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Rob Myers | 15 Jan 13:59
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Freedom of Association in the Networked Workplace

*** START ***

Freedom of Association in the Networked Workplace: discussion workshop

Thursday 26th January 2012
1pm – 7pm
Rue Gallait – Gallaitstraat 80
1030 Brussels
Belgium

Participation is free, but places may be limited. Please contact us to
reserve a place.

Contact for more information or enquiries:
    http://foa.strickdistro.org/contact/

Website: http://foa.strickdistro.org

Ongoing developments in IT and social media are changing the boundaries
and structure of the workplace, causing a blurring of distinctions
between private and work-related activities. This is raising new issues
in regard to the extent of surveillance applied by businesses towards
their employees. Attempts to control workplace communications are
however conflicting with a number of basic employment rights. This
workshop seeks to address these issues with a specific focus on the
potential impacts of emerging surveillance cultures on the rights of
Freedom of Association in the networked workplace. It aims to bring
together a range of researchers and union activists with a view to
building a more substantial network for investigation, analysis and
intervention.
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Glyn Wintle | 20 Sep 17:13
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peer to patent uk

Want to help fight UK software patents? Please take a few moments to comment on these patents.

https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/peertopatentuk
If there is some thing that prevents you from commenting, please point it out here.
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Jon Grant | 7 Sep 13:35

BBC "Can Whitehall open up to open source?"

Lucky the figures were provided in CSV format!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14765545

Can Whitehall open up to open source?

What's Whitehall's attitude to software procurement? A cynic might sum
it up as "nobody ever got sacked for buying Microsoft".

The current government has vowed to change the civil service mindset
that has always preferred to spend money with the biggest firms and
has been conservative about open source software.

The Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has vowed to create a level
playing field for open source as part of a drive to cut costs.

Now a BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) request has given us a glimpse
of how big the challenge will be.

We asked government departments for details of how much they had spent
on proprietary software over the past year, and how much open source
software they had acquired.

The responses have been dribbling in for months now (available as a
Google doc, an Excel spreadsheet or as separate .csv files below), and
they've varied from detailed accounts of software and expenditure, to
refusals to provide any information on the grounds that it would cost
too much.

Our excellent FOI researcher Julia Ross has compiled a spreadsheet of
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MJ Ray | 25 Aug 20:07
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EU consultation on cloud computing until 31 Aug

The EU is consulting on cloud computing until 31 August at
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=cloudcomputing&lang=en

Cloud computing could be a great opportunity for free software, with
potential for more users to take control of their computing
infrastructure; but it could also be a great threat, which may make
users even more vulnerable to proprietary lock-in at either server or
service level.

Have you answered this consultation?  If so, anything you'd like to
point out to other free software supporters before we undermine you? ;)

Thanks,
--

-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/
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John Pinner | 21 Aug 15:15
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PyCon UK

Hi,

I noticed that you had a stand at Oggcamp last week.

On 24th-25th September we have PyCon UK 2011, in Coventry.

website : http://pyconuk.org
wiki:        http://pyconuk.net

Maybe fsfe-uk would like to come and have a stand, even better give a Talk.

PyCon UK is being run on an Unconference basis this year, so please
add a talk to the Talks page if you wish, you just need to create a
login first - follow the 'Create an Account' link on the wiki home
page.

Best wishes,

John
--
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Sam Tuke | 29 Mar 15:56
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Manchester Document Freedom Day talk this Wednesday

Already sent to other lists, but in case you missed it:

_19.00, Wednesday 30th March, Friends Meeting House Manchester_

This Wednesday is Document Freedom Day - a global celebration of Open 
Standards and document liberation (http://documentfreedom.org).

I shall give a talk at 19.00 entitled Preserving culture & knowledge with Open 
Standards, describing the relationship between the three and examining threats 
to our cultural future. There will be a question and answer session at the 
end, and probably some drinks too.

I hope to see Free Software, Open Data and of course Open Standards 
enthusiasts in the audience!

The location is right next to Manchester Central Library. More info here:
http://www.quakertrading.co.uk/central-manchester/getting-here

Unfortunately I had trouble booking a venue which explains the short notice.

Best Wishes,

Sam.

