by Eric Schultz, Community Manager
I was recently asked to speak at LibrePlanet about my experiences working with the FCC on WiFi radio regulations. I was delighted to speak on the topic and prpl Foundation was gracious enough to send me.
For those who aren’t aware, LibrePlanet is the Free Software Foundation’s yearly celebration of free and open source software. LibrePlanet is a unique conference in that it mixes socially conscious technology users and creators with leaders in the free and open source software space. Attending LibrePlanet works best when you spend most of your time listening, and that’s exactly what I did. It’s fascinating to see how a diverse set of people look at social problems and see how open source software can be used to address those problems. While there I did find time to share some of the interesting work that prpl Foundation is doing; there’s a lot of interest among many parties about how prpl’s work on an open source secure boot and OpenWrt/LEDE could be used by individuals and smaller manufacturers.
My talk “Will the FCC still ban your operating system? (Maybe.)” was during the last session slot before the final keynote. While I was worried that would mean that the audience would be small or tired after an exciting two days, I was delighted to see this wasn’t the case. The audience was engaged and interested while I discussed the current law regarding WiFi radio regulations, what my experiences were in the Software Configurable Radio sub-group and my personal opinions about how the free and open source software community can better protect itself from such regulations. After the session, there were a number of good questions and, opportunities for clarifications, and a discussion with a few participants on how we can follow up.
Overall, LibrePlanet is a pleasure to attend as a free and open source software advocate. I highly recommend anyone interested in the ethics of open source software to consider attending.
Photo originally from LibrePlanet photos
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