2:22 p.m.
Hi Mark,
> # Is this backed by FSF/OSI/SFC/XYZ?
>
> No, it’s not! The Assembly was founded by GNU maintainers and
> contributors and receive no support, financial or otherwise,
> from any
> three-letter-acronym organization. Evil Corp™ isn’t helping
> either.
>
> # Is this _against_ FSF/OSI/SFC/XYZ?
>
> Nope! The Assembly is not a _reaction_ to the three-letter
> acronym of
> your choice—it’s first and foremost a _constructive_ project.
>
> Is it at odds with the three-letter acronym you have in mind?
> Maybe!
> But we’re interested in _building_ something more than in
> arguing about
> what others are doing.
I don't like the tone/wording of this. It is also vague what
exactly
the question is. First OSI is different from the FSF and SFC in
that
they are not an umbrella organization for Free Software
projects. You
might want to replace it with SPI (and drop the XYZ) then at
least it
is a consistent set of 3-letter acronyms.
OSI is among the list, I suppose, because it’s an accusation that
we’ve seen pretty often. There’s the insinuation that there’s a
campaign against rms that is pushed by OSI (or Microsoft via its
involvement in the OSI…) and that this initiative is just the
latest iteration of this evil conspiracy to gut free software etc,
etc.
Among those who have had what could be described as a knee-jerk
reaction to our announcement, the idea that all these events are
not only connected by virtue of not happening in isolation but are
in fact coordinated by a well-funded entity with sinister
intentions, and are an attempt to destroy free software and
replace it with a corporate-laundered, freedom-philosophy-free
project — that idea is incredibly stubborn and common. That’s why
I think it is important to address it.
Then Evil Copr is "funny" but not really helping here
either. Why is it
even in there? Are you answering a different question?
In various incarnations of the conspiracy “theory”, “Evil Corp” is
Microsoft, or Red Hat, or perhaps even IBM.
I agree that this could be made clearer without giving these
conspiracy tales more of a platform.
I think the question is something like:
# Is the GNU Assembly and initiative of the FSF/SPI/SFC or a
specific
corporate interest?
No, it’s not! The Assembly was founded by GNU maintainers and
contributors and receive no support, financial or otherwise,
from any
organization at this time. We did talk to the FSF to get
support, but
they have ignored us for the last couple of years. At the moment
the
initiative uses the resources of the individuals listed. We will
publicly list anybody or any organization that provides us with
resources to be completely transparent.
“We did talk to the FSF to get support” is a bit vague perhaps.
Did “we” (i.e. individuals speaking *explicitly* about this
collective that later became the GNU Assembly) ask the FSF for
financial support or hosting resources?
--
Ricardo