After a nice stroll through downtown Porto Alegre with a few fellow Free software activists from Spain, Mexica, Peru and Argentina, today was the first day of FISL13, and it was amazing. My usually screwed up biorythm in this part of the world means that I get up at a reasonable (for a conference visit) time in the morning, enough to have a relaxed shower, a bit of emailing, breakfast and still be on time for a fully packed conference day. FISL’s first day was amazing, it started off by meeting a few well known faces (Sandro, Filipe, Isabel, Knuth, I’m talking to you!), and getting to know a lot of new ones. Especially the Brazilian KDE community is really awesome (I knew that, but doesn’t hurt to mention it nevertheless). I also went by SOLAR, the Argentinian Free software organisation who offered me a nice cup of Mate tea, and an opportunity to share some ideas by means of an interview.
After a bit of booth-crawling, I went to attend two talks, which were both really excellent: The first was by Seth Schoen, who is with the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF). Seth talked about privacy and data security at the United States Border. I’m sure anybody who has travelled to the U.S. in the past 10 years can relate to that. Seth explained how the border control is organised, what your right are (at the border, your normal civil rights are actually limited, so searching your luggage or detaining you for questioning can be done without good reason, unlike “in the streets”, so it’s very good to know what they can and can’t do), and how you can protect yourself in case you *DO* have something to hide (or rather, how you carry private information on digital devices across the border). There are a few methods, one is: wipe your device, do a clean install and download the interesting data only after you crossed the border, more sophisticated tricks involve temporarily encrypting your device with a key you don’t know and only get after you’ve passed through border control. Lots of interesting information there, and it makes me more comfortable when travelling to the U.S. the next time. Also, chapeau to the EFF for their protection of privacy and civil rights in general. The talk was excellently held, really interesting and absolutely worth my time.
Next up was Rick Falkvinge, one of the founders of the first Pirate Party (in Sweden). Rick talked about the history of copyright, how people who gain power all of a sudden “kick away the ladder” to secure their position, and how, in more general the Internet changes society. Another excellent talk that felt like it was really worth the time spent. Interestingly, these days, the Brazilian branch of the Pirate Party is being founded, so it’s very much a historical thing happening here. Excited to witness that.
Later in the afternoon, Daker Fernandes Pinheiro of Plasma Qt Quick Components fame and me did a workshop teaching everything you need to know to get started writing device-adaptive applications using Plasma. The workshop was well-attended, I think well prepared as well and people seemed to like it (even if we flooded everybody with a lot of information). It was quite practical, luckily Daker and me hit the right audience, so I think even if it was quite heavy on information, it’s still manageable. After a good two and a half hours where we taught the basics of Qt Quick, Plasma Quick, and how to write Plasma Components and Apps, it was evident on the faces of our audience (and judging by their questions) that people enjoyed our sharing of knowledge, and who knows, maybe a few of the attendants will join our team and become new KDE hackers. As promised, I’ve put the slides online. They provide a good overview of the technologies involved, so are probably quite useful as reading material. Of course, as sharing is good, let me know if you would like to reuse them in part or as a whole, and I’ll send you the sources (including a bit of example code). I myself enjoyed “teaching” as well. Especially Plasmate, our one-stop-shop workflow-driven Plasma IDE resonated really well with the audience, just in time for the end of this summer’s 1.0 release.
Overall, I’m really exhilerated by FISL so far. People are more than welcoming, so it immediately feels “at home” (at 12.000km away from it!), I’ve had really interesting and inspiring conversations, and everything is really well organised. I’m now at my hotel (one that focuses on sustainability, it’s really nice, well done FISL peeps!), we’ll go for churrasco in a bit and then off to the first night’s party.
My talk on “Freeing the Device Spectrum” will be on Friday, at 11.00 o’clock in the GNU hall (that’s the big auditorium). It’s targeted at a general audience, so a lot less technical than the workshop we did today. Be there, or be square!