Neutrality. The deadline for comments is tomorrow, July 15, 2014. Don't delay--comment now!

Free Software Supporter - Issue 75, June 2014

Free Software Supporter Issue 75, June 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Reset the Net with our Email Self-Defense Guide Join the FSF and allies: strengthen the Tor anti-surveillance network US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: June 6 "Active Management Technology": The obscure remote control in some Intel hardware Replicant at the 15th Libre Software Meeting in Montpellier, France this July US Supreme Court reining in software patents GCC 4.7.4 released LibrePlanet featured resource: IBM Thinkpad X60 GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 23 new GNU releases! GNU Toolchain Update Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events Thank GNUs! GNU copyright contributions Take action with the FSF! Reset the Net with our Email Self-Defense Guide From June 5th This month we joined the Reset the Net day of action by releasing Email Self-Defense, a guide to personal email encryption to help everyone, including beginners, make the NSA's job a little harder. The Email Self-Defense Guide will lead you all the way through the process of sending and receiving your first encrypted mail. We're excited to announce that volunteers are currently working on translations of the guide and infographic into ten languages. Translations in German, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Russian, Turkish, and Japanese have been published, with more languages coming soon. Blog posts: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/reset-the-net https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/were-glad-you-liked-email-self-defense-lets-take-it-even-farther https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/coming-soon-email-self-defense-in-spanish-german-portuguese-and-more https://fsf.org/blogs/community/launching-translations-of-our-email-self-defense-guide Press release: https://www.fsf.org/news/reset-the-net Guide: https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org Join the FSF and allies: strengthen the Tor anti-surveillance network From June 5th We're joining our allies at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in kicking off the Tor Challenge, an effort to strengthen the global Tor network that protects Internet traffic from surveillance. Start a relay and register it with the Tor Challenge! It's easy and works on all operating systems, including the best one — GNU/Linux. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/join-the-fsf-and-allies-strengthen-the-tor-anti-surveillance-network US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good From June 19th On June 19, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled a prominent software patent invalid in the case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, saying that implementing an abstract idea on a computer does not make that idea patent-eligible. This ruling is an important and meaningful step in the right direction, but the Court and Congress must go further. https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement-on-alice-corp-v-cls-bank Introducing Alex Patel, our summer campaigns intern From June 30th Alex Patel will be working as an intern with the campaigns team at the Free Software Foundation this summer. In this post, he writes about what brought him to free software, and the goals for his internship. https://fsf.org/blogs/community/introducing-alex-patel-our-summer-campaigns-intern Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: June 6 From June 6th Updates from the Free Software Directory community from the week of June 6, 2014. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/recap-of-friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-june-6 "Active Management Technology": The obscure remote control in some Intel hardware By Ward Vandewege, Matthew Garrett, and Richard M. Stallman, from June 19th Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) is a proprietary remote management and control system for personal computers with Intel CPUs. It is dangerous because it has full access to personal computer hardware at a very low level, and its code is secret and proprietary. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/active-management-technology Replicant at the 15th Libre Software Meeting in Montpellier, France this July By Paul Kocialkowski, from June 19th Replicant will be in attendance at the 15th edition of the Libre Software Meeting (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre) from July 5 to 11, 2014 in Montpellier, France. Replicant will present the project through a few talks as well as a workshop. In addition, Replicant developer Paul Kocialkowski will present about various freedom issues on ARM devices: ARM devices and your freedom. http://www.replicant.us/2014/06/replicant-at-the-15th-libre-software-meeting-in-montpellier-france-this-july/ US Supreme Court reining in software patents By Ciarán O'Riordan, from June 20th "Reining in." It wasn't easy to find a term that was both accurate and also vague enough to describe what just happened. The US Supreme Court today published its decision on Alice v. CLS Bank. It's too early to say exactly what the effects will be, but the news is certainly all good: The Court in no way extended patentability nor did it affirm patentability for any sub-category of software; and a certain category of software patents has definitely been invalidated. Blog post: http://endsoftpatents.org/2014/06/alice-cls/ Wiki page: http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Alice_v._CLS_Bank_ruling_by_US_Supreme_Court_on_19_June_2014 GCC 4.7.4 released By GCC, June 12th The GNU project and the GCC developers are pleased to announce the release of GCC 4.7.4. This release is a bug-fix release, containing fixes for regressions in GCC 4.7.3 relative to previous releases of GCC. https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.7/ Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory 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, July 11 from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here: https://fsf.org/blogs/directory/friday-free-software-directory-irc-meetup-july-11 LibrePlanet featured resource: IBM Thinkpad X60 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 IBM Thinkpad X60, which provides information about making the IBM Thinkpad free software friendly. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource. https://libreplanet.org/wiki/IBM_Thinkpad_X60 Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org. GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 23 new GNU releases! 23 new GNU releases in the last month (as of June 28, 2014): cgicc-3.2.15 ddrescue-1.18.1 electric-9.05 freedink-108.2 freeipmi-1.4.4 gcc-4.7.4 gettext-0.19.1 global-6.3 gnupg-2.0.24 grep-2.20 libmicrohttpsd-0.9.37 libtasn1-4.0 linux-libre-3.15 mcron-1.0.8 moe-1.6 nano-2.3.4 nettle-3.0 parallel-20140622 sipwitch-1.9.2 sqltutor-0.7 tramp-2.2.10 ucommon-6.1.8 unifont-7.0.01 To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror. This month, we welcome Bernd Paysan as the new maintainer (though the long-time author and developer) of gforth and vmgen, and Ruben Rodriguez (long-time developer of Trisquel) as the new maintainer of IceCat. Thanks to all. Also, please consider attending the GNU Hackers' Meeting https://www.gnu.org/ghm/ in Munich this year, August 15-17; attendance is free of charge, but pre-registration is essential. A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html. As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments. GNU Toolchain update From June 22th 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 GDB, G++, and GCC. https://nickclifton.livejournal.com/16414.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 July: Jul 4, 2014, 10:00am to 10:00am, Brighton, United Kingdom, "Richard Stallman at IndieTech, in Brighton, United Kingdom" Jul 5, 2014, 11:15am to 12:00pm, Paris, France, "Richard Stallman to speak at Tails Hackfest, in Paris, France"" Jul 6, 2014, 4:00pm to 6:00pm, Montpellier, France, "Le logiciel libre et ta liberté" Jul 8, 2014, 2:30pm to 4:30pm, Montpellier, France, "Une société digitale libre" Other events On the weekend of August 15 to 17, 2014, people responsible for the GNU operating system will gather in Munich, Germany at the eighth GNU Hackers' Meeting https://www.gnu.org/ghm/. The meeting is open to developers, users and all people interested in GNU. It is an opportunity to share ideas and for social interaction within the GNU community. Attendance is gratis, but prior registration is necessary. More details here: http://www.gnu.org/ghm/upcoming.html. 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/2014supporters.html This month, a big Thank GNU to: George Tsiagalakis Dominik Kellner Justin Baugh Mirko Luedde Marilee Griswold Laurentiu Mihai Popescu Aycan Özcan Allan Fields You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org. GNU copyright contributions Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us defend the GPL and keep software free. The following individuals, and eleven others, have assigned their copyright to the FSF in the past month: Abhishek Bhowmick (GNU Radio) Dr. Philipp Tomsich (GNU Binutils) Santiago Paya Miralta (GNU Emacs) Jose A. Ortega Ruiz (GNU EMMS and GNU Emacs) Kelvin Duane White (GNU Emacs) Kevin Cox (glibc) Artyom Poptsov (GNU Guile-RPC) Sylvestre Ledru (GCC) Zhuo Qingliang (GNU Emacs) Nick Salerni (GNU Emacs) Braden Obrzut (GCC) Zihang Chen (GNU Wget) Thomas Morgan (GNU Emacs) Dieter Schoen (GNU Emacs) Alex Kost (GNU Emacs) Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your copyright to the FSF. https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#dev 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.

