Mise à jour de la base de données, veuillez patienter...

Sometimes, all of your best-laid plans can go awry, and when COVID-19 collided with LibrePlanet 2020, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) staff and management had to make an incredibly tough decision: how were we to weigh the risk of a spreading pandemic against our most important yearly event? Within the space of a week, we had to change course from months of scrupulous planning and figure out how to ensure that our carefully-composed program could move forward, giving the worldwide free software community access to the experts, creators, and enthusiasts we had planned to bring together in Boston. We were incredibly excited to present this slate of free software luminaries and newcomers, all eager to discuss what it will take to "Free the Future," and we weren't about to let all of that effort go to waste.

Thankfully, free software activists aren't afraid of a little adversity, and are accustomed to taking on challenges. In only a few days, we fully shifted gears to deliver the LibrePlanet 2020 program remotely, with online talks streaming in from all over the world. We're so grateful to our speakers, who have been so flexible, and to the last-minute benefactors that volunteered to help fill any gaps that might ensue. All this allowed us to present you with a nearly full program for the event!

Usually the FSF office is packed to the seams with visitors from all over the world during our Friday night open house and our Saturday night hack night. While we had to discourage all visitors and volunteers from coming due to the COVID-19 risk, the office was still bustling all day, since it served as the home base for our online conference operation. Our intrepid copyright and licensing associate Craig Topham made a deep clean of the "pirate room," and the tech team worked practically overnight on our fully free streaming setup for 2020. The conference was brought to viewers around the world using entirely free software: our local Jitsi instance, Gstreamer and Icecast.

Today's program kicked off with a panel calculated to line up perfectly with the conference theme: the "Free the Future" keynote panel featured a group of talented hackers in their teens and early twenties, interviewed by FSF campaigns manager Greg Farough. Speakers Alyssa Rosenzweig, Taowa, and Erin Moon each shared stories of how they discovered free software, and shared insights they feel are essential to the future of the free software movement.

Alyssa, who interned at the FSF in 2018, spoke eloquently about how important it is for our community to come together: "We cannot let fear of future dystopia drive us, quibbling over semantics of our fear and burning out by the fires we chase, but rather must unite in constructive optimism propelling us to free the future." She added, "Optimism is also critical for we free software activists. We need to empathize and support each other as a community, not demonize imperfections. Measured against our dream utopia, none of us are perfect. Judging others is emotional mutiny to the movement. Judging ourselves, however, is a one-way ticket to activist burnout. But if we focus on the constructive love of freedom instead of the destructive forces we fight, our movement becomes sustainable..."

The morning's conversation turned on a variety of topics, including free software community building, mobile phone freedom, and the unique role decentralized (or "federated") social media plays when it comes to bringing users freedom. Taowa shared his experiences as a non-uploading Debian Developer, discussing the challenges of organizing Debian's own conference, DebConf. Erin, who came to free software by way of her work in digital signal processing, had special insights to share on how free software is poised to being people freedom on the Web.

The first morning session started on an creative note with a lesson in "Digital painting with Krita on GNU/Linux: Cute creature concept art" from French cartoonist David Revoy, whose Web comic Pepper&Carrot is created with an entirely free workflow. Revoy demonstrated the capabilities of the free software painting program Krita to draw two adorable GNU from start to finish. Other sessions were a presentation by journalist Lucy Ingham called "Rented future: The dangerous rise of life as a service," and an expert overview of free software in the US government by Karen Johnson and Fen Labalme.

In the next session, online viewers chose between learning about encryption with engineer DeeDee Lavinder, about free software community building in the US versus China with artist and programmer Giselle Jhunjhnuwala, and methods for educating students about the importance of ethical software with William Liggett. DeeDee gave viewers a crash course into the "huge topic" of encryption, which touches the lives of every software user, providing technical and non-technical users alike with a conceptual overview of free software encryption technology and its importance.

After a brief lunch break, sessions resumed with more lessons about free software communities from developer advocate JJ Asghar, a visit to the fascinating world of typography with Felipe Sanches, and a passionate motivation for broader use of free software from local high school student Ben O'Neill, who correctly points out that free software provides a far more environmentally sustainable model for computing than the "planned obsolescence" model embraced by most proprietary manufacturers.

The next time slot lined up a choice of interesting questions for online participants: would you prefer to learn about how copyleft can be used to disrupt the "smart device" dystopia from former FSF executive director Bradley Kuhn. Or, would you prefer to find out how free software can improve the future of farming, with a dynamic panel from the Gathering for Open Ag Tech (goatech.org)? Or, would you prefer a freewheeling metaphor comparing bicycles and free software, from perennial LibrePlanet speaker Wm "Salt" Hale? (Luckily, if you were having trouble deciding, you don't have to miss out on any of these -- videos of all of these talks will be available at the LibrePlanet video library).

