This year, we launched the "Freedom Ladder" campaign. Rather
than presenting a finished campaign right out of the gate, the
Freedom Ladder is a work in progress, and will always be one. It
is also the first and only campaign in which the Free Software
Foundation (FSF) will engage with the nuances of the strict
standards for software freedom that we ourselves adhere to
fully. The ultimate goal of this campaign is for everyone to
reach full freedom, as defined by the FSF's unflinching standard:
all software anyone uses on any computer must be under terms that
respect four key freedoms. To reach this goal, everyone has to
climb a sort of ladder, working over time toward a freer
existence. We want to support each and every choice they make to
use free software or refuse proprietary software, because each
such choice is a step in the right direction.
The more members we can count, the better we can build the
ladder for others, and this starts with achieving our fall goal
of 500 new members before December 31. 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. Your
membership will help the FSF give more people the tools they need
to continue to take steps forward to software freedom. It will
enable us to continue to create new resources, and to lead
much needed initiatives like the Freedom Ladder campaign for the
community.
Plus, associate members can select a special gift during this
fundraiser, and enjoy all the member benefits, which include
merchandise discounts, a 16GB bootable membership card, and use
of our videoconferencing server.
Since we recognized the need for community input at every step of
the way, we started off the campaign by holding four interactive
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) community meetings. We want to
thank everyone involved in these discussions, because they helped
us identify important points to address, and assisted us in
getting an idea of the work that still needs to be done. They
also informed this article, which is an attempt at highlighting
some of the most important aspects we will be keeping in mind
while developing the Freedom Ladder further. The detailed
notes of the meetings are available on the LibrePlanet wiki.
Purpose of the Freedom Ladder
Free software can only be a sustainable idea if we are
continuously bringing new people into the free software
community. For a freer future, we need to guarantee that free
software continues to be developed, that interest in it continues
to grow, and that activism for its use spreads. Since most people
are not taught to be aware of the technological tools that are so
deeply integrated into their lives, the idea of software freedom
is not one that is typically as valued as it should be, and as it
would be if people understood the snowball effect that software
freedom can have on our day to day lives. Software is the
language of the world we live in, but unlike learning how to
read, which is considered a priority in life, it is not something
that is taught at a general level. Rather, the understanding of
software is reserved for the "highly specialized."
With this campaign, we want to have supportive conversations
about the challenges this lack of technical knowledge poses to
bringing new people into the fold, and we want to accommodate the
fact that most people do not step into full software freedom in
the span of a single day. It takes one step at a time. And like
every other climb in life, we want to help people to appreciate
where they find themselves, as much as their destination.
The typical free software user
In the community meetings, we once again confirmed that
the "typical" free software user does not exist. It's not "one
size fits all," and there are as many particular use cases as
there are free software users. How do you create one single
message for people that range from absolute beginners to lifelong
programmers, and who span all walks of life? The answer is: you
don't.
Imagine all the different kinds of people we here at the FSF aim
to address on a daily basis, and the goals that we have to help
these people move forward on the Freedom Ladder:
People who aren't especially technical and who remain in the
periphery of our activism -- we want to show these people that
even through proprietary software is often presented as a
requirement, they do have a choice. Then, we can help them recognize when they can find or demand
freedom.
People who are frustrated with some aspects of nonfree
computing, and understand that they don't need to accept the
status quo -- we need to give these people the tools to make
changes that last their entire lives.
People with programming experience or technical aptitude who
aren't already in the free software development community -- can
we bring these people in to be valuable contributors?
People who want to increase the amount of freedom in their
lives -- this can be any kind of person, and every bit of
information they can learn or free software program they can use
is a move in the right direction.
These are by no means all the options there are, but just take a
moment to think about the range of conversations to be had with
everyone, and the amount of information we therefore need to
deliver. As everyone's steps will be different, we need to meet
people where they are. Our goal, and something important to keep
in mind, is to explain the steps on the path forward in a way
that allows one to step in from anywhere. We want to recognize
the progress they've made so far, while still motivating them to
strive towards full freedom.
Motivations for moving forward on the Freedom Ladder
Lack of control over your devices, frustration with other
systems, convenience, price, privacy, or overlap with other kinds
of activism, like avoiding hardware obsolescence and protecting
the environment, or empowering the historically disempowered --
these are just a sample of great conversation starters that came
up when discussing this campaign. Any of these can be great
motivators for new free software users to explore further, and
can convince them to advocate with us.