--

-- 
Sam Tuke
British Team Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
IM : samtuke <at> jabber.fsfe.org
Contact the British team: uk <at> fsfeurope.org
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Glyn Wintle | 8 Mar 16:14
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Gov consultation - Open Standards in the Public Sector

Gov survey in open standards, please respond 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UKGovOpenStandards
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MJ Ray | 21 Feb 13:26
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Call for Evidence on Patents, Copyright, Enforcement, Competition and SME access to services

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview/ipreview-c4e/ipreview-c4e-paper.htm

    "The Government has asked Professor Ian Hargreaves to lead a short
    review of the Intellectual Property (IP) framework (law and
    practice) to consider how it might be changed in the interest of
    promoting innovation and economic growth. The Review will take
    into account the conclusions and evidence provided to previous
    reviews in this area, but we invite fresh evidence on the extent
    to which the current IP system successfully promotes innovation
    and growth and how it could do so more effectively."

    "[...] the Review seeks economic data and related evidence which
    are methodologically sound, robust and clearly sourced. Responses
    relying on empirical data should clearly identify the methodology
    used and any critical assumptions relied upon, identify the
    source(s) of the data, and provide a copy of or a citation to each
    such source. At the same time, the Review welcomes evidence in the
    form of case-studies and individual experiences which illustrate
    one or more of the issues under consideration."

Submissions should be sent to the IP and Growth Review Team, by 4
March 2011.  They prefer submissions to callforevidence <at> ipo.gov.uk

Before we blunder into this minefield without a map, would anyone like
to offer hints and tips about what would be best to submit?

Thanks,
--

-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
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Jon Grant | 8 Feb 23:42

Quest for a Windows7 refund in the UK - laptop upgraded to GNU+Linux

Hello Everyone

I have been trying to get a refund for the un-used/un-registered 
Windows7 which came with my Acer laptop. The retailer indicates only 
AcerUK can refund. Purchased on 6 Jan, I've been communicating about 
refund since mid Jan.

Unfortunately AcerUK will only refund their cost (they said approx €30) if:

A) I post the laptop to Plymouth at my expense.
B) They wipe the HDD themselves (well.. already has Ubuntu on it now as 
it was wiped by me).

I kept a few photos and records as I went, AcerUK indicate that is 
insufficient.

If anyone has any suggestions, or examples how it has been achieved in 
the UK before I would love to hear.

I found this old case, but was purchased direct from Dell:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6144782.stm

Best regards, Jon
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Michael Dorrington | 3 Feb 10:34
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Software Freedom Day (SFD) in the UK


Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an excellent annual opportunity to promote
the Free Software philosophy. SFD is not widely known about in the UK,
even among Free Software advocates! This needs to change. FFSUK is
pushing to get events in all areas of the UK and to assist events in
organising.

SFD2011 is on Saturday, 17th September 2011.

Current likely SFD2011 event locations in the UK:

    * Dundee
          o No 2011 page yet
    * Newcastle
          o No 2011 page yet
    * Manchester
          o No 2011 page yet
    * Herefordshire
          o No 2011 page yet
    * Devon
          o No 2011 page yet
    * London
          o No 2011 page yet

If there are any locations in the UK that are going to run a SFD2011
event then please let us know at iwanttohelp at ffsuk dot org dot uk.
FFSUK will focus on helping to start events in the following areas:

    * Northern Ireland
    * Yorkshire and the Humber
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Michael Dorrington | 3 Feb 10:29
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Richard Stallman (rms) in the UK 2011


Richard Stallman, aka rms, founder of the Free Software Foundation
(FSF), GNU's Not Unix (GNU) and the Free Software Movement is doing a
speaking tour of Great Britain (unfortunately, Northern Ireland is not
included in the tour) at the beginning of March 2011. FFSUK recommends
attendance.

The individual events are being organised by local IET
<http://www.theiet.org/> committees and *registration is required*.

FFSUK will be present at all the events. If you would like to chat with
us before or after an event then please let us know at iwanttohelp at
ffsuk dot org dot uk.

Locations with dates:

* Cambridge on Tuesday, 1st March 2011
Registration open. Cambridge event details and registration:
http://www.theiet.org/local/uk/east/cambridge/free-software.cfm

* Preston on Wednesday, 2nd March 2011
Registration open. Preston event details and registration:
http://www.theiet.org/local/uk/northwest/lancs-cumbria/freedigitalsocietyMarch2011.cfm

* Dundee on Thursday, 3rd March 2011
Venue to be confirmed.

* Sheffield on Saturday, 5th March 2011
Registration open. Sheffield event details and registration:
http://www.theiet.org/local/uk/yorks/south/11-03-stallman-lecture.cfm
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Gmane