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
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
New term for #Stallman style #FreeSoftware governance: DDFL?
(Despotic Dictator For Life?)
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
Can someone help me understand?
If #OpenSource is "free labor for corporations", how exactly is it not *also* "free labor for individuals" or small groups of citizens?
The same tactics are why #OpenSource temporarily pulled ahead in support, but fortunately greater forces are at play that can even overcome the damage done by #Stallman's behavior.
Chernobyl's nuclear mess wasn't cleaned up quickly, and neither will be the #FSF. Fortunately, #SoftwareFreedom is larger and stronger than the organization.
I am still holding out hope for the org, but my hope in the movement is far more certain.
2/2
I always knew it was bad, but never this bad. The #RMS resignation from #FSF seems to have shaken loose all the conspiracy theorists and devotees. Its mailing lists and forums are full of them, still distracting from the public charitable interest of the non-profit.
So many blinded by hero worship that they don't realize the viral poison said hero had on the #FreeSoftware movement. The immaturity of these folks is arguably the biggest blocker of software freedom from widespread adoption.
1/2
So #GitLab Pages has finally rolled out their automatic #LetsEncrypt integration for hosted web sites. It's quite painless and automatically renews certs. So glad that I don't have to manually do this or maintain some brittle CI-based scripts anymore.
If you've got a GL-hosted site, take the next 90 seconds and go secure it!
Heading in to #OSCON for the week. What will be the hot topics this year?
At Dayton #Hamvention today, heard an exciting overview from Bruce Perens (OSS pioneer) about a super low-cost prototype #OpenSource software+hardware device to extend average mobile phones into AI-powered digital #AmateurRadio transceivers using Codec2, neural networks for decoding, RISC-V, and more.
Could be truly transformative and empowering, allowing grassroots surveillance-free global communication.
Interesting conversations with Tim & David of the International #AmateurRadio Union (IARU) today at @Hamvention. Their challenges in advocating globally for policy to protect technology public goods in the face of capitalistic greed is not unlike the plight of #FreeSoftware & #OpenSource.
I wonder what we can learn from them.
If folks think that the world, on whole, is not an oppressive place with pervasive #inequity, they need to broaden their perspectives.
As #technology becomes key for individuals and communities to thrive, #FLOSS plays a critical role in ensuring their freedoms are respected and protected in those efforts. And that's why we need to ensure we're listening to those with the least power, to help build tools that work for everyone.
Every day I become more and more convinced that in our current global society, #FreeSoftware is a critical and non-negotiable piece of breaking the cycles of neocolonialism in the global south.
More on this line of thought to come.
In $dayjob news, our org's associated #OpenSource projects are working with a total of 40 interns this mid-year through Outreachy, Google Summer of Code, and Season of Docs.
Exciting times ahead for all of these awesome projects. Can't recommend these opportunities enough for growing #FreeSoftware projects.
I just donated one year's worth of @purism #LibremOne subscription fees to @ConnyDuck for the @Tusky project.
Consider donating too, every little helps! #SupportMaintainers #GiveCredit
https://opencollective.com/michael-downey?referral=41212
#Purism #FreeSoftware #Tusky #OpenSource #FLOSS #FOSS #Librem
Not sure if I just missed the commentary, but did anyone else notice that the #LibremOne commecial by @lunduke released on YouTube is basically a copycat of the K-mart "Ship My Pants" commercial from several years ago?
Kmart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCsqABAQLjs
#Purism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0a03NRpX3Y
I guess we shouldn't really be surprised, since their whole concept is simply taking others' work, repackaging, and reselling it.
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
