Re: [Fsfe-uk] Membership

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

> To get mass-membership we can't charge fees, 
or as Ian put it (when starting off this thread w.r.t school teachers 
who might become loosely associated with us)

'lower the barriers and pile 'em high'.

The automated facility and its ease of use  for associate membership of the FSF 
is what might be a useful reference.

Yes we should not charge fees for associated members (or some other type of 
membership we will have to come up with).
Also what we should promote as benefits will have to be different.

> [...]
> (btw, the masses that we hope will join won't be very
> knowledgable about FreeSoftware issues.  Should they be
> allowed to vote?  I suggest that they shouldn't.)
I Agree.

Also we should not encourage anyone to join ...only specific people who 
must have atleast some loose association with free software.
IMHO, school teachers will qualify automatically as they teach the next 
generation of software users and as all software should be free (as in 
freedom) in the future.
There might be other exceptions that I cannot think of. All the rest 
will have to pay up.

> Second, a problem:
> There is no code at http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/fsf-online/
>  

The problem is definitely to do with time constraints of the very busy 
author.
If the needs be, I am willing to help this project page be more helpful 
by joining as a volunteer.

> Ciaran O'Riordan
>
>
> On Fri, May 23, 2003 at 09:05:47AM +0100, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:
>  
>
> > MJ Ray wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > Ramanan Selvaratnam <address@hidden> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >      
> > >
> > > > If we were to build up an  electronic system to scale for the many 
> > > > number of users Ian is talking about then a lot of  new possibilities 
> > > > can be explored.
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > >        
> > > My opinion is that it would have to be entirely automated.  I'd suggest
> > >
> > >
> > >      
> > For reference purposes there is the FSF membership programme
> > <http://member.fsf.org/>
> >
> > Maybe, it might be a  case of joining and extending the inactive 
> > (python) project here...
> > <http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/fsf-online/>
> >
> >    
> >
> > > that the option to publish the details is the "fee" that we ask from these
> > > supporters.  What do you think?  This then could give us the directory that
> > > Ian suggests.
> > >
> > >
> > >      
> > Regards,
> >
> > Ramanan
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Fsfe-uk mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
> >    
>
>
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