--- /dev/null
+Free Software/Utopia
+
+Free software will not win by "merely" replacing proprietary software. We need to lead with a vision of how the world could be. A voluntary community, one where people participate by choice, does not have to replicate the power structures, gate-keeping or casual cruelty of the systems it seeks to replace. We could make free software the most empowering place to build software. Free software tools could enable new ways of crafting user experiences that proprietary software providers seem unwilling to offer. Free software could tranform the relationship between users and developers, so that users feel like partners instead of sales metrics. Free software communities should be seeking to outdo proprietary software's methods and social norms in every possible way.
+
+We've made a great start by empowering many technical and semi-technical users, but we can't stop there. (What kind of utopia only has coders in it?) Let's build a kinder and more practical free software movement to empower all kinds of people!
+
+
+Sections: The people we're building it for, the people we're building it with, and the people who aren't here ...yet
+
+
+Intro:
+Merely replacing proprietary software is already hard!
+I know! Recruiting people to write code and documentation
+or design interfaces and make websites takes time.
+Connecting with users and dealing with bugs can feel
+like a Sysiphean task.
+
+We have to be strategic. But we also can't cut corners.
+We can't lose track of our goal; to build a better world.
+One that empowers people.
+One that respects people.
+One that treats everyone like a human being that deserves
+control over their exeriences.
+
+That means we need to be better at some things.
+We have to be radically welcoming.
+We have to go out of way to make being in free software communities
+a delight. A fuflfilling egalitarian delight.
+
+WHAT IS UTOPIA
+It might help us to think about what a utopia is
+First of all everyone's Utopia is different,
+but some common themes for Utopias include:
+
+Justice and fairness
+- power structures are transparent
+- the rules apply equally to all type of people
+
+People feel empowered and fulfilled
+- Consensus driven, rather than authoritarian
+- Power is shared, rather than hoarded
+- Violence is avoided
+
+For many people the abscence of conflict is important
+- One early woman-only utopia story was a world that didn't even involve haggling
+- I don't think we can get rid of all conflict
+- But when there is conflict we can try to resolve it fairly and transparently
+
+
+EQUALITY, EMPOWERMENT, TRANSPARENCY
+So we while we might disagree on some of the details of how we achieve a utopia
+Perhaps we can agree that increasing equality, empowerment and transparency
+are part of the plan and that our free software projects would benefit
+by working to increase equality, empowerment and transparency
+
+JOY
+Why don't our free software projects look like amazing beautiful places to be?
+And while sure, most projects don't have the moeny to take people on cruises
+Or hold their annual event in Hawaii
+(instead of say Boston in March)
+We could knock it out of the park on the interpersonal side
+We could make it a joy to be here.
+
+More particularly, we could make it a joy for everyone
+not just folks who have stuck aound long enough to be a big deal
+but for new people and folks who are still finding their way
+and folks who came here and worked on some of the necessary
+but totally unsung stuff.
+We could make it joy for all of those people to be here too.
+
+
+Is the proprietary software development process an egalitarian delight?
+Generally, speaking no.
+Although there are *some* things that *some* companies do well
+But we aren't trying to build a mirror of proprietary software
+that just happens to come in a different license flavor.
+
+We are trying to replace an uncaring, unresponsive, agency-denying system
+With something that is unquestionably an improvement
+But right now, many of our communities don't feel caring
+or responsive or like places where everyone has agency
+or even basic respect.
+
+Right now we are telling people that there's a delicous cake
+inside of a can labled "mushy peas".
+The disconnect between the empowerment we are promising
+and the experience of being in our communities is sometimes profound.
+
+So what can we do?
+How can we make free software the utopia it could be?
+We outdo proprietary software. We make sure we are better in every way.
+We should not ask people to put up with being treated badly
+"for the cause"
+That's manipulative and it's not the movement we want to build.
+
+So some free software projects are doing some of these things already.
+But we need more projects doing as much as they can to make it
+amazing here in free software.
+
+
+A. USERS or who we're building it for
+Outdoing proprietary software by being awesome and empowering to users
+
+
+MASSHOLES STORY
+I didn't grow up here in Massachussetts. I grew up in Maryland.
+Which many people consider part of the south
+Now maybe it is and maybe it isn't
+and to be sure, there is huge wikipedia backchannel about it
+Considering the geography of the Mason/Dixon line
+Looking at whether Maryland's industry, cuisine, politics or religious communities
+Mark it as "southern" or "northern"
+
+While I love a good edit war as much as the next person
+I don't really have a dog in this fight.
+What I will tell you is that Maryland is defeinitely
+not Massachusetts.
