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

Software Freedom Day and the 30th birthday of GNU/Linux
by FSM Committee 06 Aug '21

06 Aug '21

Hi everyone, This year on September the 18th we're going to be celebrating the 18th Software Freedom Day held in Melbourne. This year is also the 30th birthday of GNU/Linux. We are reaching out for anyone from the community interested in presenting. It could be a full presentation, a small lightning style talk or a demo of your favourite FLOSS software. You could talk about your first contribution to Open Source (or your latest one). Explain the 4 Freedoms and their importance to Free Software. You could also discuss the use of Free and Open Source software in your industry (although maybe let's keep the grim stories for regular meetings :p). Or you have another burning topic you think will fit with the event, let us know. If you're interested in getting involved please reply with your ideas. ~~ Ben

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Re: [free-software-melb] tonight's meeting
by Russell Coker 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

On Thursday, 15 July 2021 5:11:45 PM AEST Yuchen Pei wrote: > Thanks for the test and setting up the new room. Since it is quite > close to the meeting and perhaps some people still have the old > link, would it be possible to make an ad-hoc redirect from the old > link (https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu) to the new > link (https://j.luv.asn.au/fsm)? Sorry I didn't check my email until now. I had thought you would SMS me if you needed something. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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FSM Jul 15th - User Freedom on the Web
by FSM Committee 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

Hi everyone, Free Software Melbourne July 15th - User Freedom on the Web Free software is defined by the four user freedoms and for a long time these freedoms have been ensured by Free Software licenses like the GPL. While not perfect these licenses help preserve the four freedoms for the kinds of applications we use on our desktop computers that do not involve other computers. Things start to get a bit more complicated when we start making software available over a network and using such software. Mix in the popularity of the World Wide Web and it makes it tricky to preserve these freedoms. In this talk I will give an introduction to the topic of user freedom on the Web. I will talk about the issues on server-side (that is the ASP loophole and SaaSS) and also from the client-side (i.e. the javascript trap). I will also cover some of today's popular solutions and mitigations to these problems like the AGPL, self-hosted services and the LibreJS browser extension. We look forward to seeing you at the online meeting! P.S. meetup.com is not required for following FSM updates. If you are reading this announcement through meetup.com, the speaker advises that you reduce your dependency on proprietary software required for using meetup.com, by signing up to the FSM mailing list at https://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-software… for all FSM announcements. Details - Thursday, 15th July 2021, 7:30pm-9:00pm - Join us at: https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu - Short video intro to Big Blue Button (BBB): https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw - Meeting Tips: - Be sure to test your audio on the way in. - Your mic will be muted when you join the room. - Headsets are recommended to reduce any feedback. - Code of Conduct: https://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct ~~ Ben

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tonight's meeting
by Russell Coker 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

There is an issue with the version of BBB we have installed and recent versions of web browsers. So if you run a web browser with the latest security updates (the recommended thing to do) then video won't work with that version of BBB. Upgrading BBB is not a simple or quick task. I have put Jitsi back online and have a test room setup on https://j.luv.asn.au/RelativeLibertiesSlapAlso Please check that out and see if it's sufficient for tonight's meeting.

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tonight's meeting
by Russell Coker 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

There is an issue with the version of BBB we have installed and recent versions of web browsers. So if you run a web browser with the latest security updates (the recommended thing to do) then video won't work with that version of BBB. Upgrading BBB is not a simple or quick task. I have put Jitsi back online and have a test room setup on https://j.luv.asn.au/RelativeLibertiesSlapAlso Please check that out and see if it's sufficient for tonight's meeting. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Australian Online Safety Bill - Censorship, discrimination and a rushed process
by FSM Committee 22 Jun '21

22 Jun '21

Hey folks, It has been brought to my attention that the Australian Online Safety Bill is on the brink of being passed in the Senate despite opposition concerns, greens party objections, a needlessly rushed consultation period and general unease amongst the tech community. Here are a few useful and informative links about the topic: * Online Safety Bill 2021 - [Australian Parliament Website Status of the bill](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6680) * [Innovation Australia Article](https://www.innovationaus.com/why-the-rush-online-safety-bill-stil… - Good general summary * [The Conversation Article](https://theconversation.com/a-new-online-safety-bill-could-allow-c… - Focusing on censorship concerns * [ZDNet Article](https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-bias-and-discrimination-aplenty-a… - Focusing on discrimination concerns * [Digital Rights Watch](https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2021/02/11/explainer-the-online-safety-bill/) - Additionally covers concerns for privacy and encryption If you can find the time please reach out to one of your representatives and email or call them about your concerns around censorship, discrimination, lack of oversight, lack of complaints mechanism and/or the rushed and quiet nature of the process and consultation. There is a "full" list of [members and senators here](https://gist.github.com/tennantje/8ee584d9c534ce6a57910668b277394d), but the process is up to the senate and we have included a list of particularly relevant senators here: * Senator Bridget McKenzie - senator.mckenzie(a)aph.gov.au (0354414251) * Senator Jane Hume - senator.hume(a)aph.gov.au (0392328820) * Senator Janet Rice - senator.rice(a)aph.gov.au (0393846199) * Senator the Hon Kim Carr - senator.carr(a)aph.gov.au (0396392798) * Ms Sarah Henderson - sarah.henderson.mp(a)aph.gov.au (0352431444) * Senator the Hon Scott Ryan - senator.ryan(a)aph.gov.au (0393261088) Or better yet you can find all the Victorian senate members and contact details [on the APH website](https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian_Search_Results?q=3000&sen=1&par=-1&gen=0&ps=12) and contact them through there. ~~ Ben

