[Scale-planning] Free Software Representation at SCaLE

Michael Proctor-Smith mproctor13 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 25 18:41:07 PST 2012


On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Mark Holmquist <marktraceur at gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, so very clearly my answering questions was not a good idea. I will
> leave it, then, at this:
>
> There is no political concern right now. The only concern is one of
> agnostic terms.
>
> Even "Free/Libre/Open Source Software" could potentially be perceived as
> too specific by the Public Domain/Open Access/Free Culture community
> members who happened to be at the conference. And even the mere
> exclusion of someone's community can make them feel uncomfortable, even
> if the person speaking means no offense.
>
> I don't expect that the conference can be perfect, even in this respect,
> but I think starting at "Free/Libre/Open Source" would at least be a
> step forward. Talking to presenters and staff members, encouraging use
> of that term in place of anything more specific, would benefit
> *everyone*, and not just any one community.

So how do we become more "inclusive"?

>
> By the by--and this is still on the matter of inclusion, nothing
> else--it is probably not a good idea for conference volunteers to refer
> to others' ideals as "silly", thereby immediately making others
> uncomfortable in the conversation. I happen to forgo theatres and DVDs
> for the very reasons listed above--I don't think it makes me "silly", I
> think it makes me a concerned citizen who doesn't like corporate
> influence over my personal life. I don't know about the software in my
> car, but it is very limited. I would almost certainly ask about the
> software in my car if it did anything more than control a simple CD
> changer--GPS, for example, would greatly concern me. I imagine that
> people who have reached the same point in Free Software adoption would
> think very similarly.
>

Just to let you know, if your car is less then 30 years old almost
every aspect of the the engine, transmission, Anti-lock brakes, and
airbags are controlled by software.

> Finally, please don't respond to this email (or any others) to weigh in
> on the merits of the Free Software philosoph(y|ies). I merely brought
> them up to illustrate points relating to the main topic, which is laid
> out in the first few paragraphs of this email.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Mark Holmquist
> Student, Computer Science
> University of Redlands
> MarkTraceur at gmail.com
>
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