Mastodawn

papiris🏴🇵🇸Nov 29

Petition in Germany to recognize unpaid contribution to free and open source software projects as 'society-beneficial volunteering' (ehrenamt)!

This will give volunteering for e.g. @postmarketOS , @freifunk , @kde , @nextcloud , @Mastodon and other libre projects the same legal status as taking care of an elderly family member or volunteering for a youth association, which provides tax benefits and relaxes requirements for receiving unemployment benefits.

Interested people may sign it using one of the two following links.

The petition in german language: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/anerkennung-von-open-source-arbeit-als-ehrenamt-in-deutschland#petition-main

The petition in english language: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/recognition-of-work-on-open-source-as-volunteering-in-germany

News article (German): https://www.heise.de/news/Petition-Open-Source-Arbeit-soll-als-Ehrenamt-gelten-11094436.html

News article (English): https://www.heise.de/en/news/Petition-Open-source-work-should-count-as-volunteer-activity-11095357.html

The petition is organized by @webvision.

If you're not a resident of Germany, go ahead and use this thread to organize similar initiatives in your country of residence.

#deutschland #foss #floss #volunteer #ehrenamt #freiwilligkeit #openSource #freeSoftware

Anerkennung von Open-Source-Arbeit als Ehrenamt in Deutschland - Online petition

Open-Source-Software bildet heute das Fundament großer Teile der digitalen Infrastruktur – in Verwaltung, Wirtschaft, Forschung und im täglichen Leben. Selbst im aktuellen Koalitionsvertrag der Bundesregierung wird Open-Source-Software als elementarer Baustein zur Erreichung digitaler Souveränität genannt. Bei vielen Bürgern ist leider kein Bewusstsein vorhanden, wo sie überall mit Open-Source-Software in Verbindung kommen. Egal ob es eine Website im Internet ist, der Ticket-Automat für die Bahn

openPetition

:now: at kubecon!Nov 30

@papiris hmm is there a reason this isnt on the petitions platform from the bund?

papiris🏴🇵🇸Nov 30

@4censord I don't know, are citizens' initiative petitions required to be on the bunds platform, in order to legally force a discussion in the bundestag?

I found the petition here, there may be additional context: https://blackneon.net/post/64526

Petition to formally recognize open source work as civic service in Germany - BlackNeon.net

Lemmy

:now: at kubecon!Nov 30

@papiris thing is if it hits the goal on the bundes platform, they are required by law to discuss them
while on any other platform there is no such thing
so they could just ignore it in that case

papiris🏴🇵🇸Nov 30

@4censord oooh very important aspect!

According to openpetition there does seem to be a mechanism regarding that, which encompasses more online petitions than those on the bunds platform.
I'm not well versed in german legalese (ich spreche und schreiben scheiss deutch auch), could you give it a read? https://www.openpetition.de/blog/blog/2017/04/07/das-quorum-auf-openpetition

Das Quorum auf openPetition « openPetition – Blog

Free platform for signature campaigns, initiatives, decisions, petitions: Start, collect, debate, change

openPetition

Marcus Müller Nov 30

@papiris @4censord it just says there's a number for how many signatures you need for openpetition to request a statement from a responsible authority. In this case, from members of parliament

The idea is that that number is high enough for it to be significant to their constituency, i.e., ignoring the openpetition request **might** have measurable influence on their outcome.

Nothing relevant to the parliamentary process in Germany.

papiris🏴🇵🇸

@funkylab @4censord glad you had a look and chimed in!
In that case, the petition will have stronger leverage if it gets moved to the bund petition platform. Luckily the petition just started, so moving it now wouldn't be a devastating loss (4000 signatories so far, so still a significant setback).

Is this the official bunds petition platform? https://petitionsportal.de/

I have very little knowledge about the democratic process in Germany (and meetings tomorrow in both the workers' coop me and others are organizing and https://datakollektivet.no), so it would be awesome if someone (maybe you? :) ) could contact the organizers of the petition to bring up these concerns and suggest moving the petition to the place where it'll legally force a debate in the bund.

Deutscher Bundestag - Gemeinsames Petitionsportal des Bundes und der Länder

Hier finden Sie zu den Internetauftritten der Petitionsausschüsse der Parlamente in Bund und Ländern.

Deutscher Bundestag - Gemeinsames Petitionsportal des Bundes und der Länder

Marcus Müller Nov 30

@papiris @4censord yes, specifically https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/ ; do contact the petitionsausschuss maybe; they can decide to deal with a petition even if formal requirements aren't met, afaik.

I'll not be available to help you.

Petitionen: Startseite

Moritz Poldrack

@funkylab @papiris @4censord even though I didn't make it, I would like to apologise for that platform.

Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse Dec 5

@mpldr epetitionen? Eh, it's a bit basic and ugly but works. I've managed to run into a small issue with broken session state once but honestly I'm happy with how it works and that it exists

Boris Hinzer Nov 30

@funkylab @papiris @4censord I will definitely reach out to them, once the 30k signatures are reached.

If that's a promise, then it probably is a good thing to sign that petition if only to motivate you to put in the additional work to start it at the official petitions site.

Before any motivation and initiative is shredded by good advice that is.

@papiris @4censord
@webvision

Marcus Müller Dec 1

@inj4n I don't think I agree. If we're wasting up to 29,999 signatures, at 4,000 right now, the right thing to do would just be going to the Bundestag E-petition site and setting up the petition oneself, and tell the original organizers to motivate the currently still few signatories to sign that, instead of later trying to convince 30,000 people to sign something *again*.
And, asking the Bundestags-Petitionsausschuss costs exactly nothing, and postponing is just unnecessary.

Marcus Müller Dec 1

@inj4n and the work to set this thing up is really minor, especially compared to the political campaigning that would need to follow if the petition is actually successful. Not my petition, else I'd do it; if setting up a petition on the right website is too much work, not sure I need to be part of this.

Boris Hinzer Dec 1

@funkylab @inj4n already reached out to the Petitionsausschuss and asked for advise / clarification. My (non legal) guess is, they can't ignore a petiton just because it's not "the right platform" - this sounds not democratic to me. Also my friend (chatGPT) told me, it's ok to do it that way ;)

Marcus Müller Dec 1

@webvision @inj4n well I read the law instead of asking ChatGPT. The only legal way of declaring a public petition is through the dedicated online system; I doubt signatures on a random other platform "count", but as said, there's probably some freedom in Petitionsausschuss.

nothing about that is undemocratic: democracy has certain, well-defined ways of participation. a sheet of paper with names on it has no democratic legitimacy until you throw it, at agreed-upon times & places into an urn.

Marcus Müller Dec 1

@webvision @inj4n there's a fair question to be asked about whether platforms like openpetition are aspects of democracy or just simulations or even just simulacra.

Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse Dec 5

@webvision @funkylab @inj4n don't ask ChatGPT for legal advice (or for anything consequential really)

Boris Hinzer Dec 5

@dngrs @funkylab @inj4n meanwhile I got response from the Petitionsausschuss. Postal entry will be possible.

Marcus Müller Dec 5

@webvision @dngrs @inj4n that's good to hear! Does that apply to some printout(?) of the signatory list from openpetition.org?