For a little background, can you describe the general topic of your presentation and tell us what is new in the last few months?
 
Human society is currently under transformation, but people have very different ideas of where that transformation will lead. As usual, some people seek to gain power through it, others seek to build a society with more freedom.In my talk I will give an overview of some of the struggles between these different ideas of where society should go, and of the battles between the proponents of freedom, and the people who seek to establish their control.
 
Can you give a summary of what you will present?  Why should someonechoose to come to your presentation?
I'll talk about Free Software and its relevance, and where the battle lines are drawn in fields such as Open Standards or antitrust law in the various fora from the United Nations to the European Commission.A good reason to visit my presentation would be to get an idea of what is going on, where it is happening, and why it matters. These issues influence society on a fundamental level, and right now the debate happens with very little awareness of most people although it will affect their future very much.
 
Will you share some of your experiences of how work isdone inside UN and EC?
I will talk about some of my experiences from the meetings.
 
FSFE. represented by the lawyer Carlo Piana, just finished the "MS vs EU" case. Will we hear anything from that?
Yes, of course I will talk about that.
 
What do you expect Microsoft to do now, given that they will not continue to the next instance?
We understand that they agreed with the Commission to not go into revision, so this case appears to be out of the courts now. But there are still open questions in the implementation that we'll keep following closely. It seems unlikely they suddenly became great fans of fair competition, so we'll need to be careful and keep watching their actions carefully.
 
How did you get involved in Free Software and in what way is it important to you?
 
I started programming on an Amstrad CPC 464, and at the time it was quite normal to have source codes and exchange information. The same was true for the Atari ST. Legally speaking this was not Free Software, but culturally it came pretty close. So when I moved to the PC around 1993, it seemed natural to continue in this way.My awareness of Free Software started through the GNU Project and the talks I started giving in 1998. As European GNU Speaker, I became more interested in the social and political issues until I decided to work full time for the Free Software Foundation Europe in 2001.Free Software is important to me because freedom is the basis of many of the best and most valuable achievements in society.
 
If I want to help out and try to make people more aware,how do I do this?
First of all I'd recommend you to join our Fellowship. This supports FSFE and also puts you in contact with others with similar goals. Secondly, you could simple talk about Free Software and why it is important.
 
How would you describe the change in attitudes towards Free Software?
Over the years I've seen a change in the audience. The Free Software community reflects the entire society in western countries by now. We see crackers, lawyers, governments, techies, authors, and any other profession and political opinion you might envision. This keeps things rather interesting at times.

Is there any other particular presentation you'll be going to?  Why is that topic of interest?
There are several very interesting talks that I'm considering to go to, starting from the talk about Digital Rights to the talk about Free Software with a female touch.
 
Contact: greve@fsfeurope.org
Links: Georg Greve
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