Re: [Fsfe-uk] Membership

[ian]

On Sat, 2003-05-24 at 12:41, Alex Hudson wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-05-24 at 12:04, ian wrote:
> > I think part of the global problem is fragmentation. There are so many
> > free software organisations springing up! SchoolForge UK was set up
> > partly as a response to this. There is also OFSET. I would see something
> > like this hierarchy
> > 
> >                FSF
> > 
> >           AFFS UK  AFFS Germany etc
> 
> Hmm, this is sort-of how it exists. There will (probably) never be an
> AFFS Germany, for example, because we're just a UK organisation and
> always will be a UK organisation.

What I meant was parallel organisations in different countries with a
similar role - they would be independent but associated.  

>  Similarly, AFFS is independent from
> (but associated with) FSFE. At some point there may well be an FSFE-UK,
> but that would be a very different organisation to AFFS (for example, it
> would contain about three people tops). 
> 
> Remember, although we're an associate of the FSFE, we are actually a
> completely independent organisation - association means that we work
> very closely with the FSFE and are all friends and stuff, no more than
> that. But clearly, they do fulfil the role of coordinators in Europe for
> Free Software organisation, and we wouldn't want to take that on. One
> thing people often don't realise is that there isn't one 'anointed'
> associate organisation of the FSFE - there can be many in a single
> territory. AFFS just happens to be the first, and fulfils a very
> specific role.

The independence has many advantages but the single big disadvantage it
has is if it weakens the collective presence.

> > To be honest, I think most associate members would make absolutely no
> > demands at all. Say a pro-free software school with 100 teachers
> > enrolled all its staff as associate members, one or two would be active
> > enough to join in, the others would ask them ;-)
> 
> Exactly. I think this is reason enough to go down such a route. I don't
> think we can call them 'members', but that's just terminology.

I wouldn't under-estimate the power of words. If I wanted to get an
interview with the Secretary of State for Education on free software in
schools on behalf of say School Forge the first question I would be
asked is how many members are there in school forge? If I said 100
members but 10,000 supporters I would probably get shown the door. If I
said 10,000 members and that number is doubling every 6 months, I think
they would listen. In politics the words matter much more than they do
in basic rational life. Words are the things that give rise to concepts,
ideas and vision.

-- 
ian <address@hidden>