I mean, Jack Dorsey speaking about "Infusing Open Source Culture into Company DNA" when not a single soul has every heard of him in relation to Open Source before this talk title would have worked as a joke to me.

https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4507-infusing-open-source-culture-into-company-dna-a-conversation-with-jack-dorsey-and-manik-surtani-block-s-head-of-open-source/

@bagder Exactly. I don't care about billionaires. I don't care how much money is in the bank account of someone who presents at FOSDEM. But at least they should have some kind of connection to the Open Source world. I'm sure he can present countless interesting things about investments and building big platforms, but that's not what FOSDEM is about.

@bagder Maybe it's as aspirational as the promise/lie that BSky is open and federated?

@bagder I was wondering how there could possibly be a keynote without mentioning AI, I think that would be against the rules now for Silicon Valley visionaries

Then I read the abstract, what a relief

@bagder so - just the first example coming to my mind - bootstrap is not opensource, isn’t used by thousands, and wasn’t released by twitter when he was in charge there?

Not going to praise that guy too much as i don’t trust him too far and there are surely many better people to give a fosdem keynote - but saying he has nothing to do with opensource seems odd.

@bagder Even if his companies had been involved in open source projects, I don't think I'd care to hear from someone who's been a CEO for so long. He's so removed from the code and the on-the-ground decision-making.

Likewise I don't think I'd care to hear what Matt Mullenwig has to say these days, regardless of controversy. He's too far removed.

@bagder now they want to screw up linux?

@bagder That'd be a very sarcastic joke...

@bagder I hear next year Scientology will get the keynote with a talk about "Philosophical principles in open source and how Hubbart was right".

@larsmb @bagder : As I wrote two years ago, billionaires see the world through what bring them money.

Dorsey became billionaire by not understanding what decentralization was. There’s no chance he ever understand it. In fact, when he started BS, he really tried to ignore any hint at ActivityPub.

https://ploum.net/2023-03-03-bluesky.html

@ploum @bagder https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something

I think it's perfectly possible that ATproto addresses some issues with AP. I never spent the time to understand that part.

Because I stopped caring when they kept it closed initially and didn't make federation (as in, actual federation happening across meaningful boundaries) part of the MVP.

@bagder So, there will be more¹ weird crowd there this year?

:)

¹ depending on point of view, for some "less" would match better

@larsmb @bagder : exactly what I said : a private invitation-only (a typical "growth hack") beta backed by VC cannot be decentralized.

The fact that there’s now a campaign to get you to donate to help make a second instance of BS is borderline parodic.

It’s either pure incompetence or actual malevolence to try to hurt real decentralization.

My guess is "a mix of both": "they want decentralization that they can still control" (like "permissioned blockchains")

(see https://freeourfeeds.com/ )

@ploum Yes. That campaign is completely ridiculous.

@bagder

@bagder This is total ; " Proprietary wants your stuff... " BS!
'The Company' will take any input they can, and if they deem it 'worthy' they will take that path as long as it profits their shareholders. THAT is all 'business plans' want: financial profit to pass to their shareholders as dividends

@bagder Ironic…

@bagder wow - I was wondering which talk they were referencing in the protest stuff - this one seems bonkers…

@bagder I for one will be cornering him in the hallways to make a contrib to https://opencollective.com/curl

@bagder Mitchell Baker from Mozilla, especially with last year's track record and actions, is IMHO a worse joke.