The Award for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to a
project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas
of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and
significantly benefits society in other aspects of life. This award
stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity.
This year, it was given to the Library Freedom Project, a
partnership among librarians, technologists, attorneys, and privacy
advocates which aims to make real the promise of intellectual freedom
in libraries. By teaching librarians about surveillance threats,
privacy rights and responsibilities, and digital tools to stop
surveillance, the project hopes to create a privacy-centric paradigm
shift in libraries and the local communities they serve. Notably, the
project helps libraries launch Tor exit nodes. Project founders Alison
Macrina and chief technology wizard Nima Fatemi accepted the award.
The Award for the Advancement of Free Software is given annually
to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and
development of free software, through activities that accord with the
spirit of free software.
This year, it was presented to Werner Koch, the founder and driving
force behind GnuPG. GnuPG is the defacto tool for encrypted
communication. Society needs more than ever to advance free encryption
technology. Werner Koch
was unable to attend, so the award was accepted on his behalf by David
Shaw, a GnuPG contributor since 2002.
About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
More information about the FSF, as well as important information for
journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.
Media Contacts
John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org
Photo of Werner Koch by Willi Nothers , licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Other photos by Kori Feener, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License