provoost on Nostr: I was on the fence about going, eventually decided not to because the schedule wasn't ...

I was on the fence about going, eventually decided not to because the schedule wasn't very good. Now I'm glad I'm not going. Spineless organizers are not something I want to support.

quoting nevent1q…3vxv

I see Jack Dorsey was scheduled to give a keynote on FOSDEM 2025 this weekend. It's a very big European conference for the free and open source community.

The plan caused outcries in the community. "In my view", wrote one, "billionaires are not welcome at FOSDEM", warning that Dorsey would promote his "AI/blockchain/bitcoin/climate-disaster-as-a-service grifty business ventures". (https://drewdevault.com/2025/01/16/2025-01-16-No-Billionares-at-FOSDEM-please.html)

A protest was planned. FOSDEM responded by asking them to reach out about planned crowd sizes, so that they could scale crowd control and fire safety measures accordingly. (https://fosdem.org/2025/news/2025-01-16-protests/)

"We will be occupying the stage for the duration of the scheduled time slot in order to prevent the talk from proceeding as planned.", wrote the protest organizer in a later update. (https://drewdevault.com/2025/01/20/2025-01-20-FOSDEM-protest.html)

Finally, last week, FOSDEM appears to have quietly relented, withdrawing Dorsey's keynote from the schedule. "We extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff for reconsidering the decision to platform Dorsey and Block, Inc. at FOSDEM.", wrote the protest organizer. (https://drewdevault.com/2025/01/23/2025-01-23-Transparency-and-governance-FOSDEM.html)

Block remains one of the main sponsors of FOSDEM 2025.

(After doing this research I noticed it's been reported widely already, but this is my post and I'm sticking to it)