Good programmers inevitably learn, somewhere along the way, the following lesson: When you encounter a very hard problem to solve, don't spend all your time just on the problem. Also question whether it really needs to be solved - or if a better approach avoids the problem in the first place. Libre Planet is built on the following intolerable premise: People should fly from around the world to Boston, once a year, to connect free software activists and enthusiasts in a social setting conducive to sharing presentations, meeting, and having informal discussions. Only one part of that premise is no longer tolerable, at all, in 2021: the travel it requires. Air travel is, with perhaps very rare exceptions, wildly, intolerably socially irresponsible. The rate at which fossil fuel emissions must now fall is so rapid, it not compatible with widespread air travel, and it is not compatible with current levels of energy demand. This same problem, in addition to the pandemic's discouragement of large "meatspace" conferences, effects not only Libre Planet, but everyone on the planet. Few are no fly-in conferences are anything but extremely irresponsible in 2021. It's just a fact.
Image It will be hard to replace the Libre Planet conference but perhaps not *too* hard 64Good programmers inevitably learn, somewhere along the way, the following lesson: When you encounter a very hard problem to solve, don't spend all your time just on the problem. Also question whether it really needs to be solved - or if a better approach avoids the problem in the first place. Libre Planet is built on the following intolerable premise: People should fly from around the world to Boston, once a year, to connect free software activists and enthusiasts in a social setting conducive to sharing presentations, meeting, and having informal discussions. Only one part of that premise is no longer tolerable, at all, in 2021: the travel it requires. Air travel is, with perhaps very rare exceptions, wildly, intolerably socially irresponsible. The rate at which fossil fuel emissions must now fall is so rapid, it not compatible with widespread air travel, and it is not compatible with current levels of energy demand. This same problem, in addition to the pandemic's discouragement of large "meatspace" conferences, effects not only Libre Planet, but everyone on the planet. Few are no fly-in conferences are anything but extremely irresponsible in 2021. It's just a fact. It will be hard to replace the Libre Planet conference but perhaps not *too* hard. We have software like jitsi. We have telephony systems. So forth. Perhaps Libre Planet should evolve into an annual "big event" online but also an ongoing series of smaller online events. I don't know. People with a clearer picture of the needs should discuss that. For now, it is enough to say that a conference premised on air-travel is in and of itself an astonishing anti-social proposition in 2021, and from now on. Of course online conferences also need behavioral guidelines, but there is no point squabbling over those until we begin to have some permanent online conference infrastructure in place. And until that infrastructure is in place, Libre Planet should do the right thing and take no further steps that would encourage air travel. -t
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