Re: Idea: science packs for schools?

[Paul Sutton]

I think Arduino (or clones) could be really good here,  i demoed a few
simple projects at a secondary (11 - 18) science fair and got some
interest,   things like temperature etc,  thing with arduino it is more
complex but no oS to worry about so you write, compile, upload,  so
potentially better for embedded project.  you can use a pi to write to
arduino anyway,  I would look at both,  if only to raise awareness of
both and also that a good engineer uses the right tool for the job,  be
it hardware or software.

Paul

On 25/11/16 19:23, Roger Sicart Rams wrote:
> Well, that could be part of the course, but I meant something more like
> getting hands dirty hacking the hardware/software kit.
> 
> 
> On 11/25/2016 06:22 PM, amunizp wrote:
>>> interesting to propose it as course in schools or online (like on
>>> Coursera or a similar site).
>>>
>> Like 'Road to digital freedom' online course? 
>>
>> https://eliademy.com/catalog/road-to-the-free-digital-society.html
>>
>>
>> -- --
>> Andres (he/him/his)
>> Ham United Group
>> Richmond Makerlabs
> 
> 
> 
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Re: Idea: science packs for schools?

[Paul Sutton]

On 25/11/16 19:30, François Revol wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On 25/11/2016 20:23, Roger Sicart Rams wrote:
>> Well, that could be part of the course, but I meant something more like
>> getting hands dirty hacking the hardware/software kit.
>>
> 
> Although the idea is nice (and I did start on old 8bit computers in the
> class), there are also ways to learn code without actually using
> computers, for the younger ones:
> 
> http://www.psfk.com/2016/03/montessori-hands-on-coding-for-toddlers-cubetto.html
> 
> 
> http://csunplugged.org/
> 
> François.

I agree,  you can teach about networking too i think

if you take 2 people and give them a sticker with an IP adress on and
throw a tennis ball to each other,  this is like pings,  if 1 person
drops it,  then that is like lost packets

now take 3 or more people and when you throw the ball person 1 - 2
number 2 drops the ball unless they are told to pass the ball on to
person 3, this is i guess like a firewall allow packets through,   if
you use the port that say minecraft would use 35565 iirc, then this
would be something the children may relate to (well teh game at least(

so in order to play MC online the computer you connect to must allow
packets in to the server software.


Granted this kind of simplistic but it may teach the ideas behind
networking port forwarding, firewalls etc

Paul

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Re: Idea: science packs for schools?

[Paul Sutton]

Further to all this

https://projects.drogon.net/lmc/

little man computer, is a simulator i think for assembly language teaching.

On 25/11/16 20:11, Paul Sutton wrote:
> I think Arduino (or clones) could be really good here,  i demoed a few
> simple projects at a secondary (11 - 18) science fair and got some
> interest,   things like temperature etc,  thing with arduino it is more
> complex but no oS to worry about so you write, compile, upload,  so
> potentially better for embedded project.  you can use a pi to write to
> arduino anyway,  I would look at both,  if only to raise awareness of
> both and also that a good engineer uses the right tool for the job,  be
> it hardware or software.
> 
> Paul
> 
> On 25/11/16 19:23, Roger Sicart Rams wrote:
>> Well, that could be part of the course, but I meant something more like
>> getting hands dirty hacking the hardware/software kit.
>>
>>
>> On 11/25/2016 06:22 PM, amunizp wrote:
>>>> interesting to propose it as course in schools or online (like on
>>>> Coursera or a similar site).
>>>>
>>> Like 'Road to digital freedom' online course? 
>>>
>>> https://eliademy.com/catalog/road-to-the-free-digital-society.html
>>>
>>>
>>> -- --
>>> Andres (he/him/his)
>>> Ham United Group
>>> Richmond Makerlabs
>>
>>
>>
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Re: Idea: science packs for schools?

[Paul Sutton]

Gordon Henderson (see Little man computer link) has also written Return
To Basics. which is a basic interpreter  for Linux and the Pi, as he
also wrote wiringPi libraries, then this is integrated with RTB (and
hence the pi gpio pins).  If you're familar with Fuze basic then that is
based on RTB,  longer story,  behind this which is not really mine to tell,

RTB is a modern basic so using procedures for example rather than line
numbering.

http://projects.drogon.net/rtb/

you can install with apt-get install rtb, and you can also wget some
example programs.


Paul


On 26/11/16 00:50, François Revol wrote:
> On 26/11/2016 01:21, Paul Boddie wrote:
>> They actually have a room of BBC Micros at Bletchley Park for
>> schoolchildren
>> to use, showing them what computing used to be about and confronting
>> them with
>> things like BASIC and maybe even assembly language (although I doubt
>> that they
>> really have time for BASIC tuition let alone assembly language).
> 
> Oh, and there's a BASIC that runs on GNU/Linux also:
> http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html
> 
>> It is actually possible to do new machines based on such CPUs because
>> they are
>> still in production. I guess that was originally the vague idea behind
>> the
>> Raspberry Pi - the instigator prototyped it using Atmel AVRs (similar
>> to the
>> ones used in the Arduino), I think - and the users would have had a "bare
>> metal" experience similar to the microcomputers of old. However, the
>> project
>> picked up that Broadcom SoC and the rest is history.
> 
> Some ppl are doing it for ORIC:
> http://oric.club/atmostrat
> 
>>
>> There are other "microcomputer" or "retrocomputer" projects such as
>> ELLO 2M:
>>
>> https://www.crowdsupply.com/yellow-beak-computer/ello-2m
>>
>> These employ relatively small amounts of memory and microcontrollers, but
>> that's enough to run low-level code or some form of BASIC.
>> Interestingly, and
>> a reminder to everyone about the value of Free Software, that particular
>> project experienced problems using a proprietary BASIC and an apparently
>> uncooperative developer which could have had serious consequences for the
>> fulfilment of the rewards of the crowdfunding campaign in question:
> 
> Oh and there are gaming consoles, like the Pico8, and the BitBox:
> http://bitboxconsole.blogspot.fr/p/blog-page.html
> 
> François.
> 
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Re: Idea: science packs for schools?

[Paul Sutton]

Hi all

I run the Torbay Tech jam ,  trying to get in to local schools seems to
be a nightmare, slow and frustrating.We could make a pack available
to those who visit the Torbay tech jam, or in fact I can see if some of
the younger attendees can perhaps feed in to the development of this.