+
+When I first got here, I talked to strangers
+Like all the time! I had a friend who grew up here
+and she was horrified
+
+For a while I thought that maybe Massachusetts folks
+were rude but sincere (and this was a good thing)
+and the southern folks were polite but disingenuous.
+But this is a false dichotomy.
+
+You can be direct and honest and polite at the same time.
+This is not to say that you have to be polite to everyone
+Another thing I learned from my friend who grew up here
+is that you don't have to talk to men you don't know on the subway
+whi are striking up a conversation to hit on you.
+You are allowed to skip that.
+
+I do think that if you want new people where you are
+then you have to be nice and offer help.
+I want to change Boston's reputation of being full of rude people
+So now when I see people looking confused and lost
+especially in some of our touristy areas or near one of our many schools,
+I ask if they need help finding their way.
+
+I also want to change free software's reputation
+we also have a reputation of being full of rude people
+unfortunately.
+And I want you all to help me.
+
+- Awesome UX, we have work to do here many projects (web mgt, LO, Inkscape) have made great strides
+
+- No attempts to funnel people towards a harmful outcome (Youtube and it's incel/nazi recs, FB and the recent election, Tumblr finally not recommending anti-vaxx crap)
+https://twitter.com/meakoopa/status/1106487902475878401
+
+- Excellent pro-active security and privacy (Signal?)
+
+- Accessibility is not a favor, it's table stakes. (ORCA, GNOME)
+
+- Document your code! Nobody likes feeling stupid.
+
+- Kicking fricking Nazis off our platforms (Mastodon, MediaGoblin)
+
+We can not build a utopia with neo-nazis.
+It's just not possible.
+
+
+
+B. COMMUNITY or who we're building it with
+Outdoing proprietary software by being awesome to community members/contributors
+
+
+MEDIAGOBLIN STORY
+We tried hard to make MediaGoblin into a model free software project
+- welcoming to all
+ We talked about how much we love new contributors
+ all the time
+
+- diverse, from the beginning
+ Both Chris and I repped the project
+ He made sure the goblins didn't all read as male or white
+ They're mostly purple and kind of androgynous
+
+- enthusiastically appreciative of non-coding contributors
+ We thanked them in all our release notes
+ We did not use repo stats to recognize people's work
+ We spoke in public many times about how much the design, translation and writing work meant to us
+
+- plus our goals for building MG
+ An accessible, useful freedom-respecting platform for artist and creators
+ we felt strongly that creators need freedom
+ and that people should be able to share
+ without having to go "all or nothing" wrt comments
+
+
+- D&I, aka not being jerks -- do not dig in on this!
+ Watch out for "legitimate criticisms" your project only has for URM's
+ Or criticisms that are gender or race or ethnicity based, aka "shrill" or other ways that men critique the way women talk
+
+- Truly respecting non-coders
+ They are not optional
+
+- Giving people space to to be "part-time" contributors
+ Respect people's time
+ Document your meetings for folks who can't make them
+ Let folks vote in advance
+
+- Not making people put up with "that one person"
+ businesses do this all the time, we could be better
+ What if that one person is prolific?
+ What if they've written tons of code?
+ Have they written more than the dozens or hundreds of people they alienated would've written?
+ We'll never know bc we typically don't have a control group to look at
+ Unless you consider our control group to be the proprietary alternative.
+
+- Not fetishizing the unencumbered, privileged white man's ability to put in "the most hours"
+ Maybe we decide to value cross-silo connections
+ Or work that has had 10+ people contributing to it
+ Healthy, shared work, with friendly turnover? Yes, please!
+
+- Multi-perspectival development produces better code than monomania
+ We have oodles of examples of non-diverse groups
+ Making embarassingly bad decisions around data sharing and privacy
+ Or AI
+
+All of this takes work and it's much less likely to happen
+If you don't make it an express goal.
+
+
+C. SERVICE or who isn't here yet
+Outdoing proprietary software by serving people instead of capitalist directives
+
+What does a free software license mean to the user of a service,
+if the platform is designed to allow Nazis as long as it produces clicks?
+
+Or more insidiously, who will build software for those who can't pay
+western, middle class rates or offer larges piles of corporate money?
+We can ask nicely for companies to do soemthing altruistic and they will
+occasionally do that... but if we want robust code that is safe from
+repurposing, we have to build it ourselves.
+
+
+ELECTORAL STORY
+I used to work in electoral politics, working to
+elect candidates that were aligned with my
+advacacy organization's goals.
+When you work in electoral politics,
+You meet lots of other folks that do the same.
+At some events there'd even be mix of people
+from "both sides of the aisle."
