Minutes of IFSO Meetings: 2006

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Minutes of IFSO Meetings: 2007

2006 Minutes

1. 17th October 2006
2. 18th July 2006
3. 20th June 2006
4. 16th May 2006
5. April meeting cancelled
6. 21st March 2006
7. 27th February 2006 - IFSO AGM
8. 21st February 2006
9. 17th January 2006

Older Minutes

Minutes of IFSO Meetings: 2005

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17th October 2006

Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell

Present:

• Brian Brazil
• Paul O'Malley
• Malcolm Tyrrell

Agenda:

1. Review of EPLA statement by European Parliament
2. Discussion about GNewSense
3. Discussion about new meeting time (Wednesdays are no longer suitable)
4. Order more IFSO T-shirts
5. Discussion of ILUG AGM

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18th July 2006

Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell and Glenn Strong

Present:

• Brian Brazil
• Shane Coughlan
• Ken Guest
• Joseph O'Loughlin
• Paul O'Malley
• Cairán O'Riordan
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell
• 1 other

Agenda:

1. Review of previous minutes
2. Report on Microsoft Anti-Trust Case
3. Report on IPRED2
4. Software Patents
5. Akademy
6. IFSO T-shirt
7. Gnome Human Interface Guidelines 3
8. Certification and "Certified Open"
9. Proposal for a Free Software Business Network

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

2. Report on Microsoft Anti-Trust Case
   • Ciarán gave us an overview of the current situation of the Microsoft Antitrust case in Europe
   • The case concerns whether Microsoft used its dominance on the desktop as leverage in the server market.
   • The suggestion that they could escape being fined by providing useful documentation to the Samba project.
3. Report on IPRED2
   • (Malcolm's full report is not ready. He will finish it in the next month.)
   • The commission has presented the new proposal to the European Parliament.
   • MEPs are away until late August, so nothing can happen sooner than that.
4. Software Patents
   • Ciarán attended the European Commission public hearing "Future Patent Policy in Europe" on July 12th in the Charlemagne building, Brussles.
   • The current approach is not to attempt to legislate on patentability, but to set up a court (which will ultimately be "governed" by the EPO). This is bad.
   • The process might get attached to the "Community Patent" (a process started in 1968 and still underway, apparently).
   • The European Parliament may not be involved in this process, so we'll have to adapt our approach.
5. Akademy '06
   • We'll send out a further appeal for sponsorship on their behalf
   • We'll stick a link on our website
6. T-shirts
   • Glenn and Malcolm will work something out
7. Gnome Human Interface Guidelines 3
   • Calum Benson at Sun Microsystems is starting to think about the next set of guidelines.
   • Shane was wondering what influence / help we could offer
   • Perhaps we could introduce him to relevant academics
   • The National Disability Authority (http://www.nda.ie) was also suggested
8. Certification and "Certified Open"
   • Open Forum Europe are working on a framework for certifying software as being "open"
   • This is supported by Open Ireland.
   • It will be launched in Ireland, UK, Denmark and Czech Republic.
   • Apparently, their current guidelines could be quite damaging to the Free Software movement. In particular, it is possible that a proprietary solution could achieve a higher "score" than a Free Solution.
   • Apparently, they don't properly handle the issue of vendor lock-in.
9. Proposal for a Free Software Business Network
   • (In its early stages)
   • There is an opportunity to bring together Free Software business-minded people in some kind of business network
   • We would want it to be non-threatening to existing organisations
   • It would be a new and independent organisation
   • A "Union" to represent Free Software consultants
   • Associated with IFSO (but not a sub-organisation)
   • We should try to find SMEs, Ltd companies registered with EI and ?, to collaborate on funding applications
   • The question of terminology was discussed (what would be call such a business network)
   • Open Advantage was cited as a Free Software friendly org we could ask for advice.

