[Scale-planning] Free Software Representation at SCaLE

[Mark Holmquist]

> If you look at the mission statement on [1], the topic for SCALE is
> Open Source software. We do not restrict ourselves to only Free
> Software, nor do we give special consideration to Free Software.
> SCALE tries to cater to everyone, thus there is a good mix of talks
> about various aspects of Open Source software.

I definitely understand this portion--in fact, my suggestion is to
involve *more* free software, and *not* restrict yourself to Open Source
or, really, any specific ideal.

> With regards to your claim that Tom Callaway's talk is the only Free
> Software talk, I would like to point out Bradley Kuhn from the FSF gave
> a talk as well. While you may feel Oracle projects are not "perfectly"
> Free Software, as far as I am concerned, BTRFS is licensed under the
> GPL, and thus equally as Free as any other software licensed under the
> GPL.

True, but MySQL (which was the talk to which I referred, sorry for lack
of clarity) is an example of software whose free-ness is suspect,
especially where Oracle is involved!

And I did not claim that his was the only talk--I know Larry Cafiero
also presented, and he's another speaker whose presentations, at least
those I have seen, are term-agnostic.

> Additionally, Debian probably have had a booth at SCALE every year, and
> the FSF and SFLC have had booths at SCALE in past years.

Of this, I am also aware. Your language, though, suggests that this
year, the latter two decided not to come? Perhaps that is another
indication of the necessity of what I'm suggesting.

> If you feel Free Software is under-represented, please encourage Free
> Software speakers to submit presentations for future SCALE events, and
> for Free Software groups to apply for a booth at SCALE.

I will do my best, though my connection to other free software advocates
is somewhat limited. My real suggestion, though I think I grasped at how
to word it in my original message, is agnostic or at least all-inclusive
terms in presentation titles and content, as well as on the website (in
reference to your mission statement, certainly). That way, advocates of
one side or another don't feel excluded, and the mission (which applies
to all people on earth, via your link) is better served! Especially in
the case where one side or another has important information, even if
both are represented in equal terms __quantitatively__, it could be said
that both are injured by feeling out-of-place in the other's
presentations. Admittedly, this injury is by choice, but the flaming
that occurs between OSS and FS is certainly not to be ignored.

Thanks for the quick reply!

-- 
Mark Holmquist
Student, Computer Science
University of Redlands
MarkTraceur at gmail.com