Notices by Josh Simmons (josh@josh.tel)

Beware folks, there's an astroturfing campaign emerging on fedi that appears to be aimed at garnering support for the actions of the Israeli government.

@rhialto Thank you for the heads up! I just logged in and see that Glassdoor has already autopopulated details on my account, presumably through scraping or data brokers. Eugh.

"Nazi mingle openly at CPAC."

That is a real headline from mainstream news here in the US. The Republican establishment isn't even trying to distance itself from violent extremists anymore.

We can and should push Democrats to do better and live up to their promises, and come November, we need to remember that:

- voting is harm reduction, and
- voting is important but never enough.

#USPol

TIL about another community on Slack who is now being asked to pay thousands to preserve basic functionality 😬

Proprietary tools that offer a lot for free, without fail, will squeeze you. And unfortunately, because of their nature, a lot gets left behind when you inevitably migrate.

When we select tools for our communities, we need to think over longer time horizons.

FOSS options like Matrix for chat and Discourse for forums are the better bet.

#Community #DevRel #OpenSource #FOSS #Matrix

Let me be clear: FOSS needs and deserves our financial support.

But this isn't really about money.

It's about how fraught it is to build a commons and a community on the back of proprietary platforms which follow a predictable pattern: in which VC money is used to subsidize free or severely discounted services to disrupt a market and create a captive audience which they then squeeze.

The incentives are simply not aligned for good outcomes.

There are two major open source conferences in North Carolina this week, but only one of them is taking attendee #HealthAndSafety seriously and they are requiring masks to be worn.

Again, the Python community stands out for its commitment to inclusion: bravo, #DjangoCon US 👏🏻

#PublicHealthPledge #DjangoConUS #DEI #OpenSource #FOSS

I hope the #AllThingsOpen team and organizers who take a similar approach will come to understand that their decision to have a #HealthAndSafety policy that mirrors local mandates is a choice that harms and excludes.

There's a reason we have Codes of Conduct – and it's because "what's legal" is too low a bar when it comes to building inclusive and productive communities.

I'm proud to call Bradley Kuhn a friend and am celebrating him joining the growing community of out-and-proud FOSS leaders.

But it is a tragedy when someone is forced out.

I've watched as Eben Moglen and SFLC have abused the legal system and attacked SFC, wasting the scarce resources of one of FOSS's most important charitable nonprofits, and am devastated to learn about the personal abuse Bradley has endured.

FOSS friends: please take the time to read this. https://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2023/10/11/moglen-sflc.html

I'm Josh Simmons, a community organizer who works in open source and increasingly spends my free time on activism and gardening.

My political philosophy boils down to: we are interdependent, that is a good thing, and rights go hand-in-hand with responsibilities 🤝

For me, social media is a core part of how I learn. I like to connect with people who have different lived experiences than I do.

My posts tend to be a chaotic mix of personal and professional. #Introduction #TwitterMigration

I hope #EverythingOpen and #SCALE20x both implement a mask mandate next year.

I'd quite like to attend those events, but a mask mandate is the bare minimum of pandemic risk mitigation.

More people should be asking for that. Including people who attended/are attending those events right now.

It's not hard, and I'm here burning my scarce spoons to help organizers figure it out and make events safer and more inclusive *for everyone.*

#PHPledge #Disability #DEI #HealthAndSafety @phpledge

As a reminder, many event organizers ARE addressing COVID risk, and can see how health and safety is an extension of Codes of Conduct and inclusion initiatives.

#OpenInfraSummit, #PyConUS, #FOSSY, #RubyConfUS, #Monktoberfest, #PyConAU, #KiwiPyCon, #NBPy, #PyConIT, #PyCascades, #BSDCan, #DevWorld, and #XWorld are a few examples.

It can be done, at events small and large.

Let's celebrate their work to make events safer and more inclusive by giving them some love and participating! 👏🏻

#PHPledge

Woke up and realized there are now multiple clusters of people doing Public Health Pledge advocacy of their own volition.

The road ahead is long and challenging -- such is the way with movement building -- so I'm savoring every little signal of success along the way.

If you haven't signed on to the #PHPledge yet, consider: is now the time? 🤔

#HealthAndSafety concerns are not going away, nor is the pledge.

Get in now and stand in solidarity with people with disabilities and chronic illness, caregivers, and the people who live with them :solidarity:

Commit to safer and more inclusive events today: https://phpledge.com ✍🏻

#Covid #MaskUp #Events #DevRel

A vocal minority of people who like rights, but fail to see how those require responsibilities, have succeeded in convincing community leaders and elected officials that it's mainstream to not give a shit, and that mask mandates are hard to enforce.

When time and time again, evidence shows people broadly mask up without fuss when it's a policy 😷

That's one reason it's so important for us to be vocal about the #HealthAndSafety measures we want to see put in place.

#PHPledge #Covid #MaskUp

We need to stop clinging to a normal that is never coming back.

I call on fellow event organizers and community leaders to meet the moment.

My blog post rolling up the latest research and practical guidance on adapting to our pandemic present and future: https://blog.josh.tel/2023/01/17/theres-no-going-back-lets-adapt-to-our-pandemic-present-and-future/

#CovidIsNotOver #Covid19 #PublicHealth #PHPledge