Over the years, I came to appreciate a number of organizations that although not directly linked to free software and open source are of interest to the FOSS community. Pretty much everybody knows the free software foundation, the software freedom law center, the Linux foundation, The GNU project, the open source initiative, Creative Commons or Groklaw. Here is a list of other extremely interesting (mostly US-born) organizations and/or projects.
PS: Except for Linux and GNU I didn't mention FOSS-project centric organizations.
Electronic Frontier Foundation ( wikipedia description )
EFF is regularly involved in defending organizations like Wikipedia (some are suing Wikipedia because they don't approve of content) or even Google (some are suing Google because AdSense uses certain keywords)
From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense.
- Free speech: From blogs and websites to mailing lists. Example.
- Intellectual Property: Free circulation for information, P2P and DRM. Example.
- International watch: Fighting for digital rights around the world. Example.
- Electronic Privacy: Whenever users privacy is not respected Example
- Innovation Protection: when established businesses attempt to stifle innovation Example
- E-voting rights: Example
EFF patent busting project (wikipedia description)
The idea is to help finding prior art (here is the list of top 10 most wanted) so that to kill stupid software patents.
Tired of bogus software patents? So are we! To combat these annoying and often dangerous legal weapons, EFF has launched the Patent Busting Project to take down some of worst offenders.
We need your help! Take a look at the Top Ten Most Wanted culprits on our list, and let us know if you have any leads on technology that predates them (called "prior art") that we can use to challenge their validity. Click on a patent to find out more.
League for Programming Freedom (wikipedia description)
Software Patents are bad: The LPF was founded in 1989!! by rms.
The League for Programming Freedom is an organization that opposes
software patents and user interface copyrights.
OpenNet Initiative (wikipedia description)
A detailed overview of Net censorship (regardless of justifications) everywhere in the world. Remember the good old time when Usenet was called "News" and not censored by providers?
Internet censorship and surveillance are growing global phenomena. ONI’s mission is to identify and document Internet filtering and surveillance, and to promote and inform wider public dialogs about such practices
Chilling Effect Clearinghouse (wikipedia description)
One thing is to have laws preventing you to publish certain things, another is to have people abusively threatening to litigate in the hope that you will comply because you don't have the means or the knowledge to defend your rights...
Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you.
Open Rights group (wikipedia description)
A UK organiSation focusing on privacy rights, DRM abuse and organizations gathering personal data.
The Open Rights Group is a grassroots technology organisation which exists to protect civil liberties wherever they are threatened by the poor implementation and regulation of digital technology. We call these rights our “digital rights”.
Center for citizen media (wikipedia description)
Did you know that bloggers had their own chart: the principles of Citizen journalism.
Accuracy - Thoroughness - Fairness - Transparency and Independence.
This is the website for the Center for Citizen Media, a new initiative aimed at helping to enable and encourage grassroots media, especially citizen journalism, at every level.
Focusing more on asking the right question than on imposing a top-down academic answer: How do youth in different countries use online socialization tools
differently, and what is the significance of these differences? Who is our digital native? How do we empirically explore the digital generation gap? Digital Natives focuses on the key legal, social,
and political implications of a generation "born digital" - those who
grow up immersed in digital technologies, for whom a life fully
integrated with digital devices is the norm.
Berkman Center for Internet & Society (wikipedia description)
The Berkman Center's mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions.
The Pew and Internet & American Life Project
The Pew Internet & American Life Project tracks and analyzes how computers and the Web are changing today’s world. Its work helps the media, academics, policy makers and others to better understand technology’s impact on society.
I'm sure I have forgotten many. Care to help build a longer list? Leave a comment!
Addendum : This page was unfortunately not sponsored by the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. :-) In recent years they funded the EFF (USD 600K), The Open Net Initiative (USD 3M), the Creative Commons (USD 1.2M) , The PEW Research Center (USD 315K) and The Berkman Center for Internet Society (USD 11M+ not counting the Open Net Initiative) .
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how about the GNU Project: www.gnu.org
It is somewhat separate from FSF.
Posted by: Corey | June 04, 2008 at 09:48 AM
@corey
Done, thanks.
Posted by: mtg | June 04, 2008 at 02:36 PM
Please do have a look at the P2P Foundation, which studies and promotes open/free and commons oriented practices.
See as an example, our coverage of shared design communities at
http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Design
Posted by: Michel Bauwens | September 09, 2008 at 06:48 AM