Announcements
Brief items
Software Freedom Conservancy Launches 2015 Fundraiser
Software Freedom Conservancy has announced a major fundraising effort. "Pointing to the difficulty of relying on corporate funding while pursuing important but controversial issues, like GPL compliance, Conservancy has structured its fundraiser to increase individual support. The organization needs at least 750 annual Supporters to continue its basic community services and 2500 to avoid hibernating its enforcement efforts. If Conservancy does not meet its goals, it will be forced to radically restructure and wind down a substantial portion of its operations."
Unwrap our 2015 Ethical Tech Giving Guide
The Free Software Foundation has released its 2015 giving guide. "Electronics are popular gifts for the holidays, but people often overlook the restrictions that manufacturers slip under the wrapping paper. From remote deletion of files to harsh rules about copying and sharing, some gifts take more than they give. The good news is that there are ethical companies making better devices that your loved ones can enjoy with freedom and privacy."
Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2015 videos
Videos from the Embedded Linux Conference Europe are available on YouTube.
Articles of interest
Free Software Supporter - Issue 92, December 2015
The Free Software Foundation's newsletter for December covers FSF *Bulletin*, 2015 Ethical Tech Giving Guide, SFC fundraiser, Let's Encrypt, FSF to begin accepting GPG signatures for copyright assignments from Italy, DMCA exemptions, TPP, and several other topics.Garrett: What is hacker culture?
Matthew Garrett argues that meritocracy does not work as intended in development communities. "When people criticise meritocracy, they're not criticising the concept of treating contributions based on their merit. They're criticising the idea that humans are sufficiently self-aware that they will be able to identify and reject every subconscious prejudice that will affect their treatment of others. It's not a criticism of a desirable goal, it's a criticism of a flawed implementation."
Patent troll claims HTTPS websites infringe crypto patent, sues everybody (Ars Technica)
CryptoPeak Solutions is suing many tech and retail giants, claiming their HTTPS websites infringe an encryption patent titled "Auto-Escrowable and Auto-Certifiable Cryptosystems". Ars Technica reports: "The latest batch of cases was lodged November 25. The cases name AT&T, Costco, Expedia, GoPro, Groupon, Netflix, Pinterest, Shutterfly, Starwood Hotels, Target, and Yahoo, among others. All the lawsuits include virtually identical language. "Defendant has committed direct infringement by its actions that comprise using one or more websites that utilize Elliptic Curve Cryptography (“ECC”) Cipher Suites for the Transport Layer Security (“TLS”) protocol (the “Accused Instrumentalities”)," according to the lawsuits."
New Books
Python Playground -- Geeky Projects for the Curious Programmer
No Starch Press has released "Python Playground" by Mahesh Venkitachalam.
Calls for Presentations
NetDev 1.1 updates
NetDev 1.1 will take place February 10-12 in Seville, Spain. The call for papers has been extended until December 20. Some accepted talks and tutorials have been announced.CFP open for ApacheCon North America 2016
ApacheCon North America will be held in Vancouver, Canada, May 9-13. The call for papers closes February 12.CFP Deadlines: December 3, 2015 to February 1, 2016
The following listing of CFP deadlines is taken from the LWN.net CFP Calendar.
| Deadline | Event Dates | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 12 | February 1 | Sysadmin Miniconf | Geelong, Australia |
| December 20 | February 10 February 12 |
netdev 1.1 | Seville, Spain |
| December 31 | April 26 April 28 |
Open Source Data Center Conference | Berlin, Germany |
| January 3 | May 28 June 5 |
PyCon 2016 | Portland, OR, USA |
| January 8 | March 19 March 20 |
Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2016 | Chemnitz, Germany |
| January 10 | April 15 April 17 |
PyCon Italia Sette | Firenze, Italia |
| January 11 | March 23 | Make Open Source Software 2016 | Bucharest, Romania |
| January 15 | March 14 March 17 |
Open Networking Summit | Santa Clara, CA, USA |
| January 15 | March 10 March 12 |
Studencki Festiwal Informatyczny (Students' Computer Science Festival) | Cracow, Poland |
| January 16 | April 1 | DevOps Italia | Bologna, Italy |
| January 18 | March 18 March 20 |
FOSSASIA 2016 Singapore | Singapore, Singapore |
| January 19 | May 17 May 21 |
PGCon - PostgreSQL Conference for Users and Developers | Ottawa, Canada |
| January 22 | May 2 May 5 |
FOSS4G North America | Raleigh, NC, USA |
| January 22 | January 22 January 23 |
XenProject - Cloud Innovators Forum | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| January 24 | March 14 March 18 |
CeBIT 2016 Open Source Forum | Hannover, Germany |
| January 24 | March 11 March 13 |
PyCon SK 2016 | Bratislava, Slovakia |
| January 29 | April 20 April 21 |
Vault 2016 | Raleigh, NC, USA |
If the CFP deadline for your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Upcoming Events
EuroPython 2016
EuroPython 2016 will take place July 17-24 in Bilbao, Spain. Volunteers are needed in several areas.Events: December 3, 2015 to February 1, 2016
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| December 4 December 5 |
Haskell in Leipzig | Leipzig, Germany |
| December 5 December 6 |
openSUSE.Asia Summit | Taipei, Taiwan |
| December 8 December 9 |
Node.js Interactive | Portland, OR, USA |
| December 14 December 16 |
SciPy India 2015 | Bombay, India |
| December 27 December 30 |
32. Chaos Communication Congress | Hamburg, Germany |
| January 8 | Fairphone Workshop | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| January 16 | Bangalore Linux Kernel Meetup | Bangalore, India |
| January 20 January 22 |
O'Reilly Design Conference 2016 | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| January 21 January 22 |
Ubuntu Summit | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| January 21 January 24 |
SCALE 14x - Southern California Linux Expo | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| January 22 January 23 |
XenProject - Cloud Innovators Forum | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| January 25 | Richard Stallman - "A Free Digital Society" | Stockholm, Sweden |
| January 30 January 31 |
Free and Open Source Developers Meeting | Brussels, Belgium |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol