Christopher Webber

Spritely is a project to level up the federated social web. In order to do that, we need a distributed programming system! Spritely Goblins is just that. Currently written in Racket, and maybe soon ported to Guile, it's an actor model library which incorporates greats idea from the E programming language and object capability security communities.

Spritely is a project to level up the federated social web. In order to do that, we need a distributed programming system! Spritely Goblins is just that. Currently written in Racket, and maybe soon ported to Guile, it's an actor model library which incorporates greats idea from the E programming language and object capability security communities.

The Internet has made it possible for large, decentralized groups of people from around the world to collaborate with each other, but large-scale collaboration is difficult, and the best practices for effective collaboration are still being worked out by organizers, developers, and collaborators. Free software has provided working examples of large-scale collaborative communities, as well as practical tools for those communities to use. Tools like MediaWiki, Loomio, Discourse, Etherpad, and Git all provide functionality useful for decentralized collaboration. In this panel, organizers, developers, and collaborators will discuss best practices and pitfalls of using these and other tools in real-world collaborations.

This panel gathers standard authors and implementors of ActivityPub to discuss the role of ActivityPub in the present in connecting together the fediverse and what the future might hold.

Having used Guile for the previous number of years and being an enthusiastic supporter of and occasional contributor to Guix, what's it like switching to Racket, a different but in many ways similar Scheme language, for the last year? What can Guile learn from Racket? What can Racket learn from Guile?

You may have heard of Stallman and the printer, but much of free software's genesis involves the battle over the soul of the lisp machine. We'll trace Lisp and the Lisp Machine's roots, from its genesis in early hacker culture and the AI labs, to the split that (largely) pushed RMS to found GNU, through its role within and without the free software community. Why did GNU become a "Not Unix", and why not a lisp machine? What about the role of Lisp within GNU, with projects like Emacs, Guile, and Guix? For those who are new to Lisp, there will be a mini-tutorial.

A discussion on the future of GNU Guix and GuixSD.

Explore Guile's role in advancing network freedom! This talk covers recent advancements in asynchronous tooling in Guile, as well as live demonstrations of Guile used to power federation via the ActivityPub and ActivityStreams standards through Pubstrate.

Much has happened over the last year in terms of advancing network freedom both within and external to Guile. We'll see a live demonstration of Pubstrate, a federated social networking toolkit as well as reference implementation for ActivityPub and ActivityStreams, written in and for GNU Guile.

Asynchronous programming has also gotten much more interesting in the last year for Guile hackers, with improvements in Guile core and new libraries such as 8sync, A-Sync, and Fibers. An overview of these systems will be given, as well as suggestions on how you can get hacking towards liberating network users today!

Small languages update and discussion

User freedom is threatened by the growing complexity of current deployment and packaging directions. Running software (especially server/networked software) is becoming too hard for the average user, so many users are turning to the dangerous path of relying on large corporations to do their computing for them. What can GNU do to turn the tide here? Enter GNU Guix and GuixSD! This talk will walk through Guix's unique positioning to provide totally free and reproducible systems. A path will be laid out on how Guix could be used as a foundation to run and maintain computing for everyone, how you can get Guix and GuixSD running, and how to get involved in the most hacking-friendly package manager/distro duo ever!

Session with the GNU Guile and LUA communities

Session with the GNU Guile and LUA communities

GNU Guile has a wonderful and welcoming community, but could things be better? The recent website redesign is a great start... can we expand on that initiative? What can we learn from related projects in this space?

GNU Guile has a wonderful and welcoming community, but could things be better? The recent website redesign is a great start... can we expand on that initiative? What can we learn from related projects in this space?

How can Guix and Guile participate in increasing network freedom? Discussions include leveraging Guix to make server deployment and maintenance a better experience, as well as ideas in how Guile could provide leadership in web development and federation. Perspectives from the needs of GNU MediaGoblin for deployability will be presented to the audience, as well as contextualizing Guix deployment in terms of "UserOps" (in parallel with / in contrast to DevOps).

The effort to re-decentralize the web has been under way for a number of years, but what's really happening under the hood? Various projects like Diaspora, GNU social, GNU MediaGoblin, Friendica Red, and Pump.IO all exist, but not all these projects can talk to each other. How can we fix that? A demo of PyPump will be given, as well as a rundown on the progress of the W3C Social Working Group.

Now more than ever, users clamor for software that respects their privacy and protects their security. Free software's natural advantage is that it's almost always the best option to safeguard users in a world where proprietary software so often betrays them. Users want options and we know developers want to provide them, so what are we missing?

When an alternative to a proprietary system becomes available, people don't seem to stick with it. Users arrive and things break, features that seem basic are missing, and the channels through which they might ask for help are hard to find or non-existent. They're wondering, "Who did you build this for? Why is it so annoying to use?" Meanwhile, developers put their time and energy into building technology to free their users and are left wondering, "Why aren't people just using this? It's not really that hard to figure out."

Two free software activists, one developer and one community liaison, take turns asking each other questions about their experiences and goals. All the questions about intent and process that you've been wondering about will finally be answered. At MediaGoblin, we've worked hard to keep the lines of communication between developers and users open from the beginning. This public conversation between MediaGoblin's technical founder and community liaison will replicate some of those conversations for the audience. Our back-and-forth interview will share what we have learned about how free software projects can get users to show up and, more importantly, stay.