I strongly believe there is an opportunity here. for example we have 2
students from the same school,  very able and keen,  I have contacted
their school and offered to help them and others who are very keen, able
and self taught by setting up a lunchtime club,  no interest from the
school,  all they need is some simple help, a nudge in the right
direction,  e.g set up Arduino + 8x8x display,  change the message, add
more displays,  I try and do this at the jam but am doing other things
at the same time,  i need to spend 10 mins on tasks without distractions
of the jam.   I also buying a lot of resources myself,  so it takes
weeks for items to arrive,  sending from amazon sellers in china or
banggood,  as I simply can't afford to buy them at UK prices.

I think trying to get in to schools is going to be a hurdle,  heads and
teachers are busy enough so more offers on the desk tend to go
unanswered in some cases.

You may be better off aiming (at least at the start) this at the sort of
event I am running,  tech jams,  pi jams etc,  you are then dealing with
a different group of people not held back by the constraints and demands
of the national curriculum.

Tech jams is attended by children, young people, parents, and sometimes
teachers.  Parents are also part of the school community have access to
schools, teachers and are know to the school.   If a child can go in and
say look what I did at the weekend,  and the school can get the
materials for this easily,  then the school may just take an interest.
If they show friends then their friends want to do the same it will
start to pressure the schools,  hopefully not to the extent that they
get frustrated and end up giving up due to that additional pressure from
able kids demanding more challenging lessons.

I am happy to contribute material which can be modified and presented in
a far better way than I have.


Paul


On 02/12/16 11:52, Guido Arnold wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 02:32:25PM +0100, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
>>
>> I was talking with some people who would like to fund some concrete Free
>> Software activities, focusing on research and education. 
> ... 
>> What do you think about making it easier for pupils to get access to
>> such tools. E.g. by having some packs in the libraries or for school
>> projects? 
> 
> I like it. Though the hardware packs alone won't do the trick. The
> crucial part will be the teachers/mentors who will introduce the
> pupils to them. If they don't care about FS, the students won't be
> even aware that they are using it.
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Guido
> 
> 
> 
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Re: France and Germany promote Free Software in indudstry

[Paul Sutton]

I think we need to promote the fact that the skills needed to support
all this are out there,  just finding them is just perhaps a little
harder than say finding people with MS skills.   what is needed is for
the policy makers and employers to know the help is there and where /
how to find that help.


COst of that help is also important,   in terms of salaries if these are
too high it adds to the TOC and people go back to MS due to lack of
support or affordable support,  even though longer termhigher salaries
for Linux admins may negate costs of licenses and other expenses
associated with closed source software,


promoting and keeping groups such as Linux user groups active is perhaps
really important.


paul


On 21/12/16 13:00, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
> Here an interesting news: 
> https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/157872
>
> Let's see if there will be real action connected with it... 
>
> Regards,
> Matthias
>

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Re: Project to stimulate Edu-FLS development

[Paul Sutton]

The raspberry pi has also sold 11 million units,   granted they are not
all being used as devices to teach kids coding as there are also units
being used to control devices,   cameras to capture wildlife photos, 
media (kodi) clients for example,  but that is one big user base.

I think the fact that it has non free hardware blobs,  which is more to
do with Broadcom then the foundation. is a problem generally, 

Perhaps we can add or create activities to teach about the 4 freedoms.

Paul

> I am personally familiar with the DPM EBox-3350MX device, which is i486
> architecture, and a diskless/fanless unit which also runs from an SD card.
> The first version of the project being proposed used this just fine.  The
> only reason that I changed to the Raspberry-Pi is because the 3350MX
> costs $130.
>
> -Charles
>
>
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Re: Project to stimulate Edu-FLS development

[Paul Sutton]

Hi Dr Stallman

Just had a look at this list,  so basically there does not seem to be a
full solution out there that does not require some sort of non free
software to get it working. 

What about mentioning  Arduino in that list, Granted  it is not a single
board computer,  but if people want solutions to a hardware project  and
want it to be as free as possible this could be an option,  of course if
it fits in to being truly free,  then it can be recognized as such.

Paul
> See fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers for information.
>

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Re: A dual license system for code libraries?

[Paul Sutton]

>
> Is it common to assign the copyright to FSF, even when FSF has nothing
> to do with the project? I can see the advantage of unifying the
> copyright, but also administrative burdens on FSF, and potentials for
> abuse.
> ___


Maybe this helps with enforcement when people don't respect the GPL
license which seems to happen,  a letter from the FSF legal department
is backed by their own layers where as if you had to try and enforce it
yourself it could cost a lot of money in legal fees.

Paul
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Re: fossjobs.net FOSS jobs board

[Paul Sutton]

On 22/03/17 16:03, Charles wrote:
> Nice work, any chance you could create another, similar, site to rate
> recruiters?  RateARecruiter.com? 
>

Great work,  I will look in to linking to this from a few websites i am
involved with namly the Devon and Cornwall LUG,   torbay tech jam and my
own personal website.

Rate recruiter.   just a thought  perhaps the rating thing could be
integrated in to the site,   that way others can see at a glance how
good or bad an employer is,  however I can see legal implications here
as sites such as trip advisor have been victims of dodgy reviews or
reviews by people with a grudge.

As an extension perhaps there could be also listings for volunteer
vacancies too,  sometimes a good way to get work experience,   or
companies willing to offer work experience , internships etc.

Just a few ideas,but keep up the good work :)

Paul

> On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 11:01 AM, Moritz Bartl  > wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> My small side project www.fossjobs.net 
> was featured on HackerNews today,
> which brought in a bunch of new nice job postings. I don't think I
> ever
> posted the link here, so why not do it now, with all the fresh
> offers. :-)
>
> In contrast to FSF's job board, listings are free on fossjobs, and the
> site is also Free Software itself. ;-)
>
> -- Moritz
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Re: FSFE General Assembly Fellowship Representative Election

[Paul Sutton]

On 12/04/17 17:04, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> 
> 
> On 12/04/17 16:41, Stefan Umit Uygur wrote:
> 
>> I can be in agreement with most of your comments but strongly disagree
>> with some other comments you made, comments like "Sometimes "extremism"
>> is simply the right solution.". 
>>
> 
> I put the word extremism in double quotes to make it clear I wasn't
> talking about "real" acts of extremism, such as building a wall between
> the US and Mexico.
> 
> 
>> I think you are confusing the common sense with extremism/radicalism, at
>> least this is what I understand by reading examples given by you
>> (hospital, cleaning, bank, etc...).
>>
> 
> If somebody cleaned their home every day to the same standard as a
> hospital, most people would consider it extreme.  But in the context of
> the hospital it would be desirable behavior.

