[ffii] 1&1 Internet AG receives German Document Freedom Award

[Stephan Uhlmann]

press release - [Technology / Economy / Innovation]

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1&1 Internet AG receives German Document Freedom Award
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Karlsruhe, 28 March 2012 -- 1&1, GMX and WEB.DE receive the German Document 
Freedom Award for the use of Open Standards. The prize is awarded by the Free 
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the Foundation for a Free Information 
Infrastructure e.V. (FFII). 1&1 is awarded for automatically adding XMPP for 
all customers of their mail services. The Document Freedom Award is awarded 
annually on the occasion of Document Freedom Day - the international day for 
Open Standards. Last years winners include tagesschau.de, Deutschland Radio, 
and the German Foreign Office.

In Karlsruhe FSFE and FFII handed over a certificate and the Document Freedom 
Award-cake to Jan Oetjen, CEO 1&1 Internet Portals, and Tino Anic with his 
team, who are responsible for this functionality. The Extensible Messaging 
and Presence Protocol (XMPP, previously called Jabber) is an Open Standard 
communication protocol used for chatting. A variety of chat programs support 
this protocol, and it is also used in VoIP applications. Every e-mail users 
of 1&1, GMX and WEB.DE get such an XMPP account by default, which has the 
same name as the e-mail address.

"Unlike closed services such as Facebook and Skype, 1&1 has provided open 
connectivity with the rest of the Jabber/XMPP network for many years. They 
are to be commended for supporting truly free communication using Internet 
standards." says Peter Saint-Andre, Executive Director of the XMPP 
Foundation.

Like 1&1, everyone can set up an XMPP server and enable it to connect with 
other XMPP standard compliant servers around the world. People having an 
account from 1&1 are able to chat with other contacts, within or outside the 
1&1 network, using any XMPP supporting client they want. They can chat with 
customers from other XMPP supporting companies like Google (with Google 
Talk), with people who set up their own Free Software XMPP server, and with 
all of FSFE's supporters, which also automatically get an XMPP account. When 
using Skype, ICQ, Facebook, Yahoo! Messenger or Microsoft Network (MSN), all 
the people who want to chat with each other have to use the same provider.

"Facebook and Microsoft Network (MSN) also use XMPP for their chat 
functionality. But they disabled the XMPP server feature to connect with 
other XMPP servers. This way Facebook and MSN are restricting their users to 
their own service: You are only allowed to talk with people who also have an 
account at their service and surrendered their data. By using XMPP servers 
which connect with other XMPP servers, you give your friends the freedom to 
decide which software and which provider they want to use and trust!", says 
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's German Coordinator.

"We are very honoured to receive this award. It confirms our decision to use 
the open standard XMPP for our online chat within WEB.DE, GMX and 1&1 
mailboxes. It allows our users to chat without technical barriers across the 
web.", says Jan Oetjen, CEO 1&1 Internet Portals.

Stephan Uhlmann, FFII board member, adds: "We're inspired by companies like 
1&1 Internet AG who not only base their business on Internet open standards, 
like email and the web, but also keep these services interoperable and do not 
rely on lock-in effects to convince their customers."


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Links
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* Press pictures of the award ceremony are available on
  https://wiki.fsfe.org/DFD-2012-Karlsruhe

* XMPP chat programs
  http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/clients/

* FFII's Open Standard definition and working group
  http://action.ffii.org/openstandards 

* Permanent link to this press release
http://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/1&1%20Internet%20AG%20receives%20German%20Document%20Freedom%20Award


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Press contacts
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Matthias Kirschner, Free Software Foundation Europe
Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin
Tel: +49-30-27595290, Mobile: +49-1577-1780003

Stephan Uhlmann, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
Malmöer Str. 6, 10439 Berlin
Tel: +49-30-41722597, Mobile: +49-170-4225008


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About the Document Freedom Day
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Document Freedom Day (DFD) campaigns to celebrate information accessibility 
and introduce non-technical audiences to Open Standards. Open Standards are a 
basic condition for freedom and choice in software; ensuring the freedom to 
access data, and the freedom to build Free Software to read and write 
information. Started in 2008, the campaign has resulted in hundreds of events 
worldwide, and this year will take place on March 28th. This year 28 partners 
are supporting DFD. 

http://documentfreedom.org/ 


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About the Free Software Foundation Europe
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The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-governmental 
organisation active in many European countries and involved in many global 
activities. Access to software determines participation in a digital society. 
To secure equal participation in the information age, as well as freedom of 
competition, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is 
dedicated to the furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, 
study, modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues, 
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by 
supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE. 

http://www.fsfe.org/ 


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About FFII
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European 
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public 
benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 
members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to 
act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights 
("intellectual property") in data processing. 

http://www.ffii.org/