Jack f*ing Dorsey having the keynote at FOSDEM is a disgrace. He has made no meaningful contributions, is a no-one in this space and wants to talk about Open Source culture? Are you kidding me?!??

Why are we allowing this to happen? He should not be welcome as a speaker, let alone holding the keynote.

Why is this such a problem?

Because like all tech billionaires he has an agenda which is incompatible with the ideals of open source. Giving him a platform where be can speak about his interest, despite not having contributed to the community is acting against the interest of the open source community as a whole.

You wouldn't invite a fossil fuel lobbyist to a renewable energy panel either, would you?

@phoenix The rich and famous don't need to be given a stage. Give it to the wise and interesting instead.

@phoenix oh god what. I mean I know fosdem was a corpo shit event but this?? that's worse than I expected lmao

@phoenix Sounds like at least a walk out (or similar) then is urgently needed. 🤔

I realize money plays a role. A big role. But don't make the mistake of taking tech bro's as our friends.

The relationship is utilitarian at best. Tech bro's don't "invest" in open source because they believe in its ideals, they do it because it gives them the means to do whatever they like. And this is seldom something good or desirable.

Those are the same people that do one mass layoff after the next one whenever it suits them.

They are not our friends. Jack Dorsey should not be welcome.

In the age of misinformation and "bought public perception" giving him this stage is both morally and politically wrong and damaging to the philosophy of open source.

End of thread.

@phoenix May I remind you who hosted the last global environmental conferences and where they took place? 😒
And yes, FOSDEM should know/do better.

@grootinside i brought this up intentionally because case on point ☝️

Sorry I forgot to mention also @sir excellent blog post about it: https://drewdevault.com/2025/01/16/2025-01-16-No-Billionares-at-FOSDEM-please.html.

@phoenix who do you think fosdem is for

@jack "FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate". It's literally stated on the FOSDEM website: https://fosdem.org/2025/

@phoenix good talk really understood what i was saying

@jack I think I got your point and my answer still fits 😉

@phoenix That's the whole point of the "Open Source" concept. The Open Source Initiative has historically been created to focus on the promotion of open collaborative development models as a pragmatic and business-friendly approach, while the existing Free Software movement was all about ideals and principles (aka "the philosophy").

@gilles the corporatisation of open source is a reality and there is a lot of gray zone where everybody needs to find their own moral compass. And while I don't know where the red line is to be drawn, I do know that Jack Dorsey is well beyond that line.

@phoenix @sir Uuuh, if I was there I would sit with them.

@phoenix @sir I think it’s a bad idea and it no one should do it.

@phoenix huh, didn't know reviews were public

or was this leaked?

@phoenix > despite not having contributed to the community

You could at least do 5 minutes of research before making such damning accusations

Square is the custodian of okhttp, which is the HTTP client used by nearly every Android app

https://github.com/square/okhttp

@feld show me jack's commit, PR, files issues or bugs. Show me where he plays a role as open source advocate, where he's talking about open source and not using it as a sale sticker. Show me his blog or other posts where he does meaningful contributions to the community, either as developer or as advocate.

Being an investor doesn't qualify to speak at a developer's conference. He's a nobody in the open source space.

@phoenix Oh now you're just moving goalposts

@feld no, I'm not. The context was always FOSDEM, a conference for open source developers of open source developers.

Even FOSDEM reviewers were against it

@phoenix Thanks for redacting the reviewers. I guess the pretalx wasn't public to begin with?

@danimo no, and I do feel a bit ashamed that I didn't realized it in the first place. It should have been redacted in the first place.

Heat was a bit high yesterday ...

@phoenix i was about to ask, but then got distracted. Sorry.

@danimo thanks but it was my mistake and I own it 😅

@phoenix There's every single year employees of Meta, Google and Microsoft giving talks at FOSDEM. Why do you allow that to happen? :-)

@phoenix the sponsor list for this year.

It's total hypocrisy and nonsense to complain about Jack Dorsey giving a keynote and this *objectively* proves it. Get a life.