Our+Work+-+FSFE
Our Work - FSFE

   

    
        The Free Software Foundation Europe helps individuals and
        organisations understand how Free Software contributes to
        freedom, transparency and self-determination. We enhance
        users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption,
        encourage people to use and develop Free Software and provide
        resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
        in Europe.
      

    
      The three pillars of our activities:
      Public Awareness - Policy Advocacy - Legal Support
    

    
      Imagine a world where pupils learn about the philosophy of Free
      Software and no one is forced to use non-free software. A world
      where public bodies develop Free Software for the public and
      decision-makers understand the long-term societal achievements by
      building public infrastructures on Free Software.
    

    
      Even if these goals still seem a long way off, we are already
      taking great steps forward today. Democratic societies are
      dynamic societies. Regularly, we see changes of public demands,
      policies and legal frameworks happening. Many of these changes
      create opportunities and chances to act upon and to help the
      public moving towards a free society. To ensure that the FSFE is
      able to make the best out of these opportunities, we
      concentrate our daily work on three main pillars: public
      awareness, policy advocacy and legal support.
    

    
      This page is for you to read about the rationales behind our
      work. If you are interested in concrete projects and are looking more
     deeply for details, you will find them on our activities overview. Or
      look at our contribute
      page if you would like to get more deeply involved.
    

    Public Awareness

    
      Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives.
      It is important that people and organisations know about software
      freedom and its benefits for our society so they can join our
      cause. The more people who understand Free Software, the
      stronger our voice becomes and the more we will accomplish for
      software freedom. That is why a main focus of the FSFE's work
      revolves around informing the public.
    

    
      Our website explains the basics of Free
      Software and spreads up-to-date
      news about our work and the Free Software ecosystem. We also
      share this news on our social media channels for everyone to
     follow and publish a
      monthly Newsletter with a
      summary of all news of the last 4 weeks. For those who prefer the spoken word, we
      publish a bi-monthly podcast in
      addition to discussing Free-Software-related topics in-depth with
      experts from our community.
    


    
      Also important in our public awareness activities are
      public campaigns.  Many of these campaigns are
      designed around a special topic regarding Free Software or to
      help people to align with a certain demand covering our work for
      Free Software. But we also have timeless campaigns on the general
      well-being of Free Software, for example our “I love Free Software” day
      campaign, a campaign to remind all of us to say thank you to all
      the Free Software out there, at least once a year. You can find
      many more of our awareness campaigns on our activities overview.
    

    
      
      From top left to bottom right: Lucas Lasota speaking
      at the FSFE Community Meeting 2019 (CC-BY 2.0 NOI Techpark);
      Bonnie Mehring and Erik Albers interviewed at the 36C3; Hanno
      Boeck speaks at 34C3; FSFE village team at SHA Camp.
    

    
      We regularly create and organise information booths in many
      European countries. These are set up by our community members. You can spot
      those booths at different events, from local street festivals to
      international gatherings. Together with talks and
      workshops given by volunteers and staffers, such
      information booths spread the word of software freedom
      face-to-face. Many of our public talks are recorded and we
      publish them for everyone to see on our video channels.
    

    
      If you would like to get active yourself, we offer you
      high quality information
      material to help with your personal public awareness
      activities. You can order the material for no cost inside Europe.
      Also we have high quality merchandise
      material for you to wear and show your support for Free
      Software.
    

    All Awareness activitiesPolicy Advocacy

    
      Political decisions and directions have big impact on Free
      Software, its ecosystems and its communities. The FSFE has
      long-time experience in working with policy-makers and public
      bodies in Europe, from local administrations to high-level
      decision makers. We are always aiming at enhancing the rights of Free
      Software users and developers and abolishing barriers to Free
      Software adoption.
    

    
      Professional representation of interests means being in the right
      place at the right time with the right approach. Politics is a
      day-to-day business but decisions take time - sometimes it takes
      years to come to a compromise. It needs a lot of explaining,
      networking, back and forth, adaptation to situations, finding
      majorities or in two words: professional
      lobbying. The FSFE undertakes this task for the benefit
      of software freedom and putting people in control of technology.
      We are in regular contact with relevant stakeholders, analyse
      decision making processes in different legal environments and
      based on this choose the best strategies to be successful with
      our demands.
    

    
      
    

    
      Within our policy advocacy, the FSFE takes part in consultations,
      parliamentarian hearings and public discussions. We are reaching
      out to decision makers with concrete proposals and propose
      policies in favor of user's freedom. One key to success is the
      backing of our community for whom we offer participatory
      activities to get involved in political processes or to campaign
      and advocate together with us for a Europe relying on Free
      Software. One example of such a campaign is our “Public Money? Public Code!”
      campaign, a timeless campaign targeting decision makers to change
      public funding practices: We want legislation requiring that
      publicly financed software developed for the public sector be
      made publicly available under a Free Software licence. We offer
      material and expertise and ask our community to help spread the
      word. Also we report about our activities on our website and
      social media channels, provide in-depth analysis on different
      topics and issues and help others to understand what we are doing
      and why.
    

    
      The FSFE is available as an independent expert for other
      communities, partners and interested bodies to explain the
      advantages and political needs of Free Software. Often we are
      partnering with like-minded organisations to back our demands by
      setting up ad-hoc alliances or campaigning together with friends.
      Throughout the year, the FSFE offers forums to discuss current
      activities and developments regarding software freedom in order
      for everyone interested to have a strong voice together in
      debates and to be successful in lobbying for Free Software.
    

    
      To further deepen existing alliances and to facilitate the
      creation of new ones, as well as to publicly offer our expertise,
      we also host our own policy events. For example
      we regularly invite Free Software groups around Europe to come
      together and exchange knowledge about the current state of Free
      Software in Europe and to create resilient networks. Or we invite
      decision makers to our own events and discuss important aspects
      of software freedom and help them to understand the impact of
      reusing software.
    

    
      Often campaigns are designed to help people to align with a
      certain demand covering our work for Free Software. 
    

    All Policy activitiesLegal Support

    
      Free licenses and their proper application can be complex but are
      indispensable for Free Software. At the Free Software Foundation
      Europe, we educate
      people on these legal issues and help developers, companies
      and political entities to develop, use and reuse Free Software in
      a manner that is compliant with existing legal frameworks.
    

    
      The FSFE maintains the world's
      largest network on legal issues related to Free Software.
      Participants come from a variety of legal backgrounds, including
      practicing lawyers, corporate in-house counsel and software
      engineers with legal skills. The provision of a neutral
      discussion platform enables the analysis and development
      of strategies and solutions for concrete legal questions. By
      sharing knowledge among Network members, the Legal Network
      contributes to growing legal expertise regarding Free Software.
      Once a year, the FSFE hosts a Free Software Legal and Licensing
      Workshop, which gives world-leading legal experts the opportunity
      to personally discuss issues and best practices related to Free
      Software licensing.
    

    
      
      Polina Malaja, FSFE GA Member, speaking at the Legal
      and Licensing Workshop 2018
    

    
      To encourage accuracy and the adoption of best practices in Free
      Software licensing, the FSFE's legal experts help with concrete
      licensing consultancy. We provide guidance for
      Free Software projects, both on an individual level and
      on a larger scale with initiatives from organisations that
      include the European Commission. Our aim is to ensure that
      everyone who works with developing Free Software understands the
      best practices for communicating components, licenses and
      copyrights associated with software packages, in order for them
      to comply with all legal necessities fulfilling software freedom.
    

    
      The FSFE's legal work with licensing is also supported greatly by
      REUSE, an initiative
      started by the FSFE to provide a set of recommendations that
      make licensing Free Software projects easier for developers. The
      REUSE recommendations make it easy for developers to declare the
      licenses under which their Free Software works are released and
      also to enable computers to easily understand how these software
      projects are licensed. REUSE is an initiative to promote a
      software ecosystem where Free Software can be easily shared and
      reused in a legally sound manner.
    

    All Legal activities

  