The social purpose of Debian is important: it provides a free and open software ecosystem which respects user freedom. Debian's ecosystem is so rich, reliable, and privacy-respecting that it is often used as the building material of other distributions. How can we promote this vision of technology in society more broadly? As individuals, we insist on integrating software freedom into our lives by using Debian. Many of us even try to offer software freedom to our friends and family. But what if we want to advocate for software freedom for our entire society or government? Changing laws, policies, and social norms is not easy, but it is an essential component of any social movement. Join this session to learn how Debian’s social purpose can be complemented by advocacy in law, policy, and society. You will hear from the CTO of India’s premiere digital liberties organization, SFLC.IN, which has worked on India’s IT policy at the national level, and a representative of the Software Freedom Law Center and the FreedomBox Foundation. This session welcomes people with any level of experience fighting for change. If you come to this session with lots of experience, then we hope that you’ll share it with others. Come to this session if you want to learn about the general ways in which you can advocate for software freedom in your society. Though we won’t give you concrete advice about what you should do next, we hope to give you a clear idea about your options.
Speakers: Danny Haidar