A very leading question and probably a stupid one to ask on Lemmy.
Perhaps some of you might have seen me around before, or seen a glimpse of one of my creative projects as you scrolled through All/New. I am nowhere near as prolific with my posting on Lemmy as some of you. But I'm here lurking daily.
Don't think we don't notice you! Your herculean efforts to keep this corner of the internet alive is pivotal to the success and continued existence of the fediverse.
Posting my creative projects on the fediverse was how I got started with Lemmy when I was looking for a new home once I finally took the leap to leave the corporate platforms and their insidious algorithms.
Around five months ago there was a post about The free software foundation announcing a librephone initiative. I wrote a comment expressing some of my feelings and thoughts about the European citizens highly restricted options to participate in our digital society, and I was surprised by the huge amount of ⭡ I received. It caused me to take pause, and a seed was planted. Around the same time I had begun working on a long argumentative text in opposition to CC2(Chat Controll 2), when it made one of its million rounds in the EU parliament calendar, which I then sent to all "my" representatives, and some others. The seed was now germinating. I also realised when reading through all the proposed legislation in the CC2 bill, that there was two huge gaping loopholes written into the proposition that would essentially make it toothless. Namely, open source peer-to-peer software falling out side of its scope and the definition of organisation was so broad, that all of Lemmy could just decide that we are a non-profit organisation(some minor bureaucratic filings required) and all members would be exempt as long as the communication was within the "organisation". The sprout now broke the soil. We shouldn't be reactive we should be as aggressively active, as the organisations that are lobbying against our digital rights. We should organise... I want to organise!
So I started researching what was required to start a non-profit organisation, what you are allowed to do, what grants such an organisation might be able to apply for, how non-profits can earn revenue, how this revenue is allowed to be used while retaining the non-profit status. (Not to leach, but to sustain the organisation) what is required if the organisation were to take on salaried employees, etc.
Not long after this, the EU-Commission opened an Open call for Feedback on Open Source Software. So I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to dip my toes into the world of public consultation responses or submissions.
Since my late teens I have been a proponent of open source and digital rights and freedoms for individuals. My proselytising though, has been almost exclusively happening in the interpersonal sphere. To the annoyance of my friends. But now I was about to do it publicly, my apprehension turned into weeks of research and debates while writing my response. This research turned into a 3000 word argumentative paper( also posted here on Lemmy for the interested and gives a lot of insight on where I stand on the issue of sovereignty and OSS). All while I was still working on a Non-profit organisations Bylaws/constitution along with Policy documentation and a vision and strategy document. One big thing I took away from this research and reflection was that citizen/consumer digital rights, even if enshrined into law, will be impossible to uphold without digital sovereignty.
I might be slaughtering the English words for these documents. But it's in essence; The Bylaws are the legally binding document that outlines what we will do, how we will aim to do it, and our core mission. The Policy describes the internal structure, ethics, and operational guidelines. Vision and Strategy outlines where we are aiming to go.
What now?
Well I need driven individuals that share my passion for OSS(FOSS) , democratic values, EU- resilience and digital sovereignty. I have deliberately refrained from trying to stack the board with friends/personal contacts, because I don't want this to be just my project, my mission.
As of now it(Working name exists, but that's not important right now.) is a non-entity because the Bylaws need to be voted on by a board of at least 5 individuals.
What would be the core mission of this organisation?
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I envision it to be an organisation that actively lobbies for citizen digital rights and digital sovereignty.
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An organisation that on its own and in collaboration with like minded organisations engage in Educating the public and build awareness around digital rights and sovereignty(we have a word for this in Swedish that is so much more fitting -opinionsbildande).
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Actively engages in projects that seeks to address digital exclusion.
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Promotes OSS/FOSS solutions and consults about their implementations and advantages/benefits.
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Lobby for platform independent FOSS alternatives to access crucial governmental/banking services.
The list of priorities is extensive but.. with a little luck I have conveyed enough for those interested, to join my mission.
This is still early days, so no homepage yet, no social media handles. What I have created is a Fluxer.app Community for those interested in participating. https://fluxer.gg/Nf9hGtQq
The Fluxer community is meant as a stepping stone, a place to start.
And for those few of you who has followed me for my creative content and has been wondering why I haven't updated in a while, this is what has kept me from working on creative projects.
//FoliumCreations
