With so many places having done layoffs lately, I wanted to mention the US Digital Service is hiring. It's a wild place to work, but also you get to work on legitimately meaningful projects that affect a lot of people (in 2022, we made it easier for transgender ppl to get passports, helped low-income families buy food, and I got to help identify disadvantage communities for environmental funding). I'm happy to talk about USDS if you're on the fence. http://ow.ly/LpqJ50LVnPV #fedihire #fedijobs
Planning a #conference? Include Mastodon at least as prominently in your materials as you do other social media. If you ask presenters or attendees for handles, ask for their Mastodon handle. This is an important opportunity for the Fediverse to reach, welcome, and engage key global audiences. #academia #event
Talking about opening up app stores at #fosdem - John Sullivan asks how many people in the room use @fdroidorg and a huge number of people raised their hands... Obviously a room of #FoSS and #FLOSS types but still great to see
Also will definitely be sticking around to see shortly after my talk, more about app stores and the EU: https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/eu_app_stores/
Speaking tomorrow in the Legal and Policy Issues room, about free software's reckoning with app stores: https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/app_store_changes/
@mairin Yeah I hope so too. We're seeing high profile journalists and press outlets posting officially from Mastodon now, good start.
@mairin Yesterday's news made me think of this again, just a reminder to me that while it's fun and interesting to talk about the ethical / constitutional principles involved, it's not really what any of this is about -- the people touting free speech are trying to control others' speech too (and more, I think, and for selfish-er purposes), they are just less honest about it: https://www.engadget.com/twitter-suspends-journalists-who-cover-elon-musk-015038157.html?src=rss
@spot I feel like there could be a working system inspired by the turn two keys to start WW3 model.
@mairin and also I think there may be a need for enforced separation between the entity running the platform and the entity(ies) doing moderation.
@mairin Yeah I mean strictly looking at the private citizen to private citizen stuff on Twitter, it's not a free speech issue to me -- you're writing on someone else's computer -- like the newspaper, you can go start your own site. *But* because there are high profile public official presences on Twitter, I think there may be free speech issues there. It really is similar to your shopping mall example, and the cases about protests at the military recruiting offices that are inside malls.
@mairin I agree, but I think it got complicated when Twitter became a primary way citizens receive information from and convey free speech political opinions to their government representatives, without the government first securing the kinds of public interest rules that have long existed (imperfectly, but existed) for other forms of private media carrying public messages. So now we have a weird hybrid public/private thing that is very bad.
I am grieving the loss of Marina Zhurakhinskaya @`marinaz and wrote a few memories of her and of @`outreachy : https://harihareswara.net/posts/2022/mourning-marina-zhurakhinskaya/
After 18 years with the Free Software Foundation, I've decided to resign my position as executive director, effective at the end of a transition period. We'll be sharing further details, including information about that transition, and a few more words, in the coming days. It's been a humbling honor to serve this institution, and to work alongside the FSF's staff, members, and volunteers over the years. The current staff deserve your full confidence and support -- they certainly have mine.
Yep, we need free software for vacuums too: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/26/971681198/users-report-drunken-roombas-after-software-update "go home roomba" "where's that?"
We're pleased to announce Guardian Project founder and director Nathan Freitas will be joining us as a keynote speaker for #LibrePlanet 2021: Empowering Users! Nathan's work to bring anonymity to millions online is truly inspiring. https://u.fsf.org/39o
This year, your contributions to Tor's Bug Smash Fund have allowed us to work on CI tooling, Tor Browser improvements, defenses against DDoS, GetTor, Arti, security fixes, & http://status.torproject.org. Details on the 97 tickets closed with the Bug Smash Fund:
Former shipper and executive director at the Free Software Foundation, now https://alliterativeadvising.com, https://crazyalansemporium.com, and board of directors for https://f-droid.org.