FreedomBox Summit 2020

Posted 2020-11-25

The FreedomBox Foundation is pleased to announce that we will hold our third consecutive annual FreedomBox Summit on Friday, December 4th, 2020. The Summit this year is fully virtual with participants meeting over video conference. Invited members of the FreedomBox Core Team will join the FreedomBox Foundation's staff for several hours of discussions about our progress since the 2019 Summit and our plans for the year ahead. We look forward to connecting with you.

Schedule

The 2020 Summit will be divided into three sessions:

• SESSION I – Morning Discussion Session
  • What: Summit participants review the progress from the past year and discuss current challenges facing the project
  • Who: Core Team and FreedomBox Foundation Staff
  • When: 15:00 UTC to 18:00 UTC on Friday, December 4
• SESSION II – Virtual Q&A with the FreedomBox Community
  • What: Community members raise issues and ask questions on a Mumble conference call, Eben Moglen and summit participants respond
  • Who: FreedomBox community members (via Mumble), Core Team and FreedomBox Foundation Staff
  • When: 18:00 UTC - 19:00 UTC on Friday, December 4
• SESSION III – Consolidation Session
  • What: Summit participants discuss the proceedings of the Q&A session and set goals for the upcoming year
  • Who: Core Team and FreedomBox Foundation Staff
  • When: 19:00 UTC - 20:00 UTC on Friday, December 4

Though we have an idea of what we want to discuss during Session I, we want community members to have their voices heard. Just like last year, we will assemble an agenda with the community's suggestions. Community members can post their suggestions to our forum topic or to the mailing list.

Conference Call during Session II

We strongly encourage FreedomBox community members to join the conference call during Session II. This virtual Q&A session will take place at 18:00 UTC - 19:00 UTC (one hour) on the FreedomBox Foundation's Mumble server. It will be a great opportunity to have your voice heard and contribute to the project road map for 2021. You will also be able to speak directly with Eben Moglen, President of the FreedomBox Foundation, staff and the the core team. To connect to the conference call on your Mumble client, please connect to server <fbx.freedomboxfoundation.org> using port 64738. During the Q&A session, please use push-to-talk, and a headset if possible to minimize echoes.

How to join the Mumble call

Reflections on the 2019 Summit

The 2019 Summit marked the 10-year anniversary of the FreedomBox project. Eben Moglen delivered a speech commemorating the occasion. The agenda items gathered from the community helped us define our priorities for 2020. There was also a hackathon event the day after the Summit.

In 2020, we added support for several new ARM64 devices and also Orange Pi Zero. Though most of development efforts in 2020 went into the core product, new apps like WireGuard, Calibre and Bepasty were added and some NAS and Reachability enhancements were made. We are happy to note that community participation in the project is improving year by year.

Due to the global pandemic situation, the Summit is going to be virtual this year and limited to a 5-hour duration. We have to skip the hackathon event this year, but you can always connect with us during our monthly hack calls. After the Summit, we'll publish a report of our discussions, just like we did last year.