Projects
From ADFA: Audenshaw Digital Freedom Association
Our projects are mostly ordered by user level, as can be seen by the icons. There are also some which are tricky to place and/or apply to the whole range in varying degrees. Some of the projects also have their own pages, with more detailed information.
[edit] Contents
[edit] Groupwide Projects
[edit] Publicise ADFA
One thing we need to do is raise awareness of our own group. We plan to do a talk in enrichment at some point, and now have a facebook group. Do you have any more Ideas?
[edit] Copying is not theft
We hope to support the idea that copying is not theft. Copying copyrighted content is in no way as severe as physical theft, and should not be treated as such. In fact, associating copying with theft is a bad thing for society!.... (more)
[edit] Free the School
The school already respects Digital Freedom to a certain extent, for example if uses various freedomware applications - but it could be better, and we will work towards more free systems.... (more)
[edit] Ordered By Level
[edit] Digital Free Speech
The Internet is a wonderful means of expression, and we shouldn't allow it to be restricted. We need to protect freedom of speech and privacy, both from opressive governments and ethically challenged companies.... (more)
[edit] Stop DRM
DRM is a way to restrict what users can do with content (usually songs or video). It doesn't stop the "real criminals" and prevents things that are allowed by law!.... (more)
[edit] Free Culture
Free Culture is about media (music, film, text) that the author chooses to allow people freedoms over. The most well known example is the Free (as in freedom) encyclopaedia Wikipedia. We wish to raise awareness of this useful resource and encourage people to license their own content under Creative Commons licenses.
[edit] Free the Web
This campaign is centred around getting people to switch from IE to Firefox because of standards compliance (but of course there are many other benefits are switching). IE's non-standard compliance is a pain for web developers. We will promote and support firefox download day
[edit] Open Source is good
This campaign is to raise awarness of open source software (such as Firefox and OpenOffice) and why people should use it. Open source is just another name for Freedomware, but is one that focuses more on the technical merits of the software, which is why its name is used for this project. For campaigning based more on the the ethical reasons see Right to Software Liberty.
[edit] Open Document Formats
Open document formats are of great importance so that the data contained digitally today will be readable in the future. It is also important for interoperability - different applications being able to work with the same files - which aids innovation.... (more)
[edit] Right to Software Liberty
Software liberty is defined and explained on the freedomware page. This project is designed for people who believe that we have a right to software liberty.... (more)
[edit] Stop Software Patents
Software patents stifle innovation. Patent trolls (people who get hold of patents for obvious things) are a real threat and the companies like Microsoft use patent threats to scare people. (although Bill Gates himself admitted they are bad). This issue is less of a problem in the UK, as they can not exist. However, we need to keep it this way!
[edit] Freedom with Webapps
Increasingly we are moving information into webapps on the Internet. Webmail is the most obvious example, but also sites like flickr or google docs (and other google apps). People have a right to control this information. Privacy is one major concern, but people also have a right to move information out of one service and into another. The matter of software liberty also applies here. Although we are not the "users" of the software and the server (so, it does not matter that we do not have rights over this), we do have rights over the software that is being run our machine, ie. the javascript code etc. that is being executed locally.
[edit] Open Media / Protocols
Encourage the use of open protocols that do not lock you into a single vendor: e.g. Jabber instead of MSN. Also, encourage media formats that are not encumbered by patents: e.g. OGG Vorbis instead of MP3. There are an advantage as they promote innovation in that format or protocol, and are also beneficial to freedomware.
[edit] Programmable binary blobs
This part of the campaign is very obscure, and is about eradicating proprietary firmware and bioses.
