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Dear Free Software Supporter,
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) organized its first in-person
event since 2019 this past March! It is hard to believe it's been
that long, but three years after the last-minute cancellation of the
in-person version of LibrePlanet in 2020, we held our first hybrid
conference. LibrePlanet 2023: Charting the Course offered a
diverse range of speakers both local and remote, the opportunity to
meet in Boston and online.
The FSF has faced immense challenges these last years, and this year
has been no different. We still see a lot of hesitation for people to
travel and meet up, and inflation has increased globally. It has made
it hard for many people to pay for even their most basic needs, and
unfortunately people's admirable continuation of charitable giving
does not balance the declining value of money and increased expenses.
While we are working hard on trusted FSF programs with our small team
of eleven staff members, we are also acutely aware of the changing
environment in technology. Machine learning developments are
bringing up new questions for free software and licensing. Privacy
concerns are at the forefront of our minds with encryption technology
being threatened through legislation. And in Europe, bills are in
development that need serious attention from our community to make
sure free software is both properly understood and its developers
protected.
Despite hard times, we experience immense amounts of positivity from
the moments when we are able to meet with people to have meaningful
conversations. These moments demonstrate how generous, resilient and
supportive this community really is. It was built on a strong
foundation of free software values that has carried us for forty
years, and I believe we have the capacity to do even more in the
coming years -- but only with your support.
In addition to organizing our first hybrid free software conference,
we:
researched the value of sharing for people all over Boston. We
focused on interviewing people from a generation born into a digital
time. People who never experienced sharing their code and games, or
making mix-tapes. We learned a lot from this project, but have more
work to do to include and connect to people of all ages and
backgrounds.
continued our commitment to helping free software supporters make
educated hardware choices. We certified the first Respects Your
Freedom (RYF) product in two years. This program deserves our
attention and resources to help take certified free hardware to the
next level. The pipeline is robust, and with additional resources,
we can do even more.
made improvements to board governance and are now discussing
board candidates. It has been a long road to set up a process that
engages the community, establishing fully free discussion software,
engaging staff and volunteers for moderation, and moving the process
forward while keeping the community updated. You can follow our
progress on changes related to FSF's board governance at
https://u.fsf.org/board
Can you join this effort as an FSF associate member? You can
start for as little as $10 per month ($5 for students), or $120 per
year. With your support we can get to the strength in numbers we need
to continue our work, and take on the challenging developments where
we need to take a stance. Plus, your membership will count towards
achieving our spring goal of 175 new associate members before July
21. You'll also be able to enjoy all the member benefits, which
include merchandise discounts, a 16GB bootable membership card, and
use of our associate member videoconferencing server.
We use our resources to the fullest extent supporting free software,
as shown through another Charity Navigator four-star rating and
our second 100% score in 2022. And as we are coming up on what will be the
40th year of the GNU Project, we have proven that we are a versatile
and strong movement that can adapt to the times.
We do this thoughtfully, through educating ourselves, and when
confronted with challenges, we never lose sight of our mission, always
asking: "What does this mean for user freedom?" We need your support
to bring people to understand that this question is more important
than any convenience, any new development or hyped-up technology. It
is vital that we expand our community, and we are well on our
way. More and more people understand that they need to know who is in
control of their technology. It is our turn to educate them on how to
ensure this control: by adopting the four freedoms.
