Here is the abstract for my talk, also available on the LibrePlanet 2021's speakers page:
Jami is free software for universal communication that respects the freedoms and privacy of its users. Jami is an official GNU package with a main goal of providing a framework for virtual communications, along with a series of end-user applications for audio/video calling and conferencing, text messaging, and file transfer.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the norm for many workers around the world. More and more people are using videoconferencing tools to work or communicate with their loved ones. The emergence of these tools has been followed by many questions and scandals concerning the privacy and freedom of users.
This talk gives an introduction to Jami, a free/libre, truly distributed, and peer-to-peer solution, and explains why and how it differs from all other existing solutions and how it empowers users.
I have been an attendee of LibrePlanet for some years, and am very excited to be giving my first ever talk at LibrePlanet 2021 this year! You can watch my talk and other speakers' talks live this weekend, from the LibrePlanet 2021 - Live page. Attendance is gratis (no cost), and you can register at https://u.fsf.org/lp21-sp.
Presentation slides:
pdf
(with notes) |
bib
LaTeX sources:
tar.gz |
zip
I hope to see you around this year's all-online LibrePlanet conference this weekend!
LibrePlanet is a conference about software freedom, happening March 20 through 21, 2021. The event is hosted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and brings together software developers, law and policy experts, activists, students, and computer users to learn skills, celebrate free software accomplishments, and face upcoming challenges. Newcomers are always welcome, and LibrePlanet 2021 will feature programming for all ages and experience levels.
]]>Hello! I'm Amin Bandali, and this is my second blog post on the FSF sysadmin blog, concluding my internship with the FSF tech team this year.
Throughout my internship with the tech team, I have worked mainly on sysadmin tasks related to setting up and/or managing FSF's GNU/Linux servers. Perhaps most significantly, I set up an instance of the Sourcehut forge software to help evaluate it as a candidate for the upcoming FSF forge project. I documented the installation and setup process of Sourcehut's various components in the form of a literate GNU Emacs Org-mode file, where source blocks are interspersed with comments and prose explaining them. One can then progressively evaluate and execute the source blocks, and optionally have their results stored back in the Org file itself to help with documentation/demonstration.
I have also been slowly working on various improvements for the server running www.gnu.org, and will continue doing work on it as a volunteer after the end of my internship. This will hopefully be beneficial to the FSF sysadmins running the server, the GNU webmasters who do webmastering work on gnu.org, and the general public browsing and using gnu.org's pages. Notably, changes included upgrading the server to the latest release of Trisquel GNU/Linux, and revamping and improving the search mechanism for gnu.org's pages. Additionally, there are several other projects that I would like to tackle with the tech team in the near future.
During my internship with the FSF tech team, I picked up a variety of new skills and learned more about a diverse set of topics and tools. This included building and installing a complex piece of software like Sourcehut and debugging issues encountered along the way, using Ansible for managing and deploying infrastructure, as well as learning more about the Exim mail transfer agent used to run FSF and GNU's array of mail servers.
In conclusion to my internship and the year 2020, it's safe to say that this year has been an eventful year for many people, including myself. I started my internship with the tech team back in May, and as a graduate student at the time, I was expecting a reasonable and balanced workload for my work on my thesis over the coming months. However, early on (less than two weeks) into my internship I learned that due to a number of reasons, I needed to complete my master's studies on a two-month deadline. I told the tech team about the issue, asking whether I could take a hiatus to complete my studies without affecting my internship. I am beyond thankful to the tech team and the FSF as whole for being accommodating, and for their flexibility in allowing me to take a leave to focus on writing my thesis and wrapping up my master's studies. I managed to successfully wrap up my studies in that short timeline, and focus on my internship afterwards.
However, all good things must come to an end, and this internship is no exception. I am incredibly grateful to the members of the FSF tech team — Ian, Andrew, Ruben, and Michael — for welcoming me to the team as an intern and mentoring me, answering my many questions, and helping me learn more. It has been an honour and a wonderful experience for me all around working with you all and seeing the energy and passion with which you take on the work and responsibilities that come with being an FSF sysadmin and Web developer. While most of my interactions were with the tech team, I also got to interact with FSF staffers from several other teams during my internship, and I'm thankful for our conversations and the chance to get to know and appreciate the important work you do.
This internship has come to an end, but I will carry with me all of the good memories and the lessons I learned along the way, and will happily to continue working with you as a volunteer. The things I learned have been invaluable and greatly helpful to me, as I transitioned into my new full-time job at Savoir-faire Linux as a Free Software Consultant, where I get to work on various parts and aspects of Jami, a GNU package for universal communication which respects the freedoms and privacy of its users.
I would like to thank the FSF for providing me this excellent opportunity to work alongside the tech team as an intern, and take away so many valuable lessons and great memories.
Interested in interning for the Free Software Foundation? The application period for spring 2021 internships is currently open. Please see https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships for more details and information on how to apply!
]]>Hi there, I'm Amin Bandali, often just bandali
on the
interwebs. I wear a few different hats around GNU as a maintainer,
webmaster, and Savannah hacker, and I'm very excited to be extending
that to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as an intern with the FSF
tech team for spring 2020.
Growing up around parents with backgrounds in computer engineering and programming, it did not take long for me to find an interest in tinkering and playing with computers as a kid, and I first came into contact with GNU/Linux in my teenage years. My first introduction to the world of free software came a few years later, when a friend kindly pointed out to me that what I had vaguely known and referred to as "open source" software is more properly referred to as free software, and helped me see why "open source" misses the point of free software. After learning about and absorbing the ideas and ideals of free software, I have since become a free software activist. As a computer scientist who enjoys studying and hacking on various programs and sometimes writing my own, I have made a point of releasing all I can under strong copyleft licenses, particularly the GNU AGPL license.
My involvement with the GNU Project started in 2016, first as a volunteer webmaster, and later as one of the maintainers of GNUzilla and IceCat late last year. Also around the same time, I led a group of volunteers in organizing and holding EmacsConf 2019 as a completely online conference, using only free software tools, much like the excellent LibrePlanet 2020. I love GNU Emacs, and use it more than any other program. GNU Emacs helps me do a wide variety of tasks such as programming, reading and composing emails, and chatting via IRC.
More closely related to my internship with the FSF tech team, I have been familiarizing myself with various pieces of the GNU Savannah infrastructure with help from veteran Savannah hacker Bob Proulx, gradually learning and picking up tasks helping with the administration and maintenance of Savannah. I am also a member of the Systems Committee of my university's computer science club, overseeing and maintaining a large fleet of GNU/Linux servers for our club members.
For my internship with the Free Software Foundation, I will be working with the FSF tech team on a number of tasks, including helping with the free software forge project, as well as various improvements for gnu.org. I look forward to learning many new things and picking up valuable skills through my internship with the FSF's exceptional tech team, who do so much for the GNU project and the wider free software community.
]]>My librebooted ThinkPad X200 computer is the machine I use the most and where I do most of my computing. I also have the privilege of having access to a fleet of servers through our school's Computer Science Club that I use for some more computationally intensive tasks every now and again.
I used a wide variety of distros over the years; but I have since found Trisquel to be my favourite and it's put my "distro-hopping" days behind me. Sometimes I pair it up with GNU Guix. For the kernel, I usually use GNU Linux-libre from jxself's APT repository.
I spend most of my time in GNU Emacs.
TODO: elaborate
]]>