I am new to the free software community, but one of the things I am most interested in right now is reverse engineering. As you know, companies like Intel are unwilling to release schematics which would allow free software developers to write free microcode for processors. As RMS pointed out at LibrePlanet recently (2013 I believe) reverse engineering is a very high-priority project, as computers are becoming more and more closed and locked down.
RMS mentioned also that, as we now is true, it used to be and still continues to be that we can promote free software by installing GNU/Linux on existing machines originally built for proprietary software (Mac and windows computers, which the vast majority of us use to run GNU/Linux). Now and in the future it seems more and more that we will have to tell people to purchase machines that are free from the get-go, and that really sucks if you ask me. I would like to, having learned about free software, take my existing PC or Mac and have my friend who just enlightened me about free software liberate it. I know nothing about reverse engineering, but there should be plans to create projects or organizations, clubs, websites, etc. that educate free software users and hobbyists who are technically talented and interested to reverse engineer existing hardware that can be used for GNU/Linux. For example, LibreBoot is a project that could use more volunteers, as it is pitiful that only a handful of laptops are capable of being LibreBoot-ed. What sort of plans are in place to get reverse engineering to be an important topic for free software developers?
