Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2019-wrap-up-building-the-free-software-utopia

Dear Ruben Safir,

From the time of free software's inception, with Richard Stallman's
announcement of the GNU Project in 1984, community has been a
central part of its philosophy: we must be free to choose to share any
software we use or create. Stallman wrote, "I consider that the golden
rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other
people who like it," and from this point concluded that we must always
be permitted to share our discoveries and innovations with others, in
order to make their computing and their lives easier and
better. Software that is free always has benefits beyond the
individual, and the free software movement depends on a vibrant,
ever-changing, committed pool of developers, activists, users, and
enthusiasts to keep the dream alive and the movement growing.

Every year, the LibrePlanet conference brings together many
members of that movement to celebrate our achievements, strategize how
to deal with our setbacks, show off new ideas, and decide what new
frontiers we will trailblaze together next. The 2019 conference
included many introductions to, and updates from, new and familiar
projects, discussions on copyleft and security, and explorations of
free software in the business world, but one compelling theme was
woven through both days of the conference: how do we maintain and
increase the health of our all-important community?

The winners of the 2018 Free Software Awards, presented during
Stallman's keynote speech on Saturday night, both reflected how
crucial community engagement and advocacy are to the free software
movement. Deborah Nicholson was given the Award for the Advancement
of Free Software, recognizing her position as an exceptional
opinion leader, activist, and community advocate. Her speech on
Sunday, "Free software/utopia," emphasized her efforts to consciously
sustain a positive development environment: she pointed out that even
extremely dedicated contributors to a project can ruin the whole thing
if they insist on negative and insulting behavior. If the free
software movement is to grow, it must attract and maintain newcomers,
and that means insisting on good behavior.

The Award for Projects of Social Benefit also reflected the
community-building theme: the winner, OpenStreetMap, is a free,
editable map of the world that owes its breadth and utility to the
efforts of over one million volunteer community members. It's an
amazing example of how huge numbers of motivated people can be
inspired to do tremendous good together, and in addition to the
obvious ethical benefit of it being free software, it's also helped to
provide priceless information to humanitarian efforts, like the
disaster response after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and after Hurricane
Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.

Other talks that explored aspects of the free software community
included:

• "Hackerspace Rancho Electrónico," in which activists Martha
  Esperilla and Stefanía Acevedo described their radical hackerspace,
  which welcomes hackers, hacktivists, and free software users at all
  levels for workshops, talks, meetings, working groups, and more;




• "Sharing global opportunities for new developers in the Wikipedia
  community," in which Srishti Sethi provided a gentle introduction to
  the world of Wikimedia for newcomers, with plenty of pointers on how
  to get started;




• "Governing the software commons," in which Shauna Gordon-McKeon
  delineated some of the many forms of governance structures that
  dictate how people can and can't participate in the building and
  proliferation of free software projects;




• "Sparking change: What free software can learn from successful
  social movements," in which Mary Kate Fain suggested lessons of past
  movements to use to mobilize our wider communities to fight against
  the abuses of proprietary software; and




• "Meta-rules for codes of conduct," in which Katheryn Sutter explored
  the ways in which free software enthusiasts might be communicating
  poorly with each other, and how to create codes of conduct to enable
  us all to understand each other and treat each other with respect.

The sobering and inspiring closing keynote from Micky Metts, a
prominent free software activist and member of the Agaric Design
Collective, the MayFirst.org leadership committee, and Drupal, also
emphasized gathering our forces to fight the evils of proprietary
software. She delineated the increasingly sinister ways in which
corporate technologies are creeping into our private lives, arguing
that scenarios like Orwell's 1984 are closer than ever to fruition,
and will keep advancing if we don't fight back with a bold new tide of
free software and other creative solutions.

With all of this urgency, it's easy to forget that one of the key
aspects of free software that attracts newcomers and keeps us in the
fold is the joy of discovery and the fun of invention made possible
when you have complete free reign over the code you use. And what
better example of free software-powered fun is there than gigantic
model rockets? Free software veteran Bdale Garbee opened up day two
of the conference with the keynote speech, "Freedom is fun!",
where we learned how Bdale has used free software design tools to
build everything from rockets to his son's guitar. Free software
is necessary to save privacy and democracy -- but there's a reason why
so many people like to tinker with it in their free time, and that's
because they enjoy it.

Between Saturday and Sunday, there were 66 speakers in over 40
sessions, with 53 volunteers and over 341 total participants. We also
gave away raffle prizes generously donated by Vikings GmBH;
Technoethical; Aleph Objects; ThinkPenguin; JMP; Altus Metrum, LLC;
and Aeronaut, and we're extremely grateful to our generous sponsors,
Red Hat and Private Internet Access. Please keep an eye on our MediaGoblin instance
for photos from the event, and videos of nearly every speech, coming
soon!

Finally: while the LibrePlanet conference only happens once a year,
the free software community needs your participation year-round. You
can find local LibrePlanet teams at the LibrePlanet wiki!

Sincerely,

Dana Morgenstein

Outreach & Communications Coordinator