Answering a question at Wikimania 2007 in Taipei.

Talk on Debian and Ubuntu in LinuxTag 2005 in Karlesruhe, Germany.

A pause for breath during a speech at What the Hack in the Netherlands in Summer 2005

A picture from the Summer Source Camp on the Island of Vis, Croatia in Summer 2003

Talks, Lectures and Presentations

I often give talks and present papers and research at conferences around the world. I am interested in and available for additional talks. Please don't hesitate to get in contact with me if you are interested in having me talk at a conference.

• Voting Machinery for the Masses, 2008-07-25, O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon. This talk that explores my thinking about and work on Selectricity and on related free and open source voting work aimed at groups other than governments. (Abstract: Link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Advocating Software Freedom by Revealing Errors (Keynote), 2008-07-25, O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon. A short talk (15 minutes) that built on my work on Revealing Errors and summarized my thinking in regards to that project to date. (Abstract: Link | Video: Link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Creative Commons Panel, 2008-07-19, Wikimania 2008 at the Bibliotecha Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt.
• Free Network Services, 2008-07-19, Wikimania 2008 at the Bibliotecha Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. (Abstract: Link)
• Zotero for Wikimaniacs, 2008-07-17, Wikimania 2008 at the Bibliotecha Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. I filled in for a friend who could not make the conference and gave a short demonstration of and introduction to Zotero focused on Wikipedians. (Abstract: Link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Revealing Errors, 2008-06-18, Boston Linux Unix in Cambridge, MA. This talk presented the arguments in my Revealing Errors article published in Media/Culture and some of the work and examples that I've been posting on the Revealing Errors blog. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Voting Machinery for the Masses, 2008-06-13, MIT Center for Future Civic Media's Future of Civic Media Conference at MIT in Cambridge, MA. (Demo: Link)
• Voting Machinery for the Masses, 2008-05-29, O'Reilly's Ignite Boston 3 in Cambridge, MA. (Demo: Link)
• Advancing a Definition of Free Culture, 2008-05-05, Sun's Community One conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. .
• Liberating Network Services, 2008-05-05, Sun's Community One conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. An updated version of the talk I gave at the FSF Members Meeting. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Revealing Errors, 2008-04-20, Penguicon in Troy, MI. This talk presented the arguments in my Revealing Errors article published in Media/Culture and some of the work and examples that I've been posting on the Revealing Errors blog. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software, 2008-04-19, Penguicon in Troy, MI. This first half of this talk introduced the One Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in education and development work more generally. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Revealing Errors, 2008-04-13, LUG Radio Live USA 2008 in the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. This talk presented the arguments in my Revealing Errors article published in Media/Culture and some of the work and examples that I've been posting on the Revealing Errors blog. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Renaissance Panel: The Roles of Creative Synthesis in Innovation, 2008-04-07, CHI 2008 in Florence, Italy. I gave a talk on a panel at CHI 2008 (the major academic human-computer interaction conference on free and open source software theory and practice and on its role in innovation and use-driven design. (Conference abstract: Link | Video: Link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Liberating Network Services, 2008-03-15, FSF Associate Members Meeting at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I discussed issues related to free software and network services and introduced upcoming meeting on the topic to be held the next day at the FSF. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software, 2008-03-12, Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. This first half of this talk introduced the One Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in education and development work more generally. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• User Innovation in Action, 2008-03-07, MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, MA. (Examples: link)
• Disasters and Free Software, 2008-03-03, Zones of Emergency series at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Following artist Mark Tribe I have a short talk introducing free software and its role in emergencies and disaster situations that focused on the wonderful Sahana project. (Video: Link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Clouding Computing and Free and Open Source Software, 2008-01-22, Computing in the Cloud Workshop at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ. I gave a short overview of the implications of cloud computing and software as a service on user freedom from the perspective of free and open source software principles and practice. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software, 2008-01-08, Nara Institute of Technology (NAIST) in Nara, Japan. This first half of this talk introduced the One Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in education and development work more generally. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Geek Diagnosis from a Diagnosed Geek, 2007-12-03, G33koSkop lecture series at MAMA in Zagreb, Croatia.. This largely autobiographical talk that built heavily off my Story of Unlearning. (Audio Recording: Ogg Vorbis ) MP3) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Cooperation in Parallel: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian, 2007-11-26, Kiberpipa in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This talk revisited (and was closely based on) my To Fork or Not To Fork lecture given several times in 2005. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Hacker Culture, 2007-11-23, B92's Cinema Rex in Belgrade, Serbia. In addition to several lengthy media interviews, I gave a redux of the panel and talk given at CK13 at the television station. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Hacker Culture, 2007-11-20, CK13 in Novi Sad, Serbia. I worked with my friends from mi2 in Zagreb, Croatia to give a talk on a panel discussing hacker culture and geared toward a general audience. The panel was framed by the System.hack() — an exhibition that mi2 was traveling with and presenting throughout the Balkans and which I helped write material for. On the panel, I talked about why hacking (both the transgressive and wholly constructive forms) is essential to society and to non-hackers. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software, 2007-11-16, Cornell University Code Review in Ithaca, NY. This first half of this talk introduced the One Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in education and development work more generally. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Reflections on Decoding Liberation, 2007-11-15, Book Launch Event for Decoding Liberation at Brooklyn College.
• Debian Packaging for System Administrators, 2007-11-12, SIPB Clue Dump at MIT in Cambridge, MA.
• Free Software and Education (Keynote), 2007-10-09, K-12 Open Minds Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. This talk built on personal experience and work with the One Laptop per Child program to make a strong case for the use of free and open source software in education. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Free Software and Radical Non-Discrimination, 2007-09-15, Software Freedom Day 2007 in Boston, MA.
• Resonant Divergence: Collaboration in Diverged Branches, 2007-08-05, Wikimania 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. An early presentation of my MIT Media Lab thesis work on a wiki for collaborative authorship of branched articles. (Slides: PDF, ODP Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Freedom's Standard Advanced, 2007-08-03, Wikimania 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. A reprise of the free culture speech I had been giving frequently over the summer. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Parallel Document Development, 2007-06-27, User Innovation Conference at Copenhagen Business School in Copenhagen, Denmark. I gave a short talk on my thesis research at the MIT Media Lab into a new form of collaborative textual production. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian Derivatives Round Table 2007, 2007-06-22, Debconf 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland. I organized and moderated a round table discussion on issues and problems related to derivative distributions. The discuss involved representatives of all of the major derivative distributions present at Debconf. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian: A Force To Be Reckoned With, 2007-06-21, Debconf 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This talk offers a "Debian Themed" quick tour through the academic, legal, and business worlds. It overs insight into what everyone outside of Debian is saying about, doing with, and learning from the Debian project. In doing so, it hopes to give Debian participants some insight into fields and areas that they are largely unfamiliar with (e.g., management, sociology, anthropology, economics, computer supported collaborative work, etc.). It illuminates what others -- especially academics -- find useful or inspiring about the project and to facilitate self-reflection and self-improvement within Debian. It reflects on the impact that Debian has had in the world beyond the Debian project and, in particular, in those areas that many Debian developers may not be familiar with. (Slides: ODP, PDF | Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Advancing a Definition of Free Culture, 2007-06-16, iCommons iSummit in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Another version of the free culture stump speech. It was given as part of a panel on philosophy of free culture and the commons. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Examination of Wiki Process, 2007-06-07, MIT Innovation Lab meeting at the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most people have used Wikipedia and understand that it is contributed by many people. In fact, each Wikipedia is the product of a long and complicated process. This talk walks to the process that led to the creation of a large article and some of the policies, peoples, tools, and venues that lie hidden below the surface of many Wikipedia articles. (Notes: ReST, HTML) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Freedom Defined, 2007-05-26, Annual National Meeting of Free Culture student groups at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A shorter version of my Toward a Standard of Freedom and Definition of Free Cultural Works talk. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Reflections on the War on Share, 2007-04-27, Media in Transition 5 (MiT5) at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Advancing Free Culture, 2007-03-24, FSF Annual Associate Members Meeting. This talk was another version of my call for free software building off of Toward a Standard of Freedom and Definition of Free Cultural Works. The talk was tailored toward FSF members and more closely drawing analogies between the free software and free culture movements. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST | Talk Recording: OGG Vorbis, MP3 | Q&A Recording: OGG Vorbis, MP3) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Contribute To Ubuntu, 2007-02-16, Google in New York City for The Ubucon NYC 2007. I introduced people to the various ways that they might contribute to Ubuntu by walking through the large wiki page on the subject in the Ubuntu wiki. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian/Ubuntu Packaging Essentials, 2007-02-16, Google in New York City for The Ubucon NYC 2007. In the afternoon, I ran a workshop on packaging essentials where I walked participants through the creation of a Debian/Ubuntu package. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Creative Commons Workshop/Debate, 2006-09-16, Wizards of OS 4 in Berlin, Germany. Focusing on the argument made in Toward a Standard of Freedom, I discussed the and debated the issues at stake with Creative Common's Lawrence Lessig. I delivered a short prepared talk and then discussed the issues with Lessig and the crowd. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Toward a Definition of Freedom, 2006-08-04, Wikimedia 2006 held at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This talk aimed to introduce the argument made in Toward a Standard of Freedom about Creative Commons and the free software movement and to argue for the adoption of the Definition of Free Cultural Works. (Slides: PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Defining Moments, 2006-06-02, Conference on Engaging in Open Source (CEOS) organized by the ACM Chapter at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This talk gives a history of the free and open source software movement by focusing on a series of instances where definitions of freedom were offered and on the role of normative statements on building the free and open source software movements. (Slides: PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Information Freedom, 2006-04-28, MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies held a gathering with nine short talks under the title Come Together on social change, social responsibility, technology, and activism. I was honored to give one of these talks; the final talk was given by Noam Chomsky. In my talk, I tried to give an overview of the world of social movements and projects trying to protect "information freedom." I have only a very rough set of notes. (Rough Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Software, Freedom, and the World Beyond Computer Programs, 2005-10-28, Darklight Film Festival's annual symposium in Dublin, Ireland. Aimed a non-technical audience, this talk begins by introducing intellectual property and tries to describe the history of the current problems created by modern IP policy. It continues by offering a rough classification of the types of "solutions" being offered and then goes into some depth on the Free/Open Source Software model. I discuss the reasons Free Software has succeeded and try to describe some of the benefits and limitations of applying its model to the production of other types of creative works. (Slides: PDF, Open Document Presentation | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• The Ubuntu Project: Overview and Development Model, 2005-10-19, Boston Linux Unix meeting at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the monthly meeting of the famous Boston-based Boston Linux Unix, I gave an Ubuntu talk that pulled from both my introductory Ubuntu talks and the To Fork or Not to Fork. It was a two hour talk to a very mixed audience. (Slides: HTML, PDF, OpenOffice Impress (Source) | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian, 2005-07-28, What The Hack near Boxtel in The Netherlands. I gave another version of the talk I gave at LinuxTag and Libre Software Meeting on Ubuntu, Debian, and derivation. See the notes and slides below which were nearly identical again. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian, 2005-07-06, Libre Software Meeting in Dijon, France. I gave a version of the talk I gave at LinuxTag several weeks before on the process of building Ubuntu. See the notes and slides below which were nearly identical. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Broadly Defined Freedom: Radical Nondiscrimination in Free Software, 2005-07-05, Libre Software Meeting in Dijon, France. The Libre Software Meeting organizers asked me to return to LSM again in 2005 and give a talk that went into depth on a topic I touched on at LSM in 2003 in Lessons from Libre Software Political and Ethical Practice. This talk describes one way of understanding the concept of freedom and its importance in free software without falling into reductionist analyses. It pulled heavily from the essay How Free Became Open and Everything Else Under the Sun which I published with Biella Coleman last year. (Slides: HTML, PDF, OpenOffice Impress (Source) | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian, 2005-06-25, LinuxTag in Karlsruhe, Germany. This talk is based on my essay of the same title and is aimed at technically oriented free software developers. It describes the Ubuntu development process and some of the lessons that have been learned while building the distribution as a derivation of Debian. It tries to be an Ubuntu talk that is more technical than the standard "introduction to Ubuntu" and that is also not limited in appeal to only current or prospective Ubuntu developers. Since I gave this talk several times, the slides and notes here are the version from the third presentation. (Slides: HTML, PDF, OpenOffice Impress (Source) | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Financing Volunteer Free Software Projects, 2005-06-24, LinuxTag in Karlsruhe, Germany. This talk is based off of my paper on Problems and Strategies in Financing Voluntary Free Software Projects. I wrote and presented the paper for Linuxtag 2005. These slides and notes are quite heavily on the pre-paper version of the talk I gave at FISL 5 in Porto Alegre, Brazil a bit more than a year ago. (Slides: HTML, PDF, OpenOffice Impress (Source) | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Ubuntu Down Under, 2005-04-24 to 2005-04-30, Sydney, Australia. Ubuntu Down Under (UDU) was a one-week developer conference to plan Ubuntu's Breezy Badger release. I coordinated the community track: one of four major themed tracks at the conference. I also ran or helped run more than two dozen sessions — mostly on community related issues. The sessions were small, usually comprising only a few people, and ended with the creation of a specification to work toward completing in the next six months. (Conference Wiki: link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Customizing Debian, 2005-04-18, Linux Conference Australia 2005 held at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. As part of the Debian mini-conf at Linux Conference Australia 2005, I delivered a talk on CDDs and the process of customizing Debian more generally. It was heavily based off talks I'd given in the past. (Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Ubuntu Workshop and Q&A, 2005-04-11, Northern New Jersey Linux Meet-up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. I met with the Northern New Jersey Linux Meet-up to hand some Ubuntu CDs to show people a few things about making Debian/Ubuntu packages, and to answer any questions that people had. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Ubuntu and Debian: Balancing Forking and Collaboration, 2005-04-10, Southern Connecticut Open Source User Group in New Haven, Connecticut. I gave a version of the talk I gave in Manizales on Ubuntu and the process of customization Debian that has gotten it to where it is today. The talk was given to the the Southern Connecticut Open Source User Group. I did not prepare additional slides or notes for this talk (simply recycling the notes from my Manizales talk. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Ubuntu and Debian: Balancing Forking and Collaboration, 2005-03-17, Manizales, Colombia. This talk centered on Ubuntu and its relationship to Debian and the process of derivation and the difficult process of balancing forking and collaboration. This talk ended up being more of an introduction to Ubuntu and to Debian and Debian derivation and I didn't really get to dig my teeth into the key issues that the title might imply to the degree that I'd hoped. The talk was mostly a combination of my talks Customizing Debian given at NYLUG and BaDoPi and Introducing Ubuntu given at GULEV. The talk was given in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish. (Slides (English): HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Slides (Colombian Spanish): HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Customizing Debian, 2004-12-14, Barcelona at the Grupo de usuarios de Software Libre de Barcelona in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. While visiting Mataró during the Ubuntu Conference I was invited to give a talk in Barcelona at the Grupo de usuarios de Software Libre de Barcelona, more commonly known as Badopi. This talk was a short (45 minutes) version of the "Customizing Debian" I gave the NYLUG user group and uses slides derived from that talk. The talk was given in English (without translation). (Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Ubuntu (A GNU/Linux Operating System): Past Present and Future, 2004-11-27, Congreso GULEV at the World Trade Center in Veracruz, Mexico. This talk is a two hour introduction to Ubuntu — the concept, history, current status and future. The talk was an invited keynote presentation at the Congreso GULEV. Other keynotes were given by Randall Schwartz, Jon "Maddog" Hall, and Richard Stallman. The presentation was given in English and simultaneously translated into Spanish. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST | Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Customizing Debian: Fork Yours With Debian GNU/Linux, 2004-11-17, New York Linux User Group in New York City. This two hour talk focused on the goals and techniques used by those customizing Debian. It introduced Debian and gave an overview of the universe of Debian customizers. It then broke down the idea of customizing into a number of logical pieces and, using the examples of UserLinux, Ubuntu, and Debian-NP or Skolelinux (the internal "CDD" groups), walked the audience through the nitty gritty of customization using in depth descriptions and code samples. The talk was given to the New York Linux User Group meeting in the IBM Building in New York City. (Announcement: link | Talk Notes: HTML, ReST | Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian and Ubuntu: Philosophy and Technology, 2004-10-13, New York GNU/Linux Beginners group Gnubies. I presented a talk at the New York GNU/Linux Beginners group Gnubies that covered Debian and Ubuntu. The month before the group had seen a talk by Sun. To provide a contrast with this talk and at the request of the group's leader, my talk aimed to introduce the principles behind Free Software first. After this, I described the way that Free Software philosophy is put into practice in Debian along with an overview of the project and distribution — its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, I introduced Ubuntu, a project that is both technically and philosophically inspired and linked to Debian and that, for a number of reasons, may be a good choice for many beginners. The talk was given at the IBM building in New York City. (Talk Notes: HTML, ReST | Ubuntu Screenshots: HTML, ReST) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Werkleitz School of Common Property, 2004-08-27 through 2004-09-01, Halle Volkspark in Halle, Germany. With Alan Toner and Jamie King, I represented Mute Magazine and help teach a 5 day course to a group of students — primarily artists — on issues of intellectual property and different methods of organized resistance to an expansionist model of IP. The published description of the session read, "With the increasing centrality of 'social labour' to capital economies, the popular notion of the Commons is drawn radically into question. What can be the status of 'free' resources in an economy which has brought the exploitation of unpaid co-operation and affect to its very core? Can 'free' really mean free 'as-in-libre'? Can a Commons also be contestational? And if so, how do we set about producing it? Jamie King (Mute, London), Alan Toner (Autonomedia, Rome) and Benjamin Mako Hill (Debian, Seattle) will host these five days of structured discussions, followed by a presentation during the main festival." Our session, part of the Werkleitz School of Common Property was held in Halle, Germany on August 27 - 31, 2004 preceding the Halle Biennale. (Program Notes (EN): link | Program Notes (DE): link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Financing Volunteer Free Software Projects: Problems and Strategies, 2004-06-04, Fifth International Free Software Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Paying developers has been shown to carry unintended negative consequences. This talk explores problems and benefits of paying developers in volunteer projects and surveys strategies that projects like Debian have used to successfully finance development while maintaining their volunteer nature. The talk was given, with live translation into Spanish and Portuguese. (Speakers Notes: PlainText | Slides: PDF, Openoffice.org Impress | Talk Proposal: PlainText) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Workshop, 2004-05-30, Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. After the success of last year's SPI workshop, the Debconf organizers invited me to give a second workshop on Software in the Public Interest, Inc. I gave a talk to the group to introduce SPI and then facilitated a discussion where people listed things that SPI has done well and things