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20th June 2006

Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell

Present:

• Brian Brazil
• Marcus Furlong
• Ken Guest
• David O'Callaghan
• Joseph O'Loughlin
• Paul O'Malley
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

1. Recap last months minutes
   • Malcolm read through the minutes for the May meeting
2. T-shirts
   • The committee will organise t-shirt printing without further consultation with the members.
3. Tech Policy Consultation (see point 7 from May meeting)
   • Malcolm had a look on the EU website, but didn't find anything.
   • We will ask Teresa to try to find out what it was?
4. Business Event / Network
   • Shane Coughlan is investigating a certification program for Open Source companies. More details will emerge later.
5. Data Protection
   • Paul suggests we submit the standard form
   • He reckons we will probably be exempt.
6. Akademy:
   • Those wanting to submit papers should submit a 300 word summary by the 30th
   • http://dot.kde.org/1149336504/
   • Conference pack: We would produce some documentation for the conference pack.
   • Our members might be able to offer help with sponsorship. We'll get the brouchure from Marcus and also a list of people that have already been contacted.
7. IPRED
   • Malcolm will investigate the state of the IPRED situation and report
8. Subs:
   • one member re-subbed and Glenn took the cash.

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16th May 2006

Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell

Present:

• Mario Bonilla
• Brian Brazil
• Shane Coughlan
• Hugh Gibbons
• Teresa Hackett
• Paul O'Malley
• Ciarán O'Riordan
• Ben North
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

1. Akademy '06
   • Local organiser: Marcus Furlong (had planned to attend meeting) IFSO involvement:
   • Have an IFSO stand (although impractical to have it manned for the full conference).
   • Submit software freedom related papers to the conference (e.g. Shane on E-mail Security and Ciarán on GPLv3)
2. Website license
   • What license should IFSO use on its website?
   • It was agreed to use CC-BY-SA-2.5 and also offer to relicense if necessary.
3. Membership database
   • Paul will investigate
   • Possible data protection requirements
4. T-shirts
   • Agreed to go for a by-demand service
   • Suggestion to use the t-shirt people which do "Everybody Loves Eric S. Raymond"
     • This seems to be tshirtandsons.
     • Fair Trade!
   • Alternatively, David Cathcart had previously mentioned a place he'd used.
   • David & Shane to sort it out.
5. Patents Consultation
   • The deadline is Friday 26th May (only 7 business days left)
   • Suggestion: we ask people on lists to suggest their company (SME) privately to us, then IFSO rings up the company and suggests they make submission.
     • We could do this via ILUG.
   • Ciarán will reply to the mail they sent us, on behalf of IFSO
   • Possible whinge about proprietary file format
6. IPRED2
   • Ciarán gave a quick overview of IPRED2 and its history:
     • IPRED2 has been merged with another EU directive
     • It's just as bad as it used to be
     • It will go through the co-decision procedure
     • It *criminalises* *all* intentional IP violations
     • In this case, we find ourselves aligned with proprietary software companies.
     • The people pushing for patents in IPRED2 are mostly pharmaceutical companies who are trying to suppress generics.
     • Rightsholders are not obliged to instigate investigations
     • Tax payers must cover the cost of investigation.
   • We want all patents out of the directive, because it would be difficult to get an exemption for software
   • Irish government will probably be on our side for this issue It was agreed that IPRED2 should be IFSO's focus.
7. "Tech Policy Consultation"?
   • There is a new EU consultation with a June deadline that we might be interested in.
   • No one new enough about it to have a useful discussion.
8. IFSO to organise a business themed event
   • Shane wants to talk to businesses about software freedom
   • Non-geek approach - pushing reliability and efficiency
   • Someone mentioned adjoining it to the KDE conference
   • An open discussion mentioned some of the following:
     • NOVA UCD: It holds conferences and may be a source for contacts
     • The EdTEch conference at Sligo.
     • Ciarán mentioned this Stallman essay: Science must "push copyright aside"
   • Possible contact for arranging a business talk:
     • Forfas
     • Chambers of Commerce
     • ISME
9. GPLv3
   • 2nd Draft will be released in June
   • 3rd Conference will occur in June
   • We should make our webpage point *even more* at the main GPLv3 page
   • We should make sure people understand that, even though Stallman has the final say, the process is transparent to the extent that he will respond to issues and justify his decisions.
10. Mario on FSFLA
    • Mario Bonilla gave an overview of the state of FSFLA
    • They have various working groups, e.g. for translation, for s/w development, UN Lobbying, etc.
    • Someone mentioned an alternative group in Latin America called Hipitia(?)
    • We engaged in a discussion of organisational transparency
11. AOB
    • 3 new members joined IFSO
    • we sold 2 t-shirts