Encryption, chiffrement, шифрование; launching translations of our Email Self-Defense guide

The goal of our Email Self-Defense guide is to show everyone that email encryption is a necessary, easy, and accessible way to fight mass surveillance with free software. We know that if we want to reach people around the globe, it's going to take more than one language. That's why today, we're proud to announce translations into German, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Russian, Turkish, and Japanese, as well as an ongoing effort to make the guide and infographic available in as many languages as possible. Mass surveillance is a global issue, with many governments and corporations colluding across borders to track us throughout our digital lives. Inter-country communication is particularly subject to government surveillance, as many states' privacy laws are much less protective of outsiders. These scary truths are part of the reason this translation project is important. We'd like to highlight that, while the FSF coordinated the translation process and maintains the Web site, all of the translation was done by volunteers. We're grateful to this international community of active free software supporters. While coordinating the translations, we've made improvements to the guide itself, incorporating feedback left by users on our LibrePlanet community wiki and from encryption experts. With the help of a volunteer, we even created Edward, a friendly email bot that helps Email Self-Defense users test their new encryption systems. Edward is free software under the GNU Affero Public License, and you can download his source code. We want to keep improving Email Self-Defense so that it can have the biggest impact possible. We're particularly interested in adding instructions for encryption on mobile devices, as well as an FAQ to help troubleshoot common problems. Can you donate to help us do this important work? If you don't have dollars, you're also welcome to donate in Bitcoin or Litecoin. This launch is just the beginning of an initiative to get Email Self-Defense translated into as many languages as possible. Spanish, Malayam, Korean, Romanian and Greek translations are currently underway. If you'd like to create a version for a language that we haven't published yet or help maintain one of the existing translations, please send an email to campaigns@fsf.org. Email Self-Defense is only one important piece of the solution to bulk surveillance. While we learn email encryption tools, we also need to push politically to reign in surveillance, build a safer Internet, and force governments and companies to reduce the amount of data they collect about us in the first place. We hope translated versions of Email Self-Defense can be the entry into this multifaceted movement for people all around the world. If you'd like to receive some of the messages on this list in Spanish or French as well as English, you can update your language preferences. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Note: Please don't forward this email. It has a customized link for editing your contact information.

