A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking at FOSS Backstage. The topic was the same as at CfgMgmtCamp, to use open tools in open source projects, but I had the opportunity to fine-tune the slides and pracice more. The entire talk, titled “FOSS behind the scenes – the center stage is not enough” is embedded below, and the slides are available at aina.li/backstage2026. Wikidata talk In a moment of spontaneity at the conference I submitted a…
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to speak about open tooling in Free and Open Source Software projects at CfgMgmtCamp in Ghent. The talk had been requested since I gave a talk on the same theme at What Hackers Yearn (see my personal blog post). At this occasion, I gave it the title: Free Software Needs Free Tools: Making Your Project Truly Open. The organization of the conference was good and I am happy that the talk also…
Since a few months back, Open By Default is a member of Vereniging Open Nederland. The association is made up of organizations and people who is active in the openness movement in various ways in the Netherlands. After living here for a few years, many of these members are already known to me and it almost feel like an oversight not joining the network earlier. Open By Default always list all affiliations.
Open By Default is now a member of the OSPO Alliance. OSPO stands for Open Source Program Office. Having an organizational function to manage open source code is an important step in the right direction for an organization, regardless of whether it is an entire department or a functional role. Taking the issue seriously that goes beyond an individual employee being an enthusiast is a recognition that makes ripples in an organization. If your organization wants help starting an OSPO,…
For a couple of months, I will help Creative Commons in their Open Climate Data project. It will be a very exciting and meaningful project. The assignment is in detailj described in their posting (archived version).
Since yesterday, Open By Default is active again, and registered in the Netherlands! The business idea is the same as before, to offer consulting services in everything open. Since the company is now registered in the Netherlands, and more than before helping organizations not only in Sweden, the website will turn into a multilingual website in the near future. Until then, you will have to live with the Swedish. As soon as contracts are signed, the assignments page will also…
Last fall was OpenCon, and they have in an exemplary manner published material from the conference so that people who could not attend have a chance to read it. One of the talks, by Erin McKiernan, was really good, and she told about how she have made a personal pledge for openness. It was so inspiring that Open By Default now have made a pledge too. If you would like to be inspired, watch the talk below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrpa4bl_0AA [Edit:] It…