Decentralize the web! Everyone wants to, but actually getting a decentralized network of websites is notoriously hard. Luckily, much of the hard work is already done. Learn about federation standards (including recent activities at the W3C Social Working Group) and how to use PyPump, a library to make federating with Python easier, and how we're tackling site-to-site federation in GNU MediaGoblin.

Decentralize the web! Everyone wants to, but actually getting a decentralized network of websites is notoriously hard.

Luckily, much of the hard work is already done. Learn about federation standards and how to use PyPump, a python library to make federating with Python easier following the Pump API, and how we're tackling site-to-site federation in GNU MediaGoblin.

In addition to examples on how to federate, learn what the current state of standardizing federation protocols are, lessons learned through the standards process, and the latest to come out of the W3C Social Working Group.

Christopher Allan Webber of GNU MediaGoblin discusses the past, present, and future of free network services. Issues of network freedom have gained much attention over the last six years, and increasingly so both within and outside of the software freedom communities. Progress has been made, but present adoption shows we have a ways to go.

What opportunities and challenges face free network services? Ranging from licensing decisions, technical choices, protocols, deployment configuration, and how we message ourselves, many components inform the past, present, and future of this field. Join Christopher Allan Webber of GNU MediaGoblin in talking about what can be done so that network freedom can be something that everyone can feasibly enjoy.

Following up on last year's session, we will talk about ways to explain software freedom and more generally advocate for the cause with various audiences. We'll brainstorm specific ideas and talk about organizational approaches going forward. No prior experience is necessary to join this session, especially since a little enthusiasm can go a long way in helping to get the word out!

Following up on last year's session, we will talk about ways to explain software freedom and more generally advocate for the cause with various audiences. We'll brainstorm specific ideas and talk about organizational approaches going forward. No prior experience is necessary to join this session, especially since a little enthusiasm can go a long way in helping to get the word out!

Five of our speakers from the Legal and Policy Issues devroom have agreed to participate in a governance best practices roundtable. These practices may touch on contribution policy, review boards, policy manuals, licensing tools, trademark guidelines, etc.

Questions will be asked of the panelists to start the roundtable and the audience will also be encouraged to participate in order to have more interaction with the panelists. Karen Sandler will be the moderator.

Christopher Allan Webber of GNU MediaGoblin discusses the past, present, and future of free network services.

Issues of network freedom have gained much attention over the last six years, and increasingly so both within and outside of the software freedom communities. Progress has been made, but present adoption shows we seem to have a ways to go.

What opportunities and challenges face free network services? Ranging from licensing decisions, technical choices, protocols, deployment configuration, and how we message ourselves, many components inform the past, present and future of this field. Join Christopher Allan Webber of GNU MediaGoblin in talking about what can be done so that network freedom can be something that everyone can feasibly enjoy.

This panel will discuss the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPLv3), a copyleft license which includes a clause designed to ensure that users of network-deployed applications receive complete corresponding source code for the deployed application.

AGPLv3 has roots in the early 2000s, when some free software advocates called attention to what some described as an “Application Service Provider loophole” in GPLv2. One response was AGPLv1, a modification of GPLv2 published by Affero, Inc. and drafted with Free Software Foundation (FSF)'s help. AGPLv1 and contemporary licenses addressing this policy issue saw limited adoption..

Many expected, and some strongly advocated for, FSF to incorporate the Affero clause into GPLv3. Instead, in 2007 the FSF drafted a separate license, AGPLv3, containing an additional requirement that modified versions of a program offer access to corresponding source to all users interacting with AGPLv3'd programs through a network.

AGPLv3 has seen little adoption by individual free software developers and community projects for various reasons. Yet notable exceptions exist, such as GNU MediaGoblin. Currently, AGPLv3's most common use is by businesses as a means of promoting purchases of proprietary software licenses, a practice often criticized by some framers of AGPLv3. Meanwhile, some corporate open source users have investigated the issue of AGPLv3 compliance. Awareness of AGPLv3 has steadily increased with the growing focus on “Cloud Computing”.

This panel, comprised of a few of the world's foremost experts on AGPLv3, seeks to discuss and explain all issues surrounding AGPLv3 and contemplate the future of AGPLv3 as a viable copyleft license.

Panelists:

• Moderator: Richard Fontana, IP Counsel at Red Hat. Richard is responsible for open source legal matters at Red Hat, and in his prior role at the Software Freedom Law Center he was co-drafter of GPLv3 and AGPLv3. He is an active public speaker on FLOSS legal and policy issues.
• Eileen Evans, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Cloud & Open Source, Hewlett-Packard Company. Eileen has spoken on complex open source issues at many open source conferences in the U.S. and in Europe and with governmental bodies, such as the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament.
• Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director, Software Freedom Conservancy and Member of FSF's Board of Directors. Kuhn invented the original Affero clause, and helped draft AGPLv1 and AGPLv3. Kuhn is also widely known for his work in Free Software licensing compliance and Free Software non-profit management.
• Christopher Allan Webber, Lead Developer, GNU MediaGoblin (free software image, audio, video publishing platform). Activist and developer for free software and network services freedom. Previously worked at Creative Commons as software engineer (and occasionally involved in licensing as well). Presently works fulltime on GNU MediaGoblin via money raised in a crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with the Free Software Foundation.