#introductions
Hi this is going to be an official account for FOSDEM.org in the future #patience-please #Free #Libre #Open-source

@fosdem Hi there, welcome to the fediverse.

Who are your sponsors this year? Will you have the world’s #1 surveillance capitalist (Google) as your primary sponsor again?

What’s FOSDEM’s official stance on surveillance capitalism? Are you ethically/morally opposed to the business model of tracking/profiling people to manipulate their behaviour for profit or do you support it (being neutral in this, as in any situation of injustice, takes the side of the oppressor).

Look forward to your answer.

@aral We are a conference and platform for and about free and open source software. As such we welcome all free and open source developers from all over the world, regardless of their affiliation. We use donations to make this event possible. We aren't selective about sponsors and sources of donations, for sponsors have no influence on the selection of the contents for the event.

@fosdem That “free” word you keep using refers to “freedom”.

”We aren’t selective about about sponsors and sources of donations” is tone-deaf, reckless, & simply not acceptable in 2018 for any group that seeks legitimacy in the ethics of what they do.

Palantir develops open source (https://palantir.github.io) and also helps ICE find & deport asylum seekers. By your (lack of) ethical standards, they would be welcome as a sponsor.

Please see https://fundingmatters.tech and review your stance on this.

@aral @fosdem Aral, I think you missed the "and open source" part.

Free software and open source are two completely separate things. FOSDEM has things for both. Google, Microsoft, etc are very much a part of the open source world.

@jaywink @fosdem Maybe if they’re completely different things, we should stop lumping them together and thereby stop legitimising the part that doesn’t give a hoot about human rights or freedom.

@aral @fosdem well, in general, I don't think anyone who knows lumps them together. FOSDEM certainly isn't. It's just organizing a space that *both* are welcome to. That doesn't mean the organizers of FOSDEM are saying free software and open source are the same thing.

@jaywink @fosdem Like that Greenpeace Exxon Mobil conference. Got it!

@aral @fosdem TBH, it *would be* great to get Greenpeace and Exxon Mobil to the same conference, would it not?

@jaywink @fosdem Definitely. One where Exxon Mobil was called out for its abuses by Greenpeace and had to answer for them. Not one that whitewashed said abuses and legitimised Exxon Mobil by being sponsored by it.