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21st March 2006

Notes taken by David Cathcart and Malcolm Tyrrell

Present:

• David Cathcart
• Hugh Gibbons
• Paul O'Malley
• Cairán O'Riordan
• Ben North
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell

Apologies:

• Teresa Hackett
• Mel McWeeney

Agenda:

• A report on the FOSS-means-business event
• The lunch on Sunday with Fernanda Weiden
• IFSO's response to the Patent Questionaire
• GPLv3 process
• and many, many more...

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

• Report on the FOSS means business
  • The overall feeling about the event was positive.
• Plan to host talks by Fernando Heinz (of FSFLA):
  • Possible topic: Education.
  • We should invite people from various educational instutites.
  • Unfortunately, it looks like the talks will fall on the bank-holiday weekend... not good for inviting people.
  • Malcolm suggested that we make sure people have good experience in the domain before we get them to give talks on a topic.
• Report on Sunday lunch with Fernanda Weiden
• Software Patents Questionaire
  • Malcolm suggested that, even if the FFII objects to the nature of the questionaire, we should still give a response.
  • Ciarán is involved in working on FSFE's response.
  • Malcolm has written a rough draft and there were some useful comments. Unfortunately, he would be away for the deadline, so he needed someone else to take over.
  • The approach that found favour was "push-via-mailing-list, pull-from-FSFE".
  • Ben raised the issue of "retrospective law-making", using the analogy of Ireland's "nursing home fiasco".
  • We decided to endorse FFII/FSFE documents. We would modify them, but acknowledge that our document summarised theirs.
• Creating Transcripts
  • Ciarán is looking for opportunities to create transcripts of good talks to put on line.
• GPLv3
  • 600 comments have been made so far. Ciarán is wondering why there has been so few.
  • Paul pointed out that it's very complex and interdependent.
  • Malcolm said that his own reluctance was due to the fact that so many much cleverer people would be looking at it.
  • It was pointed out that most people don't concern themselves with the law.
  • Glenn made the point that it wasn't exciting people because it wasn't driven from the community.
  • The idea that IFSO host a workshop on GPLv3 was mooted.
• AOB
  • Paul and Ben paid their subs.
  • Three t-shirts were sold (red-M, red-L, red-XL). Teresa collected the €36 and agreed to lodge the money in the IFSO account. A blue-M t-shirt was ordered; Malcolm and Glenn will arrange its delivery.

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27th February 2006 - IFSO AGM

Notes taken by David Cathcard

Present:

• David Cathcart
• Hugh Gibbons
• Teresa Hackett
• Ben North
• Ciarán O'Riordan
• Glenn Strong
• Harry Tormey
• Malcolm Tyrrell
• 1 Other

Apologies:

• Éibhear Ó hAnluain

Thank yous:

• Blacknight Solutions - for hosting the IFSO website.
• Hugh for arranging the room.
• Garreth Bowker for his talk "Ensuring EU legislation doesn't inhibit computer security" in November.

Election of Committee Members:

• Although a preferendum had been agreed at the 2005 AGM, the fact that the only nominations were for a return of the current committee, we decided to use a show of hands.
• By a unanimous show of hands, the committee was reelected.