+
+And we'd all laugh at how funny it was that people who care deeply
+and passionately about the issues they work on
+and the candidates they supported
+had to spend the bulk of their time thinking about
+undecideds, because those are the folks that win you elections.
+
+The other thing that is notable from that work
+is that holding up signs by the roadside or getting suporters
+to put a sign in their window or yard, even getting people to
+put a sticker on their car bumper isn't really for the people who see it.
+They're for the people who are displaying the sign to feel like they are
+part of the group.
+
+What brings people over from the undecided column to the supporter column
+is generally a conversation with another human being.
+That means that the stuff we could spend money on like;
+$100 backpacks, fancy boat parties with lots of sponsor signage
+or $30 giveaways at booths are much less effective at bringing people
+than the things that take effort and intention.
+
+We can win more people over to our cause by being having a
+positive conversation with them, by being welcoming and by listening.
+Proprietary software will still try to buy their support.
+But the only ones that will be effective are the ones that also
+work hard to make a personal connection.
+
+
+
+People who don't want to be treated like customers
+
+- Community driven projects
+ Sometimes we are great at this!
+ Conservancy supports 50 community-driven projects!
+ Building software for people's needs
+ Not just a single company's profit
+ We work hard to enable community governance
+ That is safe from being redirected.
+
+Kids
+
+- Not treating kids like future customers
+ Tracking kids and forming profiles
+ Teaching them to be users, not builders
+ Building is so much more fun than just using
+ MicroBlocks!
+
+- Not listening to young people
+ Our work could be a great tool against late-stage surveillance capitalism
+ But we will need young people on board to do it
+ And no one, not young people, not new people, not quiet people
+ Are going to keep showing up if we don't share the power in our communities and our movement
+
+People with less $$, opportunity and privilege than tech bros in SF
+
+- Embracing mobile
+ A lot of people do a lot of their computing from their phones
+ And that means we can't say "oh, just don't use a non free OS"
+ We need to meet those users where they're at.
+
+- Or low connectivity/low data users
+ In places that aren't as wealthy?
+ We should be here too.
+ DIAL is working to support this kind of development
+ by working within the communities
+ They shepherd the platform and local folks write the bits they need locally
+
+- Proactively multi-lingual
+ Some projects are great at this. Emacs, LO,
+ Even if you can't bring in translaters for a lot of languages now
+ Build your code so that it can be easily done later.
+
+
+
+A diverse, multi-generational free software movement that is fun to be a part of?
+That's the future I want!
+
+IT'S UP TO US
+Conclusion: It's on us.
+
+* Every single step
+That means we have to share power and be more inclusive
+at *every single step* in the process of building software.
+If you have five white men and you think you are ready to start a project
+that will magically get diverse later? You are wrong.
+Projects mirror their founders and leaders.
+
+* Get over ourselves
+We can not build a bigger movement without
+getting rid of our elitism
+and our prejudices
+and stopping the bad behavior that many of our communities
+let run unchecked.
+That means we have real CoC's and we enforce them.
+
+* "AND"
+Licenses aren't enough
+What kind of utopia are we building
+if we are replicating everything about proprietary software
+except the licenses?
+
+Don't get me wrong, the licenses are important
+We just ran a whole event about copyleft!
+But choosing a good free software license
+even a robust copyleft license is only the beginning
+
+* Weird advertising
+We must also build good communities.
+It is ridiculous to say,
+"come to this toxic community to get empowered."
+You may not like "marketing" or whatever
+but that kind of bait and switch
+is a ridiculous bargain to expect new people
+to accept -- not that old people should either!
+I won't participate in communities like that
+
+and many other people won't either.
+Why would a new person take it on faith
+that even though the community is not empowering, that somehow
+if they can wade through all that, the software will be?
+
+
+* So the people who aren't here,
+is the only metric that matters.
+For every "missing stair" we protect from the consequences of their behavior?
+There are dozens of people who chose to move along and find something else.
+And a handful of them had such a bad experience,
+that they are out there right now,
+warning new people away.
+
+
+HOMEWORK
+* What can you personally do to help free software outdo proprietary software?
+What can you do in your community to make it more like
+the utopian world we want to build?
+
+1) Adopt and enforce a binding code of conduct, otherwise it gets all youtube comment time in here.
+
+2) Ditch the eltist coders vs. non-coders.
+I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of our projects
+could use some help on the translation, doucumentation and promotion end of things and it's
+ridiculous to keep pretending that we have glut of folks willing to do these things
+and that only the code matters
+
+3) Try to make things *with* people instead of *for* them
+The eariler you get the user involved, the better.
+
+
projects / lp19-speaker-slides.git / commitdiff