Talks in the next session got down to practical nuts and bolts: where is free software being used in real life, and by whom? Robb Ebright explained how his community radio station uses LibreTime, an AGPLv3-licensed radio automation system, while Paul Gazillo and Joshua Santana explained how free software provides the best tools to enable free scientific inquiry, and Camille Akmut presented their study of exactly how diverse free software projects are (and aren't). All in all, it was an engaging look into the practical "future" of free software: both in terms of how we can welcome an ever-changing userbase into the community, as well as how free software can be used to transmit other kinds of messages out to the world.

The last multi-talk slot of the day included LibrePlanet 2019 keynote Micky Metts digging deeper into her thoughts on how we can control our own data, Document Foundation co-founder Italo Vignoli taking a look back at ten years in the life of LibreOffice. Micky painted a somewhat frightening picture about the future surveillance capitalism is creating for us -- and what we can and must do to stop it. On the other hand, Italo gave an overview of the successes the LibreOffice project has seen in such a short time, becoming a free software writing and presentation suite used by millions around the world.

Finally, the day ended with a keynote by FSF executive director John Sullivan, including the bestowal of the 2019 Free Software Awards. The winners had already been notified in advance (under ordinary circumstances, they would have been present and would each be giving a talk on Sunday). This gave the FSF the opportunity to praise the accomplishments of the three winners: longtime free software contributor and author Jim Meyering, talented newbie Clarissa Lima Borges, and the Let's Encrypt project. Each winner chose the person who would present them with the award. In fact, reaching out to the community is something we plan to do even more as we move forward with LibrePlanet 2021.

In his keynote address following the award presentation ceremony, Sullivan announced the beginning of a new working group on free software communication technology. True to the conference's mission to "free the future," this working group will combine the free software acumen of the FSF with experts working in the related fields. Together, the working group will identify and publicly document the most pressing issues facing the freedom of person-to-person communication, with the goal of having ethical solutions to virtual events, online education, and workplace collaboration. In a situation like the present COVID-19 pandemic, these are precisely the tools that we need.

This year's volunteering tasks were very different but no less essential than in the past, and we're so grateful for all of the volunteers helping out and taking the time to keep our IRC channels peaceful and orderly. We're also grateful for raffle donors Technoethical, Vikings, JMP, No Starch Press, and ThinkPenguin. Since we weren't able to organize an online raffle, we're scheming some fun ways to parcel out these goodies, so keep an eye on fsf.org for future announcements!

Join us for the second day of LibrePlanet 2020, streaming live to you tomorrow at 09:30 EDT!

It's been a bumpy road, but in just three days, LibrePlanet 2020 will continue -- now online-only for the first time, and via a fully free streaming setup. We are excited to hear from our fantastic speakers and connect with the global free software community. Read on to see how you can participate!

All in-person events canceled and discouraged

As a reminder, we have canceled all in-person events associated with LibrePlanet 2020. This includes the "extracurricular" events like the FSF office open house, as well as the women and nonbinary dinner.

In the interest of everyone's health, even if you are in Boston, we ask that you don't visit the FSF office unless you make specific advance arrangements with us (such as for streaming your talk). We normally pride ourselves on welcoming visitors year-round, so this is hard for us too, but we appreciate your understanding. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to write to campaigns@fsf.org.

How to watch online

Our tech team will be working tirelessly during the entire conference to make the online experience of the event as smooth as possible. Bookmark the libreplanet.org/2020/live page as your starting point.

The schedule for the online conference will be sticking as closely to the original schedule as possible, with some variation due to speaker availability and technical requirements -- only this time, instead of speaking from Boston, talks will be delivered from all over the "libre" planet! Thankfully, barring any last-minute complications, we still anticipate our three exciting keynote speeches, with presentations by Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, Public Lab co-founder Shannon Dosemagen, and a panel of young hackers talking about their interpretations of the conference's "Free the Future" theme. You also won't want to miss the announcement of this year's Free Software Award winners on Saturday evening.

Please note that the United States has just transitioned into Daylight Saving Time (DST), which may have put us an hour further away from your region. All times listed in the schedule are given in terms of the UTC−04:00 timezone.

Audience participation

As in past years, remote participation will be facilitated via the timeless IRC communication platform, but our plans are expanding this year, as we expect increased virtual participation from both viewers and speakers. IRC will enable you to mingle with other LibrePlanet participants, and will allow even more attendees to participate in each session's Q&A section, since an FSF staff member or volunteer will be present for every session to collect questions from the chat, and relay them to our speakers (assuming the speaker provides time for questions). FSF staff and volunteers will also be present to ensure that the online conference adheres to the Safe Space Policy.