We also have to take into account what keeps people from moving
towards freedom. There are plenty of reasons for people not to
tinker with their machines, or even explore the ideas of freedom
in technology. After all, proprietary corporations spend a lot of
money telling people how "dangerous" it is to fix your own
devices, or to install or adapt your own software. It is a
multi-billion dollar effort that has had major success in
keeping people dependent on companies like Apple and Microsoft.
In the course of our discussions, something else that stood out
was the difficulty some people have in joining an unfamiliar
online community. Feeling out of place in Internet forums or chat
spaces is not uncommon, and it can hold people back from
searching for the help they need to continue their journey
forwards towards freedom. That is why in-person meeting is still
one of our top priorities, and once it is safe to do so, we all
need to work to reinvigorate or start new local free software
advocacy groups in the vein of our local LibrePlanet groups.
Resources
A clear result from our first conversations about the new
campaign was the need for educational resources. The resources
the FSF produces itself are not the only valuable resources
available to a budding free software user, so we aim to create a
single space that will helpfully collect all that a person needs on
their journey to freedom. Such a place would
elaborate on the different choices a new free software user could
make in their journey -- whether that's a comparison of free
programs that can be used even on a proprietary operating system,
or certain technical caveats in migrating from one program to
another. We encourage everyone to add resources they think are
helpful to the Ladder pages on the wiki as a starting point.
Some types of resources that were identified as potentially very
helpful are the following:
Stickers or other giveaways are great conversation starters;
A dictionary explaining terms and concepts of free software;
A table of starter "replacements" would be good to have, think
of LibreOffice, VLC, etc. These are often the first free
programs used that can help kickstart the journey forward;
Short how-to video tutorials for subjects like using free
programs, installing software, common encounters of issues, and
more to help people DIY (Do It Yourself) through some easy
steps;
Graphic illustrations similar to the Email Self-Defense
Guide that can help break down some more challenging steps for
users;
An overview for budding free software enthusiasts on where they
can get access to communities, mailing lists, forums, etc.;
Connections to other local free software hackers who can help
them; as mentioned before, local LibrePlanet groups can be
leveraged for this purpose.
Another resource worth highlighting, and something the FSF is
interested in exploring as one of our first next Freedom Ladder
campaign elements, are the situational stories that were
proposed, and which would ideally provide very clear
demonstrations of situations that call for a reference to the
Freedom Ladder:
"X installed a freer OS because she had a graphic card that
wasn't supported yet by fully free operating systems. She
will get a Respects Your Freedoms (RYF) certified
laptop later on."
"I got a relative to install LibreOffice and they loved it
and told five of their friends who also did it."
"We refurbished an old computer too slow to run Windows 11, and
installed a GNU/Linux distribution on it, avoiding its
hardware obsolescence."
"X has just started activism and needs software to
publish a politically-oriented zine and they used the
Free Software Directory to help them find programs to be
able to do that."
We believe people's stories about the use cases of free software,
much like the free software stories we collected for the
thirtieth birthday of the FSF about how people got into
free software, as well as on the difficulties that sometimes need
to be overcome, will help us better represent and address the
multitude of audiences we want to speak to. It will show that
free software really is for everyone, and for everyone there is a
step forward.
Challenges and what comes next
The goal of the Freedom Ladder campaign is to deliver an
ever-expanding journey towards free software. The ideal result
would be a combination of resources, information, connections, and
motivation for the future. This is a major undertaking and the
campaigns team's main goal at present: delivering a framework we
can accelerate building upon that will help people in their journey to
freedom.
We need to help people identify with other members of the
community by delivering these stories, and letting them know that
it's more than acceptable to move towards freedom gradually and
incrementally. We want to start with
developing a blend of fictional / nonfictional "how I got into
free software" stories sourced from the community, that can
represent many of our most "typical" free software users.
We're interested in both written statements and videos, and
we would love to receive yours. You can add them to the Freedom
Ladder pages in the wiki, or you can email [email protected]
with your ideas. In the meantime, we will work on the
infrastructure to start building this initiative and be able to
integrate any information and resources we need. But we need your
help.
These individual choices to use a little more free software, or
say no to something proprietary, support and build on each other
-- the more of them get made, the easier it is for others to make
them too.
Can you join this effort this year-end as an FSF
associate member? It will enable us to continue to create new
resources, and continue bringing the Freedom Ladder campaign, and
others like it, to the community.
Our work on the Freedom Ladder campaign so far has been
inspiring; the community meetings were fun and everything in this
post is a result of the interactive, open, and welcoming nature
of those events. Building this tool that will help give people
the steps they need to continue their journey forward to software
freedom will be challenging, but with your help, your knowledge
and your support, we cannot wait to take the next step!
