High-Priority Proposals for the FSF in 2021

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2021-03-23 17:04:54 UTC
Modified: 2021-03-23 17:10:08 UTC

Summary: Some personal suggestions or a list of things that would help the FSF succeed and keep growing (and remaining relevant) for decades to come

Offer a compelling way to replace the GitHub (Microsoft) near-monopoly with something that is self-hosted, preferably decentralised to a certain degree, and without a "Community Edition" (everything is for the community). It's already work in progress based on our understanding.

Promote the use of existing remote work (or conferencing, teaching etc.) tools, especially ones that aren't controlled by GitHub. Or try to wean them off GitHub. The latter points relates to (1).

Form a stronger coalition with Free software proponents around the world (numbers are our strength) and keep a distance from the corrupting influence (monopolies) of the Linux Foundation and OSI. In many ways they nowadays represent interests opposite to those of the FSF.

Tackle the growing threat of increasing complexity as barrier to community participation in particular projects (systemd has earned notoriety for this).

Speak about the growing threat of Clown Computing; the FSFE has done some work in that area, but many people ignore the warnings and outsource almost everything to third parties (mostly monopolies that spy).

Create a capsule for presence in Gemini space (protocol), which helps tackle most of the issues the World Wide Web has become notorious for. It can help inspire many more capsules.

Reinstate old campaigns that call out Microsoft Windows for the threat that it is (it is still a growing threat) to people's freedom.

Repudiate fake solutions to the software patents threat; some of their purveyors have attempted to enlist GNU projects, in effect bypassing real patent reform attempts, seeking to altogether abolish software patents (even after Alice/35 U.S.C. €§ 101; SCOTUS, 2014).

Issue a polite public statement just to explain why the FSF's founder was led to resign; many people would appreciate a frank explanation.

Tackle the issue of censorship, including (reportedly) censorship of mailing lists of LibrePlanet. Freedom of expression is also a form of freedom that must not be conflated with "trolling".

The founder is back, proprietary software vendors are furious

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