[libreplanet-discuss] Boston area: FSF activists meeting on Sunday March 31 at Democracy Brewing

[Betsy Garrett]

 Following on the heels of an inspiring weekend at LibrePlanet, I am
organizing a meeting of those interested in Free Software activist type
outreach this Sunday, March 31, 2019 at 12:30 pm at Democracy Brewing, 35
Temple Place, Boston MA 02111. The goal of this meeting is to start
creating a community of like-minded folks interested in discussing how to
bring Free Software and an awareness of the principles of the Free Software
movement into our communities. We can discuss projects we might take on as
a group as well as how to support each other in our own individual FSF
activist work.

My idea for this group started germinating after Richard Stallman’s talk at
the end of the day on Saturday. When he pointed out the many ways that
people are being forced to give up basic freedoms and privacy, such as when
school children are made to create gmail accounts and do schoolwork on
Chromebooks, I started thinking about how I could bring this topic before
my town’s school committee and realized that I would probably be ignored or
written off. How do I tell people that being given something for free
(gratis) isn’t necessarily the best thing? How do I help people understand
the insidious way that data mining and loss of control over our software
choices is harming our society and--in my opinion--exacerbating the
divisions that we like to complain about but don’t know how to fix?

I hope that you will join us! Please send me an email off-list if you plan
to come or are interested this but can’t make it on Sunday. If you have any
other questions, please let me know. Thanks!

~ Betsy Garrett