Remote

Michael Downey

@downey@floss.social

mastodon 4.7.3

Software freedom and digital rights activist in all aspects of work and life. Currently trying to help the world become good Free & Open Source Software citizens.

Previously, started FLOSS.social years back, and have been on multiple project boards.

Quality toots since 2017.

#BlueHats #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #HumanRights #DigitalAutonomy #SurveillanceCapitalism #privacy #fedi22

5391 Followers

1035 Following

50 Posts

Joined April 01, 2018

Pronouns:

he / him

Cryptographically Verified:

https://keyoxide.org/downey@floss.social

Essentials:

:signal: :matrix: :mastodon: https://techautonomy.org

Languages:

🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇨🇲 🇺🇳

@downey@floss.social

· 2mo ago

👏 This is what it looks like when a FLOSS institution takes a moral stand against so-called "AI" LLMs. Software freedom and the commons of public goods it enables needs protection ... now more than ever. It's a shame that there haven't been others (yet) to step up with this type of unequivocal stance. But there's still time for those who consider themselves leaders in software freedom to get on the right side of history. https://blog.codeberg.org/protecting-our-floss-commons-from-llms.html #FLOSS #FOSS #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #AI #NoAI

blog.codeberg.org

Protecting our FLOSS commons from LLMs — Codeberg News

In Brief: Two motions regarding

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@downey@floss.social

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@lwn@fedi.lwn.net There is no responsible use of LLMs. #NoAI #ArtificialIntelligence #LLMs #Debian

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas but in escaping from the old ones."

— John Maynard Keynes

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@downey@floss.social

· 3mo ago

Once again, @pluralistic@mamot.fr nails it ... If: digital sovereignty + AI = digital sovereignty - AI Then: AI = 0 https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/18/their-trillions-our-billions #DigitalSovereignty #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #UN #UnitedNations

pluralistic.net

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@downey@floss.social

· 3mo ago

RE: https://flipboard.social/@newsguyusa/116810536261122047 Open Source developers, take note. #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS #FLOSS #copyright #NoAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AI

Quoting

@newsguyusa@flipboard.social

Owners and operators of ~400 newspapers are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for scraping their content to build products like ChatGPT and Copilot without permission or compensation. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/publishers-sue-microsoft-openai-over-unauthorized-content-use

Open quoted post

flipboard.social

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Am I reading things correctly that the #Blender Foundation Board's four members are all insiders/employees?

My experience is with US nonprofits, but that lack of external viewpoints in governance seems like a recipe for Bad Decisions ™ strategically.

https://www.blender.org/about/foundation

#nonprofits #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS #FLOSS

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

— Anonymous

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down."

— Mary Pickford

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@lu_leipzig @davidgerard Hi @wtay - any comments on this? #Pipewire

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children."

— Kofi Annan 🇺🇳

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless and the honest desire to help other people will, in the quickest and most delicate ways, improve yourself."

— John Ruskin

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast."

— William Shakespeare

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

"Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough."

— Gail Sheehy

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Dear FOSS legal geeks

Has anyone worked on extending LF's standard Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) to tweak/and or add clauses to ensure that the submission(s) were created only through the developer's own intellect based upon their individual knowledge and not that of any non-human system?

Developer Certificate of Origin ➡️ Certificate of Human Origin

#NotAI #FOSSlop #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

"Make your goal as real and as tangible as possible by sharing it with others. Say it out loud and put it on paper. Often."

— Rhonda Abrams

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"Let us encourage one another with visions of a shared future. And let us bring all the grit and openheartedness and creative spirit we can muster to gather together and build that future."

— Norman Lear

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

"Leaders must pick causes they won't abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter."

— Rosabeth Moss Kanter

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@downey@floss.social

· 2mo ago

#DYK: Only half of US citizens have passports. #diversity #inclusion

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

"Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong."

— Thomas Jefferson

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

💩 "The researchers found that 40% of workers had encountered workslop within a month, and then spent an average of 3.4 hours a month dealing with it – which the study estimates adds up to $8.1m in lost productivity for a 10,000-person organization."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/14/ai-productivity-workplace-errors

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #slop #workSlop

theguardian.com

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@fdroidorg@floss.social To clarify, the "Allow *beta* updates" option will install the *alpha* version? 🤔

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"You can't lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself."

— Gene Mauch

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"In the corporate hustle, don't let the weight of success be the anchor of your mental well-being. Seek balance, not burnout."

— Abhishek Shukla

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@aparrish @cwebber I didn't realize the moon orbits the sun

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Software freedom advocates who have shapeshifted into "AI" boosters would be well served to pause and reflect upon their underlying value system (espoused vs. actual) before continuing to advocate for supporting the plunder of our public resources to further enrichen billionaires.

😞 I won't hold my breath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9DAv0D7tnY

#TESCREAL #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS #FLOSS #NotAI #FOSSlop

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@aronkvh @doctormo "for the vast majority of people, even most Blender users, Claude is a cool impressive tool" 🤔

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

Welp, everyone (still) hates AI.

"Humanity -- in all its grandeur and woundedness -- must never be replaced or surpassed."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhrJqOGrXGo

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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@downey@floss.social

· 4mo ago

"The worse the news, the faster you should tell people."

— James Faloudi

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

🇺🇳 Thank you, Ted. 🦬

#RIP #TedTurner #UnitedNations #UN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNLqFhO9HCY

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@johns@social.librem.one They are here in Oregon....

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org pretty much every time Sometimes I'll think to just type it without args to get the sequence

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@hrheingold@mastodon.social Only if you voluntarily embrace and use it. (You don't have to.)

"The 'AI' is inevitable" mindset is a marketing campaign by desperate billionaires. #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@paul@oldfriends.live Well, in that case, please be on notice that I reserve the right to delete any of my content when I want to, and not requiring your permission. Consent 101. #mastoAdmin #FediAdmin

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@IzzyOnDroid@floss.social dead internet theory meets foss

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly Canceled

The major tech + human rights conference (thousands in attendance) canceled by government just a few days before it was scheduled to begin.

#Africa #Zambia #RightsCon #ICT4D

https://www.404media.co/rightscon-human-rights-conference-suddenly-postponed/

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@hankg 🤔🤐

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net @tante@tldr.nettime.org As a reminder https://techautonomy.org

techautonomy.org

Declaration of Digital Autonomy

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jerry @darfplatypus Somewhere On Here there was a post that they were running Ubuntu LTS that was also far past EOL

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jzb@hachyderm.io There's a pretty big gap to me between human-made vs machine-made and vi vs emacs

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mmm@mastodon.sdf.org @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net @tante@tldr.nettime.org Interdependence > independence

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jzb Perhaps @sri @sri@mastodon.social can give you a review of Mixpost

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@APC@mastodon.social @rezwan@mastodon.social There is no such thing as "Responsible 'AI' (LLMs)".

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@paul@oldfriends.live And what about manually-deleted posts?

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@emilymbender@dair-community.social @alex@dair-community.social Follow the money!

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jwz joy for live nation maybe

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@karlauerbach@sfba.social dnc's cancelation of primaries in 2024 worked out SOOOO well for them.....

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@paul@oldfriends.live Yes, but, do you think that manually deleted posts are also "unfair to people who reply or quote post"?

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ryanleesipes Any ETA on reliable installability?

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@downey@floss.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

It would be great if someone can pull together the corollary resources for community collaboration and software development; many studies already are dine out there, and other relevant case studies are rapidly being published.

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