On the other hand  if you cleaned your home in the way a hospital is
cleaned are you not at increased risk of infection, as you're not
exposed to dirt, bacteria which is essential for your body to build up
natural defenses.

Paul
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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

On 21/06/17 11:22, Erik Albers wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Maybe you noted in the Newsletter May [1] a pro and contra between our
> Executive Director and our Fellowship representative:
> 
>   On the FSFE's Planet, we had an interesting dialogue popping up
>   between our executive director Jonas Öberg who argues that sometimes
>   you can use proprietary software to further free and open source
>   software [2] although you should be aware about the risk of
>   backfiring. And Daniel Pocock, our new Fellowship representative,
>   answered with "the risk of proprietary software" [3] and that "no deal
>   might be better than a bad deal", meaning that if you cannot achieve
>   something with Free Software you should consider just doing without
>   it.
> 
> In our European core team we are having a lively discussion now about the pros
> and cons of using proprietary software platforms like Facebook, Meetup,
> Twitter and alike to send out our message of software freedom.
> 

There was a post on Twitter a while back regarding e-safety or privacy,
to which I replied that I used diaspora,  it respects freedom.

I think in some ways we sometimes have to embrace services that don't
quite meet our standards in order to get a message across there are
'other' services out there.

I think in the US electorial details were stored on amazon cloud,  there
has been a leak so anyone who has a link can access the personal details
on over 200 million people in the US electorate,

I think replying to comments on social media with the 'There is no
cloud,  just other peoples computer'  sends a message to make people
think that this cloud storage belongs to others,  and privacy is at the
mercy of others,  where as setting up Own/next cloud puts _you_ in
control of your own information,  maybe makes people think how their
data is stored.

I think replying to incidents and related discussions with suggestions
there is 'shock horror' more to life and the internet than IE/Edge,
Facebook, twitter is a good thing, we are not ramming it down peoples
throats buit being subtle and subliminal in the way we respond.

Paul
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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

Sorry my reply to this went to Theo rather than the list  so resending,

Paul

On 23/06/17 09:10, Theo Schmidt wrote:

> Am 21.06.2017 um 12:22 schrieb Erik Albers:
> ...
>> Now I would be interested what you think? Do you think that - although the 
>> use
>> of proprietary platforms is ethically not supportable - the chances of
>> convincing new people to use and further Free Software are worth the 
>> punishment?
>> Or do you think that our message should not occur on platforms like Facebook
>> or Twitter at all, because it contradicts our efforts in getting people to 
>> use
>> decentralized services, run with Free Software and therefore potentially harm
>> us in the long run?
> Thanks for the discussion. My vote is to not use proprietary platforms
> like Facebook or Twitter at all.
>
> Theo Schmidt
>
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What information packs are available to help promote decentralized
social networks.   Here in Torbay there is a drive to tackle social
isolation,   and well-being one way to do this is to de mystify the
Internet to older people.

Now mostly this is going to involve people being told about facebook /
twitter, this is inevitable but I have a chance here to promote
alternatives such as diaspora / gnusocial. The problem is the same
arrangement people sign up to fb because their family are on it,   

The FSFE do several flyers on gpg and free software so some to explain
decentralization generally would be good plus a getting started guide
for each,however we cannot expect people to set up their own
servers, We still need to address the situation where people don't
know anyone on these networks,  but in a class of 5-10 people it is
possible to say well sign up and add each other.   

>From what I understand one big issue with decentralization is explaining
how to sign up,  to sign up to fb you go to www.facebook.con,  to sign
up to decentralized networks you go to one of any number of places,  and
sign up, this in the case of joindiaspora.com has put huge pressure on
the server.

Back to the original question,  there is a difference,   between using
and having a presence on facebook,   a simple fb page,  with an
explanation as to who we are l  and a link to the website may be all
that is needed.Same for twitter,   perhaps the occasional posting
keeps the page active. 

Paul

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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

On 23/06/17 09:47, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>
> On 23/06/17 10:19, Jonas Oberg wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>>> I'd like to see what plan is in place to collect data
>>> about the effort being spent and the outcomes achieved (e.g. what
>>> metrics will be monitored and why they are good metrics).
>> I agree. We have suggestions for a group of the members to look more into 
>> what metrics we use for our activities generally, to which Daniel has 
>> contributed graciously. There hasn't been anyone taking this to up to lead 
>> the effort yet, but some of the metrics have a clear impact on our 
>> operations and it's sound judgement to spend our time and effort in 
>> activities which maximise impact.
>>
>> We'll be looking at this more, and I won't speculate in the outcomes but of 
>> course, if we see we get a great impact in favor of free software if using 
>> Facebook or other tools compare to other equal investments, we will engage 
>> more on Facebook.
>
> All the viral things that actually get noticed on social media became
> popular because of the effort that went into producing them or some
> other significant feature long before they hit social media.
>
> For example, a natural disaster doesn't need to post itself on facebook.
>
> In FSFE's case, if the policy or campaign work being done is
> extraordinary in some way, other people will inevitably share it without
> any staff or volunteer time spent on those platforms.
>
> If people concentrate on doing work that a random person on the street
> would spontaneously want to share, then they can be confident that is
> something that other random people would want to re-tweet or share as
> well, making it viral.
>
> Regards,
>
> Daniel


At an event i attended in June,  i got involved with a IT help
session,   people seemed interested and responsive to the idea there are
alternatives to windows etc,   there is another event on 30th September,
(aimed at older people) which I am at,   I am also at an event in
September (festival of learning, community generally) so these are a
really good opportunity to talk about alternatives and give people
flyers,   but what ever happens,  this needs to be backed up by a solid
support network we have a lug but we need people who can help and answer
questions when there are issues.

Paul
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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

On 26/07/17 10:42, Max Mehl wrote:
> # Jonas Oberg [2017-07-26 11:27 +0200]:
>>> Good point but not easy to answer. All services can be viewed with a
>>> Free Software browser but e.g. Facebook tries to convince you of
>>> downloading the non-free Messenger app (you cannot even write FB
>>> messages on your mobile browser anymore IIRC). LibreJS may also warn
>>> its
>>> users with most of these services' sites. Is this already Free Software
>>> unfriendly?
>>
>> If there's a way to connect to the service with Free Software and it
>> gives
>> you access to the features the service offers, then that's fine for
>> me, as
>> long as it's not overly burdensome to do so. I know, it's not a black
>> and
>> white :-)
>
> You convinced me :)
>
> So in this case, the sentence under the social sharing buttons would be:
>
>  Some services harm your privacy. [Learn more].
>
> Anything to add? If not, I'd make the change soon.
>
> Best,
> Max
>
If a service is harming my privacy,   but also restricting me by forcing
the use of a  specific piece of software (which is non free) surely that
is also harming my freedom of choice,  so perhaps

Some services harm your privacy. [Learn more] and in some cases also
harm freedom [learn more]

You cover 2 areas there,  

Paul

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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

Just decided to post this,  as it is sort of related to this thread. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40729737

It seems Google are going to start allowing auto play advertising,

This raises  a point on how do we counter the big players in the system.
or how we use them.   We could just say don't use google or we could
highlight that this may start to happen,   and then suggest
alternatives.   I have just created a blog post to highlight how
annoying this is,  using an example of having my own music choices
drowned out by advertising.and made a suggesion at the end that
people switch to duckduckgo  as an example for search.

