Should social.coop have a FOSSY presence?
Sam Whited
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Hi all,
As some of you may know, FOSSY is a new open source software and technology conference coming to Portland, OR on July 13th through the 16th. Talk submissions are due by May 14th (so sorry for the last minute notice) and there is a co-operative track this year!
Though the track is mostly focused on software co-op consultancies and the like, I think it would be great if we wanted to discuss social.coop and the platform co-op model; maybe how we handle governance or moderation? Something else?
Would anyone be interested in going and doing a talk?
If so, let's discuss some possible talks (or just go ahead and submit them and let us know!), or how we can put something together! We can list multiple speakers if multiple social.coop members are going too.
A description of the co-op track can be found here: https://2023.fossy.us/pages/tracks/#coops
Sam Whited Fri 5 May 2023 3:55PM
@Sam yah, FWIW the only reason I'm able to go (if one of my talks is accepted) is that an organization is sponsoring me to give the talk, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it. However, at previous conferences I've spoken at I've just showed up for my talk and not bought a ticket or gone to the rest of the conference (some people are always unhappy about this, so it might be worth asking in advance if that's okay if you don't want to spend the money but still want to give a talk)
Aaron Wolf Fri 5 May 2023 7:12PM
FWIW, I'm in the Portland area and was noting the conference as interesting. As 100% of my time in FLO is already volunteer time, I hesitate to spend much on conferences, and volunteering isn't feasible right now. I'm tempted to swing by if there are any open public events or meetups happening around the conference…
I don't think the co-op track is directly relevant since it seems focused on worker co-ops that produce FLO software rather than ones that offer service to users of FLO software…
Benjamin Mako Hill Sat 6 May 2023 1:02AM
I am planning on attending and organizing a track on research (although not in a primary role). I would love to connect to other folks from social.coop and I would be happy to support any efforts that folks from the instance would like to organize in whatever I can as long as it doesn't conflict with my other obligations to the tracks I've already set up.
Sam · Fri 5 May 2023 3:38PM
Hi Sam, I was wondering if the cost was worth the attendance as an individual, but if social.coop intends to have some formal attendance, I would be much more interested in going. I won't be speaking however. Thanks for bringing this forward for discussion!
In support of FOSSY, I argue that social.coop has an interest in the future of free software and its preservation. Therefore, social.coop should consider holding a presence at this conference and make a concerted effort to advocate for our use case in such conferences, especially in spaces that align with the spirit of the project.