Michael Downey 🇺🇳 @downey@floss.social
Admin
FLOSS.social admin. Director of Community, DIAL #OpenSource Center at United Nations Foundation. LibreHealth steering cmte, OSUOSL advisory brd, OSI adv circle.
Joined Apr 2018
Pinned toot
A few folks have asked how they can support the expenses of running the FLOSS.social #Mastodon instance. There are not a lot of expenses right now (€10/month) but if you're interested in chipping in, you can now become a FLOSS.social "Monthly Supporter"! Donations accepted via CommitChange, who run the free software Houdini Project to manage transactions. 🙂
Thanks!
Most folks I work with at the nexus of humanitarian work and #OpenSource are experienced enough to know one can't meaningfully lessen global-scale atrocities with something so simple & weak as a copyright infringement claim.
If you don't want people mis-using stuff you make, don't make stuff.
If you want reduce inequity & atrocities, give people working on those problems #FLOSS building blocks with OSI-approved licenses so they can more easily do their good work.
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
boosted
I just encountered this "DeGoogle" list on GitHub that might be good for @switchingsoftware to take a look at for potential options that may have been missed before:
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
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Our Policy Fellow, Bradley M. Kuhn, explains how we can restore #copyleft equality and rid ourselves of toxic proprietary relicensing (sometimes imprecisely called dual licensing) with a novel copyleft clause (invented by Richard Fontana for copyleft-next). https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2020/jan/06/copyleft-equality/ #GPL #FOSS #FOSSLicensing #AGPL
"Getting kicked in the rear is a sure sign you're in the front." - Kenneth E. Reed #MondayMotivation #quotes #m
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
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is there an android permission to forbid apps from connecting to the internet?
if not, then there should be!
#SaveDotOrg per JohnLaprise on Twitter:
Special meeting on .org today Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) call is devoted to the .org sale. The call is open to all. Here's your chance...
Tuesday 03 December 2019 at 20:00 UTC
At-Large Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG)
Zoom Link: https://icann.zoom.us/j/765717566
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
boosted
.org is a gTLD for everyone, and is foundational to the Internet, for individuals, non-profits, and everyone else. Don't let it be sold to a private interest without any oversight. https://savedotorg.org #SaveDotOrg
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
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Hi Fediverse 👋
today, our site https://swiso.org joined the #SaveDotOrg initiative to keep .org-domains non-profit.
We host our site on a .org domain. Furthermore, we heavily rely on services hosted on .org domains - as for example @codeberg
Please consider supporting the initiative by spreading the word or signing the letter:
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
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Please join us in the signing of this petition and consider adding years to your .org registration today.
5541 letters have currently been sent to stop the sale - add your name now!
Save .ORG
Help stop the sale of Public Interest Registry to a Private Equity Firm
Get a job! #OpenSource #Community Manager position working on a project in the international development space.
For the past 15 years, the world's top #FLOSS leaders gather for a weekend mind-share at the #GSoC Mentor Summit. This year, 370 #FreeSoftware maintainers from 43-ish countries attending. The best event each year in the #OpenSource world. Let's do this! #t
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
boosted
Want to be in charge of a critical piece of software that runs on pretty much every linux desktop?
libinput is searching for people to eliminate the bus factor:
https://who-t.blogspot.com/2019/10/libinputs-bus-factor-is-1.html
Would be great when such critical software parts wouldn't rely on the shoulders on a single person (not me).
Once again on the road for the day job. Looking ahead, watch for toots on:
- Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit
- Mozilla Festival
- Linux Foundation Open Source Summit Europe
New term for #Stallman style #FreeSoftware governance: DDFL?
(Despotic Dictator For Life?)
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
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RMS pulls a serious power move (read: dick move), unilaterally appointing a maintainer to Guile without consulting the other co-maintainers or community, because the current co-maintainers disagree with him on governance https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2019-10/msg00005.html
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
boosted
Anybody has a touch mouse and uses Fedora 31? Some feedback on gnome-shell overview scrolling would be appreciated with stock shell and https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/exalm/gnome-shell-gestures/
Bonus points for a libinput recording of you scrolling in overview. :)
The voting members are *not* the individual associate members one becomes by signing up on the web site. It was initially set to be the same group as the board of directors, but they voting members could add others to their group. The current list doesn't seem to be public.
Important read: Bradley Kuhn no longer #FSF director: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2019/10/15/fsf-rms.html
His thoughtful post reminds me, FSF has a separate class of voting members. Did #RMS resign as a voting member or just as dir/president? It's unclear.
Per the bylaws, the voting members are effectively "in charge" of the organization because they are the ones who name the board of directors. https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/fsf-amended-bylaws-current.pdf
Michael Downey 🇺🇳
boosted
Don't miss #FSFE's software freedom #podcast! The first episode is about the day against #DRM with Cory Doctorow as guest https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-1.html #FreeSoftware
Admin
FLOSS.social admin. Director of Community, DIAL #OpenSource Center at United Nations Foundation. LibreHealth steering cmte, OSUOSL advisory brd, OSI adv circle.
Joined Apr 2018
