Minutes of IFSO Meetings: 2003
More Recent Minutes
Minutes of IFSO Meetings: 2004
2003 Minutes
Please note:
As these meetings occurred prior to the founding of IFSO on 5th January
2004, they are not strictly IFSO meetings.
Nevertheless, most of the attendees at these meetings became IFSO members.
- 11th December 2003
- 16th October 2003
- 3rd September 2003
- 6th August 2003
- 2nd July 2003
11th December 2003
Notes taken by Glenn Strong
Present:
- Glenn Strong
- Malcolm Tyrrell
- Teresa Hackett
- Ciarán O'Riordan
- Ben North
- Aidan Delaney
The primary focus of the discussion was copyright law, specifically
the EUCD and the Enforcement Directive.
-
We have committed to giving Tony McGrath our comments in an email on
Monday. The most pressing issue is therefore to collect our arguments
in a coherent manner by then.
-
There was considerable discussion as to what changes/improvements we
would like to see in EUCD implementation. Malcolm and Ciarán have
already posted on the list about this so I won't rehash their comments.
-
Several suggestions were made about groups we should be talking to in
Ireland (particularly mentioned were libraries and consumer rights
organisations). Teresa will be contacting libraries and will keep us
informed.
-
There was also some talk about promoting Free Software in schools -
John Evans on-list is interested, and Aidan has some experience of
doing this.
-
Finally, the administrative paperwork to open an IFSO bank account was
done, and this should be done by next week.
(top)
16th October 2003
Notes taken by Ciarán O'Riordan, with additional points added by Aiden
Delaney
Last Thursday's (16th) meeting was one of the best yet. Buckets of
stuff got discussed, but few notes were taken. I've been in over my
head with work, so this is late, please add anything I've forgotten.
Attendees:
- Aidan Delaney
- Lorraine Dully
-
Ciarán O'Riordan
- Glenn Strong
-
Mel McWeeney
- Malcolm Tyrrell
-
Some drunk off the street* (5 mins)
Discussion, topics and suggestions:
-
There was much talk of what the imminent Irish Free Software Organisation
should do and how it should do it.
-
Glenn offered to look into registering ifso.ie, and getting some details
about what legal entity we could form.
-
I talked about a "Business Freedom" project that I'd like to work on to
visit companies, explaining what Free Software is and how it would
benefit them.
-
The drunk off the street attempted to act as a moderator but his alcohol
level rendered him ineffective and got him kicked out.
-
There was much talk about Beaumont hospital switching to Free Software,
for low cost initially but now apparently realising the long term
benefits of Free Software. (Tony Kenny was the man in charge.)
-
We all discussed the e-voting issue. I think consensus was formed that
we should assist a separate group rather than make it an IFSO project.
There was unanimous agreement that we should demand permission to view,
compile, and test full source code. There was disagreement over the
need/practicality of demanding permission to distribute altered
versions, but in case of disagreement we would default to demanding
fully Free Software, and see how far we can get.
-
It was noted that manpower will limit us to working on whatever people
will offer to work on, and cash will limit people to work on whatever
they can do without financial aid. Initial cash from membership etc.
would probably only cover the ifso.ie domain and maybe a run of
leaflets.
-
Funding was discussed for a minute or two, I suggested initial funding
by having a 20quid membership/supporter fee. I don't think there were
any disagreements, but no real discussion happened.
-
It was noted that aside from regular projects, "fire fighting" will need
to be done whenever important issues like bad EU directives pop up.
-
I raised the question of whether democracy was a good idea or not, but
the discussion was put away for another time.
-
Aidan talked about his work on a CD of Debian-stable+GNOME2.4 targeted
at primary schools, and the ifso.cs.may.ie domain he has set up. I
offered to provide some content (not done yet).
-
It was suggested that we should make a regular date for meetings,
consensus formed on having them on the second Thursday of each month.
Unless challenged on the list, this should happen. (next: Nov 13th)
-
GNOME Vs. KDE, obscure useful shell tools (Mel) and a boot load of other
topics.