Coming soon: Email Self-Defense in Spanish, German, Portuguese, and more

Dear Pascal, Two weeks ago, we released Email Self-Defense, our beginner's guide to fighting surveillance with free software email encryption. We had an outpouring of support from people who were happy to have a welcoming, accessible guide that also promoted free software and a reduction in the amount of data collected about people in general. We're excited to announce that volunteers are currently working on translating the guide and infographic into ten languages. Wow! In the meantime, we've also made some general improvements that will launch with the translations. In the coming weeks, we'll be announcing translations here, on our primary mailing list. If you'd like to receive some of the messages on this list in Spanish or French, you can update your language preferences. We try to give our translators an opportunity to work in teams and review each others' work, but there are some brave volunteers currently translating alone. Send an email as soon as possible to campaigns@fsf.org if you are fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Japanese, Malayalam, or Turkish and would like to help them. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager P.S. A US Supreme Court ruling made yesterday an important day for the fight against software patents. Check out our press release: US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good. Note: Please don't forward this email. It has a customized link for editing your contact information. Read this post online. -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good

US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, June 19, 2014 -- Today the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled a prominent software patent invalid in the case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, saying that implementing an abstract idea on a computer does not make that idea patent-eligible. The FSF, Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), and Open Source Initiative (OSI) had co-filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, stating their position that software on general-purpose computers is not patentable. "Today's ruling is an important and meaningful step in the right direction, but the Court and Congress must go further," said Zak Rogoff, a campaigns manager at the FSF. Software patents force software developers, especially those who write free software, to navigate a minefield of spurious legal claims. The number of software patents has ballooned as software companies have scrambled to amass arsenals of patents to threaten each other, as in the recently exposed aggression by Microsoft against Google over smartphone patents. In the case ruled on today, Alice Corp. had claimed a patent for an unoriginal idea, simply because it was implemented in software to run on a computer. FSF executive director John Sullivan lauded the Supreme Court for recognizing this: "For years, lawyers have been adding 'on a computer' to the end of abstract idea descriptions to try and turn them into patents, much like kids have been adding 'in bed' to the end of their fortune cookies to try and make new jokes. We're pleased to see the Court reject this attempt and send a signal to others." For decades, the FSF has argued that it is impossible to solve the problem of software patents by getting individual software patents struck down. The FSF will continue to work for their complete abolition, and participate actively in future legal decisions. Those wishing to become involved in the grassroots movement against software patents can get started with the FSF-hosted End Software Patents project and its prominent wiki. An analysis of the Supreme Court's ruling is currently underway on the wiki and open for public participation. Sullivan added, "Software patents are a noxious weed that needs to be ripped out by the roots. Too many organizations are clamoring for 'reform,' thinking they can trim the weed into a Bonsai. The FSF is one of the few organizations working for the only real solution. Software on general-purpose computers is not patentable, period." 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. Media Contacts Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation +1 (617) 542 5942 campaigns@fsf.org ### -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street Fifth Floor Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

We're glad you liked Email Self-Defense. Let's take it farther.

Last Thursday was a big day for defending our freedom and privacy on the Internet. The FSF and its supporters joined the ranks of thousands for Reset the Net, the biggest-ever day of action against bulk surveillance. All in all, it was a whopping success, with major Web sites commiting to improve their security and more than thirty thousand people visiting the FSF's brand-new Email Self-Defense guide. The Email Self-Defense guide, along with its infographic, made the rounds on reddit, Boing Boing, Slashdot, and Hacker News, and we think it's likely to become one of the Web's most popular guides to email encryption. It's also a powerful vector for the free software message, emphasizing the importance of computer user freedom for security more than other prominent guides. We want to promote tools like this guide in-person and online, to help as many people as possible learn to protect themselves using free software. Can you help us by joining the FSF as a member (if you aren't already), or donating $25? If you're not able to donate, you can still get people learning about free software encryption by sharing the infographic with the hashtag #EmailSelfDefense. If you're a fan of any encryption and privacy-related Web sites, email them and ask them to link to the guide. Most of all, you can make a point of using encryption yourself whenever possible -- even for messages that aren't sensitive. We're excited about all the offers we've received to translate the guide and infographic. Stay tuned for versions in a variety of languages coming soon. We've also gotten a lot of feedback on Email Self-Defense, and we see that people are rightfully excited about this project. Here are some of our favorite comments: "I haven't found a guide that's anywhere near this approachable for people scared of technology, and the infographic is also ace." - an anonymous supporter "This is our opportunity to get my less-techy friends using encryption, while showing them why free software is important. Right on, FSF." - a Slashdot commenter Thanks to these commenters, and everyone in the free software community who participated in Reset the Net. Your actions give us hope for a future free of suspicionless bulk surveillance. And free software is going to be a big part of that future. Please join us as a member, or donate today. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation,