He mihi - introductions

1

Tēnā tātou katoa!

This thread is for forum members to introduce ourselves. This can help us understand more about who we’re talking to, what we might have in common, what we might disagree about, and so on. All of which can help us communicate more clearly with each other.

Your intro can be as elaborate or as simple as you like. You’re welcome to format it in any way that makes cultural sense to you. That includes using Te Reo Māori, with or without translation, or using the language of the country you came from or live in.

Some things you might want to include information about in your intro;

  • where you come from, where you live
  • Your connection to Aotearoa/ NZ
  • Your background in digital tech/ policy
  • Relevant organizations you’ve worked with, and your role(s) in them
  • Free Software, Open Source, or Other? (We’re open-minded and open to everyone who cares about software respecting people’s basic freedoms)
2

Hello all, I’m Dave Lane from Ōtautahi (Christchurch). I’m from the US originally, but been here in Aotearoa for 30 years this year. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to put down roots here!

I’m a former research scientist and software dev (started with C/C++) for an NZ Crown Research Institute, started a pure-play libre (open source, mostly copyleft) software dev and IT services company in 1998 which I sold after 14 years, now working as ‘Open Source Technologist’ for a charitable foundation (self-hosting sysadmin, software dev). Here’s my open history.

I was president of the NZ Open Source Society for 9 years. Was on the advisory board of Creative Commons NZ for 3 years.

I have a strong affinity for ‘Copyleft’ over what I call ‘weak’ open source licenses. That’s because I think proprietary software leads almost inevitably unethical behaviour. I don’t use proprietary software if I can possibly help it (and I go well out of my way to avoid it).

Thanks to generous infrastructure sponsorship from CatalystCloud I’ve been able to set up and host this Discourse forum and a lot of other stuff.

3

I’m Danyl Strype, generally known as Strypey. I grew up in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), but I’ve lived in a few places around Aotearoa, and a couple of years in China. Currently based in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), near the banks of the mighty Waikato. I’m a rabid environmentalist, minimally-annoying vegan, passionate advocate for and middling speaker of Te Reo Māori, outdoor festival worker, irregular flow arts practitioner, independent mediatista, and habitual co-founder.

My cyberpunk incarnation began with getting involved in what our US amigos call an “infoshop”, which led to setting up a bunch of email lists for activists. That led to getting involved in the Indymedia network and co-founding the Aotearoa and Oceania Indymedia sites. Also co-founding or helping to run a number of infoshops and social centres in Ōtautahi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Kirikiriroa.

In the course of that work, I learned about software freedom, Open Source (or Free Code as I call it) and CreativeCommons, which led on to co-founding CreativeCommons Aotearoa/NZ (now Tohataha). That led on to meeting @lightweight and getting loosely involved in NZOSS, especially the open email list which was a seething pit of fascinating discussions in its time.

I became an early advisor to the Loomio team, after I met two of the co-founders while camping in Civic Square as part of Occupy. Not a co-founder as such, but it was me who convinced them to switch from “MIT” to AGPL license, and formalise as a cooperative company (possibly the first platform co-op?). I also did some work with the Permaculture in NZ website, trying to move permies towards making more use of Free Code software and CreativeCommons licenses.

My other big passion over the last decade or so is the fediverse. I had an account on the original identi.ca (when it still ran StatusNet). But I really got into the swing of it on a GNU social site called Quitter.se, then moved to the NZOSS Mastodon, where I still fly my fediverse flag. I’ve been a software researcher and wiki editor on and off for fediverse.party, and done a bunch of community development stuff, communicating with the people who craft fediverse software and reference sites (like fediverse.party, delightful.club and joinfediverse.wiki).

I write a tech politics blog called Disintermedia (currently on SubStack after my last host CoActivate.org vanished without warning in 2020), and I’m currently trying to start a fediverse hosting co-op.

1 Like
4

Tēnā koutou,

@aimee @arinbasu @atomiclycursed @danny @yojo @eliotb @rbrown1193 @SportBarry @carl.klitscher @d-n @steven @fossman @freenix @francois @grizly @greg @revderek @oemb1905 @janhenry @jduckles @keoni @marek @mdo @nuwanamila @oemb1905 @rimu @timm @mexisme

Some of you have signed up here in the last few days. Some are old hands. Either way, care to introduce yourselves?

Tēnā tātou katoa.

1 Like
5

I’m Rimu, a web developer based in Christchurch. More background at https://rimu.geek.nz/

For the last year I’ve been leading a FOSS project called PieFed which is a link aggregator and discussion forum for the fediverse.

2 Likes