Section 11.3. The Organization of the Community

11.3. The Organization of the Community

The libre software community in Europe, despite being healthy and full of life, is also fragmented, reflecting the cultural, national, and linguistic diversity we have in the continent, but also lacking the strength and power it could have if it were more coordinated. However, more and more links (usually at the personal level) are being established, and something similar to a really European libre software community seems to be emerging. Although it is still some distance from speaking as loudly as it couldfor instance, behind the European Union institutions, we are seeing more and more transnational initiativesas with any other community formed around the Internet, it has its own virtual and real-world meeting points, such as news sites, conferences, and associations. However, as we will show in the next paragraphs, most are closely linked to relatively small geographic areas, and can hardly be identified as being "for Europeans."

Many news sites are strongly related to libre software. Maybe the most transnational one is The Register (http://theregister.co.uk) (probably because it runs in English), which of course, is the most popular in the UK. Although it carries news on many IT-related subjects, libre software receives more than reasonable coverage. Similar things can be said for Heise Online ( http://www.heise.de), but applied to the German-speaking community. Other sites worth mentioning are Barrapunto (http://barrapunto.com;Spanish), LinuxFr (http://linuxfr.org; French), Linux.pl ( http://linux.pl; Polish), gildot (http://gildot.org; Portuguese), and Svenska Linuxföreningen and Gnuheter ( http://gnuheter.com; Swedish, both read also by Norwegian and Danish speakers). Some of them are built as Slashdot-like sites, others are not, but each has its own flavor. Most of them are helping to foster a sense of community and are even assisting in the foundation or consolidation of more formal organizations related to libre software. There have been some attempts to establish a "European Slashdot," but without success (for now). Maybe that is simply not possible where there is such cultural and linguistic diversity.

If we consider real-world meeting places, we can find some that come close to being truly European. Probably the clearer examples are FOSDEM^[5] (Free Open Source Developers Meeting), which is especially oriented to libre software developers and has for several years been pulling together a good quantity of European hackers (also attracting some from other regions), LinuxTag,^[6] which is more oriented toward users and companies, although also attractive to developers, and LSM/RMLL^[7] (Libre Software Meeting/Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre), for developers specifically devoted to libre software. Several projects also have European meetings: GUADEC (GNOME User and Developer European Conference; http://guadec.org/), YAPC::Europe ( http://yapceurope.org; for the Perl community), EuroBSDCon ( http://eurobsdcon.org), ApacheCon Europe,^[8] OOoCOn (http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference) OpenOffice.org Conference, not specifically European, but always held in Europe), and many others. These are usually held every year in a different location.

^[5] http://fosdem.org, which takes place in Brussels, Belgium, usually in late February.

^[6] http://linuxtag.org, which takes place in Karlsruhe, Germany, usually in June or July.

^[7] http://rencontresmondiales.org, which takes place somewhere in France, usually in July.

^[8] http://apachecon.com/2005/EU for the 2005 edition.

In addition, we have the national events: the aforementioned LinuxTag in Germany, LSM/RMLL and Solutions Linux ( http://solutionslinux.fr; a more commercial event) in France, Linux Forum (http://linuxforum.dk) in Denmark, Congreso Hispalinux (http://congreso.hispalinux.es) in Spain, Linuxwochen (http://linuxwochen.at) in Austria, and so on. In some countries, there are no national events, but smaller meetings are usually organized by Linux User Groups (LUGs) or libre software associations.

With respect to associations, diversity is also the rule. In addition to more or less local LUGs (spread through all of Europe), there are some organizations which either represent groups of local associations, or have a wider membership, usually at the national level. Some of them are: APRIL (Association pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre; http://april.org) and AFUL (Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres; http://aful.org) in France, NUUG (Norwegian Unix User Group; http://nuug.no) in Norway, DKUUG ( http://www.dkuug.dk) in Denmark, Atviras kodas Lietuvai (Open Source for Lithuania; http://akl.lt) in Lithuania, SSLUG (Skåne Sjælland Linux User Group; http://sslug.dk) in Sweden and Denmark, ANSOL (Associaç o Nacional para o Software Livre; http://ansol.org) in Portugal, PLUTO ( http://pluto.it) in Italy, AFFS (Association for Free Software; http://affs.org.uk) in the UK, PLUG (Polish Linux User Group; http://www.linux.org.pl) in Poland, and Hispalinux ( http://hispalinux.es) in Spain. At the European level, there is also the FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe; http://fsfeurope.org), and the corresponding FSF-related associations in some countries, such as FSF France ( http://fsffrance.org), Verein zur Förderung Freier Software ( http://ffs.or.at) in Austria, and Associazione Software Libero (http://softwarelibero.it) in Italy.^[9] Each of these associations has its own history. Some of them were formed as Unix associations (now more than 20 years old) and have evolved into Linux and libre software associations with time. Some others were formed specifically as LUGS, mostly in the mid-1990s. Still others are devoted to libre software in general, again mostly founded in the late 1990s. Membership, activities, involvement of companies, etc., vary a lot from one to another.

^[9] A more complete list (which also includes some organizations that are not associations of the libre software community, but includes information from almost any country in Europe) is available at the Open Source Observatory, http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/1631/471.

On many occasions, there have been discussions suggesting the convenience of a European umbrella association devoted to libre software, which could speak on behalf (and be some kind of federation) all of these organizations. But so far, none has crystallized.

In addition to these "community" associations, there are also some others representing corporate interests. Among them, probably the most notable is Open Forum Europe (http://www.openforumeurope.org), which has backed some actions related to libre software promotion in Brussels, but performs most of its activity in the United Kingdom.^[10]

^[10] Open Forum Europe was widely criticized by libre software advocates when its president signed a public statement in favor of software patents, in 2003 (see http://swpat.ffii.org/letters/ofeu034 and http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/5/6/8355/78133).