Actions, campaigns and working groups

Submitted by mchauvet on 18 August, 1999 - 23:05

April leads many activities and campaigns, both in France and in neighbouring countries. It also follows several long-term issues. To deal with all this, April created various working groups.

This page presents the various working groups, actions, campaigns, partnerships and long-term issues. If you wish to help us in any of our activities, you are more than welcome to contact us, become an April member or contact the person in charge of the action you are interested in.

APRIL representatives also regularly speak at conferences and in the media.

The April's history page will let you see all the organization's actions since its creation.

To follow the latest April-related news, you may want to be kept informed.

Campaigns
Working Groups
One-shot Actions
One-shot Internal Working Groups
Institution-oriented Actions
Long-term Actions
Partnership
Working Groups Looking For A Leader
Former Campaigns & Dormant Working Groups

Campaigns

Candidats.fr: On January 30th 2007, April started the "Candidats.fr" initiative. The aim of it is for Free Software to become a subject discussed during the French electoral campaigns. In order for every French citizen to cast an informed vote, April submitted a list of questions and a list of concrete proposals to all candidates of the 2007 French presidential election. Eight of them replied, including both finalists.; April then invited all citizens to lobby the French parliamentary candidates of the 2007 election to sign its Free Software
Pact (Le Pacte du Logiciel Libre). This pact is a simple web-document that allows to see which candidate in their constituency has seen the stakes involved by Free Software and willingly agreed on promoting and defending the liberties involved.
Free Software Pact (Le Pacte du Logiciel Libre): As a part of the "Candidats.fr" initiative, April started the Free Software
Pact (Pacte du Logiciel Libre).
OOXML: Since May 2007, April follows closely the standardisation procedure for the OOXML format within ISO.
Bundled selling: Help us say no to software bundling.
Antitrust: Microsoft has been and is still involved in various antitrust lawsuits (in the USA, Europe, South-Korea, ...). The actions that have led to these lawsuits and its near-monopoly position are detrimental to free software and interoperability.
Untrustworthy Computing: Some software editors and hardware vendors are currently trying to spread what they call "trusted computing", which is in fact a push towards untrustworthy computing.
DADVSI - EUCD: From December 2003 to July 2006, April was actively involved in raising awareness and campaigning against the DADVSI bill (the implementation of the EUCD European directive), mainly through the events organized by EUCD.INFO.
Software Patents: Since 1999, April has battled against a European directive project aiming at instating software patents.
ADELE Project - "ELEctronic ADministration 2004/2007": In Lyon, on February 9th 2004, the French Prime Minister launched the ADELE governmental program, standing for "ELEctronic ADministration 2004/2007". April follows this issue very carefully.

Working Groups

This part deals with all the working groups created within the organization to follow long-term issues.

To participate in the working groups, it is not compulsory to be a
member of the association. More details are included in each working
group's page and in each group's WikiWiki page.

Companies: Working group on business models and the corporate world.
GNU GPL translations: Working group dealing with the translation of the various GNU licences.
Free software and non-profit organizations: Free software is closely related to the idea of sharing. It should therefore be seen as an obvious answer for all social and
educational actors wishing to extend their ethics to the use of computing. Paradoxically, whereas the free software world and non-profit organizations have many common values (sharing, voluntary work, passion), free software is scarcely spread in the non-profit world. But the current gap between the associations and the free software movement does not seem to us to be unbridgeable. The increasing importance of computing tools and the internet for civil society and non-profit associations suggests that the time has come for closer cooperation. The purpose of this work group is "to bridge the gap between the free software movement and non-profit organizations".
GNU philosophy translation: The "GNU philosophy working group" aims at providing quality translations of the texts on the GNU website.
Public awareness on free software: Compilation of existing resources useful to raise public awareness of free software and development of new resources.
Translations: Working group aiming to translate, into various languages, the April website and various other useful documents.
Free festival (Libre en Fête): During spring-time, several days & nights of activities to promote free software.
Education and free software: Actions advancing free software within the scope of education.
April booth: The association organizes its own booth during many events ("Solutions GNU/Linux", "Fête de l'Humanité", professional salons...)
Transcripts: Transforming into raw text (or HTML) all of or part of audio recordings of video recordings. These can be done during conferences or strategic interventions or any other important event... Discussions on the tools that could facilitate that task. Prioritisation of tasks. Contacting each speaker to get their approval or the conditions under which they would approve to have their interventions transcribed. Slight re-writing for readability. These contents will therefore be more easily accessible, available using search engines, printable, quotable, etc...
Chat (Causeries): The "April chat" (« Causeries April ») are interviews or public discussions that are held regularly (one every week or fortnight), lasting one hour on a given subject. Depending on the subject, they are either public or private.