So going back to the thread topic.

if we had a presence on say twitter / facebook  et al we could make a
point on sharing articles such as this but also share a link to
duckduckgo.  That way people who read the article and think 'what choice
do I have',  get a possible answer at the same time.   

Just a thought.

Paul
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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

On 28/07/17 10:26, Nikos Roussos wrote:
> On 07/28/2017 10:07 AM, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>>
>> On 27/07/17 14:05, Nikos Roussos wrote:
>>>
 I remain concerned about defining the reason we want or need these
 followers and then measuring whether that objective is being met.

 To give another example: Greece's government successfully mobilized
 enough of their citizens to vote against a bailout in a referendum[1],
 but then the result of the referendum was simply ignored.  Getting 1000
 people in a room or 3,558,450 in a ballot box is potentially a lot of
 wasted effort if nothing actually changes.
>>> That's actually a good example. Since I live in Greece let me emphasize 
>>> something. Yes, in theory the referendum didn't change anything. But for 
>>> most of the people who participated (regardless what they voted), this was 
>>> their first time they got politically active. They engaged in political 
>>> discussions, participated in rallies, challenged mainstream media 
>>> propaganda, etc. And most of them continue to be active. So, regardless of 
>>> what the government did, everything changed.
>>>
>> It is worth looking at impact on people's lives, three things come to mind:
>>
>> 1. Youth unemployment - down a little bit, but still obscenely high:
>>
>> https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/youth-unemployment-rate
>>
>> 2. Using the Euro: Greece is still using EUR (no change)
>>
>> 3. Long term solution to debt problem (e.g. redistribution of taxes
>> between Eurozone countries or debt write-off): No, no change
>>
>> Those are the things that matter and the mobilization of 3.5 million
>> people to successfully vote against a bailout hasn't fixed any of those
>> things.
> These are not the only things that impact people's live though. Despite
> the above facts, people are fighting to improve their lives more
> actively than before. For instance, solidarity networks are many more
> and much more active these days. Even for things that are not directly
> related with the country's crisis (eg. refugees free shelter & food
> squats). This is a direct effect of people being more active and
> politically engaged. Trying to measure change by debt relief policies
> you actually miss the actual change that is taking place.
>
>> In free software advocacy, what are the outcomes we should really be
>> measuring?
> That's a good question. But same as above, small victories matter. If
> you are measuring change by only looking at the immediate outcome (eg.
> how many of our followers switched to free software) or only at highest
> institutional levels (eg. has the EC software policy changed over the
> past years), then you are missing most of the impact that our message
> may have. Does a FOI request changes that same decision or policy?
> Probably not. It has already happened. But it still has impact for
> people to know the answer, in a way that you can't easily measure.
>
> ~nikos
>
I agree,  I read the other day that the EU are looking in to the
legality of employers using facebook to research potential job
applicants,   it seems their ruling could be against the practice, 
which is a good thing as employers should be making judgments based on
information in the application pack.

what happens if you don't use facebook,   they can't look you up they
then make assumptions usually against the applicant.

If we are promoting alternatives to mainstream social media then EU
rulings such as this will benefit  those of us who are not on fb,  as
employers won;'t be able to assume we have something to hide for not
being on these networks.

Paul

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Re: Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Paul Sutton]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA256



On 01/09/17 08:20, Stephane Ascoet wrote:
> Le 23/07/2017 à 12:02, Theo Schmidt a écrit : >> >> There is a fundamental 
> difference between proprietary platforms
with >> their own proprietary protocols used quasi-publicly (like
Facebook) and >> proprietary platforms usable with public (FOSS)
protocols, like Gmail, >> and Email or "WWW", etc. in general. As a
non-Gmail-user, I can still >> read from and write to a Gmail account.
As a non-Facebook-user, I can >> read some Facebook content, but not
write to it. This leads to >> discrimination when quasi-public
organisations use Facebook. E.g. Swiss >> television and radio (a
so-called public service) no longer uses open >> email addresses or even
specific web-forms > > Hi, yes you're absolutely right and in france
this is more and more a problem and will continue to, especially with
our new president. And I add to this the need to have a computer-phone
for more and more things too, while public services are closing:
Documentations printed on paper(transport schedules...), phone booths,
human desks in postal service, transport services, etc. > > Living in
this world become more and more difficult, I don't how and how long I
will succeed in survive in it.
Indeed some services are nearly all Facebook   so unless you're on
facebook you can't access those services so it seems they are forcing
people to use Facebook,  so everyone is then assimilated to that system.

There is an assumption you are on Facebook or want to use / be on
Facebook,   i am not to sure what is worse out of those two.

What would happen if we signed up to Facebook using say a protonmail
account and bound a diaspora account to it,  that way you can write to
Facebook without directly logging in,  with a very minimal profile it
becomes much harder to figure out who you really are,

we could have a sort of reverse more information thing where people have
fb.me which is a short cut to a facebook article we could have one that
points to diaspora for more information,

I am looking at putting together a series of tutorials or documents that
cover basic computer usage,   hopefully in line with the UK functional
skills syllabus.  Using free software rather than MS office (use
libreoffivce),  I think it is also feasible to get people to do the
codecademy SQL course, for the database section,   codecademy also has
other learning materials (HTML/CSS etc),  for other aspects of the course,.

Granted this kind of goes back to free vs proprietary  systems,  but
there is also a question of re-inventing the wheel,   why reproduce
online learning people,  we could direct people to kahn academy and edx too.

I think what would be important is to emphasize the fact that the
vocabulary is the same, regardless of what you use,  so bold is the same
in html   or latex /texfbf{bold text}  or using office software
or even markdown.

Paul




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Re: Is lack of software freedom a valid reason for refusal?

