Re: [lp-ca-on] FSOSS 2015 Accepting Presentation Proposals

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 13/07/15 12:22 AM, Sergio Durigan Junior wrote:
> On Sunday, July 12 2015, Blaise Alleyne wrote:
>> [...]
>> - Presentations that any of us might want to make individually (Sergio 
>> presented
>> on gdb last year, and I spoke about software freedom and net services)
> 
> TBH I'm kind of tired of speaking about GDB on every conference I
> attend.  If I manage to go to FSOSS this year, I'll want to talk about
> something else.  Some of you know about my idea of creating a Free
> solution for tax reports on Canada; maybe I could at least expose the
> problem and start a brainstorm to solve this?
> 

I think that could be an interesting talk, though maybe with a bit of a broader
scope? Many people hate filing taxes, or work with a professional who handles
that anyways. But there's also the problem that the Software Freedom Conservancy
is trying to solve about accounting solutions for non-profit organizations. (And
you have fantastic free software applications, like CiviCRM, with lots of
Canadian connections... but often being forced to integrate with Quickbooks
accounting, because there isn't a solid free software option for most 
non-profits.)

It could be even broader (since many people still might not get exciting about
accounting/taxes), in terms of niche areas where there is still a pressing need
for free software solutions, where we haven't yet or have only recently
developed solutions, e.g. form accounting to BIOS software and LibreBoot, or the
challenges with online video streaming and proprietary codecs and HTML5 DRM...
Replicant's battles with proprietary drivers on mobile computers... etc...

A kind of quick status report on the current battlefronts, the edges where
software freedom advocates are still removing proprietary dependencies...

Just thinking out loud. The scope could be expanded or adjusted for breadth or
depth. *shrugs*


>> - In what way could we be active and present at this event as a group?
> 
> I don't remember seeing booths there last year; did I miss something?
> If I did, then having a booth at the conference would be the first step,
> I think.
> 

I think there might have been some by the registration desk last year... I
remember a few years back... Though mostly companies/sponsorship though, so we
might need to talk to them about pricing/options for a group like ours.


> Another (obvious) idea is giving a talk about our group there,
> explaining where we come from, what's the focus of the group, and what
> are our ideas for improving software freedom for our community.  I would
> be very interested in giving this talk with you guys, but if I'm not
> there, please do it!  :-)
> 

This could be interesting, if we think we have enough content for it? Maybe it'd
be a good goal to work towards though, force us to get our ideas together a bit
more?