What is FreedomBox? And when can I have one?
[[!meta date="2012-11-09"]]
[[!tag talk debian blog fb]]
On wednesday 7. of November I gave talk at EPFSUG in Brussels about
FreedomBox.
EPFSUG is an interest group Free Software users working inside the
European Parliament.
The FreedomBox is a project to that helps non-geeks care about their
personal privacy when online, same ways as geeks have practiced for a
decade or more.
The goal is a small, cheap hardware box looking like and operating like
an internet gateway or wifi router many are accustomed to nowadays - but
with two additions:
- Easy and intuitive to setup and personalize for non-geeks
- Offers routines to help you protect your privacy
- Offers routines to let you help others in need of privacy
"Privacy" is commonly mistaken as "secrecy": Privacy is to keep you in
control of your information - you can then use that control to keep
secrets from others or to share with others as you like.
Talking about personal privacy at the European Parliament was a bit of a
twist, because that place is not a home but a (huge) office space, where
it is arguably less obvious that you should treat information as
personal, or that you are even allowed to do so.
Try watch the videos, and if you have questions then please don't
hesitate to get in touch with me about them.
At the EPFSUG meeting was also a presentation by an emplyee who had
succesfully installed and used Free Software at the internal network of
the Parliament, but then later told that it wasn't allowed - because the
IT staff need to be in control of your computer activities at the place!
The head of IT services at the Parliament attended the meeting, and
gave a short improvised talk at the end clarifying the positive interest
from the established IT services at the place towards our grassroots
activities - and even praising explicitly EPFSUG as being the ideal
place for all EU citizens to ask questions about Free Software in
relation to the European Parliament. See for yourself at the video of
Giancarlo!
Thanks a lot especially to Erik Josefsson for making this event reality!
Slides, sources and videos from the event.
