Aral Balkan
Basically, what we’re saying to people today is:
You’re interested in tech and you want a nice home (or just any home) and stability? Go work at Google, Facebook, or some other surveillance capitalist.
What’s that? You want to work on free and open source? Sure, go work at IBM or Oracle… Oh… you don’t mean enterprise software? Tech to protect human rights/democracy? Not for profit hippie-dippie crap for the common good?
Oh, then suffer.
I mean, is it any surprise things are as they are?
Aral Balkan
@kkarhan I hear you.
PS. Has anyone taken the name Modbook, yet? ;)
Kevin Karhan :verified:
@aral at this point basically all my projects are stalling due to lack of funding...
And since #NUCbook and other projects go against #SurveillanceCapitalism, #PlannedObsolescence and/or other #Rentseeking they won't get funded.
https://github.com/KBtechnologies/nucbook
Kevin Karhan :verified:
@aral Eeyupp...
Either one has to sell their soul to some corporation or suffer...
No matter if it's #GigWork [#UberEats] , #GrindWork [Any fast food job] or whatever...
Ben Werdmuller
@aral I was just joking with someone about this the other day. My software was used by movements all over the world to rally and organize for justice. I only was able to get out of debt and find some retirement savings when I took a left turn into VC-funded startups for a while.
And now here I am in non profit open source, and, well, those savings were fun to have while they lasted.
Not that I did it for the money. But still.
Aral Balkan
@ben Similar.
Initially sold a couple of flats we had in Turkey to fund our work but, when that money ran out, Laura started contracting for Stately (which is VC-funded) and that’s what’s keeping us off the streets currently.
We’ve been turned down for every EU fund we’ve applied for and I’m done wasting time with it.
So, yeah, we’re not directly funded by VC (nor would we be) but we’re still more funded by Silicon Valley than by the commons though everything we do is for the common good.
Aral Balkan
@whereisk I feel the more important question is: can things be made better?
(And yes, yes they can. Whether there’s any political will for it… that‘s a whole other question entirely.)
whereisk
@aral I mean, were things ever different?
Aral Balkan
@AudraTran Hmm… if only we could crowdfund it somehow… you know, if we all agreed to pay a portion of our earnings so that they could be used for things that benefited us all. We could call it… I don’t know… faxes? No. Taken. Paxes? Nope, doesn’t sound right. Wait, I got it… how about taxes?
Cru Jones
@aral How exactly would you propose to solve this problem? You want to have money, but you also want to work on software "for the common good", who is going to pay for that?
Edward L Platt
@aral part of the problem is that work outside large firms or vc-funded startups isn't valued by donors or the media. The director of a tech for "social good' program once told me I didn't have "experience working on real projects" because I hadn't worked for Google (despite their recruiters' best efforts).
Aral Balkan
@chrisg 💕
Chris Gioran 💔
@aral This hits incredibly close to home for me.
That's exactly why i quit my job. I want to build _something_ that gives people the opportunity to be creative without being beholden to an exploitative system rotten to the core.
I think it's possible. Perhaps i want to believe it's possible. But if its not, then it's still worth doing.
I am so fucking pumped to be in these conversations. ✊
Aral Balkan
@miklo @kkarhan Not everyone has the time or energy to do everything perfectly according to every possible set of purist criteria. Should we try to use alternatives if they exist? Sure. Should we make those alternatives as easy to use as possible so more people use them? Yes, please. Should we give hell to folks doing the best they can with the right intentions if they don’t meet our criteria 100%? Please, no. Let’s try and keep things in perspective and to be kind.
Kevin Karhan :verified:
@miklo @aral Q: Do you also criticize anti-capitalists for using #Patreon and #YouTube?
Do you criticize #Prisoners from the USA for "being part" of a for-profit incarceration system??
I want you to think about this for a minute...
https://soc.citizen4.eu/display/94d43991-9964-b7dc-61eb-bef311031412
Kevin Karhan :verified:
Because it's not financially viable to #SelfHost it!
Also #GPLv3 is a sufficient deterrent...
https://github.com/KBtechnologies/nucbook/blob/master/LICENSE.md
Kevin Karhan :verified:
@miklo @aral not to mention like all Software, it takes Maintenance...
MiKlo:~/citizen4.eu$💙💛
MiKlo:~/citizen4.eu$💙💛
Kevin Karhan :verified:
@miklo @aral Please feel free to controbute to the project but stop wasting my personal time.
Needless to say that my projects only create cost on Microsoft's end and no profit whatsoever as I never even paid a single cent to them.
If they ever go full asshole onto me I'd just move the project when the need exists.
Meanwhile it's irrelevant for a #git where it's hosted.
I just have neither the time nor budget nor spoons to setup a #GitLab or #Gitea at this point...
MiKlo:~/citizen4.eu$💙💛
Aral Balkan
@catileptic That would be great. It would, however, likely require colleges/universities to stop thinking of themselves as Silicon Valley’s human resources department.
![Alecs Ștefănescu [38c3]](https://gnusocial.jp/avatar/147381-48-20230709085738.webp){kind=small}
Alecs Ștefănescu [38c3]
@aral my dream is to have Computer Science courses in colleges talk about a career as a tech activist, or a programmer in the civic society as a very reputable and viable career option.
I work as a programmer supporting journalists and activists exclusively. I've worked for the IT industry in the first part of my career. In my mind and, really, in my body, these two environments feel drastically different.
The humanity in tech keeps us sane.
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