#FollowerPower : For an office team #chat and (internal and external) video call software, kinda replacing Slack and Zoom for an organisation that already uses #Nextcloud for file sharing, editing and other things, which one would you choose?

(Must be #FOSS, explanations as reply welcome.)

# Funding Free / open source software: what can I, personally, do differently?

Almost five years on, and I don't think that much has changed.

I wish that there was an easier way of funding Free software.

https://neilzone.co.uk/2021/12/funding-free-open-source-software-what-can-i-personally-do-differently/

#FOSS #Linux

Yesterday, as I sat here, using a laptop running on Free software written and maintained by volunteers, to connect, by means of a secure tunnel formed by Free software written and maintained by volunteers, to multiple servers, all running Free software written and maintained by volunteers, to apply patches prepared urgently by volunteers to resolve security vulnerabilities, I felt *incredibly* grateful for every single one of those volunteers, who makes the fact that I could do *any* of this possible.

Thank you, genuinely.

#FOSS #FreeSoftware #Linux

@fosdem
These stats don't even mention other intersectionalities based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ableness, etc, which are equally impactful.

The #FOSS ecosystem might be missing out on incredibly talented contributors. Which were exactly the type of people we wanted to attract to #FOSDEM27.

Anywho, after Capgemini I joined Mama Cash which, as a feminist fund, was a breath of fresh air. I got to build their open source stack and started going to #FOSDEM.

"A sea of white men" would be an understatement. It was intimidating. I felt like such an imposter. Barely anyone looked like me. I remember being super impressed by a talk by @onepict 🫶

I really liked the #FOSS ecosystem. Sure, there were a few awkward encounters, but overall @fosdem always has a great vibe.

Alt...

A Mastodon post from 2020 of me at FOSDEM with a coffee at the Mozilla devroom

Alt...

A mastodon post of us submitting a proposal to talk about our fully foss environment at Mama Cash

Alt...

A Mastodon post from 2020 from me about Esther Payne's talk, and how cool it was

Having a separate event about #DEI in #FOSS would miss the point, or - worse - would reinforce the notion that DEI is an extra, a bolt-on, rather than something which should be fundamental in healthy communities.

Three amazing women were offering to do the work for this, and yet... no.

(1/7) I suppose #Fediverse isn't the place people are discussing #RobReiner. But after 36 hours of deliberating whether to say anything, I feel compelled. This thread will be long,but I start w/ most important part:

It's an “open secret” in the #FOSS community that in March 2017 my brother murdered our mother. About 3k ppl/year in USA have this experience, so it's a statistical reality that someone else in FOSS experienced similar. If so, you're welcome in my PMs to discuss if you need support…

@bkuhn > I don't know anyone (at least, anyone who is serious about #FOSS policy & how its impacted by LLM-gen-AI) who says “nobody cares about attribution requirements”.

IME, the overwhelming majority of folks who choose to license their work under MIT, ISC, or 3-clause BSD
1) Do not care about attribution
2) Are likely to be *surprised* that the license includes an attribution requirement. They knew they didn't care about copyleft, and the common wisdom was if you don't care about copyleft that's the license you use.

And a much smaller but still substantial chunk of GPL choosers who don't care about copyleft or attribution, but similarly chose the GPL because the common wisdom was that's the license you use for FOSS.

So sure, it's sort-of tautologically true that "nobody who is serious about FOSS policy" would say nobody cares. But it's also sort-of true that "folks who are serious about FOSS policy" are rounding-error compared to the number of people publishing FOSS

@cwebber

@twipped

But FOSS' success up until this point has shown the exact opposite.

FOSS was bootstrapped by using proprietary software every single day for more than a decade, at least.

Most FOSS developers regularly used proprietary technologies daily for their work for the entirety of FOSS' history.

Plus, what @copiesofcopies said:
https://fedi.copyleft.org/@copiesofcopies@social.coop/117457049015278425

Cc: @cwebber

#LLMGenAI #LLM #AI #FOSS #SoftwareFreedom #OpenSource #FreeSoftware

@copiesofcopies

We are more in agreement than you realize:

Now is a good as time as any to state this publicly: I'm using #Anthropic's #Claude on a regular basis as field research to determine what types of policies we should set for reasonable & ethical use of #LLMGenAI in #FOSS, & also to actually improve FOSS codebases.

It *is* reasonable to use proprietary technologies as long as our eyes remain on the prize of defeating those technologies.

@cwebber, I suspect, doesn't agree.

#LLM #AI

(1/2) @cwebber

I don't (nor should anyone serious about FOSS policy) say “nobody cares about attribution requirements”.

I can only speak for my own position, but my position (based on 30 years of community observation) is that (a) attribution is not particularly important to most *who choose* **non**-copyleft, & (b) attribution *alone* never had a particularly good enforcement hook.…

#AI #LLM

If you've not joined us before, you can expect a casual chat about linux/FOSS/FOSS-adjacent stuff over some drinks and food. Hope to see you there!

Time: Saturday 24th October, 1pm onwards.

Address:

250 Haverstock Hill
Belsize Park
Greater London
NW3 2AE

OpenStreetMap

RSVP: not required.

For more info, check the blog post.

FOSS Meetup in #London on Saturday was a success, we ultimately had 9 people attend that day.

That you so much to those who attended, and also those who helped with outreach. I am aiming to run another one sometime in October, but this time with more infrastructure.

Also again, thanks to the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) for managing to get the sticker package to us on short notice.

If anyone lives in/near #London and is passionate about #FOSS and #Freedom and would like to help build a community, please do reach out, the more the merrier.

Picture of the meetup attached, lots of stickers!

Alt...

Photo looking downwards onto a round wooden table in a pub environment, on which some pint glass es are visible (some empty, some half-full) as well as some FSFE informative leaflets and stickers. The table is surrounded by ~8 people, who are not visible in frame apart f rom some arms and legs, as the camera is looking down. One person's hand is reaching into the sticker pile. There are so many stickers sprawled over the table that they have taken over ~80% of the table. The stickers are loosely grouped into a few sections: the overwhelming majority are FSFE stickers, while nearer the camera there are also some w ith the logos of XMPP, Snikket and OMEMO.

If a casual chat about #Linux and #FOSS over a curry sounds fun, please come join us! Just reply to me by the end of 21 January so I know numbers for the booking.

Time: 24 Jan, 19:00

Address:

Kings Cross Tandoori
341 Gray’s Inn Road
WC1X 8PX

Hope to see you there, and any questions feel free to ask.

#GLLUG #LUG

Over next 1-2 weeks,I'd appreciate an extended thread re: #FrameworkLaptop, #mntreform, & #FOSS.

TL;DR on my idiosyncratic needs:
* minimize binary firmware blobs¹
* Having 2 disks in RAID-1²
* Runs stock Official #Debian stable³
* Understanding best current replacement keyboard options⁴
* Form factor that works for my travel needs.

Is @frameworkcomputer or @mntmn better for me?

I'd be glad if ∃ active engagement on this!

#AskFedi #AskFediverse #Framework #OpenSource