As people have already become familiar with them and to prevent any confusion, we are keeping the planned channel names, which were named for the rooms in the venue we had intended to use. After all, everyone can appreciate "freedom!"

You can participate in the LibrePlanet IRC chat by joining one of the following channels, all on the Freenode network.

• General: #libreplanet
• Back Bay Grand Ballroom: #libreplanet_room_grand
• Patriot Room: #libreplanet_room_patriot
• Freedom Room: #libreplanet_room_freedom

Lightning talks

One good thing about moving the conference to cyberspace is the increased opportunity it gives us for lightning talks! We'll be able to accept prerecorded lightning talks this year, giving you an opportunity to give the world a (brief!) introduction to your favorite free software project, or your free software-related ideas and obsessions.

Lightning talks can be submitted following the instructions we posted. In order to ensure that our schedule stays on track, you must keep your talk below five minutes in length. To keep LibrePlanet memorable and engaging, we also ask that any prerecorded talks be videos that were recorded for the purpose of LibrePlanet streaming, and not be videos of talks you have given at other conferences or events.

Social media

Are you on GNU social, Mastodon, Diaspora, or another microblogging platform? Please post I'm watching #LibrePlanet online! at https://u.fsf.org/live, and share your experience.

We will be posting continual updates throughout both days of the conference. Follow the Free Software Foundation on these microblog services:

• GNU social at status.fsf.org/fsf
  
• Mastodon at @fsf@hostux.social
  
• fsf@framasphere.org on Diaspora
  

You can also find us on Twitter at twitter.com/fsf -- to read about why we use Twitter, but only with caveats, see fsf.org/twitter.

Support the FSF by buying LibrePlanet T-shirts and other gear

We're going to have to forego the famous GNU Press merchandise table this year, but you'll still be able to order as many shirts, scarves, books, and sundry items as you like from the FSF's online shop. From there, you can get your souvenir shirt commemorating the first ever fully online LibrePlanet. If you have pre-purchased a LibrePlanet 2020 T-shirt, expect to hear from us soon. Your purchases are key to funding LibrePlanet and the rest of the FSF's work.

In previous years, you've also been able to buy raffle tickets at the GNU Press table to win great freedom-respecting prizes. While we won't be able to hold a raffle online, we will be announcing prize giveaways next week. Stay tuned!

Requesting a registration fee refund

If you're not an FSF associate member, it's likely that you paid for a conference registration. Before requesting a refund, we ask that you keep in mind that the FSF is a nonprofit with a social mission, and canceling an event the size of LibrePlanet places a large financial and administrative burden on us. Please consider using the price of your admission as a donation to the FSF to show your support.

At the same time, we understand that the conference you paid to attend is no longer happening in the same way. If you would like to request a refund, please email your request to info@fsf.org

We look forward to seeing you online at this year's LibrePlanet!

It is with deep sadness that we are canceling all of the in-person events associated with LibrePlanet 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and our corresponding concern for the safety of this community. This includes the conference sessions on March 14 and 15, and all Free Software Foundation (FSF)-organized social events on March 13, 14, and 15.

However, just because we won't be holding a conference in person this year doesn't mean that we've given up our fight to "free the future." Instead, LibrePlanet will be a fully free (as in freedom) virtual conference and livestream. We had an extremely exciting program planned, and we're going to try and maintain as much of that schedule as possible with all of the speakers who are willing and able to participate remotely. The resulting livestream will be run on and entirely accessible via free software, so that you can enjoy these amazing talks from the comfort of your home.

With our small staff and the immense amount of other work to be done for free software this year, we decided that rescheduling to later this year would not be feasible, and that a virtual conference would be much more valuable.

We changed our plans since our announcement last week because, over the weekend, the number of presumptive coronavirus cases reported in Massachusetts grew to 40. We also have been receiving a steady flow of speaker and attendee cancellations, indicating concern. The continuous spread of the virus, the daily changes to the situation, and its confirmed growth in the Boston area all made it impossible for us to sufficiently guarantee people's safety attending the event. With this issue out of the way, we can now focus all of our energy to deliver the best possible version of the event online.

This decision has not been made lightly; the financial costs already incurred in terms of money and staff time are a heavy burden on the organization. We ask you for your understanding, and to please consider making a donation to the FSF, especially as we move forward with our plans to bring the conference to thousands of virtual participants around the world. To those whose travel plans were disrupted, please accept our apologies.

More information will be forthcoming. For now, please follow the World Health Organization guidelines about keeping safe during this difficult time. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding.

