Today, the FSF announced the dates for the 2010 LibrePlanet event, a conference for the free software community that expresses a vision for solidarity amongst developers, activists and users who are working towards the shared goal of a fully free software world--a world without reliance on proprietary software.

At the Women in Free Software mini-summit held at the FSF offices last year, LibrePlanet was identified as one of many ways we could support the work of women in our community. The minutes of that meeting express best the reason why this is so important to our goals: "Women represent less than 2% of the free software movement, yet our participation is a pre-requisite for the movement's success. Having more women in our community advocating freedom will enrich our movement."

LibrePlanet 2010 will feature a track of presentations from noteworthy women working across the full spectrum of activities in the free software community. By highlighting the work of women in our community we can also demonstrate to new female free software developers and freedom activists that all contributors are valued and we are actively seeking more diverse participation.

One of the most important programs I've seen for fostering women in the free software community is being run by the GNOME Free Desktop Project at http://projects.gnome.org/outreach/women/. The GNOME community provides a unique outreach program for women that encourages their participation throughout the year and makes available paid stipends for interns in the summer. The program goals are to:

* Improve the resources available to all newcomers for getting involved in GNOME
* Reach more women with the information about how exciting, varied and valuable work on GNOME or any other free software can be
* Encourage women to contribute to GNOME
* Enable several women to work on a GNOME project with a mentor and receive a stipend
* Provide the background for women to start their own free software projects or pursue careers in the free software industry

I think this is a great initiative that should be supported and copied by other free software projects. One of the most important ways you can support the GNOME women's program is by donating to fund the upcoming intern stipends at http://projects.gnome.org/outreach/women/step2.html. I hope you will join me in supporting this program.

This edition of the Bulletin features a fantastic piece from FSF board member Mako Hill on software freedom for phones, The computer in my pocket. This is an opening salvo in a campaign for phone freedom that we expect to be a significant part of FSF's work in 2010.

It also features a great article on free software in education, Software for education, not babysitting, by FSF operations manager John Sullivan, who will be making education a focus of his FSF advocacy work after his upcoming move to a life of better coffee and telecommuting in Seattle, WA (we'll miss his cheerful presence).

Finally, there's an update from Ciaran O'Riordan on the possibility for a massive win in FSF's End Software Patents campaign: "The Bilski case is the first review of patentable subject matter since 1981. This decision could make the rules for decades to come and the justices' comments at the November 9th hearing indicate that they do see problems with the patenting of software. This hands us our biggest opportunity, and a heavy responsibility. Read more.

You can support more work like this in 2010 (and receive a nicely printed copy of each bulletin by mail) by becoming an FSF member. Your contribution to the FSF, as always, is tax deductible in the US.

If you signed up as a member and ordered a card in the last few months your wait is over. The new cards, now with Trisquel, have been shipped!

They have the latest version of "Trisquel Live" on them. This version, called Dwyn 3.0, features the linux-libre kernel 2.6.28 and supports ath5k and ath9k wifi cards. In addition to English, the new card can also be booted in Portuguese, French, Hindi, Chinese, Catalan, Espanol, Basque or Galician.

The new cards are also loaded with useful and familiar free software applications like the GNOME desktop, OpenOffice.org 3.0, GIMP 2.6 and Evolution 2.26. And yet there's still over 750MB of writable space you can use for storage. More detailed information and specs on your brand new bootable membership card are available.

Of course if you prefer, you can also replace Trisquel with gNewSense or your other favorite free GNU/Linux distribution.

If you aren't already a member, you can sign up and fix that today! You'll get your own bootable membership card in 4-6 weeks.

The mighty GNU tattoo image is from Rodolfo Borges of Brazil. The wildebeest photo is Schuyler Shepherd's (and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.). Both of them will receive an FSF t-shirt for their contribution.

The card is also available with the classic GNU logo.

Funds from this credit card program will help support the mission of the FSF to preserve, protect and promote the freedom to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer software, and to defend the rights of free software users.

(Please don't let the thought of supporting us encourage you to start using a credit card if you don't already, or discourage you from buying anonymously with big-brother-resistant cash.)

If you use a credit card, sign up for the Free Software Foundation Visa Platinum Rewards Card and support the FSF with every purchase. There's a $50 donation to the FSF by the bank when you first use the card, plus ongoing contributions of 30 basis points or .3% of retail transactions. US residents only. Read more details about the card.

We also thank everyone from outside the US who's asked about getting an FSF credit card. We apologize that the cards are (currently) only available in the US. We don't know of any similar card-based fundraising options that are available to small organizations and work outside the US, but please contact us if you know of one.

...the contest continues

We're still looking to offer other card designs, designs that reflect, in some visual way, the activist spirit of the FSF and its supporters.

Please submit photos and artwork. They can be original, or links to public domain images on the net. By sending the image, you also agree to make it available as CC-BY. If we choose your image for the cards, we'll send you the t-shirt of your choice from the FSF store.

Send them as SVG, JPEG, or PNG, in the best quality you can manage, to campaigns@fsf.org.

If the image is from the web, send a link, with a link to the license info. Note: If you send artwork, don't include any text. We know that's annoying, but it complicates things for a few reasons. Also, I won't be able to get back to all of you individually, so thanks in advance for your help, and good luck!

The FSF is putting together a Community Team of supporters to spread the free software philosophy in blogs, online press, and through social networking sites.

If you spend some time each day reading popular blogs or mainstream press and you have a good handle on the debate around software freedom, this could be a great opportunity. As part of the FSF Community team, you'll be doing things like:

• Responding to questions and points about free software in online media.

• Working with the FSF campaigns team to respond to big news stories that impact software freedom, or stories that are chances for people to understand why free software matters.

• Making sure that important stories, about topics like fully free GNU/Linux distributions, DRM, or the dangers of "cloud computing," get as much attention as possible in the media and the widest possible reach through social networking sites.

Just to be clear, the goal here is not to get into long, drawn out flame-wars :). Rather, this will be an organized and respectful approach to raising awareness of free software's importance.

If this is something that interests you, take the first step by joining the discussion list:

• http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsf-community-team

Thanks, and we appreciate your support!