LibrePlanet 2022 returns online: Submit your session proposal by Dec. 1
LibrePlanet has always been a community event, having grown from a small FSF associate member meeting initiative. In those years, most of the speakers at LibrePlanet were FSF staff or board members. In the years since, we have placed individuals from the community front and center, making the conference an experience focused on connection, collaboration, and education. LibrePlanet 2022 will take this even further. We have had (and will continue to have) many internal conversations about what we can do better for LibrePlanet 2022, and with your involvement, we will deliver another successful community event. LibrePlanet 2022 will be a fully online event, and we'll have many more details to share about how that will work in the coming months.
The FSF is continuing its hard work on fundamental governance improvements, and we are still dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, both its continued impact on our present lives and its unforeseeable future consequences. But the last two years have taught us that -- with the help of the LibrePlanet speaker and volunteer community -- we can overcome adversity and organize a successful, engaging, and interactive conference experience online, using only free software. We will build on what we've learned, and strive to make the 2022 edition the best one yet.
Our theme this year explores how to accelerate the integration of free software into our daily lives. This year, we're collaborating more closely with the LibrePlanet community committee, an initiative we started last year. We plan to deliver a truly community-focused event: one that meets people where they are, and through connection and collaboration, moves us all toward freedom together. As part of that, we want to hear from you. If you have any suggestions about LibrePlanet, need some help with your session proposal, or just have some questions for the team, please come meet with us in our weekly IRC office hour in the #libreplanet channel of the Libera.chat IRC network. These sessions will be held every Thursday beginning October 7th, and until the CFS closes, from 13:00 to 14:00 EDT (17:00 - 18:00 UTC), and 13:00 - 14:00 EST (18:00 - 19:00 UTC) after November 11. Please also take the time to help us by answering some questions and providing feedback on our questionnaire, and we will take your answers into our planning.
LibrePlanet: Living Liberation
All of us play a role in creating free software: developing it, distributing it, sharing feedback about it, and spreading both its code and underlying message. From the beginning of the movement, and every day, users have supplanted technological oppression with empowerment. This year's theme is about urging people to do more to make free software part of their daily lives, one decision at a time.
The headlines are still replete with the latest offenses to liberty, privacy, and basic dignity. Apple continues to "innovate" in new affronts to digital ethics, wielding absolute control over the software running on the devices they manufacture, and increasingly elaborate schemes to rob users of privacy. Despite claims to the contrary, Microsoft is still fervently opposed to user freedom, through new methods to restrict machines running Windows, and through its leveraging network services like Microsoft GitHub to force free software developers to yield their freedom. At the same time, the mainstream press is filled with misuses of technical power: whether on the part of known aggressors like Facebook, or bad actors who use the ongoing pandemic as an opportunity to spy on workers and seize control of courts.
When faced with challenges like these, some might throw up their hands and claim defeat. What can we do when it seems like each and every day encroaches on what freedom we have remaining? The answer is simpler than it appears: choose freedom. As nearly everything we do in a single day is mediated by technology, we are presented with just as many opportunities to opt for freedom, and to work free software into the fabric of our daily lives: whether that means climbing the "freedom ladder" by refusing to use nonfree JavaScript, using free software to encrypt our communications, or to demand a fully free operating system. The free software experience is made up of daily choices like these, which is why the theme for LibrePlanet 2022 is Living Liberation, emphasizing the need to take constant and incremental steps toward full software freedom on the individual, group, and societal levels.
Submissions to the Call for Sessions are being accepted through Wednesday December 1, 12:00 EST (17:00 UTC). General registration, award nominations, exhibitor registration, sponsoring packages and scholarship info will follow soon.
We invite activists, hackers, law professionals, artists, students, developers, young people, policymakers, tinkerers, newcomers to free software, and anyone looking for technology that aligns with their ideals, to submit a proposal for a session at LibrePlanet 2022. To access the submission form, use your my.fsf.org username, or create one. Session proposals can focus on software development, copyleft, community, or other related issues to this year's theme.
What kind of sessions are we looking for?
Are you integrating free software in your life, or are you struggling to do just that? We want to hear from you!
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Examine free software through this year's theme, "Living Liberation," and share how you integrate free software in your daily life, your struggles and successes, or give a talk exploring the theme through broader spheres of education, licensing, medicine, government, business, art, social movements, or improving accessibility;
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Tell the world about your free software project;
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Suggest an educational panel or Q&A session on a pressing topic like free software in artificial intelligence, or software-driven cars;
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Explore current topics in free software licensing and copyleft, or give a great licensing tutorial;
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Host a workshop or tutorial on how to use a free software tool, free software program, or free hardware project;
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Explore a free software concept or share your technical knowledge in an interactive session or through a live programming session; or
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Lead a project "sprint" (a group work session).
All sessions will be reviewed by a community council representing a wide range of expertise. It's important to us to provide sessions that are friendly to newcomers, as well as those that help experienced hackers improve their technical skills. Whatever your experience level or the experience level of your audience, we want to include your session! If you're new to the community, or if you're looking for inspiration, check out this past year's conference site and session videos.
If you have any questions, comments, ideas, if you would like to be part of the LibrePlanet 2022 committee, or if you would like to just socialize, you can join us in the #libreplanet channel in IRC (on Libera.chat).
We'll see you online!
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