About six months ago I had this crazy idea that one of my favourite games, Kerbal Space Program, needed a mod manager that did everything right, and an amazing team of volunteers, including myself, set about to make that happen. The result has been the Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network (CKAN). Tens of thousands of people have downloaded the CKAN client, and we index hundreds of mods to make sure our users can install and upgrade mods with the click of a button.

CKAN has been an overwhelming success. All our code is free, all our metadata is free, and all the work has been done by unpaid volunteers who wanted to contribute to something awesome.

However, the CKAN requires infrastructure to run… and that’s not free.

Contributing to open source projects is often considered to be a good career move. Unlike doing work behind the closed doors of a proprietary business, contributions to open source provides visible proof of your skill and accomplishments.

Except that’s not always the case.

[TW: Discusses religious intolerance, and violence against women.]

You, or someone you know, may make the argument that the burqa—a traditional full-body, face-covering article of women’s clothing—should be banned or discouraged because it oppresses women.

I’m not interested in debating whether or not it oppresses women or not; but I can tell you that calling for its ban is harming Australian women, right now.

Every year burning man is a new experience, and every year I discover new things about both others and myself. This year has been no exception.

I went into the burn after a period of extended travel. I’ve been travelling continuously since February, and while there have been some trips back home since that time, they’ve been short. As we’ll see, this ended up having a significant impact on my mental state while getting dusty.

In a few days time I’ll be discussing Gittip at OS Bridge. That’s been a sensitive topic, and I’ve already written about it a little. It’s going to be a particularly sensitive topic for some attendees at OS Bridge, and so I have a few requests for you as an attendee, and regarding my session in general.