Re: [libreplanet-discuss] The FSF / FSFE sister relationship

[bill-auger]

TBH, it should not be any surprise from where that affiliation
confusion may stem - a quick web search shows that the FSFE presents
itself as part of "The FSF network"[1]
     * 1985: The Free Software Foundation (FSF)
     * 2001: Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
     * 2003: Free Software Foundation India (FSFI)
     * 2005: Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA)

the FSFLA website also lists the four "Sister FSFs":
     * FSF
     * FSF Europe
     * FSF France
     * FSF India

and the wikipedia article[2] says:

  "It is an official European sister organization of the US-based Free
  Software Foundation (FSF)."

im not taking any position on whether there should or should not be an
official affiliation; but AFAIK there is no official co-operation today
among any of them - so words like "network" and "sisters" are
completely vacuous today; nothing more than to recognize the existence
of the others

you may consider engaging all of the five sisters into this conversation
- especially as a conversation with FSF-France may answer the question
of whether others may want to speak for europeans - the FSFE does not
mention that group - so maybe there are more sisters scattered around
the globe that are yet to be recognized as part of the family

the one point i would make would be regarding funding the efforts of
GNU - i often tell people not to conflate the goals or efforts FSF and
GNU - the FSF is a political organization that does not produce
software, GNU makes an operating system without the baggage of
politics, and i think that separation is easily justified

AFAIK, GNU software is created almost exclusively by unpaid volunteers
- the FSF does operate the servers for GNU; but i think that little to
none of the FSF or FSFE funds go directly into software - correct me if
im wrong, o/c :) - but if i am right about that, then anyone who is
donating to FSF or FSFE, while thinking that they are supporting GNU
software should probably be corrected at the onset - they are
supporting the political and publicity efforts of those groups, but not
the creation or maintenance of any software


[1]: https://fsfe.org/about/fsfnetwork.html
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation_Europe