Björn Schießle 🌍 🇪🇺 @bjoern@mastodon.social

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Jane Goodall

"Wir fahren diesen Planeten gerade an die Wand. Und niemand steigt auf die Bremse, sondern alle drücken das Gaspedal noch durch. Wir rasen wirklich auf eine Wand zu, und der Crash könnte letztlich das Ende unserer Zivilisation herbeiführen", sagt Klimaforscher Schellnhuber https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Klimaforscher-Wir-fahren-diesen-Planeten-gerade-an-die-Wand-4250427.html #klima #umwelt #natur #politik

bottom line: Don't trust the shiny advertising brochure which tells you about end-to-end encryption, security and privacy if you only get a black box at the end. Only #FreeSoftware, #OpenStandards, #federation and the ability to self host will be able to secure your privacy.

... With messaging systems like #WhatsApp, the approach will be slightly different: your user interface will claim you’re in a one-on-one conversation, but behind the scenes, the company will be required to silently switch you into a group chat. Two of the people in the group chat will be you and your friend. The other will be invisible, and will be operated by the government.

This is how it (should) work: In the case of Apple’s #iMessage, #Apple would be compelled to silently add new devices to the list apps think you own: when someone sends you a message, it will no longer just go to, say, your #iPhone, your #iPad, and your #MacBook – it will go to those devices, and a new addition, a spying device owned by the government...

public authorities "can secretly compel tech companies and individual technologists, including network administrators, sysadmins, and open source developers – to re-engineer software and hardware under their control, so that it can be used to spy on their users. Engineers can be penalized for refusing to comply with fines and prison"... sounds like a nightmare but it is reality in the #UK and #Australia https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/new-fight-online-privacy-and-security-australia-falls-what-happens-next #eff #spy #privacy #security

#Nextcloud 15 is here with many great improvements, especially in the area of real-time collaboration and with the fist version of the Social app based on #ActivityPub. Yes, we are joining the #fediverse! 👋 Get it while it is hot... https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-15-goes-social-enforces-2fa-and-gives-you-a-new-generation-real-time-document-editing/

... Or a WebKit based browser. Diversity matters in order to maintain a free and open web!

"If one product like #Chromium has enough market share, then it becomes easier for web developers and businesses to decide not to worry if their services and sites work with anything other than Chromium. That’s what happened when #Microsoft had a monopoly on browsers in the early 2000s before #Firefox was released. And it could happen again.

If you care about what’s happening with online life today, take another look at Firefox." https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2018/12/06/goodbye-edge/ #edge

Funny, how often people promoting #IRC as the one and only communication platform for Free Software projects and at the same time recommending IRCCloud (a proprietary and centralized service) as the solution for all the IRC shortcomings.

With some #GIMP magic I created a #Nextcloud wallpaper based on the "Black Background Wood" wallpaper by Frederic Ampere (source: http://wallpaperswide.com/black_background_wood-wallpapers.html) #wallpaper #art #graphics

Ärzte haben den hippokratischen Eid, für Journalisten gibt es den Pressekodex. Aber an welchen ethischen Richtlinien orientieren sich die Entwicklerinnen und Entwickler von Algorithmen? Die Bertelsmann Stiftung und das #iRightsLab wollen das herausfinden und arbeiten an einem Ethik-Kodex für Entwickler. Man kann sich noch bis zum 21. Dezember an der Umfrage beteiligen. https://netzpolitik.org/2018/datenethik-projekt-algorules-will-richtlinien-fuer-programmiererinnen/ #algorules #Ethik #Software

It is no coincidence that the inventor of scientific journals called it "a perpetual financing machine". Good article about the broken system of scientific publication which puts publicly funded research behind paywalls. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/13/scientific-publishing-rip-off-taxpayers-fund-research #OpenAccess #PlanS

Nice, after updating to #Prosody 11 everything is green ("ja" === supported by the server). 🙂 #xmpp

#FreieSoftware in Kommunen: Vom Sollen zum Wollen - global denken, lokal handeln für nachhaltige Software, Christian Nähle von DO-FOSS berichtet von seinen Erfahrungen in Dortmund. https://media.ccc.de/v/bub2018-176-do-foss_-_freie_software_in_kommunen_vom_sollen_zum_wollen #fsfe

. @3rik auf der #BitsUndBäume zur nachhaltigen Gestaltung von Software und digitalen Ressourcen. https://media.ccc.de/v/bub2018-138-digitale_rohstoffe_erhalten_sich_anders #fsfe #DigitaleNachhaltigkeit #FreieSoftware #PublicCode