maloki π΅
So, I've been thinking. And you're all right. Neutral will never bring on change.
#FLOSS is riddled with the "we must stay neutral" mentality, this creates a problem in this space, it simply isn't safe for minorities to participate in a lot of the conversations.
This means being neutral isn't neutral at all.
Who's onboard to work on FLOSS from an anti-racist, intersectional feminist perspective?
maloki π΅
(I should've written anti-fascist too)
Kay
@maloki "With great power, comes great responsibility"
Crime Bun 3000
@maloki I tried for years, well before the present uptick in extremely online fascism and their ~radical centrist~ enablers, but I got burned out and, in some ways, pushed out.
To me foss has always felt like a coiled spring aching with anticapitalist and radical potential, but so much of it (yesterday&today) is run by dipshits who are heavy invested in the status quo. & While I don't have a lot of faith... seeing actually-rad foss folks on mastodon is giving me some srs hope tho!
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
@maloki this is *extremely* important for the longer term survival of FLOSS - as corporates like Microsoft in particular seem to be doing a lot of PR work to put a good image across to minorities both as end users and employees. It might be spin, but there is a lot of resources behind it, and minority groups are business owners and decision makers.
If FLOSS just looks more like projects of edgy white boys in a small bit of USA that *does* harm its wider adoption.
maloki π΅
@aCuteLittleBox I never really care too much about names, so I am not the right person to answer this.
I do however see how using the same acronym would also offer us a chance to reach people who use that acronym.
maloki π΅
On that note! If you have some resources easily available about anti-racist and anti-fascist, intersectional and feminist work done in the tech space, feel free to throw it my way.
I will do some research soon too (thank you lazy web).
Both within and outside of Open Source is welcome!
tessa
@maloki
count me in.
dunno what your vision is, dunno what the ultimate goal is, but centreism is (at best) passively toxic.
and open source, for me, is intrinsically an act of status-quo rebellion and marginalized group cooperation.
what do you want to build, and how can we, as a community, make the environment around the code aggressively supportive of (not just our own) minorities in meaningful ways?
maloki π΅
@eryn I think today I'll start with just receiving comments on this post, and boosting them, and letting other voices than mine talk among each other about this.
And I'll see what consensus I find it that.
maloki π΅
I also want it to be inclusive of Trans people, and sex workers since both is sometimes missing in Feminism. ( :trebuchet: TERFs and SWERFs)
Sandrockcstm 9000
@maloki I don't know if I'll end up in the FOSS/FLOSS space when I land work, but I'm willing to commit to this both in terms of any work I do in the space as well as any projects I use/support.
Ian Brown
@maloki hell yeah hell yeah let's do this
maloki π΅
And I do not see myself, as a white woman who's made way too many mistakes, lead this. I can participate by organization, and build some enthusiasm.
I do see a lot lovely nd., poc folx in our space here, who I'd love to see help lead this kinda of thing.
kiki
@maloki alright! I can dig out some research later today. For trans/nb perspectives, check the work by Os Keyes. Will reply later with the rest!
maloki π΅
@Kiki πβ€οΈ
Laurelai Bailey
@maloki https://mastodon.starrevolution.org/@Laurelai/102306253683237339 yo
βοΈβοΈβοΈ pnathan βοΈβοΈβοΈ
FOSS is full stop corporate ware. MIT/Apache licensing. K8s very good example here.
Libre is very definitely anti capitalist in spirit. GPL licensing. Very much IME white college guy territory. Call it the DSA problem ( I say this as a DS member, heh).
Dan Arel :verified:
@maloki hell yes
maloki π΅
@measlytwerp @yaaps @pnathan @vfrmedia I truly just want to decolonize this space though. So no new acronym, as it will defeat the purpose. Maybe?
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
@maloki @measlytwerp @yaaps @pnathan
there is more a need for social change amongst the people who are already involved in tech than any more new acronyms (which collide with other existing ones especially in different countries, for instance DSA mentioned here was what we called the old govt agency which administered driving tests..
maloki π΅
@measlytwerp @yaaps @pnathan @vfrmedia No I just want us to be better _within FLOSS_
maloki π΅
@measlytwerp @yaaps @pnathan @vfrmedia That's the target audience I want to reach. Which will by extension possibly also become more inviting to other people.
yaaps - yeet another AP server
@maloki @measlytwerp @pnathan @vfrmedia
eg - Freedom is political. In as much as the core values of FLOSS are user freedom and the right to self actualization, the movement fails many. Income inequality in open source software is worse than other forms of labor. Meritocracy is a lie that brings the injustice of the world into our movement. To correct this, we must prize the contributions of all and prioritize compensation to those most at risk
maloki π΅
@BunnyHearted thank you. I mean we got to start somewhere.
I've been involved with foss/floss and some hacktivism since 10 years, and coming in as a woman I think I was lucky with which space I came in to, as I've mostly been allowed to thrive.
We'll see where this takes us, I have some folks (and con organisers) I'm going to reach out to, once this becomes a more solid idea.
maloki π΅
@Antanicus
I mean, yeah, I know. But I'm going to look for allies first, and go from there. Doesn't have to be all at once, but we will spoon our way forward to make a change.
@BunnyHearted
maloki π΅
@Antanicus yeah! I got it, kind of. I just wanted to emphasize what my thoughts are.
maloki π΅
@BunnyHearted hahaha, I know right.
kiki
@maloki Hi and sorry for the delay. I can recommend the CHI conference, for example from 2018 the papers from the sessions "Stay Safe Out There", "Methods and research with diverse Communities", "Civic Engagement", "Gender", or from CHI 2019 "Privacy and Sensitive Personal Data ", "Gender", or "Makers and Streamers". If it's a "paper session", there is written research of it. Message me if you need access to any papers!
maloki π΅
@bort in regards to this I'm thinking bigger than just Fediverse though.
I'm thinking about doing work in all the open source / #floss communities we have people willing and or interested in doing the work.
That said I wouldn't want us to spread too thin. But support each other where we can.
And also see what's already out there, which women's groups are already doing legwork, which PoC are already doing the leg work, are the organized? How do we help. Etc.
maloki π΅
@WAHa_06x36 then we'll do it for them!
π
maloki π΅
@WAHa_06x36 baby steps, spooning our way forward
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