2022-12-13 Why I love participating in LibrePlanet
Also published on the Free Software Foundation's community blog[1]
I'm Amin Bandali, a free/libre software activist by passion, and a
software developer/engineer and computing scientist by profession.
I am a former intern and current volunteer with the Free Software
Foundation (FSF), and a member of the GNU Project. One of the ways
I volunteer with the FSF is through LibrePlanet. I've helped with
various aspects of the conference's organization, currently mainly
helping as a member of the LibrePlanet committee, which reviews all
session proposals. In this blog post I'd like to give a quick
background on how and why I got involved with LibrePlanet and how
I contribute to it today. I will also share how you, too, could
start helping with the organization of the conference in a number of
different ways, if you're interested!
I first got involved with LibrePlanet as a volunteer a few years
back. By that point, I'd enjoyed participating in the conference
via IRC and watching the talks online for a few years, and I was
looking for ways to get involved. As I couldn't make it to Boston
to attend LibrePlanet in person, I volunteered online, with tasks
such as helping watch over the conference IRC channels and answering
questions as best as I could. I seemed to have done a decent job,
since the FSF folks later asked if I could do the same for a few
non-LibrePlanet online FSF events too, which I gladly accepted.
Having enjoyed both participating and volunteering for LibrePlanet,
I thought it would be great if I could give a talk of my own, too.
This only became possible for me after 2020 with the possibility of
doing remote presentations. Since I sadly cannot attend the event
in person currently, this was a welcome side-effect of the
conference temporarily switching to an online-only format. So,
I submitted a proposal to talk about "Jami and how it empowers
users"[2] for LibrePlanet 2021, which was accepted and became my
first LibrePlanet talk. Though presenting, or even just submitting
a talk at a large conference like LibrePlanet, may sometimes seem
like an intimidating task, I had a great time presenting mine,
thanks in no small part to the FSF staff and other volunteer
organizers, as well as the audience members.
The FSF staff were supportive and encouraging throughout the entire
process of preparing and presenting my talk, and the audience gave
positive and/or constructive feedback after my presentation. Plus,
I greatly enjoyed discussing various free software topics with them,
which was not really surprising because the folks attending
LibrePlanet tend to be free software enthusiasts or activists like
myself who are often just as eager to watch and chat with others
about free software. And, as my good GNU friend Jason Self puts it,
LibrePlanet is a wonderful place for such enthusiasts to "recharge
their free software batteries each year"[3].
Back in 2020, I was invited to join the LibrePlanet committee, a
diverse team of volunteers from different backgrounds and areas of
expertise that review all sessions submitted, helping select session
proposals in a way that provides an exciting lineup of talks for
people of differing areas and levels of experience and interest.
I humbly and happily accepted the invitation to join the committee,
and I help with the reviews to date. (I of course don't review my
own session proposals, nor the ones I recognize to be from people
I know). If you are also interested in joining the LibrePlanet
committee and helping review the wonderful session proposals the
team receives for each conference, you can come by the #libreplanet
or #fsf channels on the Libera.Chat IRC network and reach out to the
FSF staff there, or send an email to <
[email protected]>.
Besides being part of the LibrePlanet committee and helping review
session proposals, there are a number of other ways to contribute to
the organization of the conference as well. Technical tasks include
helping with the setup and/or the maintenance of some pieces of
infrastructure for the conference, for example helping maintain the
conference's self-hosted installation of LibreAdventure[4], which is
the conference's online event space where people can have their
avatars "bump" into each other to have a real-time videoconferencing
chat, and they can explore sessions, the FSF office (digitized),
virtual sponsor booths, and more. Non-technical tasks include
helping with the moderation of the conference's IRC channels on the
event days, and volunteering to introduce, caption, or transcribe
talks. There are also other logistical tasks that need doing now
that LibrePlanet is switching to a hybrid format with both online
and in-person events (in Boston). If you are interested in getting
involved and helping with any of these (or other) tasks, please
email to <
[email protected]>.
The theme for LibrePlanet 2023 is "Charting the Course", which I
find particularly apt and important. The free software movement has
come a long way[5] and thanks to the tireless efforts of people from
projects and communities of varying sizes, today we can carry out a
very wide range of computing tasks in total freedom. It is also
crucially important to continue recognizing and making progress in
the areas of digital life where avoiding nonfree software may not be
currently possible or feasible. One such notorious area is online
payments, where the GNU Taler[6] folks have been hard at work making
freedom-respecting, privacy-friendly online transactions possible.
At LibrePlanet 2023, I hope to see talks on such areas of digital
life. I look forward to talks presenting the state of available
free software in a certain field and clarify to what extent we can
participate in them in freedom, along with a wishlist for
improvements and a roadmap for moving closer towards freedom in this
specific field so that we will ultimately, hopefully, reach full
digital freedom.
These, along with other factors -- such as the FSF staff striving
for LibrePlanet to be inclusive and accessible, as well as making it
possible to participate online for those of us not able to attend
the event in person -- make LibrePlanet a free software event I'm
most excited about and look forward to each year. I hope and expect
that LibrePlanet 2023 will be a conference with a lineup of
interesting, fun, educational, and thought-provoking user freedom
themed talks and sessions, along with a chance to catch up and
socialize with fellow free software hackers, activists, and/or
enthusiasts from all over the world, just like it always has been --
especially this time with its ever more relevant theme of "Charting
the Course" to not only reflect and celebrate the path we've come so
far, but to also look towards the future and chart the course to
software user freedom for coming generations.
Take care, and I hope to see you around for LibrePlanet 2023!
Amin Bandali
LibrePlanet Committee Member and assistant GNUisance
[1]
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/amin-bandali-about-why-it-is-fun-to-participate-in-libreplanet
[2]
https://kelar.org/~bandali/talks/jami-empowers-users.html
[3]
https://jxself.org/libreplanet2023.shtml
[4]
https://sr.ht/~iank/libreadventure
[5]
https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-20220413-online
[6]
https://taler.net
This article:
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gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blog/why-libreplanet.txt
https://kelar.org/~bandali/blog/why-libreplanet.html
Copyright (c) 2022 Amin Bandali
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