Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: The Linux Foundation (LF) is “Putting the CON in Conference!” (Part 2)

Back to "Con in Conference"... (part 1 here)

BIT Life Sciences
Reference: BIT Life Sciences



Summary: Calls for papers (CfP) and who gets to assess what's presented or what's not presented is a lesser-explored aspect, especially in this age when large corporate sponsors get to indirectly run entire 'community' events

THE Linux Foundation will occupy a growing amount of our time, space and attention. Readers contact us with pointers and information, which we are slow to process, analyse, and then verify. Our goal is to better understand what goes on behind the scenes, both commercially and bureaucratically. Personal relationships, as we have come to discover, play a considerable role. Some call it "nepotism", but it's actually a lot more complicated than this.



"Mozilla recently spoke out about the dangers of hiring programmers from Australia because of Australia's new draconian laws, which unequivocally mandate back doors."I recently came to realise that the Foundation, or LF for short (we try to abbreviate without confusing some readers), does not care about freedom, privacy etc. Not at all. Nothing. I saw it surfing the hype wave of listening devices (like Alexa) and participating in mass surveillance projects (disguised using marketing euphemisms such as "cloud", "edge", "bid data", "IoT" and so on). This is no laughing matter and we mentioned it some months ago in passing. For instance, I'm rather disturbed to see the growing role AT&T plays in the LF and I am rather disturbed to see the role Juniper (with NSA back doors and loads of Microsoft veterans at the top of the company) plays in LF and various 'FOSS' communities. These communities should know a danger when they see one. Mozilla recently spoke out about the dangers of hiring programmers from Australia because of Australia's new draconian laws, which unequivocally mandate back doors.

Whose agenda will be served at the LF? Usually, as the old saying goes, "follow the money..."

And that's rather scary.

"Some of my Notes," said the author of the first part, include notes about Juniper staff (we've removed all the names so as to exercise caution):




I noticed [name omitted/redacted] was working the Conference "circuit" as a volunteer at several conferences, responding to inquiries.

I thought - that was strange.

[Name omitted/redacted] was offering a webinar with [another name omitted/redacted] at (I believe) [third person's name omitted/redacted]'s lead for LibrePlanet 2018.

“I noticed [name omitted/redacted] was working the Conference "circuit" as a volunteer at several conferences, responding to inquiries.”
      --Anonymous
Also of note - [name omitted/redacted] wrote a LinuxJournal article several days prior to Libreplanet 2018. [An article saying proprietary software is OK]

I had previously emailed [another name omitted/redacted], regarding [name omitted/redacted] and how it seemed she was reviewing and selecting presentations at several conferences.

What I found disturbing is that [name omitted/redacted] was speaking but also involved in selecting of talks.

“What I found disturbing is that [name omitted/redacted] was speaking but also involved in selecting of talks. ”
      --Anonymous
[Another name omitted/redacted] - the [event] organizer, moved up the ranks and also was volunteering to do CfP.

[Another name omitted/redacted], when approached regarding [name omitted/redacted] and the possibility she was rigging the talks at conferences - told RMS (Richard Stallman) that [name omitted/redacted] was not evaluating talks.

Richard then came back to me about his concerns, I sent him the invitation to a webinar by [name omitted/redacted].

"Over time there seems to be less and less one is "permitted" to say in the so-called 'community'; condemnation of companies that do illegal things, for instance, may already be impermissible or "toxic"."It seems apparent that [another name omitted/redacted] covered up for [name omitted/redacted] and did not notify FSF staff. It wasn't until I approached RMS personally about [name omitted/redacted] that something was done. [name omitted/redacted] is now working for Juniper Networks or something and is not gaming the conference circuit.

I think more research can be done regarding talks and the oddities.




We have done some research over the past week and will report based on it in the coming days (this series takes a great deal of research time to prepare). There's an aspect of free speech to it. Over time there seems to be less and less one is "permitted" to say in the so-called 'community'; condemnation of companies that do illegal things, for instance, may already be impermissible or "toxic".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
 
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025