John Sullivan's Emacs and free software blog posts

Vegan in Amsterdam?

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:20:49 +0000

I'll be traveling to Amsterdam next week for a free software conference. Does anyone have recommendations for restaurants that are vegan-friendly? Natural food stores? I'll be staying very near the Central Station.

SCALE

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:47:23 +0000

I will be speaking at the Southern California Linux Expo (and yes, given the topics covered, it's missing a GNU). My talk, "Four Freedoms for Freedom," is on Sunday, February 24, 2013 from 16:30 to 17:30.

The most obvious people affected by all four of the freedoms that define free software are the programmers. They are the ones who will likely want to -- and are able to -- modify software running on their computers. But free software is a movement to advance and defend freedom for anyone and everyone using any computing device, not just programmers. In many countries now, given the ubiquity of tablets, phones, laptops and desktops, "anyone and everyone using any computing device" means nearly all citizens. But new technological innovations in these areas keep coming with new restrictions, frustrating and controlling users even while creating a perception of empowerment. The Free Software Foundation wants to gain the support and protect the interests of everyone, not just programmers. How do we reach people who have no intention of ever modifying a program, and how do we help them?

Other presentations on my list to check out (in chronological order, some conflicting):

If you will be there and want to meet up, drop me a line.

FOSDEM

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:26:45 +0000

I'll be at FOSDEM again this year, arriving in Brussels on Thursday 31st and leaving on Tuesday 5th.

I'll be speaking on Sunday in the legal issues devroom at 10:00.

If you will be there and want to meet up, let me know.

I may be trying to watch the Super Bowl from there, a plan that didn't quite work out last year but seems more likely this year.

State of the GNUnion

FSF licensing policy challenges in 2013

This talk will cover the main challenges facing the Free Software Foundation's Licensing and Compliance lab in 2013, and will invite discussion of the FSF's work and policies in this area. We'll explore:

Copyright assignment: Some high-profile GNU maintainers have recently criticized the FSF's copyright assignment policy and system. What are these criticisms, what does the FSF intend to do about them, and what's the point of its assignment process to begin with?
GPL adoption: Last year here, in "Is copyleft being framed?", I put numbers supposedly showing declining GPL adoption in perspective, showing problems with the data, questioning the conclusions drawn from the data, and presenting different data leading to the opposite conclusions. We'll look at the questions that were raised since then about my data, and at some new data that's been made available, and draw new conclusions.
App Stores: When Apple's App Store launched, the FSF concluded that its terms were incompatible with the GPL -- and with any kind of strong copyleft. Since then, we have several new App Stores; most notably from Google and Microsoft. Are the Apple terms still incompatible with the GPL? Are the other stores any better? Are these stores undermining GPL adoption, and should copyleft relax its standards in order to get free software to this audience, or should it stand its ground?

Aaron Swartz

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:36:02 +0000

Aaron was an inspiration to me personally, politically, and professionally ever since we met (ice cream and word games with a small group in a bank vault at Herrell's in Harvard Square) several years ago. I don't understand how things got to this point, but I know I'm angry along with Lessig.

I'm so sorry for all of his family and friends; all the rest of us can do is try to make even a tiny sliver of the difference he did.

Santiago de Compostela

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:42:33 +0000

I've put up my nearly unedited, unsorted, and uncommented photos from my recent trip to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for the Libre Software World Conference. It was a beautiful place (and a great conference) -- I hope to write more about it soon.

Libre Software World Conference

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 06:05:14 +0000

I'm off to Spain to attend and speak at the Libre Software World Conference.

If you're going to be there too, let me know.