International Women’s Day is coming up this Sunday, March 8, and it’s the perfect opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of some of the amazing women in free software we’ll be featuring at the LibrePlanet 2020 conference, coming up next weekend (March 14-15). As you’ll see, many women are doing exciting and important work that ties into our "Free the Future" theme, demonstrating how free software has the potential to unlock a better future for us all, and building projects that will help us get there.

If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, we encourage you to register today. Registration is possible online until March 10, 10:00 a.m Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Walk-in registration is also normally possible, but we can't guarantee it. Plus, registering in advance helps us anticipate how many people to expect! And remember: if you are a student or a Free Software Foundation (FSF) associate member, you can attend the conference gratis.

With that said: as we recently announced, we’re proud to be welcoming Public Lab co-founder Shannon Dosemagen as one of our keynote speakers. Protecting the planet -- whatever that might mean to you -- is of increasing concern in the year 2020, so Shannon was a perfect fit for this year’s lineup: we know that the philosophy of the four freedoms has something special and crucial to offer every social movement. Her work demonstrates how both scientists and ordinary people can apply ethics inspired by the free software philosophy. As an environmental health advocate and community science champion, Shannon has a lot to say about how "freeing the future" will help to ensure that we have a future at all.

Another extraordinary activist will be kicking off the conference on Saturday morning as part of our initial keynote panel, featuring talented young free software developers: Alyssa Rosenzweig, a college student who interned at the FSF in 2018. She is currently studying Applied Mathematics at the University of Toronto, while also working at Collabora and leading the Panfrost project to build a free graphics stack for Mali GPUs. As you can see from her internship wrap-up post, her commitment and contributions to the free software movement are vast already, and we can’t wait to hear what insights she’ll be offering at the conference.

Another activist who has long kept her eyes trained on the future is Micky Metts, a worker/owner of Agaric (agaric.coop) and last year’s closing keynote speaker. Micky is a veteran of the free software movement and a perennial LibrePlanet speaker. Her work concentrates on the intersection of free software, platform cooperativism, technology networks, design justice, and cooperative development. Her talk, "Platform cooperativism, surveillance capitalism, predictive analysis, and you," will concentrate on how this work is our best hope to protect our data from surveillance and the increasingly Orwellian future she addressed in last year’s keynote.

Lucy Ingham is a comparative newcomer to the world of free software, but as a technology journalist zeroing in on how technology shapes the world we live in, she has spent a lot of time warning the world about the dangers of what she describes as the "Life as a Service (LaaS)" model. The abstract she submitted for her talk, "Rented future: The dangerous rise of life as a service" shares many themes with Cory Doctorow’s novella "Unauthorized Bread,", connecting that ominous near-future to the unsettling realities of the present.

These are only a few of the women who will be bringing their insights and their work to LibrePlanet 2020, and we hope you’ll join us to see them all, here in Boston next week!

LibrePlanet has an important role in building ties and collaboration in the free software movement, and we know how much many people look forward to it each year. The onset of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a stressful and devastating development. We are considering all possible measures that might need to be taken as we carefully track the latest news updates. We are committed to the safety of our attendees, staff, and their wider communities, so we are approaching these decisions carefully.

At this time, the risk for Massachusetts residents remains low, and there are no travel notifications for the United States or Boston, MA. The latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO) from February 29 continues to advise against the application of any international travel restrictions, based on current information available. For the time being, we are remaining optimistic that LibrePlanet 2020 can continue as planned.

We will continue to monitor public health notifications, using information provided by the City of Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the WHO, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is charged with monitoring and responding to the coronavirus in the US. We are coordinating with the venue to increase the disinfecting of surfaces and to have sanitizer on site. Please be assured that we care about your safety just as much as your freedom, and are taking every precaution to ensure that the event is as inspiring and successful as ever.

If you have traveled to an area known to be at risk to COVID-19 in the month leading up to LibrePlanet 2020, please ensure that you have shown no flu-like symptoms in the last 14 days since your travel to that region. If you decide to cancel your registration for any reason related to this situation, please let us know at campaigns@fsf.org, so we are fully aware of how many people are being affected. If your registration was paid, we will refund it. The event will be streamed live, so you will not have to miss out on the entire experience.

Should the situation worsen, forcing a cancellation of the in-person event, an announcement will follow on fsf.org and libreplanet.org/2020. All registered conference participants will receive an update via email. We are also preparing contingency plans to be able to offer at least some talks via remote streaming.

Please keep yourself informed, and remember to protect your own health and others' by following basic best practices. Again, we are taking every step that we can to make LibrePlanet 2020 a safe experience for all of its attendees.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.