“Take it as a compliment!”: harassment, sexism, and research

I’ve recently completed a couple of research projects in Tunisia, which was, on the whole a very good experience. Tunisians are currently in the process of trying to change the direction of their country, which is of course a huge task, and I really appreciate the time and energy that people gave to help us … Continue reading “Take it as a compliment!”: harassment, sexism, and research →

Free and open source software and ‘the anarchist-libertarian ethic’

Joseph Reagle's recent paper on sexism within the free and open source software (FOSS) movement, 'Free as in sexist?': Free culture and the gender gap, makes an important contribution to our understanding of FOSS, and particularly to those who want to build a movement which is more diverse and welcoming. However, I do feel that … Continue reading Free and open source software and ‘the anarchist-libertarian ethic’ →

LCA 2013: distributed democracy, speaking stacks, links

Thursday was my final day at Linux Conference, sadly, as I needed to get back to other work. It's a pity, as there were quite a few talks on Friday that I would have liked to see, including the keynote by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Denise Paolucci's talk on accessibility, Asheesh Laroia on quantitative community management, … Continue reading LCA 2013: distributed democracy, speaking stacks, links →

Linux Conference Australia: disaster response, activism, and copyright

I began the day with a couple of talks looking at FOSS projects for disaster support. Paul Gardner-Stephen started off talking about The Serval Project, which aims to provide secure communications for those in need. Mostly, "in need" means "affected by a disaster", which was defined broadly as a situation where a community's ability to … Continue reading Linux Conference Australia: disaster response, activism, and copyright →