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, gatekeeping, 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 transform 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!
Speakers: Deb Nicholson