Technically Biased: Taking Free Software's Niche Appeal Mainstream
A Lesson From My Grandma
Human. Problem-solver. Friend. Tinkerer. Aikido practitioner. Idealist (within reason). Aspiring imperfectionist. Musician.
Co-founder at Snowdrift.coop. Maintainer of Red Moon; contributor to the F-Droid ecosystem. GNU/Linux user and FLOSS advocate since 2010.
Programmer ("Software Engineer") looking for work near Queens, NYC (or remote). Contact: seagl-bio-2021@smichel.me
The Free Software movement's ideals are egalitarian. We aim to bring the benefits of computing freedom to all users. However, we often overlook an uncomfortable inequality: Software Freedom disproportionately empowers programmers and those wealthy enough to hire them.
For today's average "end users", freedomware leaves them with basically the same options as proprietary freeware: use it as-is, or politely ask the developer and hope for the best. In my opinion, this is a key reason why it's difficult to convince the wider public to care; it's why Software Freedom largely remains a movement by and for programmers.
In this talk, I'll argue that:
Programming education policy is the most important area for Software Freedom advocacy.
Designing for "nontechnical users" is an existential threat to Free Software.
Scriptable interfaces are a great way to make software more accessible to tech-illiterate users.
- Date:
- 2021 November 6 - 15:30
- Duration:
- 30 min
- Room:
- Room 2
- Conference:
- SeaGL 2021
- Language:
- Track:
- Tech Culture
- Difficulty:
- Easy
- Expressive Security
- Start Time:
- 2021 November 6 15:30
- Room:
- Room 1
- Your bug tracker and you
- Start Time:
- 2021 November 6 15:30
- Room:
- Room 3