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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-the-fsf-tech-team-empower-software-users

Dear Ruben Safir,

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) tech team is the four-person
cornerstone of the primary infrastructure of the FSF and the GNU
Project, providing the backbone for hundreds of free software
projects, and they epitomize the hard work, creativity, and can-do
attitude that characterize the free software movement. They’re pretty
modest about it, but I think they deserve some serious credit: it’s
only because of their everyday efforts (with the help of volunteers
all over the world) that the FSF can boast that we can host our own
services entirely on free software, and help other people to become
freer every day. It’s also largely to their credit that the FSF staff
were able to shift to mostly remote work this spring with barely a
blip in our operations.

You can read a summary of their work over
the last six months in the most recent issue of the Free
Software Foundation Bulletin, but I wanted to give you a few highlights:

• This March, the novel coronavirus swept in and caused the shutdown
  of nearly all in-person activities at the most inopportune time in
  the FSF’s yearly schedule: the week of the 2020 LibrePlanet
  conference. After deep discussion, the decision was made to
  take LibrePlanet online-only on Monday, March 9th; the conference
  was due to begin on Saturday, March 14th. You can see all of the
  details of how the conference ultimately ran on our blog, and
  you can watch the session videos on our GNU MediaGoblin
  page. However, the thing that I want to emphasize here is that
  the tech team successfully ran an entire conference online, which
  they had never done before, and made it all run smoothly with only
  five days to prepare, and every piece of software used was free
  software. Like I said, they’re modest.




• Next, the tech team set about addressing how proprietary remote
  communication tools used for staying in touch and for
  education are becoming a dangerous fact of everyday
  life. Having used Jitsi Meet as one part of the livestreaming
  process for LibrePlanet, they created a Jitsi Meet
  instance that FSF associate members can use for work and
  play. They can invite anyone to connect with them in a
  freedom-respecting video chat room. Not only does this
  instance enable you to chat with the people you care about
  without the abuses of proprietary software, but it also makes it
  easier than ever to demonstrate the advantages of free software to
  everyone you know!




• Finally, we’re so proud that FSF Web developer Michael McMahon
  spearheaded the HACKERS and HOSPITALS project on the
  LibrePlanet wiki, enabling the hacker community to share resources
  and connect with activists who have been manufacturing an astounding
  variety of desperately-needed medical and protective equipment. Only
  free software gives hackers and makers the complete flexibility and
  freedom they need (and deserve!) in order to meet immediate needs,
  and Michael and many others have risen to the occasion
  admirably. You can read a dedicated article on HACKERS and
  HOSPITALS in the new issue of the Free Software Foundation
  Bulletin.

If you’re finding these accomplishments as exciting as we do, we hope
you’re now motivated to chip in by becoming an associate member of
the FSF! At this writing, we are only 13 members away from our
goal of 200. The farther we surpass this goal, the more our tech team
can achieve!

The value of a membership goes far beyond the dollars and cents needed
to help us weather the challenges of this year: a membership is a vote
of confidence that helps us launch new initiatives and puts weight
behind our campaigns, licensing, and technical work. Plus, membership
comes with plenty of benefits, including merchandise discounts,
a bootable membership card, and the newest member perk: access to our
Jitsi Meet videoconferencing server.

We don’t know what the future will bring in many ways, but we know
that we can count on the ingenuity and hard work of the FSF tech team
-- and so can you. Thank you so much for supporting their efforts!

Happy and healthy hacking,

Dana Morgenstein

Outreach and Communications Coordinator

Illustration Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by
Raghavendra Kamath, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution
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