racket at libreplanet 2019?

[Neil Van Dyke]

If someone wanted to do a thing on Racket and/or HtDP at the LibrePlanet
conference, it might reach a lot of new people, and grow positive impact
significantly.

At LibrePlanet 2018, Christopher Lemmer Webber did something on Digital
Humanities using Racket, and I'd suggest doing additional stuff in 2019.

One approach, given a conference theme of "social justice", would be to
describe all the various aspects involved in working towards teaching
program design as basic literacy around the world.

A different approach would be to introduce everyone to Racket as a
"libre" (aka "free-as-in-freedom") software platform, including hitting
various notes from the original and evolving goals of the GNU Project
and the FSF.  I don't know how much you'd have to speak to social
justice explicitly, since the FSF already has a lot of ethical
philosophy around software.  This recent interview, tilted towards a
leftist audience, might also be a good match for the LibrePlanet
audience:
https://newleftreview.org/II/113/richard-stallman-talking-to-the-mailman

A third approach would be to focus on some small corner of the Racket
world that's a more direct fit for the topic of social justice.  Though
you might then get a lot of questions about Racket more generally.

(I'm not involved with LibrePlanet, nor officially with the FSF.)

> The Free Software Foundation <https://www.fsf.org/> (FSF) is a
> nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom.
> Founded in 1985 by Richard Stallman, a researcher at MIT's AI
> laboratory, the FSF provides critical infrastructure and funding for
> the GNU Project, the foundation of the popular GNU/Linux family of
> free operating systems. The FSF publishes the GNU General Public
> License (GNU GPL), the world's most popular free software license, and
> the only license written with the express purpose of promoting and
> preserving software freedom. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of
> the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software
> through an array of campaigns and conferences.
>
> LibrePlanet <https://libreplanet.org/2019/> is an annual conference
> hosted by the FSF that explores the intersection of technology and
> social justice through a variety of talks and activities. Every year,
> LibrePlanet brings together developers, policy experts, activists,
> hackers, students, and end users to learn new skills, share
> accomplishments, and face challenges concerning computing freedom as a
> community. LibrePlanet 2019's theme is “Trailblazing Free Software”
> and will be held on Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24 in the
> Greater Boston Area, MA.
>
> LibrePlanet is defined by its combination of technical talks with
> non-technical sessions on free software activism, culture, and current
> events. These sessions are presented by community members and provide
> some of the best ways to connect with the free software community.
> Visit https://my.fsf.org/lp-call-for-sessions to submit a session.
> Feel free to find some inspiration by browsing through the sessions’
> program of last year's LibrePlanet: https://libreplanet.org/2018/program/.
>
> Attendee registration <https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/info?id=79> is
> also open, so if you don't intend to be at the front of the room, make
> sure to take your spot in the audience!
>