January 2020 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Mastodon
by Ben Sturmfels 13 Mar '22

13 Mar '22

Hi Folks, I'm getting into this Mastodon thing, but it'd be much more interesting if I could follow a few more people I know. Anyone care to reply with their Mastodon address? I'm @bensturmfels@mastodon.social. Cheers! Ben

6 5

Update on browser standards
by Michael Verrenkamp 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/update-on-browser-standards/ Update on browser standards An update on Googles browser standards About a year ago we warned about the issues of the Chromium/Blink web rendering engine and how Google is essentially dictating the direction of web technology to their advantage. https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/on-microsoft-edge-and-the-chromium-engine/ It now appears via multiple sources that this is becoming that case at least for their direct web services. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-now-bans-some-linux-web… The short take on the story is that a lot of free software browsers, some of which happen to have provided the technology base of Chrome, are now being denied access under the guise of 'security'. While these browsers combined usage makes up less than 0.1% of Internet traffic, that Google has gone out of the way to deny the users access is a dangerous precident. To make matters worse, if you make these browsers report to Google that they are 'Google Chrome' - Googles own proprietary browser, then these sites work as intended making the whole idea look more preposterous. While this warning has not been seen universally by users and it appears to be in the trail stage, this is a very worrying for the free and open internet and the software that we use on it. Essentially the software maker, being Google, is able to dictate what people can use online using their software platform and online websites. Google has now made a few actions that are determined to control how the internet is used for their own gain. Chrome is designed to dictate the technology base that people have to use, by having technology that can only be rendered properly by their browser, this sets the standards by which most web developers will aim to hit. This is to the detriment of anyone using non-google technology. It may be small user base browsers today, in future it might be things like Firefox and eventually all non-Chrome browsers - even ones that use the same 'open-source' code base. This is the situation we found the internet in at the end of the last decade with Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominating how internet technology would be shaped. It took the efforts of Mozilla and the Firefox project to finally break free from this situation. Google is also directly dictating to web content providers to use their systems such as AMP technology so that run websites on their servers, making them load faster than they typically would and this is enhanced when using their browsers so that any competition looks bad by comparison. Google uses many other techniques but these main ones are used to direct you into Googles profit machine at the expense of your choice of software and thus your privacy. Over the last few years it has become apparent that more web browser technology is being dictated down from Google and less about letting technology find its own place via dis-census. That is, it is being designed rather than evolving. Technology is being used to squeeze out competition and free software based browsers are clearly being targeted. Google has misused API's to make performance run slowly on other browsers, dictated how DRM should be implemented online so that others cannot support the same standards and in general just made a technology target that favors it over other agreed standards. The best solution to a problem is to prevent the problem in the first place. That means having to avoid using these controlling technologies and to support those that have your back covered. By supporting free software and open standards that is what you are doing. Every time you use a Free-software browser and a website doesn't work properly, let the sites admin know about it. If they don't want to fix it - don't use it. You are better off not being forced into a compromised position. In the coming decade this will only get worse. With the increasing profit needs of Google, increasing operations costs, decline in return on computer hardware improvements, ever increasing demand so of users and the apathy of those same users that makes them accept these changes with little questioning, we are slowly walking down a road that is very difficult to recover from. It took almost a decade to turn it around last time with Firefox and that was through the arrogance of Microsoft not keeping their eye on the ball and assuming that they could never fall. This time it may not be possible as it is a very deliberate and targeted attack on users choices. If we don't try to fight this then we have lost already. If we wait until it is unbearable, it will be near impossible to overcome in any meaningful way. Michael Verrenkamp -- Committee Member Free Software Australia/Melbourne Advocating for freedom in computer software. www.freesoftware.org.au

7 17

Inclusion Policy update proposal and FSM for 2020
by PuZZleDucK 27 Jan '20

27 Jan '20

Hey Folks, Although many people might consider the topic of Inclusion Policies to be a bit dry, I found this months meetup interesting and learned something from most of the examples we looked at. In particular I would recommend checking out the Atlassian playbook and the concepts of team health as a foundation on which values like inclusivity and diversity can be built ( https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/health-monitor) As always the presentation slides are available online if you want to check out any of the resources: https://free-software-melbourne.github.io/Inclusivity-2020-January/ For our own short to mid term needs I have proposed updating our Code of Conduct to better line up with the Linux Conf Au and Linux Users of Victoria policies. I see this as having the immediate benefit of updating and modernising our language and guidelines. I also think it will better harmonise our policies with the groups we are likely to run events with like Software Freedom Day. I also think it would be a good idea to provide specialist contact details in the form of BeyondBlue and/or HeadSpace for people with serious concerns or ongoing issues. Please provide any feedback to the mailing list (or myself at puzzleduck(a)gmail.com) over the next week and after any feedback or revisions we'll update the Free Software website with the new policies. The other major topic of discussion was getting involved with other groups and promoting the group to a broader audience. In particular we should start using libre platforms like LibrePlanet, Mastodon and Diaspora to get our message out there. Also this year we will make an effort to get involved in community events like Melbourne Knowledge Week and we will also propose a session for Linux Conf Au discussing FLOSS licencing. ~~ Ben

1 0

FSM Jan 16th - Discussion on inclusion policies & FSM campaigns for 2020
by PuZZleDucK 07 Jan '20

07 Jan '20

Welcome to 2020 everyone, We're kicking off the decade by giving you the chance to choose your own 2020 at Free Software Melbourne. Do you want more games nights, hardware reviews, campaigns or just more pizza! Which campaigns should we continue our involvement in and what other campaigns are emerging in the new decade we could lend our weight to? Now's your chance to come along and have your say about how the next year at Free Software Melbourne will look. This will be a non technical event and all are welcome to attend and contribute. We'll all take a look at the campaigns we are currently running like the AABill and what we can do next. We'll also look at what we need to do to plan for and participate in events like Melbourne Knowledge Week and Privacy Week. If you're aware of any other events we could participate in come along and tell us about it or make suggestions on the mailing list before the meetup. As discussed in last years October meeting we will be looking at our options for an Inclusion policy and deciding on candidates for adoption. While were adding another policy this seems like an optimal time to review our current policies and how we present them on the website. Are there better ways to convey our policies, should they all be grouped together, are they up to date and serving the functions they are intended to? We'd be interested to hear ayones experience with inclusion policies or opinions of good (or bad) inclusion policies you've come across. So come along to discuss inclusion policies, and help set course for 2020 at Free Software Melbourne. After the meeting we will continue our discussions over dinner in North Melbourne a short walk away and all are welcome to join us. Thanks again to Electron Workshop for hosting Free Software Melbourne and Software Freedom Day for another year. Details Thursday 16th January, 6:30-8:00pm Electron Workshop: 31 Arden St, North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051 Map: http://osm.org/go/uG4HWyqEz?m=&node=2556615434 Travel Tips: http://www.electronworkshop.com.au/map/

1 0