Chairman's Report

• Focus during 2005 was software patents
• We'd written letters written in march
• We became an Associate organisation of the Free Software Foundation Europe.
• In the debate in dcu on software patents, the motion was carried in our favour.
• The Directive for Computer Implemented Inventions was defeated in the European Parliament.
• Ciarán and Teresa gave talks to ILUG.
• In November, we held a seminar against software patents, with talks by Ciarán O'Riordan and Garreth Bowker.
• Plans are underway for the forthcoming event in Belfast

Treasurer's Report:

• The accounts were presented: more details soon...
• The accounts were approved unanimously.

Membership fees:

• Agreed to leave them at €20.

Quorum:

• There was discussion of whether to adjust the way we determine a quorum.
• We agreed to leave it as is.

Changes to Constitution

• Ciarán proposed some wording changes to the consistution.
• The question of making gender specific references in the constitution gender neutral was raised.
• The changes were agreed in principal, but we decided not to implement them as yet.

AOB

• Glenn volunteered to make a list of those who need to pay their membership fees.

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21st February 2006

Notes taken by David Cathcart

Present:

• David Cathcart
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell
• 1 other

Apologies:

• Teresa Hackett
• Mel McWeenie
• Ben North

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

• Plans for the forthcoming AGM
  • Meet in Duke pub so people can be let into the venue
  • Everything seems to be in hand
  • We need to send out some reminders
• Discussion of forthcoming FOSS-means-freedom event in Belfast
  • A survey will be created
  • There will be a conference pack
  • We considered hiring a bus to take people to the venue
  • We should help advertise, e.g. sent poster to netsocs and inform our contacts from the DeRossa talk.
• Software Patents Questionaire (consultation document from EU about patents)
  • IFSO should submit a response
  • We should suggest to others that they submit a response
  • Malcolm will come up with a strategy

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17th January 2006

Notes taken by Malcolm Tyrrell

Present:

• Frédérique Blain
• Jean-François Bucas
• Hugh Gibbons
• Teresa Hackett
• Mel McWeeney
• Ben North
• Paul O'Malley
• Carlos Pinto
• Glenn Strong
• Malcolm Tyrrell

Agenda:

• IFSO AGM
• Draft GPLv3
• Software patents
• AOB

Discussion, topics, and suggestions:

• IFSO AGM
  • Discussion of possible dates: many already have a near quorum. Glenn said he'd send out a reminder e-mail to get more responses and commitments.
  • Discussion of room: possibilities in either ICS or TCD.
  • Teresa and Glenn will pursue and ready the accounts for the AGM.
  • Teresa will collect subs at the AGM.
  • We were reminded that we will be discussing our quorum requirement again at the AGM.
  • Glenn agreed to design the preferendum system, and send a description to the list in advance of the AGM.
• Draft GPLv3
  • On the 16th January, the first draft of the GPLv3 was released.
  • Ciarán (via text message) told us that he has written a press release about it, but the text was not available at the meeting.
  • Malcolm asked for confirmation of whether we should send out a press release. It was agreed that we should.
  • It was decided that the press release should only be sent to those who might be interested. Glenn agreed to make the shortlist.
  • The possibility of jointly issuing the press release with AFFS was considered. Ciarán had tried to make contact, but we guessed that there had been no response. The issue was dropped.
  • The idea of an GPLv3 event during the year was suggested.
  • There was a discussion of the draft GPLv3.
• Software Patents
  • On the 16th January, the European Commission (Internal Market) has issued a "Consultation on future patent policy in Europe". Thanks to Paul for alerting us to this.
  • This primarily involves a questionnaire. Responses are due by 31st March.
  • Ben pointed out that this was about a new phase of the "Community Patent" process, and is not specifically related to software patents.
  • Nevertheless, it was agreed that IFSO should respond to the questionnaire in case others try to get software patents in by the "back door".
  • The question of whether to deliberate our response on a public or private wiki page was discussed, but not resolved.
• AOB
  • A new member, Jean-François Bucas, was welcomed.
  • Three t-shirts were sold (red-M, red-L, red-XL). Teresa collected the €36 and agreed to lodge the money in the IFSO account. A blue-M t-shirt was ordered; Malcolm and Glenn will arrange its delivery.