32 members of the European Parliament are official supporters of Free Software

[Erik Albers]

Dear Fellows and supporters,

this is a big thank you to all of you who engaged in the freesoftwarepact.eu
campaign and who invested their time to contact candidates to convince them to
sign the Free Software Pact. You have been done great work!
this is also a thank you to all that might not have been able to participate
themselves but that have spread the message throughout their channels.

We made a press-release today and put a news entry on our homepage:
https://fsfe.org/news/2014/news-20140528-01.de.html

162 candidates out of 16 countries have signed the pact. Unfortunately, just
one fifth of them have been voted in the end, but that are 32 politicians.

These politicians and their signatures are very important for FSFE, because in
our future work we can always remind them or even trust in their support when
it is necessary.

That is also why I do not declare the campaign to be finished: Although the
election period is over, new and old members of the parliament still can sign
the Free Software Pact and show their support for a European Union in that
users have full control over their computers.

Thanks again,
Erik
--
Erik Albers | https://fsfe.org/about/albers
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) - Campaigns & Community

Free as in Freedom!

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[Daniel Pocock]

On 28/05/14 18:28, Erik Albers wrote:
...

Although the election period is over, new and old members of the
parliament still can sign

This is a good first step

It would be really useful to try and find out if any of the 162 people
who signed would do any of the following:

a) give introductions to any fellow candidates/representatives from
their party who did not sign

b) tell us about IT policy creation in their party (e.g. do they have
a policy committee, mailing list, etc) and would they welcome FSFE
participation (e.g. a guest speaker at a committee meeting)

c) discuss IT usage in their party (e.g. if they are a big party, do
they have IT staff of their own, does somebody in their party run an
IT company and give them all help)

These could all lead to more opportunities next time around and also
an opportunity to replicate this campaign at national level (e.g.
British elections next year)

[Erik Albers]

Post by Daniel Pocock
...

Although the election period is over, new and old members of the
parliament still can sign

This is a good first step
It would be really useful to try and find out if any of the 162 people

the thing is, that just 33 out of the 162 people have won the election. all
the rest (129 people) will most likely get back to their daily work which in
many cases is not politician but any job.

I think therefore, it is more important to concentrate on the ones who have
been voted instead of the general candidates.

anyway, thanks for your suggestions,
Erik
--
Erik Albers | https://fsfe.org/about/albers
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) - Campaigns & Community

Free as in Freedom!

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[Daniel Pocock]

Post by Erik Albers

On 28/05/14 18:28, Erik Albers wrote: ...

Although the election period is over, new and old members of
the parliament still can sign

This is a good first step
It would be really useful to try and find out if any of the 162

the thing is, that just 33 out of the 162 people have won the
election. all the rest (129 people) will most likely get back to
their daily work which in many cases is not politician but any
job.
I think therefore, it is more important to concentrate on the ones
who have been voted instead of the general candidates.

Not quite - many of those other people will still be involved in the
internal workings of their parties even while doing whatever job they
normally do. Some may also reappear as candidates in the next
national or city elections.

Most of the more serious parties would not endorse candidates for
office if those candidates had not already been involved in grass
roots activities (e.g. unpaid membership of a local committee) for
many years already.

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Also note that the father of Linus Torvalds, Nils Torvalds was
re-elected, and this time he got in directly as the primary candidate
(and not from reserve position as in last term). I have good contact
with him and will use the contact to benefit FSFE later on.