Write an introductory text

[micheleminno]

Write a few sentences for the introduction, something that would begin like this:

Welcome to the podcast series of the Humane Technology Community, an online forum of…

We could use some of the text we developed for the Mozilla sprint event.

[micheleminno]

HTC aims to be the reference point - gathering people and partners worldwide - for creative awareness campaigns about the harms of addictive and harmful technologies, and - most of all - proposing and guiding to systemic and technological solutions, coming with a humane purpose and design, aligned with our own needs and long term aspirations, evaluated by us for what they bring into our lives.

[micheleminno]

What do you think @patmatsu ?

[patmatsu]

Mic, I recorded this a couple times and started to change a few things here and there. What do you think of this text:

HTC aims to be the reference point - gathering people and partners worldwide - for creative awareness campaigns about the harms of addictive and invasive technologies. HTC proposes to guide people to systemic and technological solutions, starting with a humane purpose and design. We evaluate technology for what it brings into our lives—how it supports our long-term needs and aspirations. This podcast series is part of that effort.

[patmatsu]

Here is the text that should appear on the webpage for the podcast; please feel free to edit as you see fit. Thanks for all your help, Mic.

---

Summary

The first in a series, this podcast covers free, libre, open-source software (FLOSS) and the creation of browser addons to improve user security and privacy. Among the humane-tech principles discussed are the following:

• The FLOSS movement expands and strengthens human rights, among them the right to knowledge and transparency.
• Sharing code (under freedom-respecting licenses) is a global educational endeavour
• HTC is itself an example of working and leading in the open.

Participants

• Questioner: Pat Matsueda (Twitter)
• Developer: Gokulakrishna Sudharsan (Twitter, Mastodon)

Questions

• Could you please explain, in layperson’s terms, what free, libre, open-source software is?
• What kinds of licenses does FOSS use?
• Please describe the three addons you created for Firefox.
• HTC has what it calls an awesome humane tech list: open-source software that it recommends for use by members. Could you talk about this list?
• Dion Moult, writing on what he calls ethical software, said: “Software should be created by the community. That is, not only open-source, but the core developers should be welcoming to all contributors and unafraid of forks”. Please define “forks” and explain why users should be able to create them.
• For those users who don’t have tech backgrounds, what fundamental principles of software use and internet behaviour would you recommend?

Projects discussed

• Wayback Everywhere (for installing in other browsers, see here)
• Cloud Firewall
• Warn Common Password

References for topics

• Thoughts on why Wayback Everywhere addon is needed
• Awesome Humane Technologies list
• Tool that estimates the cost and effort of FLOSS projects
• Estimated cost/effort analysis for Wayback Everywhere addon
• Estimated cost/effort analysis for Cloud Firewall addon
• Free Software Foundation
• What is free software (free as in freedom, not cost)
• How free software is essential for educational purposes at schools/ universities
• Free software’s importance greater today than in the past
• Kashmir Hill, research journalist
• Kashmir Hill’s research series Life Without the Tech Giants (Gokul states that this research series inspired him to build the Cloud Firewall addon, which enables everyone to replicate Kashmir’s research)
• Ublock Origin addon
• Common passwords research - researcher who conducted this research

[patmatsu]

Very happy with how this looks. Thanks, Mic!

[patmatsu]

Transcript is coming along. Finished 8" and have about 13" left.

[micheleminno]

Summary

Though this discussion appears to be about a technical matter, it is much more than that. In the course of talking about FLOSS and his three addons, Gokul makes these ethical-philosophical points:

• the free software (FLOSS) movement expands and strengthens human rights, among them the right to knowledge and transparency
• sharing code (under freedom-respecting licenses) is a global educational endeavor
• HTC is itself an example of working and leading in the open.

[patmatsu]

Gokul asked that this be added to the list of references:

Dion Moult on forking https://thinkmoult.com/five-fundamental-facets-of-ethical-software.html