[Paisleychick-lj] Stallman and Wales

Fri Nov 7 02:14:04 EST 2008

[![][1]][2]  
[Stallman answering a question][3], originally uploaded by [blmurch][4].

Monday evening, Kragen and I walked down the street to Congreso and stood in a snaking long line to listen to Richard Stallman speechify. He was coming to talk about Free Software, and how important it is to the public sector. He spoke in Spanish. I wasn't expecting that. He did a great job. He was clear, funny and well received. He gave a history of Free Software and how he came to the four tenets of Free Software and how it all applies to democracies. He also touched on why he's no longer using an OLPC laptop, but is now using a prototype MIPS machine that has a free bios. You can read a lot of his speech in [an opinion piece he wrote for boston.com][5]. He was on a panel with three Deputados/as from the National Government. It seems they are debating this next week about migrating the public sector government computers from proprietary software to Free Software. This would be a big deal and a big coup for the Free Software Movement. Stallman's appearance was put together with a week's notice and Fundación Vía Libre. They did a great job. I took photos and apparently [two were used in a local newspaper article in _La Nacion_][6], which if I'd known, I would have picked up a hard-copy. I guess a screenshot will have to do for my archives.  

[![][7]][8]  
[Jimmy Wales][9], originally uploaded by [blmurch][4].

Thursday, November 6, from 14:00 to 20:00 Kragen and I attended the _Academia de Wikipedia_. Jimmy Wales was in town and gave a press conference and then spoke about [Wikipedia][10], [Wikia][11] and how the Free Culture movement is changing the world. I love Wikipedia, being part of Wikimedia Argentina and thoroughly enjoyed the day. I got to talk briefly with Jimmy Wales after the event and look forward to his return for [Wikimania in August 2009][12]. The black clothes and matching black MacBook belie his kind voice and even temperament. There were six talks in total and I enjoyed each one in my brief attendance, except I got to sit through all of Jimmy's speech as there wasn't anything else going on at the same time. There was a basic introduction to wikipedia, a debate about the scholarly use of wikipedia, a lecture on copyright, two hands-on talks about how to use wikipedia and the wikimedia commons, and finally Jimmy Wales spoke and then answered questions from his co-panelists, the two Eduardos, (both in the media) and the audience at large. Thursday, November 6, from 14:00 to 20:00 Kragen and I attended the _Academia de Wikipedia_. Jimmy Wales was in town and gave a press conference and then spoke about [Wikipedia][10], [Wikia][11] and how the Free Culture movement is changing the world. I love Wikipedia, being part of Wikimedia Argentina and thoroughly enjoyed the day. I got to talk briefly with Jimmy Wales after the event and look forward to his return for [Wikimania in August 2009][12]. There were six talks in total and I enjoyed each one in my brief attendance. There was a basic introduction to wikipedia, a debate about the scholarly use of wikipedia, a lecture on copyright, two hands-on talks about how to use wikipedia and the wikimedia commons, and finally Jimmy Wales spoke and then answered questions from his co-panelists, the two Eduardos, (both in the media) and the audience at large. I took tons of photos and [narrowed it down to 44 shots][13]. A lot I know, but I wanted to give the full picture of the afternoon. I was truly exhausted, but I got through the afternoon with some coffee and went out to two art shows in San Telmo afterwards.

   [1]: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/3001710238_fb07e1713e.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/3001710238/ (photo sharing)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/3001710238/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/blmurch/
   [5]: http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php
   [6]: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1066496
   [7]: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/3009991614_5797ca8301.jpg
   [8]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/3009991614/ (photo sharing)
   [9]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/3009991614/
   [10]: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/data/www.wikipedia.org/
   [11]: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/data/www.wikia.com/
   [12]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Bids/Buenos_Aires
   [13]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/sets/72157608727528309/

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/349127.html