[Paul Sutton]

On 22/09/17 21:24, Jonas Oberg wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>> So the unemployment office would eventually resort to
>> offering you one of those
> 
> I think it's important to differentiate between on the one hand the ethical 
> question, and on the other hand the practical question of how unemployment 
> benefits would vary.
> 
> The latter would be different between countries, and individuals (some may 
> have additional unemployment benefits privately, through their unions or 
> similar).
> 
> So I'm not sure how useful it is to compare :-)
> Jonas Öberg
> Free Software Foundation Europe | jo...@fsfe.org
> Your support enables our work (fsfe.org/join)


I think one of the points that is made here,  is that change comes from
within,  sure you can apply for a job where the company is using
non-free software.  Once in you can suggest change and ideas.  A new
tool chain or how they can benefit from releasing software under a gpl
or similar license, but still make money from support and with help from
the fsfe cite some good examples of who has made a success from doing that.

It could be that the reason there is no Linux version is that there is
no one to help develop it,  which you could end up as project lead.

Paul


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Re: Talos II (FSF RYF candidate)

[Paul Sutton]

Would any of the boosts in sales be also attributed to the current intel
security issues, spectre, meltdown and more recent problems that affect
intel architecture.   I would assume that power9 does not suffer from
similar problems,  (not that we should be complacent) so this combined
with freedom and open hardware is welcome.

Paul

On 14/09/18 22:36, Timothy Pearson wrote:
> On 09/14/2018 04:02 PM, Paul Boddie wrote:
>> On Tuesday 12. September 2017 16.07.12 Timothy Pearson wrote:
>>> Just wanted to pass this along from the FSF on this side of the pond in
>>> case you haven't seen it yet:
>>>
>>> https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/support-the-talos-ii-a-candidate-for-respects-your-freedom-certification-by-pre-ordering-by-september-15
> 
>> One year later and it looks like this is available to purchase:
> 
>> https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/
> 
>> Is that correct and why didn't you keep us posted? ;-) Have you had much 
>> interest from the Free Software community?
> 
>> Paul
> 
> Yes, it's true! :-)  We've been selling these machines for the better
> part of a year now, and so far the reception has been quite positive.
> 
> We'll have some of our hardware available on display / for live demo at
> the OpenPOWER Summit in Amsterdam [1] if anyone is interested in trying
> one out live...
> 
> [1] https://openpowerfoundation.org/summit-2018-10-eu/
> 
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Re: Fwd: Your confirmation is required to leave the Discussion mailing list

[Paul Sutton]

On 02/05/2019 11:31, Michael Kesper wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> it gets ever "funnier". Now I received this confirmation for removal of this 
> list.
> (I redacted the hash, obviously)
> I suspect it gets created if you click on Daniel's unsubscribe link.
> The IP address is not mine.
> 
> Michael

Hopefully it can get resolved,  while the fsfe didn't pass on this info
in some cases the senders e-mail is within one of the e-mail header
fields, (sorry don't know the terminology) sufficient to say if I just
hit reply as opposed to reply list i reply to a single person.

However this feature _is_ useful, if someone posted something like a
request and then someone said send me a e-mail off list to discuss
further then we are able to do this easily,

I am not blaming the fsfe here.

I think we need to examine the law (GDPR) here if someone request
removal this should be a painless process,  as some times this is done
to simply change e-mail addresses.   It appears with the .eu it is
totally the opposite and we have enough 'victims' to take action.

It may be worth looking at the subscriber list here as looking at some
of the from, to, cc, reply to headers I am getting on Thunderbird
e-mails seem to be going all over the place.

Keep up the good work with the fsfe, it would be great to be able to get
back on track with our work, rather than having to deal with this sort
of thing.

Paul
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removal from mail list

[Paul Sutton]

Hi

Just sent a message to the fellowship.eu list, with unsubscribe in the
subject header,  I received a reply saying it has been held as the
message may have admin commands.

This is what _should_ happen, if this works I will reply here so others
can do the same.

Paul
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Re: removal from mail list

[Paul Sutton]

On 02/05/2019 12:48, Thomas Doczkal wrote:
> On May 2, 2019 11:38:22 AM UTC, Paul Sutton  wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> Just sent a message to the fellowship.eu list, with unsubscribe in the
>> subject header,  I received a reply saying it has been held as the
>> message may have admin commands.
>>
>> This is what _should_ happen, if this works I will reply here so others
>> can do the same.
>>
>> Paul
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>> https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
> 
> To unsubscribe by mail send one with unsubscribe to  
> discussion-requ...@lists.fsfe.org or follow  the link in the. mail header 
> mailto:discussion-requ...@lists.fsfe.org?subject=unsubscribe
> 
> The list address discussion@ is wrong! 
> 


In that case I am now even more confused, sorry.  I just want to be
subscribed to the fsfe discussion list,  ideally to discuss issues
around free software and related.

Paul
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Re: List of email addresses

[Paul Sutton]

On 02/05/2019 12:17, Johannes Zarl-Zierl wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Considering the CoC, I'm refraining myself from talking too much about a 
> certain individual.
> 
> As there seems to be some confusion as to how Daniel Pocock was able to 
> access 
> the subscriber emails of this list:
> 
> The list is visible to all subscribers here:
> https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/roster/discussion
> 
> Having list membership visible to all subscribers is common practice, and 
> virtually all public mailing list are configured to show this information on 
> request. After all, the mailing list archive is also available, and by 
> scraping the mailing list archive one would be able to gather a similar list…
> 
> However, I'm pretty sure that using this information in the way that Mr. 
> Pocock did is very much not allowed under EU law. Maybe it's time to let the 
> legal team handle this transgression and evaluate FSFE's legal options?
> 
> Cheers,
>   Johannes

Just to clarify as a subscriber to this list (lists.fsfe.org) I have no
objection to the subscriber list or the archive.

I would like to add that I agree the legal team need to handle this.

Having the fellowship.eu e-mail mixed in with what I see as the official
list at lists.fsfe.org, It is very confusing.  As mentioned before some
of the e-mails i am getting seem to have cc, to, from, reply to,  I have
never seen this in _any other_ e-mail list.

Paul
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Re: [Attention] Re: removal from mail list

[Paul Sutton]

On 02/05/2019 13:09, Erik Albers wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> if you like to be unsubscribed from the list created by Daniel Pocock follow
> this update:
> 
> On 02.05.19 13:57, Thomas Doczkal wrote:
>> Damit. Of course the right header info to unsubscribe is:
>>
>> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.fsfellowship.eu/mailman/options/discussion>, 
>> <mailto:discussion-requ...@lists.fsfellowship.eu?subject=unsubscribe>
> 
> 
> Best,
>Erik
> 

Thanks for that Erik, it has worked.

Paul

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Re: Fridays for Free Software ;)

[Paul Sutton]

On 03/05/2019 07:59, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:
> Hello Friends of Free Software,
> 
> as you may have heard a number of children refuse going to school on each 
> Friday to make people aware that the world has to act swiftly if we want to 
> protect our stable world climate.
> 
> Free Software can help to protect the climate and the environment,
> because it helps to run hardware longer.
> 
> 
> == Hardware production worst for the environment
> 
> Looking at the life cycle of hardware, the production phase
> contributes most to the environmental ballast. A lot of greenhouse
> gas emmission [1]. And use of rare earth materials, which cannot be recycled.
> 
> => using hardware longer is environmentally friendly, even if new hardware
>is more energy efficient
> 
> 
> == Free Software allows to run hardware longer
> 
> Use of Free Software can extend the life of hardware significantly.
> At least one third more life time in the average.
> There are some old examples of studies in [2], subsection 4,
> but also throughout the whole text. We probably find more if we search.
> It makes sense and in many aspects. Just think about LineageOS-MicroG
> giving old Smartphones a security patched operating system again.
> 
> => Use of Free Software helps the climate.
> 
> 
> == A series of stories about Free Software on Fridays?
> 
> This is not just a discussion list, this is also our list to tell nice 
> stories 
> about Free Software, connecting dots and restate to each other in new and fun 
> ways why we all are here. Maybe we can make it a tradition: Tell one 
> interesting thing that others may not have thought of, or have forgotten 
> about why Free Software should be used more often.
> 
> Best,
> Bernhard
> 
> [1]
> https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/timely-replacement-of-a-notebook-under
> Autors: Siddharth Prakash, Ran Liu, Karsten Schischke, Dr. Lutz Stobbe
> September 2012
> 
> [2]
> https://dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#tco
> Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)?
> Look at the Numbers!
> David A. Wheeler
> Revised as of July 18, 2015
> 
> 
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Free software also runs on a wider range of hardware, including arm
which is very low powered,  so while one may have a old power hogging
x86 type computer when that reaches end of life, you can switch to other
platforms running arm.

This is important, as to switch, people don't want to end their work
flow, you can go from Windows on x86 to Debian then to ARM, and still
use software such as Libreoffice.

Of course old computers can also be stripped for parts (e,g RAM which
can then be used to upgrade other old computers)

For really old computers operating systems such as ToriOS (torios.top)
have both PAE and Non PAE hardware support, so add life to those
computers too.


Paul

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Re: The "rival" discussion mailing list

[Paul Sutton]

On 03/05/2019 10:46, Reinhard Müller wrote:
> Hi, Paul!
> 
> Am 02.05.19 um 21:45 schrieb Paul Boddie:
>> It would obviously have been far more appropriate for Daniel to merely 
>> advertise that another discussion venue has been set up and for him to 
>> invite 
>> those who are interested to sign up for themselves. As far as I know, no 
>> such 
>> invitation message has been propagated by this mailing list, but I do wonder 
>> whether it might have been propagated had it been received.
> 
> From my experience with this mailing list (and others hosted by FSFE), I
> would absolutely have expected such an invitation to have been approved
> by the list moderators. I see that in the past, two kinds of messages
> have been rejected:
> 
> * Messages that contain offensive language, and
> * Messages that violate the privacy of others (e.g. forwarding priate
> emails).
> 
>> I would also encourage the FSFE leadership to use venues like this list to 
>> more fully engage with the community, even when this involves encountering 
>> dissent.

I agree with this.  if even small initiatives have the backing of people
like the FSFE then that is a good thing.

Paul
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free software promotion and local status

[Paul Sutton]

In response to the thead
Fridays for Free Software ;)

I am going to try and share a few thoughts from my own experiences.

I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are
working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.

They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the
Internet, use e-mail, social media etc,  and this is set by people above
them and funded by government.

The issue is that they teach proprietary  software,  but at the same
time business is using this.  There is little traction to move from
that, and little incentive to move from that,  despite the skills
shortage for Linux admins for example.

These courses are pushing people towards Microsoft, and Facebook (which
I refuse to use Facebook on privacy and ethical grounds)

There is however the learning machine who offer ingots (ITQ) using free
and open source software, but unless the trainers are taught to use this

The problem, here and on user groups, is people don't exactly need
training in say Libreoffice so don't ask for it, new users wanting to
learn may not ask or if they do they get told MS Office is standard, we
don't offer Libreoffice courses.

I am not sure what the solution is here.

Paul
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Re: Unsubscription amusement

[Paul Sutton]

On 06/05/2019 00:00, Paul Boddie wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I see that some people are still having fun with the Mailman interface trying 
> to unsubscribe people from this list, specifically 91.64.208.89 or 
> ip5b40d059.dynamic.kabel-deutschland.de as they are also known.
> 
> Perhaps some actual, reasoned discussion about the challenges raised by 
> recent 
> events related to the FSFE might be preferable to rather clumsy attempts to 
> play with people's mailing list subscriptions.
> 
> Paul
I think it is trying to do that to me,  I have already removed myself
from the unofficial fellowship list. Now I am getting unauthorized
attempts to remove me from the fsfe.org list

What exactly is going on here please. This is reflecting very very badly
on the fsfe in general.

Paul
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Re: free software promotion and local status

[Paul Sutton]

Hi

On of the digital skills sites is https://www.learnmyway.com/ I think th
e issue with these digital unite et al is lack of volunteers who are the
digital champions with these skills to share them.

It needs education on open standards,  but the argument is that everyone
uses MS word, and closed software as it seen as 'standard'.  Sites
suchas learnmyway also cover how to use facebook,  and make no mentionof
privacy aware social media.

While we can make an argument to them for using open standards, we can
perhaps spend our time teaching via the Internet,

Within the free software community there is some 'mentoring' such as
within Debian, I have requested this as I need to learn packaging.

I also feel that here is also an emphasis, in our communities, on self
learning, self research, having a go rather than simply asking (or in
some cases demanding help).  An expectation to search before asking.

If we perhaps offered something similar to debian-mentoring but for
general free software, sign post people to similar help and within that
discussion promote people like the learning machine, and once we have
'educated' our way, with the passion we have for this,  as this has to
come from the heart, and not from the fact you are being paid to do it.

End goal would perhaps be to teach people how to contribute in an
effective way

All this can be done via e-mail, and may have the effect of producing
people who then go to digitial unite , learn my way to either be digital
champions with free software skills or ask for more help in these skills
which will create the demand that way.

I need help with packaging, using tools like git, github,
salsa.debian.org properly,  local providers are not going to do this,
until there is a demand.

What is also needed is recognition that these skills are useful, we in
the community don't need a qualification to prove our skills, we learn
and help each other and recognize each others skills.

Just a thought, I can try and convince people to offer training in libre
office but one person won't make any difference.

Paul

On 06/05/2019 09:04, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:


> Hi Paul,
> thanks for sharing your experiences!
> 
> Helping others to understand Free Software is an ongoing task
> and it needs wit and patience. :)
> 
> Am Freitag 03 Mai 2019 13:01:52 schrieb Paul Sutton:
>> I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are
>> working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.
> 
> That is https://www.digitalunite.com/ I guess.
> 
>> They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the
>> Internet, use e-mail, social media etc,  and this is set by people above
>> them and funded by government.
> 
> One of the next step can be to find out who has an influence
> about what is taught and then start reasoning with them.
> (There is quite a bit of evidence that teaching skill with and for Free 
> Software products is better. Maybe some of this can be used to argu the 
> point.)
> 
> Best Regards,
> Bernhard
> 
> 
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Re: free software promotion and local status

[Paul Sutton]

Further to this,  I think this morning (6/5/2019) on BBC breakfast there
was an article with regard to a company, in Sheffield, UK who were so
fed up with the lack of skills they are setting up their own training
academy so they can develop the skills they need.

In light of this,  would it be worth setting up something like
fsfe-education, so that we can discuss, co-ordinate with other free
software projects, Debian, Mint, document foundation, apache, gitlab,
learning machine (ok they are a training provider), LPI, RedHat etc and
many others and see if we can find a way to help people develop the
skills that industry really want and value.

Perhaps also working with employers,  and initiatives such as google
summer of code, outreachy, (to promote to hard to reach and
under-represented groups) and others they can help provide paid
internships,   where as,  as projects we can give people a good
grounding in how to contribute to development, be it writing, testing,
reporting issues, documenting software.  There is now Google Season of
Documentation to do the latter.

What we also need to do is stand up for these skills,  If I can type a
report does it matter if I use, libreoffice, or LaTeX,  and others use
Docx (other that the latter being at the mercy of Microsoft in 5, 10 or
15 years time) Surely the content and how it is written is important.

Perhaps, if we go it alone, we as a community write free software as a
collaborative effort, If we encourage people to contribute to free
software it should be something you can put on your CV / Resume and have
it count for something.

I am already on IRC for Debian and the Debian-users list so part of my
contribution could be to just carry on as I am doing,  helping people,
answering questions etc.

I am dis-illusioned with part of Adult education not really providing
the same opportunities as those offered to other age groups,  in the UK
there seems to be help for young people up to 25,  help for over 50's
but nothing for very very little for those in between, who maybe those
leaving the forces, career changers, people returning after having had
children and many others.

What we do needs to be open to ALL ages,  do that and we become
properly inclusive and leave others behind.

Just a thought,

Paul

On 06/05/2019 13:41, Paul Sutton wrote:
> Hi
> 
> On of the digital skills sites is https://www.learnmyway.com/ I think th
> e issue with these digital unite et al is lack of volunteers who are the
> digital champions with these skills to share them.
> 
> It needs education on open standards,  but the argument is that everyone
> uses MS word, and closed software as it seen as 'standard'.  Sites
> suchas learnmyway also cover how to use facebook,  and make no mentionof
> privacy aware social media.
> 
> While we can make an argument to them for using open standards, we can
> perhaps spend our time teaching via the Internet,
> 
> Within the free software community there is some 'mentoring' such as
> within Debian, I have requested this as I need to learn packaging.
> 
> I also feel that here is also an emphasis, in our communities, on self
> learning, self research, having a go rather than simply asking (or in
> some cases demanding help).  An expectation to search before asking.
> 
> If we perhaps offered something similar to debian-mentoring but for
> general free software, sign post people to similar help and within that
> discussion promote people like the learning machine, and once we have
> 'educated' our way, with the passion we have for this,  as this has to
> come from the heart, and not from the fact you are being paid to do it.
> 
> End goal would perhaps be to teach people how to contribute in an
> effective way
> 
> All this can be done via e-mail, and may have the effect of producing
> people who then go to digitial unite , learn my way to either be digital
> champions with free software skills or ask for more help in these skills
> which will create the demand that way.
> 
> I need help with packaging, using tools like git, github,
> salsa.debian.org properly,  local providers are not going to do this,
> until there is a demand.
> 
> What is also needed is recognition that these skills are useful, we in
> the community don't need a qualification to prove our skills, we learn
> and help each other and recognize each others skills.
> 
> Just a thought, I can try and convince people to offer training in libre
> office but one person won't make any difference.
> 
> Paul
> 
> On 06/05/2019 09:04, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:
> 
> 
>> Hi Paul,
>> thanks for sharing your experiences!
>>
>> Helping others to understand Free Software is an ongoing task
>> and it needs wit and patience. :)
>>
>> Am Freitag 03 Mai 2019 13:01:52 sc

Euro Elections and fsfe

[Paul Sutton]

Hi

Hopefully this is not seen as off topic.  Now the Euro Elections are
over and I am guessing within the next couple of days we should be
getting information on how we can contact our respective representatives

https://www.european-elections.eu/

I think it is a great opportunity to get in touch and help push what we
would like from them.

Perhaps we can gather a few ideas here, links etc, get sometemplates for
e-mails so we can get in touch and hopefully put on a united front.

It seems the UK voted quite substantially in favour of the Euro
copyright directive, however these MEPs are now out. The Brexit Party
MEPs are in, so perhaps we can, over the next few months,  start to ask
them to help make a difference, as they are against the EU laws, however
there may be one or two laws that would work in our favour.  lets push
Public Money , Public code.

These MEPs are in for 5 years,  However I am guessing If the UK should
hold and vote in yet another referendum there is a chance the previous
referendum result will be reversed, this won't stop the Brexit MEPs
staying for their full term. So 5 years of euro sceptic MEPs something
that we can surely take advantage of.


Just a thought

Paul Sutton
-- 
Paul Sutton
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/zleap/
Twitter : @zleap2018
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Re: Euro Elections and fsfe

[Paul Sutton]

On 28/05/2019 06:47, Vitaly Repin wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> "So 5 years of euro sceptic MEPs something that we can surely take
> advantage of".
> 
> I believe you propose a strong political association with euro "sceptics".
> May be stronger than non-political organisation such FSFE can and should
> have.
> 
> I am also afraid that it can be a dangerous signal towards FSFE supporters.
> E.g., I am not ready to support eurosceptics movement to the least possible
> degree.
> I strongly support EU and absolutely sure that it shall be improved, not
> destroyed.
> 
> If FSFE takes a stand in this political debate (what to do with EU?), it
> will introduce turmoil to the FSFE itself as FSFE members have different
> opinion on this matter.
> 
> Den mån 27 maj 2019 kl 23:46 skrev Paul Sutton :
> 
>> Hi
>>
>> Hopefully this is not seen as off topic.  Now the Euro Elections are
>> over and I am guessing within the next couple of days we should be
>> getting information on how we can contact our respective representatives
>>
>> https://www.european-elections.eu/
>>
>> I think it is a great opportunity to get in touch and help push what we
>> would like from them.
>>
>> Perhaps we can gather a few ideas here, links etc, get sometemplates for
>> e-mails so we can get in touch and hopefully put on a united front.
>>
>> It seems the UK voted quite substantially in favour of the Euro
>> copyright directive, however these MEPs are now out. The Brexit Party
>> MEPs are in, so perhaps we can, over the next few months,  start to ask
>> them to help make a difference, as they are against the EU laws, however
>> there may be one or two laws that would work in our favour.  lets push
>> Public Money , Public code.
>>
>> These MEPs are in for 5 years,  However I am guessing If the UK should
>> hold and vote in yet another referendum there is a chance the previous
>> referendum result will be reversed, this won't stop the Brexit MEPs
>> staying for their full term. So 5 years of euro sceptic MEPs something
>> that we can surely take advantage of.
>>
>>
>> Just a thought
>>
>> Paul Sutton
>> --

Ok take the EU copyright directive as an organization the FSFE seemed to
be pretty much against this, and we were asked to contact our MEPs to
this effect.

Now that the UK has more Brexit party MEPs perhaps they will be more
supportive of our concerns about this and other bill, and they can
perhaps help to get the changes that we want to amend to these bills
(this sort of worked as there were concessions for free software IIRC).

So What should we ask our new MEPs for?.

First thing should we perhaps contact them about PMPC, raise awareness
of PMPC for example.

Paul
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Re: [nomination]for Fellowship Council renewal and activism

[Paul Sutton]

On 16/09/2019 18:24, Christian Imhorst wrote:
> Hi Florian,
> 
> sorry for my late reply.
> 
> Am 28.05.19 um 07:26 schrieb Florian Snow:
>> Christian Imhorst  writes:
>>> We need more diversity in the Free Software movement, because it means
>>> respecting people as they are, without prejudice. Diversity brings
>>> solutions to complex problems of the present and the future we can not
>>> handle with solutions from the past. This requires people who see the
>>> world with different eyes. People have to be able to contribute to the
>>> Free Software movement with their whole personality as they are.
>>
>> I completely agree!  We are actively taking steps to make our staff and
>> teams more diverse.  It is by no means an easy task because the pool of
>> active contributors that we usually draw from for our teams, is not very
>> diverse.  If you have any ideas in this regard or just generally want to
>> help, please let me know.
> 
> If you want more diversity, the first question must be: Why doesn't it
> work? The answer, that there are simply no woman, for example, just
> white cis man is imho something made easy.
> 
> As I wrote on Mastodon: We need diversity in the FSFE to move forward
> our work on Free Software and freedom. Diversity is an indicator of and
> is indispensable for freedom. But how can we achieve that? We have to
> remove any and all barriers for speakers and activists to share their
> expertise and knowledge with the community. That means encouragement,
> financial support, childcare offers, a culture of being welcome. We have
> to bring voices not normally heard to our community. We need more
> mentors and supporters, not heroes.
> 
> Our goals at the FSFE is inclusion not separation. And this is a really
> important thing for me and fundamental for my support. And I hope that
> we'll not stop at what we've achieved and that we will continue and
> become better -- and I know we will.
> 
> These are my ideas in this regard and generally I want to help. :-)
> 
> Best,
> Christian
> 

There are programmes such as Outreachy which is designed to try and
address this in terms of offering paid internships to under represented
groups.

I am in Torbay, tried to promote this, and I get no engagement.  The one
diversity group in Torbay, the leader has e-mail but never seems to
reply,  I don't think a lot of the adults are that computer literate,
while children and young people are,  so it makes it very hard to reach
them via those who are not very computer literate.

Granted a lot of people just use facebook, which apparently many young
people don't use as it is for 'old people' or that is the impression I
get. I have heard that mastodon is quite popular with young people but I
have no data to back that up.

Perhaps we should try some of the aid agencies which work with children
in say Africa to provide education to girls,  I think one of the
agencies that sponsors girls advertises on UK tv.

Another thing is what skills do we need from people?,  it is all very
well saying we need help but help people to help us.  So:

If we need say ruby developers where can I go to learn these skills,
codecademy spring to mind, which is great for step by step learning,
sites such as repl.it allow people to experiment and share their own
code, so perhaps we could do that, as in come up with a sort of
programme / framework of learning / support via existing platforms,  to
help them get to where we need them to contribute.

if we also set this up so there is a specific start date and some sort
of low entry criteria,  then we should be able to take someone and
perhaps give them some useful skills,  once completed and they start to
contribute, we should endorse people on LinkedIn etc for those skills.

I am typing this from my own viewpoint in that I have some skills but
don't know how to take those to the next level.   There are lots of
initiatives to help people learn the very basics of IT and computers but
then very little in the way of a pathway beyond that, unless you sign up
to a local brick college or like me know about the online courses that
are available via Open University, edx, codecademy and many many others.

I think the learning machine has created resources for teaching the
basic ITQ qualification but with open tools such as libreoffice and
encourages the use of free software and even contributions to this.

Just a thought


Paul Sutton

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Targeting women and girls for free software

[Paul Sutton]

Hi

Not sure if this helps, but this may be useful:

http://www.educatinggirlsmatters.org/howtohelp.html

in terms of who we could try and work with to promote free software and
development skills to.   These charities are set up, I assume to create
really good outcomes for people,  well if we can help develop skills and
also in doing so, and in contributing provide meaningful experience,
then that would help achieve the aims of these charities.

Paul

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Internation day against DRM

[Paul Sutton]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi All

Just thought I would post this as Saturday is international day
against DRM

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/join-us-in-boston-to-fight-drm-and-g
et-crafty-october-9-12

I have included a link to both this and the page on the FSFE website
to promote what this is all about, as in anti DRM campaigns

Paul
- -- 
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