This spring, as the time for planning our biannual appeal came
around, we discussed the difficult time all of us are
experiencing: charities like us, the free software community, and
every individual. And it led us to consider why people from all
walks of life cherish user freedom.
The socially distant, digital way in which we are carrying on our
work and private lives is affecting our software
freedom. Globally, decisions to transition to an online and
remote life were made with less consideration than we normally
put into them, giving proprietary corporations access to parts of
our lives we normally protect. Lately, we have been pointing to
grim examples of bulk surveillance and privacy
violations in the realms of education and communication
to help everyone understand why this fight is so important.
But we shouldn't forget that free software is an inherently positive
story. It celebrates the creativity and skill that come from
collaboration, and the freedom that you have if you understand a
program or can freely choose to rely on information about it from
someone you trust. Having the right to read, modify, contribute
to, and share software we use has changed our lives, and countless
others. There are so many people who continue to motivate us to fight
for free software with their work, so we decided to ask them to share
their stories on why they love free software, and what user freedom
means to them or their business.
We spoke with Pouhiou, co-director of the French nonprofit
organization Framasoft, who told us:
"What I love about the free software movement: we care about the
people and their emancipation, so we make digital tools to
empower both. I mean, I've never written a single line of code,
but I've been contributing to free software culture for many
years just by writing words and talking with (beautiful)
people!"
He further explained:
"By itself, free software is not enough. But mixed with respect
for privacy, user-oriented design, and popular education, it is
a cornerstone. To me, and to Framasoft, free software is the
first and essential step on the road where we can built digital
tools that can change the world, one byte at the time."
We also heard from Jim Garrett, long-time free software supporter and
LibrePlanet 2020 volunteer:
"I've found that it doesn't occur to most people that there
exists an ethical dimension to software at all. To them, it's
not a question of one mode being more ethical than another, it's
thinking about ethics at all. Frankly, I didn't see this clearly
myself until attending the LibrePlanet conference some
years ago."
One of the most endearing and positive submissions was created by
Sacha Chua, whom you may know from her weekly Emacs News,
and her notes on her personal blog at sachachua.com. We
share her visual contribution with you in this post as a reminder
of why we fight for software freedom.
Whether your support for and approach to free software is
philosophical and ethically motivated, or purely technical, we
love hearing and amplifying these stories. If you have your own
story to contribute, please share it in the libreplanet-discuss
email list. We will be publishing items from our collection
of new testimonies on our pages from now until the end of
the summer fundraiser on August 7th. Every new member that
joins the FSF during this time will add towards our summer goal
of 200 new FSF associate members.
Like one of our recent donors said: "Not enough people know about or
understand free software. I just want to spread the word." And so do
we. Please take a moment to publicly bring attention to the need
for free software using the hashtag /#UserFreedom. You can use one of
the beautifully designed free software images to help raise
awareness.
It's your support that makes this work so impactful. Together, we can
continue to protect crucial rights for freedom that are being
sacrificed in favor of transitioning business or social life to be
remote. It's your support that has helped drive the FSF
forward. If you can spare just $10/month ($5 for students), please
become and FSF associate member.
FSF members do not just support our work financially, which will help
us weather the challenges of this year, but also help us launch new
initiatives, and put weight behind our campaigns, licensing, and
technical work. Plus, you'll be able to enjoy all the member benefits,
which now includes the use of our members-only Jitsi Meet
videoconferencing server.
We are grateful for your support and encouragement during this difficult time.
