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Today was the last day of FISL, and I hope that many of you have followed the activities through the official website. This year the event featured more than 500 activities distributed in 15 environments ranging from a room for 20 people to a theater for 500 spectators.
For those who were unable to attend a lecture, either in person or on the web, the organization is releasing recordings of almost all lectures, more specifically the lectures in the rooms of building 41. To check it out, access the lecture grid and clicking on the desired lecture will have a link to the video.
The main message of this year's event was the search for freedom, freedom of choice, of learning, of sharing! We are currently slaves to technology companies. Total freedom is almost impossible, but that doesn't mean we should stop fighting for our rights.
Some see this activism as boring, but until a few decades ago anti-smoking activists were also boring. Society today sees smokers as the boring ones in the equation. The big question is that people still don't understand the real consequences of the lack of freedom in consumption and learning.
A good part of the lectures involved the discussion about what free software is, and currently there are few totally free platforms that give us options to choose from. Apple and microsoft give us no choice. Android gives us more choice but not all. Even Ubuntu doesn't give us complete freedom. Hardware manufacturers don't let us choose. The linux kernel itself still prohibits us from making some choices. In Ubuntu, even when the requests that only Free Software be installed, he installs proprietary software.
In this discussion some symbols are questioned, such as the classic penguin called Tux that is the mascot of the Linux kernel and widely spread as a symbol of Free Software. Since Linux is not currently completely free this shouldn't be the best mascot for the cause. For this reason, Freedo was created, which intends to better represent the movement, but like any debate, its use is not a consensus.
Some argue that the should be free to choose, including that he wants to use non-free software. But if the can be free to “imprison” himself in a software that takes away his freedom, why can't we ask that we be imprisoned in a jail without committing a crime? The right to imprison yourself is not a freedom, for it does not lead you to freedom.
But it's not just this kind of discussion that the event provides. In the midst of this debate, a lot of knowledge, from all areas, is shared. Teaching projects were presented with Jovem Hacker. Applications to teach programming like Scratch or Portuguese. Several companies even presented their SL implementation cases. Government bodies such as the Ministry of Culture, Datasus, Banco do Brasil, EBC and others presented various aspects of their infrastructure and the difficulties of this implementation. Often the difficulty is more due to resistance than technical problems effectively.
In several lectures and workshops it was possible to learn the operation of various SL such as Gimp (image editor), Inkscape (vector image editor), freeCAD (3D model editor) among others. Some disseminated tips, standards and security rules for developers and digital infrastructure professionals. Others also talked about how to build and use free hardware like Arduino and RaspberryPi. One of the places that most attracted the public's attention was the booth area of groups and projects where you could see where some 3d printers were helping in the workshops to materialize real models of their projects.
Some research groups have exhibited their robotics and electronics projects completely free. One of these showed how to build a weather station with Arduino, another how to assemble an on-board computer for your car with just 50 dollars. There was even one that creates its own logic boards for projects, one of which is a signal amplifier.
The liveliest lectures were certainly those given by the already famous John MadDog Hall, who always talks about how we should fight for freedom and also about his cauã project that aims to disseminate knowledge and generate income for computer students, as well as low-cost for small entrepreneurs. The theater was also packed with a lecture by André Noel, from the website Programmer's life. André talked about how he created and maintains his entire website using only free software.
For the first time, FISL subscribers gained free access to the PUCRS Science and Technology Museum, which is in the building attached to the event. The space has 4 floors where we can have with various areas of science and technology. Several environments with biological specimens of Brazilian, human and even prehistoric fauna and flora.
An entire hall is dedicated to physics experience involving electricity, mechanics, luminosity, thermodynamics and others. At last, a nerdy amusement park! The museum is open from Monday to Friday and ission costs 24 reais, a more than fair value for the experience provided. I particularly spent almost 4 hours walking around and interacting with everything, including the human gyroscope! Undoubtedly, a trip worth visiting.
Undoubtedly this edition had an audience well below the last few years, with just under 4000 subscribers. Even so, the technical quality of everything that was presented was of great benefit to the public. The great diversity of areas of knowledge reached by the lectures and workshops is always enormous. Whatever the activity of a FISL participant, he will certainly learn something useful in an event like these.
To finish, I leave the message that in a free software event, it is not just about Linux. There is a culture of debating any subject that can add knowledge to everyone. Participate in events, exchange experience and knowledge. Hope to see you at a next event!
