Today marked the first day of the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) annualLibrePlanetconference, now in its sixteenth year. The LibrePlanet theme this year is "Cultivating Community," and the event is being held at the Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) as well as online. Here are some of the day's highlights.
Opening keynote
This year's opening keynote, titled "Cultivating a welcoming freesoftware community that lasts" was held by free software developer andvideo creatorDavid Wilson. In his talk, Wilson shared theinsights he's learned over the years from building the System Crafterscommunity. He provided a helpful framework for how we can build afriendly, thriving community around a free software project.Basically, Wilson recommended four steps: first, be a role model andwelcome everybody in the community. Second, preserve the good vibes,remind people that this is a welcoming community. Third, ignitecollaboration and celebrate contributions, no matter how small theyare, because they are a sign of personal involvement. And last but notleast, make yourself replaceable. The fourth step, Wilson explained,is important, because "the only way a project can survive long-term isby becoming a collective activity."
Wilson's talk focused on the importance of attracting positive andencouraging people to ensure the health of the community. Doing thisis key to getting a new free software project off the ground. Ofcourse, one option is "paying for a huge billboard to advertise yourcommunity," but for most projects, a user's first experience with theproject is a website. Creating a good first impression and using awebsite to say "what your project is and what you value" is important.
Wilson also spoke on how to highlight core members of your communityand promote their work. He gave examples of "helpful people" he hadpromoted in the System Crafters community, giving them a larger rolein the project and encouraging them to do more. Similarly, Wilson saidthat a good goal for a new project was enabling the contribution ofone user, then ten, then one hundred.
The morning
The keynote was followed by a behind-the-scenes tour with the SavannahhackerCorwin Brust, a presentation on how to liberate the bootfirmware of a Raspberry Pi byJohannes Åsgård(dolphinana), and aworkshop by academic researcher and activistChristina Haralanovaabout connecting community organizations and technological activistsfor software freedom.
In the workshop, participants brainstormed solutions to bring moresoftware freedom and collaborative practices into the communitysector. Haralanova cultivated the idea that by being active in othercommunities and movements we can share our experience with softwarefreedom and help them move on to free software.
Wensheng Xieshared his story of how he started contributing tothe GNU System andMarco Calegaropresented how he built a coreXYmeditation table by modifying a 3D printer with free software.
Throughout the morning, in-person attendees could free their computerby replacing their BIOS with GNU Boot at theGNU Boot installparty.
As has become tradition,FSF associate membersheld theirannual meeting to discuss where the free software movement is goingand come up with recommendations for the FSF.
The afternoon
The afternoon had a special surprise, cake included. Conferenceattendees celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the TrisquelGNU/Linux project with its founderRubén Rodríguez Pérez,who gave a developer preview of a new major release planned forlater this year. In parallel, the three studentsMichaelBrodskiy, Amit Shenoy, and Olivia Galluccidiscussed thedifficulties free software enthusiasts face at universities thesedays, both while they're in school and also when they go tosearch for jobs at companies that use and develop proprietarysoftware.
Afterwards, Open Forum Europe senior policy advisorCiaránO'Riordanenlightened the audience on how we can influencelegislation for the benefit of software freedom. He shared hisinsights from previous legislation processes like the drafting of theCyber Resilience Act. O'Riordan described the CRA as a markeddifference between the old style of free software as analogous toliterature, where one is "free to publish," versus the new legislativelandscape, where applying criteria to software publication equates to"you're free to publish if..." O'Riordan also highlighted theambiguous meaning of putting software "on the market" in the EuropeanUnion an earlier draft of the CRA, stating that each time a patch ispushed to a free software project, it is a new act of publication inthe EU. The free software movement needs not only people who arefamiliar with free software, but people who are familiar withlegislation.
The day concluded with a keynote by FSF's executive director ZoëKooyman. Kooyman spoke about recent FSF initiatives like itsparticipating the National Institute of Science and Technology(NIST)'s consortium on AI safety to ensure the free softwareperspective is represented, the FSF's desire to expand itsoutreach to free software in education through speakingengagements, developments in the FSF board's governance process,and other ways the organization defends free software.
Kooyman then proceeded to present the 2023 Free Software AwardsThis year's recipients are Bruno Haible, Nick Logozzo, and the FreeSoftware Unit of the French government,code.gouv.fr. Haible andBastien Guerry of the Unit accepted their respective awards inpre-recorded announcements. Logozzo sent a written acceptance that FSFcampaigns manager Greg Farough read during the ceremony.
Coming Sunday
Sunday, we will continue theGNU Boot install partyand we havemany more talksby many more fantastic speakers! The lineupincludes a keynote byHayley Tsukayama, associate director oflegislative activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) oncross-disciplinary free software advocacy, and the closing keynotewill be held byAlyssa Rosenzweig, who spearheaded thereverse-engineering of Apple's GPU.
We hope that you enjoyed the first day of this year's LibrePlanet asmuch as we have. It's fantastic to see so many people from all overthe world participate. Of the countries represented, we heard from:Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China,Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India,Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States.
We are looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow. If you missed atalk you would like to see keep an eye on theLibrePlanet websiteandMediagoblin instancefor the publication of the videos afterthe event.
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