Notices by Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz), page 10

In summary, it was an honour and a privilege to be part of the efforts by #CreativeCommonsAotearoaNZ (now #Tohatoha) and #NZOSS to bring NZGOAL and its Software Extension into existence, and to contribute to the consultations on them. Now that we have a new, more public-spirited government, it's time to start campaigning for 2.0 versions that maximize public access to publicly-funded works *and* their derivatives.

I'd still prefer a #copyleft license (GPL, LGPL, or AGPL as appropriate) to be the default recommendation. I don't see why we ought to allow companies to build proprietary software on top of publicly-funded #FreeCode. Why not oblige them to make their source code available to their users, and allow their fixes and addition to be incorporated back into the upstream versions maintained by public service agencies or open source communities?

The situation in NZGOAL Software Edition is somewhat better. Public service agencies are advised to license any modifications to an existing codebase under the license the upstream codebase uses, even when they're not legally obliged to (ie a non-copyleft license). When licensing new software, they're advised to use either #GPL (v3+) or "#MIT", and to consider #LGPL or #AGPL where appropriate.

Sadly, and perhaps because of the political circumstances, the default suggested in NZGOAL is #CCBY. This laissez-faire license means, for example, that map companies can sell corrected maps based on the publicly-funded NZ map data shared under CC BY by #LINZ (Land Information New Zealand), but LINZ would need to ask permission to incorporate those map corrections back into the public dataset (used in #OpenStreetMap). This is something I'd like to see fixed, by changing the default to #CCBYSA.

During the NZGOAL consultation process, I argued that the appropriate default license to recommend would be #CCBYSA. When any work is created at public expense, its public service maintainers ought to be allowed improve it by incorporating any fixes or additions made in derivative versions, especially commercial derivatives. I argued for GPL as the default license recommendation for NZGOAL-SE, for the same reason. As did #NZOpenSourceSociety President Dave Lane.

Does anyone know of a data visualization tool into which I could enter a dataset about a piece of government spending, and have it visualized as a flow chart showing what the entity that received the bulk funding did with. Who received funds from the entity that received it from the government? Who did they pay it out to, and so on. Ideally in a way that an investigative journalist could add to the dataset over time, as they research something.

@emacsen The #CodeOfConduct approach is better than ignoring the problem of exclusion altogether. But it doesn't solve the underlying problem of exclusion, it just changes the location and mechanics of the exclusion barrier. I've never seen CoCs as more than a stopgap, and I've long argued for a '#WelcomingSpaces' approach, as a replacement for Safer Spaces Policing. I think the Kind Communication Guidelines are a great contribution by Stallman, perhaps his most important one since the #GNU GPL.

"In the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines announcement, RMS explicitly states that diversity is not a goal of his."
- @emacsen
https://blog.emacsen.net/blog/2018/10/19/gkcg-is-bad/

If you look at the whole quote, this totally misrepresents what Stallman is saying, which is about diversity within "a specific free software project". In other words, if a project has one developer, who happens to be a straight, white man, nothing is gained by trying to shoehorn gay, POC, or female developers into that project.

"I disagree with making "diversity" a goal. If the developers in a specific free software project do not include demographic D, I don't think that the lack of them as a problem that requires action; there is no need to scramble desperately to recruit some Ds. Rather, the problem is that if we make demographic D feel unwelcome, we lose out on possible contributors. And very likely also others that are not in demographic D."
- #RichardStallman
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2018-10/msg00001.html

@AmarOk do you know what's happening with the #Ring #PPA with the name change to #Jami? Do I need to change to a new PPA? If so, do I need to uninstall, and reinstall?

#ProTip before you start a long session online, put an album of music on. Not a playlist, just one album. Ideally one about 40-45 minutes long. When that album finishes, the sudden silence gives you a "kick" (like in #Inception) that lets you know you've been online for a long time, and it's time to take a break.

> In their writing on homelessness, social psychologist Devon Price has said that "laziness,” at least in the way most of us generally conceive of it, simply does not exist. “If a person’s behavior doesn’t make sense to you,” they write, “it is because you are missing a part of their context. It’s that simple.”
- Anne Helen Petersen
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anneh

"In recent years, new scientific research has demonstrated the “massive cognitive load” on those who are financially insecure. Living in poverty is akin to losing 13 IQ points."
- Anne Helen Petersen
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work

@lain do the DMs between #Mastodon and #Pleroma conform to the AP spec? What I mean is, If AppX implemented the AP spec in full, would users on an instance of AppX be able to send DMs to users on Mastodon and Pleroma instances and vice-versa?

@LPS my understanding is that Taler can only work for people with an account at a bank that runs the part Taler that runs at the bank end. Finding more banks (#CreditUnions) willing to do that would be a great help. Figuring out how to integrate the post that runs at the vendor end into a branch of F-Droid would be immensely helpful. Even as a way of supplementing the existing donation mechanism in F-Droid that would be useful (as banks start to support it)
@adfeno

#ShowerThoughts It would be cool if there was a fork of #FDroid where users could pay for an app, maybe using GNU Taler? Maybe we could install them gratis for a trial period, then when it ends, we're given the choice to either pay or uninstall.

I wonder if #Bitmessage protocol could be used to implement offline text messages in #GNU #Ring?
https://github.com/Bitmessage

The #FSF is charging US$60-$120 a year for an "associate membership". That's a pretty decent chunk of change, but it comes with a free email address (forwarded to the email address of your choice), access to an #XMPP service (server? account? both?), free entry to #LibrePlanet, and more. It's one way folks can make sure the FSF is funded by its supporters, not "friendly" corporations.
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/membership/double-your-support-of-the-fsf-give-the-gift-of-membership-get-a-10k-match

New #Disintermedia blog post; 'An Open Letter to Not-for-Profit Projects on Your Choice of CreativeCommons License':
https://www.coactivate.org/projects/disintermedia/blog/2018/12/19/an-open-letter-to-not-for-profit-projects-on-your-choice-of-creativecommons-license/

TL;DR please use the latest version of #CC BY-SA unless there's a good reason not to.

It just occurred to me that it might be useful to run #Testathon events, where groups of geeks *and* average users gather for 24-48 hours to test as many of the available #FreeCode apps in a certain category as possible, (eg decision-making, or voice/video chat), and put together a report on their conclusions. Is this a thing?