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Презентација за конференција, Share 2

Тема: Decaying Free Software Communities vs. Emerging HackerSpaces

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Идејата ми е сите фотографии и материјали што ќе ги подготвиме за 2смк да ги пуштаме на еден екран или на два странични. А на главниот да оди оваа презентација по принципот 10/20/30. Ако постои таму оваа конфигурација.

Decaying Free Software Communities

Очигледно презентацијата има два дела, едниот е делот што Новица го презентираше во Косово и еве го него подолу.

http://wiki.spodeli.org/Decaying_Free_Software_Communities

Short History of Major Events

• We start with David Sugar
• At first there was the infamous install fest
• Localization OpenOffice
• Politics and the Battle with Microsoft Adriatics supported by the Goverment of the Republic and the left who were in power
• Localization x10 , Mozilla Suite, Firefox, KDE, GNOME, Thuderbird
• Then came the flood, and with it brought international recognition and acclaim
• Then we had to reboot our internal organization and git clone FSF Europe or should I say cvs checkout ;-)
• UNDP Albania first indernational
• UNDP Macedonia then domestic
• We went go Dubrovnik, met with the people form XO OLPC, came to skopje, picked a fight with the local UNDP MK and got picked through MIT for the OLPC job, it was for the lulz
• A new government, and a new hope, edubuntu everywhere, or moar linux on the desktop for the glorious ancient nation of makedonia
• USAID killed the grassroots community, dispite our pleas and strongly advocated arguments
• No more localization
• Promotion and advocay
• We end with Richard Stallman

All our segfaults and some patches

1. Funding

We applied for the following projects: I will get the correct names, this is just for reference:

• MIM
• SWISS cooperation
• GOV
• GOV
• SKOPJE
• SKOPJE
• TELEKOM 1
• TELEKOM 2
• etc

We got 2 out of 8 in 5 years.

1. Capacity building : We learned how to respond to RFP, we made Needs assessments, we created Expression of interests, we submited work plan recomendations, we almost learned NGOish
2. Representation : We were trying to make a name for us, so people would know what we were doing, so we can contionue to do what we love, and that was hacking and playing and learning free software. But we needed more resources for that, to learn networks you need more then one pc, to learn about laptop power management you actually need a laptop. And they were expensive in those days.
3. Community: At the end, the biggest problem in my view is the shrinking of the community. New people rarely join and many of the activists have just moved on. The organization and the community as a whole failed to attract new people. From the inside it seems that there are no barriers for entry, but we never really bothered to explore this issue and to see what is keeping people away.

This is especially interesting because the usage of GNU/Linux and free software in general has grown. The users however don't seem to bother with any of the issues surrounding the community. Shrinking community, then Red Hat came in and took about 1/3 of the community and took them to Brno.

1. Conclusion 2009

When all you have is a shrinking community, you call out for people, find an empty abandoned building full of artists and you make a hacklab

Emerging HackerSpaces

Nucleus of change Pockets of knowledge Network of knowledge Coworking space Freesoftware hands on hub

Public events Promotion among students Positive discrimination towards women and an inclusive attitude Multietnic fail

Yet to make a change Financial stability so far Organisational issues Painting the bike shed :)