Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why DebConf Spent So Much Money on Travel Expenses Last Year

Agents Of Change



Summary: One reader of ours, who has inside/deeper knowledge, suggests that political endeavours rather than technical endeavours are partly to blame for massive increase in travel-related spendings

THIS morning we published a reader's concern about DebConf spendings. She worried that the Debian Project was overspending and not disclosing the reasons. She also suspects that a corporate-led coup is in motion, but her efforts to understand it fell short.



It did not take long for another reader to clarify things to us, calling it "bribes for bribes?"

“Debian in turn uses the money to bribe participants...”
      --Anonymous
"Saw your post about DebConf sponsors bribing Debian," said the reader. "Why would anybody in Debian worry about that though? Debian in turn uses the money to bribe participants..."

Maybe "bribe" is too strong a term, but this is what we call it every time Microsoft pays Debian (whilst also attacking Debian).

"After all the work some Debian volunteers did in the Balkans," our reader explained, "they decided to fly all the women from Kosovo and Albania to Brazil for DebConf19. You can find them in the published photo albums.

“Many of these women hadn't actually made any contributions as developers, it has been suggested they were brought to DebConf for political reasons.”
      --Anonymous
"Some had been to DebConf18 too but they really took this to extremes with DebConf19.

"That could be one reason why the travel spending was more than double in the last report. Many of these women hadn't actually made any contributions as developers, it has been suggested they were brought to DebConf for political reasons.

"Maybe "bribe" is too strong a term, but this is what we call it every time Microsoft pays Debian (whilst also attacking Debian).""Some or all of these women were taken aside one-by-one and encouraged to betray the volunteers who helped them get started in free software. The only thing is, there was nothing bad for them to say.

“The message going out to these young women is very clear: these holidays have strings attached.”
      --Anonymous
"Not long after that, one of the women was given an Outreachy internship too. Some of them feel very uncomfortable about being used like this.

"The message going out to these young women is very clear: these holidays have strings attached. Fortunately women from the Balkans are not stupid."

Recent Techrights' Posts

It's Cheaper to Pay Bribes (and Produce Press Releases) Than to Pay Fines (After Lots of Negative Publicity)
Does the UK still have real sovereignty or do corporations from overseas purchase decisions and outcomes?
November 2023 Over With GNU/Linux at All-Time Highs According to statCounter
ChromeOS+GNU/Linux combined are about 7% of the "market"
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
UK Government Allowing Microsoft to Take Over Activision Blizzard Will Destroy Jobs
Over 30,000 fired this year? More?
New Report Provides Numerical Evidence That Google Hired Too Many People From Microsoft (and Became Malicious, Evil, Sociopathic)
"Some 12,018 former Microsoft employees currently work for the search and data giant"
Google: Keep Out, Don't Save Your Files, and Also Let Us Spy on Everything You Do
Do you still trust "clown" storage?
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 30, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, November 30, 2023
Links 01/12/2023: Many Suppressions in Hong Kong and Attempts to Legitimise Illegal and Unconstitutional Fake Patent 'Court' in EU (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Not Deflated Yet (Soon Turning 5!)
Gemini numbers still moving up, the protocol will turn five next summer
Links 30/11/2023: Belated End of Henry Kissinger and 'Popular Science' Shuts Online Magazine
Links for the day
Site Priorities and Upcoming Improvements
pages are served very fast
[Meme] One Person, Singular Pronoun
Abusing people into abusing the English language is very poor diplomacy
Ending Software Patents in Recent Years (Software Freedom Fighters MIA)
not a resolved issue
New Article From Richard Stallman Explains Why He Says He and She for Unknown Person (Not 'They')
"Nowadays I use gender-neutral singular pronouns for a person whose gender I don't know"
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 30/11/2023: Rushing Patent Cases With Shorter Trial Scheme (STS), Sanctions Not Working
Links for the day
Links 30/11/2023: Google Purging Many Accounts and Content (to Save Money), Finland Fully Seals Border With Russia
Links for the day
Lookout, It's Outlook
Outlook is all about the sharing!
Updated A Month Ago: Richard Stallman on Software Patents as Obstacles to Software Development
very recent update
The 'Smart' Attack on Power Grid Neutrality (or the Wet Dream of Tiered Pricing for Power, Essentially Punishing Poorer Households for Exercising Freedom Like Richer Households)
The dishonest marketing people tell us the age of disservice and discrimination is all about "smart" and "Hey Hi" (AI) as in algorithms akin to traffic-shaping in the context of network neutrality
Links 29/11/2023: VMware Layoffs and Too Many Microsofters Going Inside Google
Links for the day
Is BlueMail a Client of ZDNet Now?
Let's examine what BlueMail does to promote itself
Just What LINUX.COM Needed After Over a Month of Inactivity: SPAM SPAM SPAM (Linux Brand as a Spamfarm)
It's not even about Linux
Microsoft “Discriminated Based on Sexuality”
Relevant, as they love lecturing us on "diversity" and "inclusion"...
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 28, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 28, 2023