One-shot Actions

Free 2008 Calendar: April invites you to help the creation of its free 2008 calendar.; "Why a calendar?" you may ask. Mainly because it's a fun, useful, easily-done way of communicating.; "And why free ?": Because it deals with the issues that are crucial for free software, and because, as it is published with a free licence, it can easily be sent and shared by all who wish to. Have a look at the article to learn more on how you can help.

One-shot Internal Working Groups

Todo-April (Agir-April): Lists the numerous single tasks that need to be done.
Diversity: This internal working group, created in January 2008, tries to promote diversity of April's members.

You may also refer to this wiki page that contains a list of all the internal working groups that have been created for a short given period of time or that are currently being created (for instance, working groups on external communication, free software awareness... )

Institution-related Actions

Relations with institutions: In vast domains such as justice, economy or society, more than ever the institutional context and the increasing number of legal constraints have a significant impact on free software. This is true at the national, European and international level. This affects the development of free software, even its future, and the activities of the numerous free software actors worldwide
(developers, users, companies, administrations ...). We need to reach the forums where the IT, copyrights, patents ... policies are prepared. It is always better to foresee the threats and the opportunities facing each actor and to let our point of view be known. Living in a democracy allows us to intervene and participate actively and efficiently in the decision-making processes that important to us. This is the purpose of this working group.
AFNOR: The French association for standardisation (called AFNOR) is the official French body dealing with standards. April is a member of it since June 2007 and participates in the commission of the standardisation of document formats.
Internet Rights Forum (Forum des Droits sur l'Internet): April is a member of the Internet Rights Forum (Forum des Droits sur l'Internet, also known as FDI).
Terminology Commission: As of March 2006, April is represented within the commission on terminology and wording of computing and electronic components ("commission spécialisée de terminologie et de néologie de l'informatique et des composants électroniques").

Long-term Actions

Activities with the "Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie": Since 1998, April has been working hand in hand with the "Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie" (the biggest science museum in Europe) to promote and spread free software.
Free Software Meeting (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre): The Free Software Meeting is the meeting point of developers and other important players for free software. April has been actively helping its organization in recent years.

Partnership

FPH: Partnership with the Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer pour le Progrès de l'Homme (FPH) to support them in all free software issues.
CDC Numérique: Partnership with the CDC Numérique regarding the creation of content for the Cyberbase portal.
Conseil Régional d'Île de France: Partnership in 2005 with the Île de France region to inform its elected members about free software.
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie: Since 1998, April has been working hand in hand with the "Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie" (the biggest science museum in Europe) to promote and spread free software.

Working Groups Looking For A Leader

These groups are currently looking for a new group leader. You can contact the association if you wish to have more information.

Accounting and free software: Discussions on the questions of accounting and free software
Classification of free software as an UNESCO world heritage: April and FSF France have put together a working group to get free software classified by UNESCO as a World heritage.
« Sélection libre » news monitoring: « Sélection libre » is a news monitoring of all free software, free documentation, ... issues in the press.
News monitoring (see also News Monitoring): List of articles related to free software.

Former Campaigns & Dormant Working Groups

For archiving purposes, here are April's former working groups:

Signal SPAM: From November 2005 to May 2008, April was part of the « Signal SPAM » association.
Free Saturdays: One Saturday per month, the cyberbase at the "Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie" welcomes free software.
ADELE Project - "ELEctronic ADministration 2004/2007": The French Prime Minister lauched on February 9th 2004 in Lyon the ADELE governmental programm, standing for "ELEctronic ADministration 2004/2007". April follows this issue very carefully.
Free House (Maison du Libre): There had been suggestions of creating a "Free House" (« Maison du Libre ») in the greater Paris area. The project is currently stalled.
Special edition of Upgrade on the topic of Open Knowledge: Working Group aiming at translating articles for the special edition of Upgrade, published by CEPIS. Most articles have been
translated.
Information Society World Summit: Participation of April at this event (from 2003 to 2005)
Law bill on the use of free software in public administration: 1999: two law bills (number 495 and 117), from French senators Guy-Pierre Cabanel, Pierre Laffitte et René
Trégouët, were pushing to generalize the use of Internet and free software in French public administration.
Interviews with free software personalities, see the group's WikiWiki: April used to organize interviews with various personalities from the world of free software.
Documentation project, see the group's WikiWiki: April published several documents
The lab, see the group's WikiWiki: The lab aimed at regularly publishing articles presenting free software. This working group tried to maintain a catalog of French web resources on free software.