Dr. Stallman Helps Establish Free Software Advocacy Outside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Well
The ideals or principles of Free Software needn't be centralised or monopolised; they can be federated
"Hi Dr. Schestowitz!" one avid volunteer who defends the tenets of Software Freedom told me some weeks ago, "I hope y'all have been well, and that the digital detox has been worthwhile."
This person knows we've been taking/allocating more time to spend offline and are working out more than ever before. He too has attempted the same. It seems trendy to go offline these days, as the media speaks of negative impacts of social control media and skinnerboxes.
"I've been working on my own screen-time habits lately too," he added, "and it has honestly made a noticeable difference for my mental health."
Life is not the Internet and the Internet isn't life. It's just some activity; there are many others. The latter can be more gratifying and pleasurable than scrolling on some skinnerbox or banging on a keyboard.
"I wanted to share a few updates since we last spoke," he proudly shared. "I've gotten more connected with people at the FSF, and they've been very welcoming so far! I was also invited to write an article for them about LibreTech for publication later this month - I'll be sure to send it your way once it's out."
We're ready for it; the "slow" Internet (where "engagement" isn't measured in seconds like in social control media) tends to be of higher quality and worth reading (like printed literature, not rage-bait and click-bait).
"I've also been working with Dr. Stallman on laying the groundwork for more LibreTech Collective chapters. We're getting LibreTech founding documents revised and corrected," he said.
Based on conversations I've had with others, Dr. Stallman is very busy improving the Web pages (also revising old articles) of GNU and other projects. He's "low-profile" about it, but he's busy despite the illness and old age.
In recent years, seeing the brigading and "cancel culture" on the Internet, Dr. Stallman (RMS) is keeping a bit more quiet, but not less active. The same is true for Linus Torvalds; he hardly does press interviews anymore, he doesn't bother with blogging either.
And "with RMS's feedback," we got told, "so that we only start this with the best materials possible! Thankfully it's all been nothing major, just typos and wording changes - nothing fundamentally flawed with us yet. Better still, this summer we'll have a group of two paid Georgia Tech students helping move that initiative forward."
"Dr. Young at Georgia Tech's Open Source Program Office helped create a new kind of incubator role for us through their summer internship program, so I'll be returning as a program leader and mentor with the goal of bringing more student led work into various free software projects. We're looking at GNU, Apereo, and some other stuff more local at Georgia Tech now to start with."
"That part matters to me for a specific reason. I've seen how easily "open source" gets treated as little more than a career stepping stone, and I want to help cultivate something better - not just participation, but a genuine understanding of software freedom and why our four freedoms matter."
When I coined the term "openwashing" around 2008 (maybe sooner) I didn't know the concepts associated with it would become so popular. Nowadays many people see and say the same. In fact, many people actively avoid the term "Open Source" because of that. This, to me, seems like a quiet (silent) win for RMS. The term meant to replace/override his message ("Open Source") became obsolete and stale. █