FSF Opens Nominations for the 16th Annual Free Software Awards

## Free Software Foundation Opens Nominations for the 16th Annual Free Software Awards

BOSTON, October 03, 2013 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF)
and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations
for the 16th annual Free Software Awards. The Free Software
Awards include the Award for the Advancement of Free Software and
the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

### Award for the Advancement of Free Software

The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free
Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman
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.

Last year, Dr. Fernando Perez was recognized with the Award for
the Advancement of Free Software for the creation of
IPython. IPython provides a rich architecture for interactive
computing with a debugger, editor, and Python command-line
interpreter all in one. Perez joined a prestigious list of
previous winners including Yukihiro Matsumoto, Rob Savoye, John
Gilmore, Wietse Venema, Harald Welte, Ted Ts'o, Andrew Tridgell,
Theo de Raadt, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Brian
Paul, Miguel de Icaza, and Larry Wall.

## Award for Projects of Social Benefit  
 
Nominations are also open for the 2013 Award for Projects of
Social Benefit.
 
This award is presented to the project or team responsible for
applying free software, or the ideas of the free software
movement, to a project that intentionally and significantly
benefits society in other aspects of life.
 
We look to recognize projects or teams that encourage
collaboration to accomplish social tasks. A long-term commitment
to one's project (or the potential for a long-term commitment) is
crucial to this end.
 
This award stresses the use of free software in the service of
humanity.  We have deliberately chosen this broad criterion so
that many different areas of activity can be considered. However,
one area that is not included is that of free software
itself. Projects with a primary goal of promoting or advancing
free software are not eligible for this award, though we honor
those projects with our annual Award for the Advancement of Free
Software.
 
We will consider any project or team that uses free software or
the philosophy of software freedom to address a goal important
to society. To qualify, a project must use free software, produce free
documentation, or use the idea of free software as defined in the
Free Software Definition. Work done commercially is eligible, but
we will give this award to the project or team that best utilizes
resources for society's greater benefit.

Last year, OpenMRS received the award, in recognition of its
free software medical record system for developing
countries. OpenMRS is now in use around the world, including
South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Uganda, Tanzania, Haiti, India, China, the United States,
Pakistan, the Phillipines, and many other places.

Previous winners have included GNU Health, Tor, the Internet
Archive, Creative Commons, Groklaw, the Sahana project, and
Wikipedia.

### Eligibility

In the case of both awards, previous winners are not eligible for
nomination, but renomination of other previous nominees is
encouraged. Only individuals are eligible for nomination for the
Advancement of Free Software Award (not projects), and only
projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award (not
individuals).

The award committee has not been finalized, but is made up of
previous winners, free software activists, and FSF president
Richard Stallman.

Please send your nominations to <award-nominations@gnu.org>, on
or before Friday, November 1st, 2013. Please submit nominations
in the following format:

* In the email message subject line, either put the name of the
person you are nominating for the Award for Advancement of Free
Software, or put the name of the project for the Award for
Projects of Social Benefit.

* Please include, in the body of your message, an
explanation (forty lines or less) of the work done and why you
think it is especially important to the advancement of software
freedom or how it benefits society, respectively.

* Please state, in the body of your message, where to find the
materials (e.g., software, manuals, or writing) which your
nomination is based on.

Information about the previous awards can be found at
<https://www.fsf.org/awards>. Winners will be announced at an
awards ceremony at the [LibrePlanet conference][1], tentatively
scheduled for March 2014, in Boston, Massachusetts.


[1]: https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2014


### 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.

### Media Contacts

Libby Reinish  
Campaigns Manager  
Free Software Foundation  
+1 (617) 542 5942  
<campaigns@fsf.org>

###

*This post can be viewed online at
<https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-opens-n...>.*
-- 
Follow us at https://status.fsf.org/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS at
http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS
Join us as an associate member at http://www.fsf.org/jf

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin Street
Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
United States