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1. Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 07:21:44 JST Aral Balkan

   So, anyone else going to OFFDEM in Brussels next month?

   https://ps.zoethical.org/pub/offdem-ozone-cfp

   I’m going to hold a little Kitten* workshop and take part in the roundtables on the Saturday. Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

   * https://codeberg.org/kitten/app

   #OFFDEM #SmallWeb #SmallTech #Kitten

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 15:39:25 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • ChrisChinchilla

     @chrischinchilla I hear you. (I’ll definitely have my mask with me.) Also, just to point out, I’m not going to FOSDEM. I don’t attend, speak at, or legitimise so-called “free software” or “human rights”, etc., conferences that let surveillance capitalists like Google launder their reputations by sponsoring them. I’m only attending OFFDEM, which was created in reaction to FOSDEM’s lack of ethics in that area.

     https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

   • ChrisChinchilla (chrischinchilla@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 15:39:26 JST ChrisChinchilla

     in reply to

     @aral now I know it exists! But I'm a little "off" fosdem this year generally tbh. Not sure I wanna put my body through the Petri dish that it normally is quite yet...

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 15:46:35 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     Just to clarify, I’m not going to #FOSDEM, I’m going to #OFFDEM.

     I don’t attend, speak at, or legitimise so-called “free software” (or “human rights”, etc.) conferences that let surveillance capitalists like Google launder their reputations by sponsoring them. I’m only taking part in OFFDEM, which was created in reaction to FOSDEM’s lack of principles and ethical backbone.

     https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

     #FOSS #surveillanceCapitalism #whiteWashing #reputationLaundering #institutionalCorruption

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 17:35:30 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • LN

     @ln The Linux Foundation (and Linux itself) is all about big business so it’s not surprising. Don’t forget that surveillance capitalism runs on Linux.

     Is it good that Linux exists? Yes, definitely. Does the Linux Foundation care about anything but business? No.

   • LN (ln@kuma.social)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 17:35:31 JST LN

     in reply to

     @aral you raise interesting points, thanks for sharing that post. I also cringe at seeing the sponsors list of some events. On the other hand, several of these companies fund the Linux Foundation, for example. How do you feel about that? In a way I understand the feeling, on the other hand Microsoft does make profit for using Linux on it's Azure cloud, so It's more than fair that they give back by funding them... Same goes for Google.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 18:07:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Utopiah (Fabien Benetou)

     @utopiah Cool, here’s to seeing you there :) (I should be there all day Saturday.)

   • Utopiah (Fabien Benetou) (utopiah@mastodon.pirateparty.be)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 18:07:27 JST Utopiah (Fabien Benetou)

     in reply to

     @aral nice, I'll try to attend on Saturday as Sunday I'll manage and talk in the Javascript devroom https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/track/javascript/ but I understand the need. I don't know the details to be honest but will read about because I've always been uncomfortable with the sponsorship, especially as, as a volunteer, I don't get to see any of that but I need to better understand what is actually needed, financing-wise and what are the consequences of it.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 19:14:07 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • loveisgrief

     @loveisgrief Not sure but I believe @how can answer that question :)

   • loveisgrief@mastodon.online's status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 19:14:08 JST loveisgrief

     in reply to

     @aral
     Will #OFFDEM be streaming it to reduce their carbon footprint?

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 19:22:58 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • ( hellekin )
     • Potatoes Fall

     @potatoes_fall As far as I understand, everyone contributes in one way or another (the focus isn’t on conference-style presentations – although I will be doing a short workshop on Kitten in a breakout room – but a general assembly and round-table discussions, which I very much look forward to taking part in). So think more unconference/barcamp than mainstream conference. I’m sure @how can explain it better.

   • Potatoes Fall (potatoes_fall@ravenation.club)'s status on Friday, 06-Jan-2023 19:22:59 JST Potatoes Fall

     in reply to

     @aral I'm confused by the OFFDEM website, hoping you might know this. do regular participants need to sign up anywhere or is that only for people who want to speak?

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 07-Jan-2023 05:12:56 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Dries

     @dries Cool; say hi if you do :)

   • Dries (dries@social.roeckoe.be)'s status on Saturday, 07-Jan-2023 05:12:57 JST Dries

     in reply to

     @aral that sure looks like a good place and crowd, if I can make it work out I'll be there ... since it's only a trainride away.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 07-Jan-2023 15:47:39 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Rokosun

     @futureisfoss 💕

   • Rokosun (futureisfoss@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 07-Jan-2023 15:47:40 JST Rokosun

     in reply to

     @aral Such a great article! Thank you for taking a stand and calling out these BS when you see it. Unfortunately this thing has plagued the FOSS community right now, everywhere you see corporate sponsors for these supposedly well-meaning projects/organizations. I just wanna share these pages from the "Origin of most problems" book which warned people about this exact thing. I had to merge a few pages 'cause of limits in mastodon, but you can find the full book here - https://www.tromsite.com/books/

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jan-2023 20:48:30 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • ⠠⠵ avuko

     @avuko Correct on all counts ;)

   • ⠠⠵ avuko (avuko@infosec.exchange)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jan-2023 20:48:31 JST ⠠⠵ avuko

     in reply to

     @aral

     “Here be d̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ kittens.”😂

     I like it! It inspires curiosity and playfulness as well as an expectation of chaos and potential destruction.