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FSM Jun 17th - Everyday Hardware for Free Software: Mobile Phones, Laptops, and more
by FSM Committee 12 Jun '21

12 Jun '21

Free Software is owned by its community of users and creators, for the benefit of that community, and of human society in general. Free Software respects the autonomy and privacy of its users — especially important in this age when so many companies base their business on control and surveillance of their customers. But all software runs on hardware, and similar considerations apply. In order to maintain control over our software we also need hardware devices that respect the autonomy and privacy of their users. This is a vast topic. My goal for this talk is more modest: A tour of some hardware that's friendly to Free Software, in the hope that you might learn about something you can use. My main focus will be on devices for everyday use: mobile phones, laptops, and single-board computers usable as desktop computers or as home servers, some of which I own and can therefore demonstrate live in the talk, and can speak of from my own experience. Devices I plan to talk about: Pinephone, Pinebook Pro, SOPINE A64 (from Pine64); Librem5 phone and Librem laptops (from Purism); Odroid-XU4, Odroid-H2+, Odroid Home Cloud devices (from HardKernel); Raspberry Pi 4; and possibly the MNT Reform laptop and GNUBee PC-1. Also, if you have some favorite privacy respecting or open hardware you would like to demonstrate or show off, you're welcome to join in at the meeting and do a brief lightning talk about it, especially if you have it at hand for show'n'tell. We look forward to seeing you at the online meeting! Details - Thursday,17th June 2021, 7:30pm-9:00pm - Join us at: https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu - Short video intro to Big Blue Button (BBB): [https://www.y](https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw)[ewtu.be](https://w… - Meeting Tips: - Be sure to test your audio on the way in. - Your mic will be muted when you join the room. - Headsets are recommended to reduce any feedback. - Code of Conduct: https://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct

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FSM May 20th - FSM Wiki Working Bee
by committee＠freesoftware.org.au 11 May '21

11 May '21

Hi Folks, Sorry if we've seemed a bit quiet, it appears that recently the committee email address was accidentally removed from the mailing list causing our messages to go un-posted. I think we've managed to fix the issue, so hopefully all is well and you'll be reading this announcement. Thanks to everyone who managed to find us last month and participate in the discussion around Privacy and Free Software. I have attached the updated slides incorporating every ones feedback to this announcement we're really grateful for the feedback and input. This month we're going to be trying something different with our first (maybe annual) FSM Wiki Working Bee. First up we'll be having a review of the wiki and some discussion around what we want to keep, what we want to improve and what we can archive or remove. After that discussion we'll work on some of the items we think we can tackle in small groups or collaborative sessions. We'll try to finish off the night with a show and tell of what we've been able to complete (or what we hope to have finished soon). So come along and have a your say about what happens to our wiki. We’ll be meeting virtually via Big Blue Button at 7:30pm. This will be a non technical event so feel free to join the initial discussion and find out how easy it can be to contribute to a wiki. Details Thursday 20th May, 7:30pm-9:00pm Join us at: https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu Short video intro to Big Blue Button (BBB): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw Meeting Tips: Be sure to test your audio on the way in. Your mic will be muted when you join the room. Headsets are recommended to reduce any feedback. Code of Conduct: https://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct

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Intro
by Yuchen Pei 11 May '21

11 May '21

Hello everyone, I am a programmer and mathematician, and have been an FSF associate member since 2018. I am also a new FSF licensing volunteer. I recently relocated to Melbourne from Zurich Switzerland, and I look forward to working with you all on free software :) My first question for you is: What is the biggest challenge for the free software movement in Australia? Best, Yuchen -- GPG Key: 47F9 D050 1E11 8879 9040 4941 2126 7E93 EF86 DFD0

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right to repair
by Glenn McIntosh 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

The Australian Government Productivity Commission is looking for submissions for an inquiry into the right to repair, including the reduction of e-waste. Submissions are due by the end of January. https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/repair/issues "The focus of this inquiry is on consumers’ ability to repair faulty goods and to access repair services at a competitive price. "We have been asked to look at the barriers and enablers of competition in repair markets and the costs and benefits of a regulated ‘right to repair’, including facilitating access to embedded software in consumer and other goods. "We have also been asked to look at arrangements for preventing premature or planned product obsolescence and the proliferation of e‑waste, and means of reducing e‑waste through improved access to repairs." Glenn -- pgp: 833A 67F6 1966 EF5F 7AF1 DFF6 75B7 5621 6D65 6D65

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