Thinking about FOSS, systemically
E147 | Sat 15 Jul 3 p.m.–4 p.m.
Presented by
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Anna e só
https://friend.camp/@anna
Anna e só is one of the cool folks organizing Outreachy, a program that provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living. They wear many hats, but their main focus is studying, designing, implementing, and documenting organizational processes and information systems. Over the last couple of years, Anna has worked with (and learned from) the Wikimedia community, two Brazilian federal university laboratories (MediaLab/UFG, LAPPIS/UnB), and Open Collective. They take pride in offering open projects a unique point of view.
Anna e só
https://friend.camp/@anna
Abstract
The free software movement is not an isolated community—it exists within political, social, and economic systems. Its concepts, models, abstractions were and continue to be built through the cultural lenses of its founders and subsequent creators and maintainers; its structures were inherited from spaces inaccessible for many. To promote true transformation within the free software space, we need to avoid the traps of reductionism and dogmatism by adopting a new approach: systems thinking. We'll examine the problems with conventional thinking in FOSS, discussing how it fails the most vulnerable, and work towards new strategies for change.
The free software movement is not an isolated community—it exists within political, social, and economic systems. Its concepts, models, abstractions were and continue to be built through the cultural lenses of its founders and subsequent creators and maintainers; its structures were inherited from spaces inaccessible for many. To promote true transformation within the free software space, we need to avoid the traps of reductionism and dogmatism by adopting a new approach: systems thinking. We'll examine the problems with conventional thinking in FOSS, discussing how it fails the most vulnerable, and work towards new strategies for change.