At the Open Source Summit Europe 2019 in Lyon, I presented REUSE to an audience of enterprise Open Source professionals, developers, and decision-makers. The Open Source Summit, organized by the Linux Foundation, brings together the commercial and community sides of Open Source, making it an ideal venue to discuss how REUSE addresses licensing challenges that affect both worlds. The talk emphasized how REUSE makes licensing straightforward for everyone: from individual contributors to large organizations managing complex Open Source portfolios.
On 10 and 11 October, the FSFE System Hackers met in person to tackle problems and new features regarding the servers and services the FSFE is running. The team consists of dedicated volunteers who ensure that the community and staff can work effectively. The recent meeting built on the great work of the past 2 years which have been shaped by large personal and technical changes.
At BalCCon 2019 in Novi Sad, Serbia, I delivered a talk arguing that real IT security is fundamentally impossible without Free and Open Source Software. BalCCon (Balkan Computer Congress) brings together security researchers, hackers, and technology enthusiasts from across the Balkans and beyond, making it a perfect audience for examining the deep connections between software freedom and security. The talk challenged the common assumption that security and openness are somehow in tension, arguing instead that transparency is a prerequisite for trustworthy security.
At Pass the SALT 2019 in Lille, France, I presented on the essential connection between IT security and Free Software. Pass the SALT (Security And Libre Talks) is a security conference with a specific focus on Free and Open Source Software security tools and practices, making it the ideal venue for this topic. The conference brings together security professionals who both develop and use Free Software security tools, and understand the value of transparency in security work.
Bei den Grazer Linuxtagen 2019 hielt ich die Keynote über den Zusammenhang zwischen IT-Sicherheit und Freier Software. Die Grazer Linuxtage sind eine der wichtigsten deutschsprachigen Veranstaltungen für GNU/Linux und Freie Software, und die Keynote bot die Möglichkeit, dem gesamten Publikum – von Einsteigern bis zu erfahrenen Entwicklern – zu erläutern, warum Freie und Open Source Software keine Option, sondern eine Voraussetzung für echte IT-Sicherheit ist.
We are facing a EU regulation which may make it impossible to install a custom piece of software on most radio decives like WiFi routers, smartphones and embedded devices. You can now give feedback on the most problematic part by Monday, 4 March. Please participate – it’s not hard!
If you are reading these lines, you are already accessing the brand-new planet of the FSFE. While Björn, Coordinator of Team Germany, has largely improved the design in late 2017, we tackled many underlying issues this time.
So what has changed under the hood?
At BalCCon 2018 in Novi Sad (Serbia), I presented the FSFE’s “Public Money, Public Code” campaign and its vision for modernising public digital infrastructure through Free Software. This was during the early, energetic phase of the campaign when we were building momentum across Europe for the principle that software developed with taxpayer money should be made available as Free Software. BalCCon’s technically sophisticated audience with a focus on IT security was an interesting context to discuss how public code can enhance security, transparency, and local technological capacity.
At DrupalEurope 2018 in Darmstadt, I presented the “Public Money, Public Code” initiative to an audience of Drupal developers, site builders, and digital agencies. This was a particularly relevant venue because Drupal itself is Free Software, and many in the audience work on public sector projects where the principles of Public Code directly apply. The talk connected the FSFE’s campaign to the practical realities of building public digital infrastructure with content management systems like Drupal.