It's OK, I think we can change that term, I'm not overly attached to it but I wanted to avoid overused concepts. Since there is a link with active and critical (e)citizenship, "sovereignty" was a nice concept but we could switch it for other phrase, it's not a big deal. Thanks for the feedback!
Exactly. The idea behind Penpot (I'm part of the project) is to give all possible choices. These days this basically means, web based UI and easily deployable private server. That way you can reach nearly any device on Earth meant for UX/UI design and at the same make sure you can host one of the few software dev tools that belong to your software building pipeline that didn't belong to you. Git repos, check, testing frameworks, check, project management, check, all the devops magic, check, linux servers, check, IDEs, check, etc etc, but the design tool.... no check.
Devs has historically been OK as long as THEIR toolsets were FOSS, and they would occasionally make fun of other people's vendor lock-ins. Ironically, one of the main arguments these devs and hackers would use to propote FOSS to people that were not devs was "you're also benefiting from other people being able to access the code even if you can't, can't you see the game-theory behind it?" but they haven't considered that the fact that designers didn't enjoy a FOSS tool was limiting for the whole FOSS potential. I have to admit we developed Penpot for designers, not developers, but we know devs will value what it comes from it and I personally hope we will be able to claim more and more areas where FOSS has been neglected, partly by devs themselves.
Well, as I said above, I'm to be blamed for most of the texts on penpot's FAQ section, and this comment of yours hurt a bit
I think the problem is not the language itself but how often certain groups in OSS-related activities have abused it or claimed "the real meaning" behind certain phrases.
Penpot is a very ambitious project that has the unique advantage of uniting hackers with an almost naive approach to technology and society with designers that have embraced the values of free & open source software, privacy and accessibility. But the journey is risky because it doesn't come from the usual comfort zone of dev frameworks and app servers...
I was the one who wrote most of the texts there. I felt "democratic" was an abused term these days (unfortunately). Many startups tend to say the want to "democratize" this or that when what they really want is to monetize the commons or create new needs for intermediaries. Internet these days is not exactly what it used to be. I grew up with the 90's Internet and while I'm not nostalgic for the sake of being nostalgic, I do prefer a more free and distributed Internet. The phrase I came up with was "digitally sovereign society" to point towards an ambitious goal. Of course, that requires democracy.
Pero me da que llego tarde no?
Hi, the submitter here.
Of course, I was expecting some "I would ask Slashdot" (Funny:5) and "I would not tell Slashdot" (Insightful: 5) answers but I think that a good procedure could be exposed to the public much like a public encryption key and still preserve the effectiveness.
It's quite interesting to read the 440+ comments and see there's a pattern (or antipattern). I gave 5-6 pieces of contextual data but there are two of them that are being neglected in some way. I said "you are able to speak one language apart from good English" but nobody took advantage of that, interesting. I also said "in a G8 country of your choosing" but I might well have just asked for US citizens (there are some honorable exceptions, true). The "computer savvy" clue was either ignored or überused.
The family ties are the most disturbing (or lets say annoying) to me. Just picture your husband/wife not knowing why you're missing, defaulting to Defcon 1 and going to the police. You want to avoid that at all costs but "they" might be monitoring her. That's why I think this Ask Slashdot should introduce a procedure in your lifes (as we do have at home and, btw, my wife was the one to suggest me to Ask Slashdot) so you have a code, something that sends either one of these two messages to your AAA relative: "I'm OK, just wait and I'll contact you again though it might take time" or "I'm not OK, open the red envelope and follow instructions". Note that those messages can be delivered without saying that as long as you have prearranged them.
The other thing is the money. I think, because this is RealWorld(tm) and not MatrixWorld(tm), you could try and get some cash from your bank but only in T.LT.2h. It's dangerous but not because of the "there's being a problem with your order, Sir, please wait here a couple of minutes" death sentence but for having entered a difficult to escape place (so you should devise a plan to get safely out of the bank).
I loved when in a previous Ask Slashdot about migrating to a country someone said Australia could be a good place to be in in the event of a IIIWW, this is geek-style thinking.
I too remember a guy I was interviewing for a job post in my company that had a plan in case of a zombi apocalypse. It was very detailed (not just the Cardio rule) and I nearly got him on board just for that but, alas, his FOSS knowledge was below par. Well, the main difference between a zombi apocalypse and my setting is that in the latter the world keeps going on as usual and you can't trust other "fellow" humans, but the point is that you can still prepare you way out just in case.
The core of the problem is that you didn't plan this in advance because, not surprisingly, you weren't expecting it but you're forced to devise a semiprofessional plan in hours time.
I'll post my own answer in a few hours time so you can be sure I'm not cheating here.
As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare
