While RMS has continued to speak at occasional events, he’s largely remained publicly invisible until now. Is this about to change?
While Richard Stallman has been making sporadic public appearances in recent years, you might easily think he’s in hiding unless you read Techrights, which never quit supporting Stallman. Other than that, even the Free Software Foundation, the organization Stallman founded — and where he remains a board member — has been mum.
That seems to have changed, at least for now.
Last week FSF announced that Stallman will be giving a talk titled “Free/libre software and our freedom: Our shield against many digital injustices.” The event will take place at the Georgia Institute of Technology on January 23, and will include a one hour talk and a one hour question and answer session.
Other than that, the FSF listing is rather sparse, containing the address of the venue, directions, parking information, and a lot of white space.
This wasn’t the first we’d heard of the event. The first report we saw on this was on Techrights on December 21, and on a Reddit post by rockenman1234, who said that this will be Stallman’s first official appearance in Atlanta since the 1990s, his first-ever appearance at Georgia Tech, and his first talk at a US college since his cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery:
“This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the most significant figures in the history of software freedom, learn about his perspectives on AI and computing, and engage in discussion with fellow students and technologists.”
“Dr. Stallman will also be recruiting contributors for the GNU Project. If you’re interested in potentially joining one of the largest and most successful long-running software engineering projects – used daily by you and your peers at Georgia Tech and universities around the world – please bring a résumé and a friendly, curious attitude!”
On January 4, an official announcement was posted by Alex Jenkens on the website for LibreTech Collective, the Georgia Tech student organization that’s organizing the appearance.
The event will take place between 2–5 pm at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business in Room 100 at 800 West Peachtree St NW in Atlanta. Attendance is free, but on a first-come, first-served basis.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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