No billionnaires at FOSDEM

@onepict passed on this quite funny blog article by Drew Devault of SourceHut fame, who visited OFFDEM at least once. In his call denouncing the keynote speaker (also main sponsor of this year’s FOSDEM), No billionaires at FOSDEM, he’s calling for billionaire funding of free software:

In my view, billionaires are not welcome at FOSDEM. If billionaires want to participate in FOSS, I’m going to ask them to refrain from using our platforms to talk about their AI/blockchain/bitcoin/climate-disaster-as-a-service grifty business ventures, and instead buy our respect by, say, donating 250 million dollars to NLNet or the Sovereign Tech Fund.

Why or? :offdem: Since free software funding is the main topic of this year’s OFFDEM, there’s certainly value in considering that sort of contribution… He continues with:

That figure, as a percentage of Dorsey’s wealth, is proportional to the amount of money I donate to FOSS every year, by the way.

If Jack Dorsey would donate $250 million to free software every year, certainly that would make a valuable recognition of his debt to the Ruby language and all the free software that he made a fortune on. But would it really compensate for all the assholiness Drew describes in this article? I think not. Billionaire money, although certainly long due for redistribution[1], should not be a way of passage downwards through the glass ceiling. They can look down upon us all they want, they’ll never be part of us, because what makes us, us, is not something that can be bought.

He then calls on FOSDEM attendees to… stage a protest:

I do not want to platform Jack Dorsey on this stage. To that end, I am organizing a sit-in, in which I and anyone who will join me are going to sit ourselves down on the Janson stage during his allocated time slot and peacefully prevent the talk from proceeding as scheduled. We will be meeting at 11:45 AM outside of Janson, 15 minutes prior to Dorsey’s scheduled time slot. Once the stage is free from the previous speaker, we will sit on the stage until 12:30 PM. Bring a good book. If you want to help organize this sit-in, or just let me know that you intend to participate, please contact me via email; I’ll set up a mailing list if there’s enough interest in organizing things like printing out pamphlets to this effect, or even preparing an alternative talk to “schedule” in his slot.

As @onepict replied:

I won’t be there. But if you’re going there anyway perhaps join Drew de Vault at the sit-in?

Think of it as an opening taster for #OFFDEM

We won’t be there, since we’re busy elsewhere working with people who need the tech to resist the sort of investments Drew is mentioning in his article, but as a network that started as a form of protest against FOSDEM sponsoring and funding ties to non-free software sources, we should definitely support this sit-in. If some FOSDEM attendees can send some pictures our way (via the Fediverse for example), we’ll be cheering!

:offdem:

Oh, and since Drew mentions bringing a book, I invite you to bring Synware: free software syndicates to think along with us what it means to organize as a class of software producers who can change the world.


  1. I’m all in favour of capping individual and shareholder wealth to some 1:10 across the whole of humanity, as it would certainly redraw the cards and put an end to most exploitation. ↩︎

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Im not entirely sure the dynamics of waiting outside the room to then march in at the allotted time to obstruct the talk.

I will not be surprised that:

  • the hall will be either full, thereby impeding more classical approaches to enter (to facilitate the protest)
  • goons/volunteers obstruct the protestors from entering the hall.

FWIW, on the topic of Politics at that event, I shall be (briefly) picking on Ronald Reagan (during my talk on Contraint Logic Programming).

The hook? This Astrology computer:
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746921

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This whole thing is reminding me that while we were writing the CFP with @natacha last summer I came up with the idea to hold a rally from the FOSDEM to the OFFDEM. But I feel like we will be busy enough with working within our already large and messy enough groups ^^

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If there are people coming to the Friday night party, willing to go to FOSDEM for the sit-in, we could hand a box of Synware books.

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As a last reply I wrote this:

Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest community of them all?
FOSDEM and Billionaire Fascists

Once upon a time in a land far away there was a FOSS Conference…

https://www.onepict.com/20250119-cobbles.html

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You may be changing the way quotes are looking, since it’s difficult to understand who is speaking at times, but super thanks for the very welcome summary.

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Yeah I need to add some emphasis for block quotes in my CSS.

It’s clearer in reader mode

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I got curious about what 1:10 might look like.
If participant wealth would be limited to 10x global media wealth (“some 1:10 across the whole humanity”), most Europeans owning their own home could not participate anymore, as already €90k is more than that limit, while simultaneously being below the median adult wealth of multiple EU countries.

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If wealth was so much redistributed, homes would be cheap to afford because they would not be on a market, but be a right – as is written in the law. You cannot think about 1:10 from a market perspective, it won’t work.

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Totally agree with you about that being a world worth striving for

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