I seem to have had this discussion a few times lately, so I’m going to save myself the trouble of repeating it and just write down all the problems I have with hackathons. (Yes, I know lots of people have previously posted about what they don’t like about hackathons; I’ve linked some of them at the bottom of this post, if you want some other opinions too.) They’re too much commitment Me: I’m kind of interested in your thing. How can I get involved? Them: Continue reading → Through May/June I was travelling in the US, to a number of feminist and tech events including WisCon, AdaCamp and Open Source Bridge. I gave talks, ran unconference sessions, and sat on panels at each event, as well as talking to lots of smart people doing good stuff. In between, I hung out with remote colleagues and met new ones in spaces like San Francisco’s feminist hackerspace Double Union. Along the way, I made three realisations, all of which are related to community in some Continue reading → Via Chris Blow (@unthinkingly) and his tweet on the subject, I found out that the US Democrat party has released a voter registration app via github. Wired’s all over it, calling it — as the app’s README does — an open source app. Only it’s not. The LICENSE file contains the following text: This permission does not include: (a) any use of the Software other than for its intended purpose Its intended purpose is to enable voter registration. As commenters on Hacker News have pointed Continue reading → A while ago I started collecting examples of copyright hypocrisy, with the intent of creating a definitive list of cases where copyright bullies are caught infringing the same rules they say everyone else should obey. Here’s what I’ve got so far: Lamar Smith, author of SOPA, uses website background image without permission Anti-P2P lawyers rip off the content of another copyright settlement group’s website The party run by music-label-owned VEVO, where they showed a pirated NFL game Norwegian author complains about ebook piracy, then admits Continue reading →