-
I'm certain to have forgotten stuff, so reply to the mail if you
remember other topics.
-
For IFSO, it was decided that we need a written objective
(top)
3rd September 2003
Notes taken by Glenn Strong
Present:
- Robert Fitzsimons
- Ciarán O'Riordan
- Glenn Strong
- Malcolm Tyrrell
Discussion, topics and suggestions:
-
Given the current focus, would it be useful to organise an anti
e-patent body independent of FFII?
-
We could provide a "throwaway" web site (e.g.
irish-anti-e-patents.org) that we could direct people to.
-
We should assemble a list of current amendments (as they come out)
- remove the proposer information (to remove any prejudice that may
be associated with the name).
-
Identify each as a Yes/No for our position.
- Briefly discuss our reasoning for each decision.
-
Use these to indicate to our MEPs the kind of amendments we
would consider acceptable and unacceptable.
-
There was some question as to what would actually happen if the
directive was passed - precisely what changes would be made to Irish
law?
-
We should produce a challenge to Arlene McCarthy's Fact Sheet (that
is, a specific response document that addresses the Myth/Fact items
McCarthy listed Here:
http://vrijschrift.org/swpat/press/final_factsheet1092003.pdf)
-
And also, of course, considerable discussion of (among others) hardware,
software and recumbent bicycles.
(top)
6th August 2003
Notes taken by Ciarán O'Riordan
Present:
- Mel McWeeney
- Malcolm Tyrrell
- Sean O'Donnell
- Glen Strong
- Ciarán O'Riordan
Discussion, topics, and suggestions:
-
The EU patents inflation directive
- need to understand what exactly is happening on Sept 1st
- Find out what amendments will be voted on
- Draft a benchmark for our MEPs: unless amendments X and Y are implemented, you must vote no.
-
Forming an organisation:
- We don't fully understand what we can do as a nonprofit
- A 5 person committee could work
-
IFSO could be a good name (Irish Free Software Org)
- Look into reserving ifso.ie
- FIFO is an alternative, it just needs a meaning but it
- will be hard to mention software in that name
- (name from previous suggestion by Aidan Delaney)
-
Things possible if we had funding:
- Travel to conferences
- Leaflets at events/colleges
- A press pack
- Tradeshow booths
- (we didn't really discuss where these funds would come from)
-
Membership open to N.Ireland? (consensus: yes)
- Probably open to all nationalities, meetings in Ireland.
-
When should we set up an organisation?
-
How do we deal with unDublinising the org?
- Hold the committee forming meeting in "All other places" :)
- (Midlands if that's easy for travel, or if there's a cluster of people in one non-Dublin county, we could meet there)
-
How should we decide the committee?
- Democracy? maybe but we don't know each other very well yet.
- 5-person agreement? and real elections in 1 year. maybe.
-
An FSFE-IE website?
- Maybe a non-official (but official looking) one would be good until we have a committee to maintain a real official site
-
Further meetings
- More frequent similar non-decision-making meetings
- Maybe another meeting before the Sept 1st patents vote
-
Plus the usual C Vs. Haskell Vs. Java and other discussions...
(Did I leave anything out or misrepresent anything?)
(top)
2nd July 2003
Notes taken by Ciarán O'Riordan, edited by Malcolm Tyrrell
Of the 11 people who said they'd try to make
it, 10 showed up plus two unannounced people.
The meeting started off in Messrs Maguire's pub and
later moved to the better venue of <pub>
(where <pub> is across the road from O'Neill's behind Trinity, begins with
a H) [was Benshaw's Pub, now closed - Malcolm].
Here (verbatim) are the notes that were taken about what
we could be doing to fight s/w pats.
- Acquire analysis of proposal - look around FFII
- Discover groups to lobby
- Create form letter
- Finding Companies & industry groups
- Mail journalists
- Calendar
- Analysis of USA
- Analysis of alternatives (different patent term)
- What is status quo
- Analysis of FSFE-IE & own interests in SW development
- List of applications whose patenting would have been tragic
Thanks to all who attended.