Who Can Open Sourcers Support in the CFC? 21
gov_coder asks: "I was looking forward to supporting the EFF this year in the Combined Federal Campaign, however, I have learned that I can't do that anymore. Looking at the the Public Patent Organization's list of partners, I can't seem to identify an organization fighting software patents that's on the CFC's list. What a government coder to do if they wanna support the fight on software patents through the Combined Federal Campaign?"
what was the change? (Score:2)
"the government decided to change the rules and require charities to enforce government blacklists against their own employees in order to be able to participate in the campaign. Charities should not have to investigate their own employees in order to receive these personal funds from government workers."
Umm... what the hell does this mean? Is a 'government blacklist' a secret ops thing, or does it just mean that the charities
Re:what was the change? (Score:2)
The government have a list of bad guys. The government wants the charities to check that none of the employees are on this list.
EFF are complaining that this is a loss of privacy.
Personally I think charities should be open for inspection to all, and that a list of banned people from working for charities is a good thing. Charities are too open to abuse as they are.
Re:what was the change? (Score:1)
Re:what was the change? (Score:1)
Sure.
No, it's as stupid as the "no-fly" list.
"Lessee, John Fluxx? There's a John Flucks on the list. Sorry, we can't hire you."
"But that's not me!"
"Sorry, too close. As far as we're concerned your name's on list. Take it up with Homeland Security. Good luck, heh heh."
Meanwhile, you're banned from transacting any business in the U.S. [sptimes.com].
Re:what was the change? (Score:2)
While I feel this could be fixed, I doubt the competence of them to do this correctly.
Re:what was the change? (Score:1)
That's certainly a big problem with it. The whole utter lack of due process is another. If you've got real evidence that someone is a terrorist, you don't put them on a no-fly or no-hire list, you put them on the most-wanted list and arrest and prosecute them.
Re:what was the change? (Score:2, Informative)
Easy. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy. (Score:2)
Re:Easy. (Score:1)
If I wanted to know about other ways of donating - I would have asked that question.
I want to be able to tell other feds what OSS supporting organizations they can easily choose to contribute to within the CFC.
Re:Easy. (Score:2)
You've obviously never worked for the Federal Government.
It is customary to engage in the use of peer pressure to ensure that every person in an organization donates to the CFC.
The boss gets up and says something like: "It's CFC time again. I'm going to make a promise to you all... if everyone in this Office (or
unit/organization/etc.) donates to the CFC, everyone will get pizza for lunch on Thursday, and a day off next Friday. Now, who wants
Can you donate to them anyway? (Score:4, Informative)
You should ask the person running you office's campaign what your options are. Tell them that you want to donate to one particular charity that isn't on the list. If they don't have a process to help you out, just decline to participate in the CFC and send your donation seperately.
Re:Can you donate to them anyway? (Score:2)
This is often true.
The write-in option at my workplace has allowed me to donate to the FSF [fsf.org] for several years using only its address:
and that it qualified as a 501(c)3 organization.
Usually I still give about 2/3 of my donation to the local United Way - there's a lot of worthy and underfunded organizations under that umbrella.
Some corporations have matching gifts policies to leverage your donation.
For example, in 2004, t
More info on blacklist (Score:1)
Although it's not on the list... (Score:2)
Props to David Allen Black and Chad Fowler who are the prime movers behind RubyCentral!
Re:Although it's not on the list... (Score:1)
> organization have to do with ANYTHING?
They support open source - which is the topic of this discussion.
outside of CFC != easy (Score:2, Informative)
The whole point of the question is;
Do any of them fight software patents or otherwise support OSS?
Don't say use paypal and call that an answer; it simply isn't.
Feedback (Score:2)
If you're concerned about this issue, I'd suggest sending them an email [mailto] and expressing your views.
CFC Org Listing in HTML (Score:1)
This should make it somewhat easier for someone to look at - but its still 750+ K (its a huge list).