they would like to see it do, or do better, in the future. The results were submitted to the SPI board and membership. (Overview Slides: HTML, DocBook XML Source | Notes: PlainText | Whiteboard (Feedback/Results): PlainText, JPEG) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Custom Debian Distribution are the Ultimate Last Step to Total World Dominations, 2004-05-31, Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This talk, delivered jointly with Enrico Zini, represented the work of more than a dozen Debconf participants and several BOFs. I spoke last summarizing what was said before and laying out the methods for future collaboration and work on Custom Debian Distributions. (Outline: PlainText | Proposal: PlainText) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian-NP and NP Bagunça Review, 2004-06-02, Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. At the end of Debconf, Debian-NP presented its project, and the progress that it had made during the week, to other Debian developers interested in Debian-NP. The talk was a basic introduction to Debian-NP. I gave the talk using the slides from Debian-NP: Free Software in Civil Society. (Slides: HTML, DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian-NP Bagunça, 2004-05-26 to 2004-06-02, Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I helped plan, organize, facilitate, and participate in a Debian-NP mini-conference within Debconf. Dubbed Debian-NP Bagunça, a Brazilian Portuguese term for "mess" with positive connotations, the mini-conference provided a venue for planning, specification writing, and intensive development. (Description & Schedule: link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Introduction to Debian-NP, 2004-04-27, LinuxClub in Rome, Italy. This talk was another introduction to and description of Debian-NP. I reused the slides from Debian-NP: Free Software in Civil Society. The talk was translated live by Claudio Bantaloukas and featured and extensive discussion. (Slides: HTML, DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Freedom Week (Liberamente - Settimana delle Libertà), 2004-04-16 - 2004-04-22, Siena, Florence, Milan, Turin, and Rome Italy. This series of talks across Italy was organized by Hipatia, and FSF Europe and by local universities and organization in each of the locales. While each local event invited additional local speakers, the speakers that were flown in for the entire series included myself, Richard Stallman (FSF), Sergio Amadeu (Brazilian Government) and Diego Saravia (Argentina/Hipatia). While I spoke on a number of different issues, I served mostly in the capacity of a representative of the Debian project. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian-NP: Free Software in Civil Society, 2004-04-17, Siena, Italy. This talk was a formal presentation of Debian-NP history, philosophy, goals, and a description of our success so far. It was given as part of Freedom Week. (Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Control, Collaboration and Creativity in Literature, 2004-04-19, University of Milan in Milan, Italy. As part of the event, Modelli Liberi Come L'Aira (Free Models: Like the Air), I presented a piece on the role that control plays in the production of collaborative literature. The talk was heavily based heavily off some of the other talks I've given as part of my collaborative literature project. (Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Participatory Collaboration: The Debian Model, 2004-04-21, University of Turin in Turin, Italy. This talk briefly introduces Debian and gives a brief overview of its organizational model. It argues that Debian has succeeded because it's employed a more participatory/democratic model for decision making than most propriety software products and more than many other Free Software projects.It presents Debian as a compelling model for the production of better software in a better way. (Slides: HTML , Docbook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Penguin Day, 2004-03-28, N-TEN's 2004 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I engaged in session planning and group facilitation in addition to leading short meetings on public key encryption and Debian-NP at this one-day conference on Free and Open Source software in Nonprofit Organizations. The conference was organized by NOSI. (Conference Description: link) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• WSIS? We Seize!, 2003-12-07 through 2003-12-13, Geneva, Switzerland. The World Summit on the Information Society was a conference organized by the United Nations. In addition to attending the conference as a delegate of CPSR, I took part in the organization and execution of the counter/co-summit, WSIS? We Seize!, that was a gathering of free software developers, tactical and independent media activists, P2P advocates, and many others. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Information Politics 101, 2003-12-09, We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland. This session asked: What are the major issues in the emerging information politics movement? While developing our understanding of the inequities of IP policymaking and law, should we also develop a strategy and attitude for dealing with it? Speakers included: myself, Christine Treguier (la FIL and Big Brother Awards France), Stefan Merten (Oekonux), Alan Toner (Autonomedia), Robin Gross (IP Justice). [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Making Custom Debian Bootable/Live CDs, 2003-12-11, We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland. Working from Debian-Nonprofit as an example, I demonstrated how with only a list of Debian packages, developers could create their own customized bootable Linux distribution on a CD similar to Knoppix. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Debian-NP Launch and Q&A, 2003-12-11, We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland. During a joint presentation with Jamie Love who was presenting the film Dying for Drugs I gave an introduction to Debian-Nonprofit and Custom Debian Distributions and then facilitated a discussion. I passed out newly pressed Debian-NP CDs to all attendees. [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Making the Case for Free/Open Source Software in Non-Profit Organizations, 2003-11-06, NTEN in Boston, Massachusetts. Delivered at an NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network) conference, this talk introduced a panel on FOSS in the non-profit sector by defining the important terms in a discussion of free and open source software and by covering the basic advocacy points for non-profits. (Slides: HTML , Docbook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Digital Standards and the Public Domain: Consequences and Current Strategies for an Independent Public Sphere, 2003-09-09, Ars Electronica Festival 2003 in Linz, Austria. Linz's Radio FRO sponsored this two panel subconference of the Ars Electronica Festival 2003. I made a guest appearance on this panel (Panel B) to represent the position of Free and Open Software and to field questions. (Conference Description: link (de/en)) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Summer Source: Software Camp for NGOs, 2003-08-26 through 2003-09-06, Vis, Croatia. The conference was organized by the Amsterdam based Tactical Tech Collective and funded by a number of groups including George Soros' Open Society Institute. As one of the conferences facilitators, I was active in many of the conference events and activites. In particular, I helped organize, present, and facilitate discussion in the following sessions:
  • Making the Case for F/OSS & NGO's
  • Deploying GNU/Linux
  • Inter-Developer Collaboration
  • Free Software Funding Models
  (Session Descriptions: HTML | Press: German Indymedia Article (German w/ images), Germany Indymedia Article (English), Linux Magazine Article (PDF) (Issue 36, November 2003), Debian-Nonprofit Article) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Workshop, 2003-07-18, Debconf 3 in Oslo, Norway.. I facilitated the opening workshop at the 3rd annual Debian conference on the topic of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. The workshop included an introduction to SPI and discussion about where SPI has been and where it might go. (Introduction: HTML Slides , DocBook XML Source | Discussions: PlainText notes) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Lessons from Libre Software Political and Ethical Practice, 2003-07-09, Libre Software Meeting in Metz, France. This talks draws from and summarizes some of the research and writing that I've done recently with Biella Coleman. The Talk was delivered at the the 2003 Libre Software Meeting in Metz, France as part of the theme on extending Libre Software Beyond the IT Sphere. (Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source | Recording - Talk: OGG Vorbis (9.6M) | Recording - Discussion: OGG Vorbis (7.3M)) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Social Networking and Free Software, 2003-06-07, Planetwork Conference in San Francisco, California. This talk was part introduction to Free/Open Source Software and part introduction to Free Software Business models. The was, in part, given on behalf of Sammondano and Partecs. (Slides: HTML | DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• The Politics and Technology of Control, 2003-04-16, Herb Bernstein's New Ways of Knowing Class at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachsetts. The talk was given in a seminar over three hours. (Outline: HTML w/ links to pictures) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Presentation to Hampshire College School of Cognitive Science, 2003-05-05, School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College. (Notes: HTML)
• Division III Presentation, 2003-05-16, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. This talk was given as part of the Division III Presentation schedule to parents and visitors on day before Hampshire College's 2003 Commencement. It lasted approximate 45 minutes. (Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source) [Show Description] [Hide Description]
• Managing a Free Software Project, 2002-12-05, Five College Free Software Series in Amherst, Massachusetts. (Slides: HTML)